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Old 04-12-2014, 03:06 PM   #1
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Dried Food???

We are a family of 7 and plan to be on the road for 6 consecutive weeks this summer. Has anyone used dried foods? I'm looking at fruit, butter, milk, and eggs.
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Old 04-12-2014, 03:24 PM   #2
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We have a Seal A Meal and will be using it to repackage and reseal dried foodstuffs on our trip later this year.
Not much of a fan of dried milk because you still need to pack water for it and it does not taste well.

Dries fruit and meats are great for quick snacks.
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Old 04-12-2014, 03:31 PM   #3
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if you have a fridge, why would you need these?

unless you're going to be out in the boonies for the 6 weeks straight and never driving through any towns.
wouldn't you still run out of other food anyway and have to go to a store?

if you were a backpacker or talking about just dried food for snacks, then sure.
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Old 04-12-2014, 03:31 PM   #4
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My parents use to can everything, chicken, beef, stuff from the garden, than put the jars back in the boxes and store them under the bed.
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Old 04-17-2014, 08:48 AM   #5
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My wife and I are big fans of dried potato's. The weight differential here would be huge with a big family. You can do everything from hash browns to mashed and scalloped. Sam's has the large square boxes of mashed and Hash Browns.
Dried milk is great for using in cooking, or cups of hot cocoa. You can always get fresh, if the dried doesn't suit their taste buds, for drinking.
Dried eggs, aren't as good as fresh, but for scrambled with some bacon or sausage added, or baking, their great.

When I was young....just after the last dinosaur died,..... we ate everything but the plates when we went camping. Somebody was always ready to eat what we didn't want, if we decided to go hungry(I don't remember this last ever happening)

Think about canned ham also(not spam). It's great when added to scrambled eggs, or sliced and fried with eggs, or added to scalloped potatoes. My wife and I have been buying them at the Big Lots here when they run their big specials. We've canned our own beef before, and found the canned hams to be in the same price range, when all is said and done.
Just shop wisely. Most freeze dried stuff is pretty expensive. Great if your a prepper, but feeding a hungry horde of growing kids, not so much.


...and another thing. With that many mouths, don't be a stranger to a nice cooler, to keep larger meat(and frozen veggies), items in. A little meal planning(what you'll eat first on top, and working down), and not opening it anymore then needed, and the ability to refreeze the blue ice things, and you can stretch a decent cooler properly stocked before you leave, for a week or better. Keep them in the shade, and cover them with a blanket or rug.
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Old 04-17-2014, 09:53 AM   #6
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Two questions.
Are you going to be near a fishing area? Do you eat fish, if so maybe a few meals of fresh fish to help off set the need to bring meat. I usually try to prepare meals in advance and package them for either freezer, cupboard or fridge. Make some meals that your family loves and freeze them. A few years ago we had 5 adults and where gone almost a month. Instant potatoes instead of fresh, flat cuts of meats, hamburger in ziplock bags squashed flat, canned vegs instead of frozen. Used freezer for meats only. Worked great only had to shop for staples ie: milk, eggs and bread.
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Old 04-17-2014, 10:07 AM   #7
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No thank you. Had enough of that stuff in the military.
M.R.E's -- Meals Ready To Eat..
Yuck....
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Old 04-17-2014, 10:14 AM   #8
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I do not even allow Bologna in my house......
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Old 04-17-2014, 10:50 AM   #9
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X2 what bikendan said.
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Old 04-18-2014, 08:42 AM   #10
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The dried hash browns form SAMs are great and cheap. Once cooked you can't tell the difference.
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Old 04-18-2014, 08:54 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by the.wilsons View Post
The dried hash browns form SAMs are great and cheap. Once cooked you can't tell the difference.
We bought and tried some from Costco, rehydrated Styrofoam would taste better.

I figure if we want fruit or vegetable's we can pick some up in the last town we will go thru or we can go back after setting up and buy what ever which would be frozen HB's.
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Old 04-21-2014, 07:39 AM   #12
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Even on long trips we don't use that type of food (that's reserved for backpacking trips.) It's really not worth the minimal weight savings when you can have fresh food on hand every day, and there is always a store near enough to make a re-supply run unless you are staying in a really remote location. Even then I would try to work something out to avoid freeze dried, but that's just me.

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Old 04-21-2014, 08:52 AM   #13
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wow, thanks. some good ideas. we tested the dried milk. I taste tested the kids and they didn't know the difference. it also works great in my tea. looking at current prices of milk at sams in the area we lr will be at, the dried currently is a little cheaper and prices are going up. This week alone it went up $.30 a gallon. I can only fit two gallons in my fridge at a time, which takes up half the space. ThAt won't last us two days. I like the canned ham idea. the dried fruit and jerky would be for hiking, and muffins or toasted in to cakes. Eggs for baking and scrambled. other than jerky dried meat just doesn't sound appealing, nor the meals. I think I'll try the potatoes. we have a sams and costco membership and do plan to stop at stores along the way. once we set up camp, I plan to stay put. thanks again, and keep the ideas comming.
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Old 04-21-2014, 09:41 AM   #14
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The only dried food that i really use is the dried milk because we only use it for cooking. Otherwise it tends to go bad before we have finished it. I dont like it for drinking (reminds me of milk that had cheerio's in it) but for cooking it works just fine.
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Old 04-21-2014, 10:00 AM   #15
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Whoa. I think you'll need a cooler in addition to the fridge in your RV. For me, too much dried+reconstituted food wrecks my gut after a while.
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Old 04-21-2014, 10:49 AM   #16
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You could also try the bags of freeze dried main meals for back packing. My son and I used some on a scout camping trip. They are very light weight and compact. One bag has at least 2 servings. You may not want to eat it everyday though. They also have desserts & breakfast foods. We always have a few stowed in the pantry just in case we need them. Who knows when you may have a break down on decide to extend a trip by a day or 2.
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Old 04-21-2014, 11:14 AM   #17
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We start looking for farm stands soon as we get off the highway for the destination

We do parmalat milk at home as the "uh-oh we're out of milk and the kids want cereal" resource. It is in the baking aisle. It won't save weight but it won't need to be in the fridge.
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Old 04-28-2014, 01:44 PM   #18
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As mentioned, many of the better potato flakes taste pretty good. Pancake mix is another winner.

A space-saver is to put eggs in Zip-Loc plastic bags. You can then boil/cook the eggs in a pot while still in the plastic bag. Add seasonings, ham, sausage, etc., when you make up the bags. By the way, fresh eggs will keep for about 2 weeks with minimal refrigeration - learned from sailboats.

Most of the rest - yuck! I put up with it for 2 weeks back packing with the Scouts at Philmont. We would do anything for any kind of fresh food along the trail.

Best thing is to try various dried and freeze-dried foods at home. See what you like and don't like before you are committed. Makes planning your trip a lot easier.

When we camped (typically 6 of us) in our PUP up at Lake Tahoe for 9 days straight (no hook-ups) we took 90% of our food with us in 2 coolers. Due to routine bear visits to the campsites, no food allowed in PUP fridge. Sealed drinks and bottled milk only. Every 3rd day when we went to get ice, we would get a special treat of fresh meat and veggies and fruit for that evening. It made camping fun, even though we paid "lake" prices for our steaks or other grill meat on those 2 nights.

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Old 04-28-2014, 02:30 PM   #19
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We have used the dried peas, carrots, corn and onion available at some WalMart outlets. These are the large cans you can buy for emergency preparedness kits and they work well as additives for stews, chilli's and the like. We always carry some dried, flaked potato ready to mix up as mash which can then be placed on top of cooked ground beef with some of the other dried veg and turned into a shepherds pie. Alternatively, add the dried veg to a slow cooker with pork, beef or chicken, leave to simmer for several hours and you have a great tasting stew. Some of the dried fruit isn't too bad either. From memory, we've had the pineapple, apple slices and tangerine.

Saves on room in the freezer for the more important summer camping ingredients like Mikes Frozen lemonade pouches.
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Old 05-04-2014, 12:11 PM   #20
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Quote:
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We do parmalat milk at home as the "uh-oh we're out of milk and the kids want cereal" resource. It is in the baking aisle. It won't save weight but it won't need to be in the fridge.
I'll echo that. It's available in both quart and cup sizes, giving you options that match the availability of refrigeration. The quarts are available in a few variations of fat content.

If you're going to put it in your refrigerator, throw an unopened container in your ice chest (assuming you have one) to cool down while still sealed, before putting that heat load in the refrigerator.
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