Menu Plans

The only real shopping left for our sailing trip next week is the perishable food stuff, I’ll get that done right before the trip.  Still packing though.

Steve and I continue to email to compare packing and other ideas.  He described how he keeps foods frozen and fresh on Spartina (he's also just put up a blog post on this as well.  I plan to do the same if our coolers will work together.   Our dinner meals will also include some pre-frozen meats, an assortment of fresh vegetables, some canned goods, and lots of great spices.

I spend a week each March during my WaterTribe paddling races eating enough breakfast and nutrition bars to last me a year, so our breakfasts will be a bit more varied than Steve's;  doctored up oatmeal, hard boiled eggs and english muffins, cereal and powdered milk.   Lunches will alternate between PBJs on bagels, tuna or cheese sandwiches on tortillas, and sardines and cheese on crackers.  I'll bring some fresh apples and oranges (I just love apples and peanut butter for lunch) for the first few days before switching to fruit cups or dried fruit.

When packing food in my kayak, I often pack my drybags with ziplocks containing all the food needed for a whole day, it's the easiest and most efficient way to unpack the drybags.  For our sailboat, I'll pack according to meals.  I'll have a plastic container (not too large) with all that's needed for breakfasts, another for lunches, and another for dinners.  Fresh fruits and vegetables will be packed in mesh bags, and frozen or cold foods in a cooler.  There is no real overlap in foods needed between the 3 meals of the day.

I'll also have 2 kitchen bags (I may be going overboard trying to keep everything waterproof).  One is a larger bag that contains cooking equipment that will only be needed for dinner, our large 2 burner camping stove and fuel containers, cookset (pots and plates), frying pan, and cutting board.  I have these really cute tall and round waterproof canister (below) that I ordered from antigravity gear, I'll bring one to hold all my cooking and eating utensils, and including spices and oils.  My friend Lee uses his to pack his camp breakfast foods, and even uses the top as a bowl to eat his oatmeal in.  A second small bag will contain my jetboil, for boiling water for coffee and oatmeal.  It boils water so fast, I'll likely get the water started in the jetboil for the rice and pasta for dinners too.

My weeks dinner menu includes 5 entre's.  In addition, I hope to eat out at least one night (maybe Oriental or Beaufort), and purchase some fresh shrimp or seafood during the trip to add to one of the meals, and I'll be fishing too, and we’ll have a nights worth of freeze dried and heater meals for emergencies.  

Our first night  Spartina has invited is to dinner. All the unknowns about this "kind-of" joint trip with two sailboats makes it difficult to really plan a reciprocation during the week. We’ll just have to figure out another way of hosting them.

My dinner menus includes:
  • Chicken and Pesto Linguini
  • Pork, sweet potato, and black bean stew
  • Shrimp fried rice
  • Peppered steack with curried rice pilaf
  • Pasta primavera in clam sauce.

Desserts will just likely just involve something with nutella :)