Trail Monsters

With the economy such that it is, and with the already high prices for prepackaged backpacking food I decided to try and make my own. I purchased a bag of Back to Nature Cherry Vanilla granola for $3.49 and dried milk for $7.99 at Publix. The suggested serving size is a 1/2 cup at 200 calories (4g fat, 38g carb, 5g protein) with 7 servings per bag. I measured out 2 servings (1 cup). I added 1/3 cup of dried milk which will reconstitute to 1 cup milk at 80 calories. Now for the packaging.

I was blessed to have access to a FoodSaver V3840 that I already have. If you don’t already have a FoodSaver the cheapest model is their V2060 model at $79.99. I emptied the granola and dried milk into the bag and used the FoodSaver to seal it. Dried milk can spoil easily by just being left out of a container from the humidity in the air. Since the granola had dried cherries in it I was concerned that the little amount of moisture in the fruit might cause the dried milk to partially reconstitute and then spoil. After sealing my new breakfast I decided to wait a week to see if anything spoiled….

One week later, I grabbed the bag on my way out the door and decided to eat it for my 2nd morning meal while at work. I cut the bag open along the top of the bag just below the seal. Everything was still smelling fresh!! I didn’t have a measuring cup so I poured what looked like 1 cup of water into the bag and started mixing.

It took about 10 seconds of mixing for all of the dried milk to dissolve. The dried milk is a little sweeter than I’m used to, but mixed in with granola there’s definitely no bad taste to it.

The total cost per bag is $3.68 while similar products cost 25% or more. Buying a FoodSaver may have a high initial cost but after a few trips it will have paid for itself if you can share between buddies, not to mention the other applications this has (dried food, preserving food, jerky, etc etc etc).

I plan to do something very similar with Grape Nuts and dried blueberries and Oatmeal with dried milk for creaminess. But for now, I’m staring intently at my dehydrator waiting for the scrambled eggs to finish drying………..