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Santa Fe Bean Company Instant Southwestern Style Refried Beans 7.25-Ounce (Pack of 8) Instant Southwestern Style Refried Beans, High Fiber, Gluten-Free, A Great Source of Protein, Low Fat?
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Refried beans and rice.
All you need is minute rice, and dehydrated refried beans. You can find them in bulk bins at some health foods stores, or buy these. Boil water, add to beans and rice, wait 5 minutes. You may have to mess around with water ratios, and maybe doing the two separately.
I do the above when backpacking. Put in a tortilla with hot sauce and it's delicious. Adding cheese and Fritos makes it even more delicious.
I'd be worried about getting tired of couscous. What about some thin pasta too? My favorite trail protein these days are these dehydrated refried beans. Link Not sure if they are available where you are though. What country are you in?
To clarify:
The one who is 'most homeless' wins?
Maybe the rules could use refining but I'm here to help, not to judge.
Here ya go. Get a gallon ziploc bag and all of these instant refried beans you can fit into your weight limit. Add water, and eat. You should be able to get like 48 packages of these in your wright allowance. If you eat 2 servings per meal, a package should last you a day. So 48 days worth of meals, give or take a bit. Maybe fill out the last bit of weight allowance with multivitamins.
Might not want to do Taco Tuesday after this for a while though.
Yep, Amazon. I'm getting these ones that come in the 8 pack. I have an address in Niagara Falls, NY, and I get stuff shipped there and then bring it back across. I have a couple of packages waiting to be picked up, so I thought I'd throw these in as well, and offer them to anyone here who is interested.
On the PCT I ate freeze dried refried beans and minute rice almost every night, bought from amazon and either shipped to myself, or to my family that packaged and sent to me on trail. Poptarts in the morning, cheap granola bars I buy in town, summer sausage and cheese for lunch. If I found Cliff bars for $1/bar I would buy them, but reluctantly.
Dehydrated beans severed me well on the AT. Amazon sells many great brands: Santa Fe Bean Company Instant Southwestern Style Refried Beans 7.25-Ounce (Pack of 8) Instant Southwestern Style Refried Beans, High Fiber, Gluten-Free, A Great Source of Protein, Low Fat https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FI701Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_7orzEbP35SFBR
Most Wal Marts sell them too.
> In the southwest many stores carry similar beans that come in a bag and you just add them to boiling water and let simmer.
I've seen them as backpacking food, never for sale otherwise. Neat.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FI701Y/ <-- price probably reflects some level of "retail arbitrage", but at least you can see the item.
I find these at this gigantic specialty store called Jungle Jims. You can also order from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Santa-Fe-Bean-Southwestern-7-25-Ounce/dp/B000FI701Y/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1490293137&sr=8-2&keywords=santa+fe+refried+beans
>Edit: just to clarify: one of the reasons that I'm having difficulty finding enough protein is that I'm a vegetarian.
As a fellow vegetarian, I strongly disagree with every implication of this sentence.
Firstly, there's always nuts and/or trail mix. My dad loves nuts, and I'm pretty sure he eats enough of them on the trail to cover half again his protein intake needs on their own.
I use these extensively for backpacking dinners: https://www.amazon.com/Santa-Fe-Bean-Southwestern-Gluten-Free/dp/B000FI701Y/ Just use half the water they tell you to. You can use them as an ingredient or even a standalone dish - they taste very nearly as good as homemade, none of the cat food-looking mush you get in the cans. There are also similar black bean options if you're not fond of pintos.
Augason Farms makes excellent shelf-stable meat substitutes. Unavailable rn on Amazon due to COVID panic buyers and price gougers, but they are available at fair prices from other sources if you look around.
https://www.amazon.com/Augason-Farms-Vegetarian-Substitute-Variety/dp/B00D3LC1KU Going rate pre-pandemic was $70-80
https://www.amazon.com/Augason-Farms-Gluten-Burger-Gallon/dp/B01N2GP0OO Going rate pre-pandemic was $22-25 iirc
Other backpackers will just make their own ground beef substitutes using TVP and spices, so that's yet another option.
EDIT: I forgot, hard cheese is still another significant source of protein. I don't remember the last time I went backpacking and didn't have a block of pepper jack in my bear bag.
Google led me to this Canadian online store: http://www.bridensolutions.ca/instant-refried-pinto-beans-nutristore-10-can
That's about twice as expensive as I pay on Amazon in the US: https://www.amazon.com/Santa-Fe-Bean-Southwestern-7-25-Ounce/dp/B000FI701Y
But 2x as expensive might be acceptable if you really really want beans.
You might also experiment with looking for instant bean soup, instant hummus, and instant falafel.
Couscous is a pretty solid base for cold-soaked meals as well, but it might not pack as much nutritional value as the beans, depending on how important that is to you.
Check your local health food store as well. You might get lucky in the bulk bins.
thank you everyone for input, i ended up ordering the ones on amazon. link below, i am just experimenting with meals for now for thru hike in July. I may end up trying out the ones i originally linked later on if I don't like the taste of these santa fe ones.
This is my #1 go-to reliable freezer-bag dinner recipe. It's similar to u/andrewskurka 's recipe taco recipe, but I worked my version out long before I saw Andrew's.
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Ingredient Details:
- The cheese powder is from Hoosier Hill and you really can't use too much!
- Beans are Santa Fe from Amazon
- Dehydrated tomatoes and corn are from Harmony House but you can always make your own. The corn is _really_ nice in here. I'll mix up what other veggies I add depending on what's in my supply at home at the time.
- I use single serving packs for the Olive Oil for convenience
- I spent a lot of time dehydrating and testing different fake meats. My favorite for Taco Night is Tofurky Chorizo. It rehydrates well, tastes good, and comes out at a really nice 6.7 carbs/gram when I dehydrate it. I'll do a post on my veggie meat testing later...
Directions:
- I add the oil to the freezer bag containing everything but the Fritos, then a cup of boiling water, stir, wait 5 to 10 minutes, then crumble in the Fritos, and enjoy!
I eat a lot of pre cooked dehydrated beans. My favorite are Santa Fe Dehydrated Refried. Mother Earth and Harmony House are other good brans to get them from.
Here is a link to the beans on Amazon:
https://smile.amazon.com/Santa-Fe-Bean-Southwestern-Gluten-Free/dp/B000FI701Y?ref_=ast_sto_dp
Fair warning though: this price is about double what they normally cost. You can probably find them cheaper elsewhere. Enjoy!
You can often get Santafe style dehydrated beans which are the best ever.
Seriously?
You can them on amazon: Santa Fe Bean Co., Instant Southwestern Style Refried Beans, 7.25-Ounce Pack (Pack of 8) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FI701Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_IMPBMNkasV7bT
What u/choomguy says. Santa Fe Bean Company has some that are pretty good and can be bought off of amazon, though you can sometimes find them at the super market. Couple them with Minute Rice!
Note: the amazon link is to an eight pack of beans. I accidentally bought these and end up putting most of the bags in my emergency barrel.
This is one of those things that isn't practical to make and dehydrate yourself, IMO way too much time for the fairly small cost savings.
If you want refrieds, I like this brand especially for the price, and they actually have a taste and texture nearly as good as homemade - none of the cat food looking stuff you get in the cans. Just use HALF the water they say. https://www.amazon.com/Santa-Fe-Bean-Southwestern-Gluten-Free/dp/B000FI701Y/ There are of course similar black bean versions if you aren't a pinto fan.
If you want something a bit more meat-like without the spoiling and bad nutrition, try some vegetarian shelf-stable meat substitutes: https://www.amazon.com/Augason-Farms-Flavored-Vegetarian-Substitute/dp/B07FMGJK1K/ The Augason black bean burger stuff is good too, but out of stock right now (I suspect due to COVID panic buyers).
As a suggested starting point for spices in either case, my usual taco seasoning when I don't have my local co-op's premade blend is cayenne pepper (aka ground red pepper), chili powder, cilantro, mace, cumin, and onion powder. Salt optional.
Add some tortillas, olive oil, semi-hard cheese (cheddar, pepper jack, etc.), tomato powder or dehydrated tomatoes, some hot sauce packets if you're so inclined, and forage some ferns or other leafy greens, and you're off to a great start for a backpacking meal.
Santa Fe Instant Refried Beans on Amazon. This is the brand I carried with me. Just under 800 calories, weighs less than half a pound. I ate them with different kinds of Instant Rice. Super filling, easy to cook, easy to eat. One bag of beans and one bag of rice totals 1500 calories and weighs less than a pound total.
I get them from our local supermarket. I bet the more TexMex centric your area is, the more likely you are to have it. Since I’m in Tex, they’re easy to find. This forum is full of nice people, I’m someone would ship you some if you’re super interested and totally flummoxed.
If you want 8 of them, they’re available on Amazon, but if there’s still a TP shortage in your area, 8 might be too many.
Is Amazon an option for you?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI701Y/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Looks like slim pickings on Amazon Canada though.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI701Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You can cold soak them too.
I'm going backpacking for a lot longer than 1 week this summer so maybe this weekend I can type up some more, but take a look at these http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Fe-Bean-Southwestern-7-25-Ounce/dp/B000FI701Y
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