Food ideas

[Supakitten]

we're having problems thinking of ideas for food to bring this year. Been the BM the last two years, first year my friend was the veteran and brought all the food. Very nice of him, but it consisted of cheese sticks and top ramen. With all that biking this girl needs more than that.
So, last year I brought my husband and I made extra dinner portions to freeze. That consisted of things like Stir fry, pesto pasta shells, and left over Thai Food. The Thai Food was to die for...the rest was just gross. I have no idea why, maybe it was just because the environment, or using dry ice to freeze. We ended up living off of the bare min the rest of the week.

Our camp set up this year is with friends (same one i went with my first year), and the cooking situation is basic. two burner propane stove. which is fine, but he is insisting on not using a evap pool so when cleaning dishes/pans the dirty water has to go into a garbage bag. so, the less cooking and hard to clean up cooking the better. any freaking idea on what a person could bring besides top ramen and cup o noodles to the Playa? I've been told bread doesn't do well out there so never bothered...is that true?

what are the staples for you? any suggestions or things that work well for you?

[jella]

Found this thread, hope it helps
http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?t=3336

[phil]

http://eplaya.burningman.org/search.php ... mit=Search

[FIGJAM]

Prepare or buy a veriety of boil in bag choices.

Big pot of water on the stove with a good lid.

Don't change the water, just add more to the pot when it gets low.

Cook the whole week without any dirty dishes.

Bring paper plates and bowls.

[jella]

I know I plan to bring some V-8 and Ensure shakes this year just for those I don't want to eat anything days :0)

The boil in bag idea works very well ...This year I did a couple pork roasts in the crock pot then shreaded up with BBQ sauce then put into portion size zip locks and froze...yummmmm

[Savannah]

Googling food eplaya or eplaya and [any keywords you remember from a handy old thread you can't find].

Realistic non-cooler based menu planning
http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?t=35430

I list my bread management trick on page two of that thread. Less tricky breads include: bagels (especially those with preservatives) and tortillas.

Food - What works, what doesn't
http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?p=659525

Playa food for the extremely lazy?
http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?t=35723

That is but a sampling!

[Supakitten]

great thanks! guess i should have tried to do a search first. need my morning coffee...
pita bread...what a great idea.

[Supakitten]

thanks everyone! feel stupid for not doing a search. sorry bout that. what can i say...i'm special...

just read through all the suggestions. boil in a bag....duh! Here we were getting a pan all dirty for nothing. ensure shakes...great idea also. i remember having that 'everything sounds gross' feeling but knew that i needed to have something effect last year. i'll be packing those for sure.


thanks again...

[Jackass]

We make several portions of hamburger helper and pasta with the meat sauce already stirred in, then poor in one gallon ziplocks and freeze hard as a rock. Another thing I did last year that worked really well was pre-cooked bacon. Take your bacon and put on a cookie sheet(at home), throw it in the oven at 350 for fifteen or twenty minutes. Take the bacon out and drain it then wrap in wax paper and freeze. This way when you need your fix it's only a few minutes til you're eating bacon, just put it in the pan for five or ten minutes and done. Cooking bacon on the playa from the start takes a while due to the elevation and wind and then you have a lot of grease to get rid of.

[jella]

We make several portions of hamburger helper and pasta with the meat sauce already stirred in, then poor in one gallon ziplocks and freeze hard as a rock. Another thing I did last year that worked really well was pre-cooked bacon. Take your bacon and put on a cookie sheet(at home), throw it in the oven at 350 for fifteen or twenty minutes. Take the bacon out and drain it then wrap in wax paper and freeze. This way when you need your fix it's only a few minutes til you're eating bacon, just put it in the pan for five or ten minutes and done. Cooking bacon on the playa from the start takes a while due to the elevation and wind and then you have a lot of grease to get rid of.

Oooh I'm going to do that ! Thanks Jackass

[theCryptofishist]

thanks everyone! feel stupid for not doing a search. sorry bout that. what can i say...i'm special...

Yes, you are. And thank you for taking that with grace. (so many people get snarly when it is suggested that the gods help those who help themselves.)

[ConnieH]

This is the first year I'm bringing "real" food, I'm so tired of backpacking meals! I froze veggie chili in a gallon zip lock, also going to make meatballs and gravy to freeze - thinking about doing those in an aluminum foil bread pan that would double as a bowl to eat it out of...same concept as boil-in-bag, I figure I can put the pan in the pot with a little water and "poach" it. It will be interesting to see which method - ziploc vs. foil pan - will work best.

Other easy ideas:
Tortillas and cheese - easy quesadillas
Seared tuna - this is going to be our special treat
hard boiled eggs
avocados
almond butter & chocolate frosting (this is my comfort food)
oranges - dry the rinds and burn - so refreshing

use a non-stick skillet and wipe it out with a paper towel instead of washing, you could do a vinegar spray if you are worried about germs.

The only things I plan to prepare on the playa are a Greek salad (grape tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers, kalamata olives, feta, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, herbs) and an artichoke dip for our potluck (canned artichokes, mayo, shredded parmesan, canned chilis). More preparing than cooking.

[MoonSplash]

Cooking everything in advance and reheating them on the playa are great ideas. Here are a few of my easy peasy ideas:

Breakfast: pre-cooked bacon, pancakes / waffles, breakfast sausages, pop tarts, hard-boiled eggs. The messiest part is maple syrup, but we tend to sop it up with the pancakes and waffles. So easy and very little to clean.

Lunch: Trader Joe's frozen quiches, hummus, flatbreads, packaged tuna fish / chicken meals, hard cheeses (or Babybels), summer sausage.

Dinner: Frozen pre-cooked, headless, tail-less jumbo shrimp - just thaw and eat with cocktail sauce (DIVINE), frozen cooked steaks, kabobs, salmon, etc. Just heated up with a tiny bit of oil on my small frying pan on top of my $20 Coleman one-burner propane tank. Another cheat: we order take-out from our favorite restaurants, freeze everything, and just thaw when we get onto the playa. Very little clean-up.

[MyDearFriend]

Bacon: I have tried cooking it on the stove until it is almost crisp, then, portioning it out into foil packets. They are good in the fridge for quite a while. Lay a foil packet over a propane flame and it's ready to eat when you hear the sizzle (about a minute).

Eat from the foil and save a plate.

[Korwedge]

Top ramen with tuna!

[Supakitten]

shrimp! what a great idea. that will freeze well with the dry ice. yummy...that will be a damn good treat to have.
and it will be cold. i just don't enjoy a hot meal in the middle of the day.

so many great ideas. can't wait to share with the hubby. bacon, shrimp, pita filled what evers, boil in a bag everything. we are going to eat like champs this year for a change.

[maryanimal]

I like ALL of these ideas!

[foofieq44]

These are all great ideas! Trader Joe's has a lot of yummy, pre-packaged options, including their various indian food packets and pre-cooked, sealed rice. All you have to do is heat up the indian food packets in water and they end up heating the rice. One of my top choices anytime I go camping is peanut butter & nutella sandwiches. yum! A friend recommended pickles for something salty, too.

[Savannah]

Those Indian foods are already cooked, so if you're lazy about cooking in the desert, you can also just roll 'em in a tortilla and be done with it. Just check the protein content when you buy (the higher the better) . . . potatoes at least, or chickpeas and veg. Or mix a rice and a sauce.

[cullen]

Ramen!

get some water boiling, add, pre-diced onion and bell pepper,and noodles.

Take some beef jerky shred it and toss in the boiling water.

once finished ad a slice of cheese per bowl made.



edit: Oh and the ultimate condiment..... bacon hot sauce.

[Korwedge]

Uncle Ben's sells some really yummy flavors of pre-cooked rice. Top that with a packet of flavored Starkist tuna, and you've got a hearty, salty, tasty, and easy to heat meal!

[maryanimal]

I'm planning to bring a dry ice cooler and freeze the meat I'm bringing, such as meatballs for either pasta or with a nice gravy over rice, chicken for my peasant soup, or quesadillys, hamburger patties, chili fixin's for the chili cook-off, shrimp, beef or chicken for kabobs etc.

I'm really into homemade soups...

[Turnip]

canned chicken, drained + taco seasoning, to taste.
Refried beans, spread over tortilla/flat bread.
Add taco chicken, black olives, some taco sauce or salsa.

Yummy chicken burrito.




Spicy foods are good in the desert, consider having a few spicy meals!

[Bexx]

I just got done making BBQ chicken in my crock pot. Shredded up really good. Gonna put it in a vacu seal and freeze it. It will then get served up on sime sourdough bread.

By the by.. Trader joes cracked wheat sourdough is really good, and lasted the entire time out there last year.

I've also got cans of chili, cans of ravioli, cans of easy cheese, triskets, peanut butter filled pretzels, tuna packets, Indian food packets.. Yeah.. Good stuff!

[FIGJAM]

[youtube][/youtube]

[Homiesinheaven]

James Shearhart wrote something called Playa Cookery that contains everything you EVER wanted to know about food on the playa. it's essential reading and can be downloaded for free here:

http://www.box.net/shared/fvj9aka4m4

cheers!

[Bounce530]

Just a thought here, if you do the boil a bag all week long with the same pot of water, and not using an evap pond for the left over water, how about just boiling off the pot of water on the cold night before you leave?

[theCryptofishist]

Even at 4,000' that's going to take a fair amount of time/fuel. It's not such an onorus (sp) amount of water to pour into a bottle and take down with you.

[HiBbY]

Lovely ideas all of you, but why stop at every day, common food? Its Burning Man XD if i was cooking for an event like this, i would create something monumental, something that could be made daily, but would catch the eye of the unsuspecting viewers. Somthing like a 5 foot tall burning man poundcake, or a temple of food XD im crazy though so those ideas seem quite outlandish, but hey burn on :::D

[theCryptofishist]

Lovely ideas all of you, but why stop at every day, common food? Its Burning Man XD if i was cooking for an event like this, i would create something monumental, something that could be made daily, but would catch the eye of the unsuspecting viewers. Somthing like a 5 foot tall burning man poundcake, or a temple of food XD im crazy though so those ideas seem quite outlandish, but hey burn on :::D

You're doing it right.

(Although maybe not your virgin year.)