Food

We have often been asked what we ate while on the road. Below is a brief summary of what we enjoyed on most days. We rarely ate in restaurants, preferring to cook our own food. We also cooked when staying in motels.


Breakfast
We made coffee by using one cup filters (http://teeccino.com/product/77/Mini-Minit-One-Cup-Filters.html) and a Heineken re-cycled beer can. Not pretty but cheap and effective. 

Our European coffee maker

• We might have started days without sunshine but never without our peanut butter and jam tortillas and enjoyed them either at breakfast or as snacks. Tortillas travel well and once assembled with the peanut butter and jam can last for a few days. Once in awhile, we skipped the tortillas and treated ourselves to something more exotic but always looked forward to eating them the next day.
• We always did away with the cereal box and kept only the bag. Hélène usually enjoyed her cereal by pouring the content into a into a full 250 ml milk container. Very efficient and a lot less dishes to clean. 
• Very occasionally there was enough left over food from supper and we had it for breakfast. 
• It was a real treat to have grilled cheese sandwiches made with bagels or Tintinis (http://www.ditaliano.ca/products/10)

Tortillas in the making and one rolled up

Snacks & Lunch - Lunch was more often then not, many small snacks consumed during the day. We found that stopping for lunch was not productive as it took a while to get up to speed again after a half-hour stop. Snacking was a much more efficient way to fuel one's self. Our snacks consisted of the following:

• hard boiled eggs, sometimes we treated ourselves to store bought pickled eggs
• wieners (rare)
• oatmeal & raisin cookies bought from the bakery section of grocery stores
• bagel or Tintinis with cheese (cheddar or cream)
• oranges, apples, bananas
• tuna/salmon sandwiches
• tortillas with peanut butter & jam

End of day snack before supper:
Most days once we were at our destination and all the food was purchased we usually sat down to relax a for a bit by having a beer (sometimes wine) & cheezies (or chips) and start dealing with the photos of the day. Quantities of beer and snacks consumed can be found under Fun Statistics. 

Supper
What we ate for supper was very dependent on what we found at the local grocery store, and at times the choice was pretty limited. We quickly gave up on having something different to eat every night and settled on "re-cycling the menu" as Hélène would say. We were fine with that. Below are pictures of some of what we ate. On rare occasion we treated ourselves to pizza when staying in a motel.

Pre-cut vegetables to make a stir-fry combined with wieners, preparing hard boiled eggs for the next day snacks

To save on fuel and regain the use of the burner some foods, like eggs, would be brought to a boil then set aside surrounded by a cozy to finish cooking while we prepared and ate our supper.  The cozies are homemade with reflective bubble wrap found at hardware stores. The cozies are now an essential kitchen cooking devices.

With the vegetables set aside in covered dish, the under a cozy, we can now cook the spyder wieners on the one burner

A delicious and time saving staple was salmon. The trick is to purchase frozen salmon a couple of hours before supper and let it thaw in your saddle bag. Cook all of it and save some to make sandwiches to be enjoyed the next day as breakfast or snacks. Fresh asparagus travels fairly well and you can use them the next day. The pasta would get the same treatment as the eggs, bring to a boil and set aside with the cozy to free up the burner.  For the pasta we had olive oil on hand and homemade dry pesto and once we ran out of that we bought pesto from the grocery store. We found pesto to be one of those item that keeps well for many days without refrigeration. Maybe we were just lucky!

Yummy asparagus

This is a typical motel meal cooked on the single burner!

We had read that some folks had run out of water in the Rockies but we found that not to be the case. With an abundance of rushing streams, all one had to do was dunk the water bottle and fill it with nice cold water. Similar situation in Manitoba and Ontario were we had access to lots of water. We found however that in parts of Alberta and in Saskatchewan, there weren't as many streams with fast moving water. We usually left the campground with extra water carried in Platypus bags. We each carried a 2 liter bag and when emptied, we simply rolled it up and set it aside for later use.  We carried a water filtration kit for emergencies only. 

Hydration equipment with water filtration kit 

A typical sight at supper time, me writing the blog and Hélène cooking

A typical sight at supper time, me blogging and Hélène cooking

The instant potatoes below are from Giant Tiger and only require water. They were a trip staple and a favorite.  Mixed with loose cooked hamburger, some vegetables or paired with a salad kit this became comfort food at the end of a challenging day. Any left over meat was consumed at breakfast time.

Awesome potatoes from Giant Tiger 

The bag in front of Hélène's handlebar held all the snacks we consumed during the day, it was initially referred to as the kitchen but Hélène renamed it to the lunch box.

Lake Superior in the distance

It was often a challenge to find cookies that traveled  well in the lunch box. 

Our version of a cooler, ice in the Arkel bag to keep food cold until the 
next day (we did this only a few times)

We needed a lot of wind block at this site

All the kitchen utensils, pots and food items were kept in one 
saddle bag and the 31 liter rack bag. Easier to hang in trees in bear country.

The logs are there as wind screen and not as a source of dietary fiber. 

Dinner and breakfast cooked at the same time. Saves on fuel.

We often bought this, the chili is great with pasta or with hamburger meat

The chef enjoys music while cooking. Our DIY windscreen surrounds the stove 

Food we bought the most often:
Peanut butter & Jam
Cold cereal
Whole Wheat Tortillas & Thintini
Bagels
Cream Cheese & Cheddar Cheese
Eggs (Omelettes & hard boiled)
Hamburger Meat
Salmon
Sausage (Italian & other varieties)
Canned Tuna
Pork Chops
Pre-cooked Chicken strips
Chili - Vegetable Garden
Pasta & Rice
Vegetable stir fries
Asparagus
Canned French Cut Beans
Mushrooms
Shredded carrots
Peppers
Instant Potatoes
Pesto
Soup Canned & Envelopes
Instant noodles
Salad Kits in a bag
Apples / Oranges / Bananas
Oatmeal & raisin cookies (this was the substitute for power bars and trail mix)


Parmesan Cheese
Salad dressing (it keeps a longer than you realize with no refrigeration)
Dried vegetables
Spices
Milk & Powdered Milk
Coffee & Tea

Cheezies
Ruffles All Dressed Chips
Beer & Wine