Michael's Chili

My brother came up with this chili recipe years ago, and I think he may have forgotten about it, but I use it all the time. It was originally made with kidney and pinto beans, but I just substituted the same amount of ground beef for the beans and it turns out great!

bacon grease or olive oil
1 onion, diced
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
2 15-oz. cans diced tomatoes
2 15-oz. cans tomato sauce
1 cup water
2-3 lb. 100% grass-fed ground beef, elk, or bison
1 TB chili powder
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. sea salt

Heat bacon grease or olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Once hot, saute onion until translucent. Add garlic and saute a couple more minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add meat, stirring to break up clumps, and browning all over. The meat doesn't need to be fully cooked at this point. Add the water, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and spices. Simmer uncovered for 2-3 hours.

Let cool about 20 minutes, then spread on dehydrator trays covered in parchment paper and dehydrate 8-12 hours at 150 F, checking several times during this process to break up clumps and turn over. More dehydrating directions found here.

Dark Chocolate Bars

I love chocolate. And I know I'm not alone. Chocolate bars are one of the most satisfying and convenient desserts on the trail. While writing this post I realized I could go on about chocolate bars for a long time, so these are just a few of my favorite.

• Green & Black's 85% Dark Chocolate - My favorite that I’ve found so far. It’s organic, fair trade, and doesn’t use soy lecithin as an emulsifier. Even still, it’s very smooth and just the right amount of sweet (at least for me!).
• Theo's 85% Ultimate Dark Chocolate - I'm from Seattle, so of course I have to rep the local business! Also organic, fair trade and soy-free!
• Theo's 70% Rich Dark Chocolate - If 85% is too much for you. Still organic, fair trade and soy-free.
• Theo's 70% Orange Dark Chocolate - I really love orange and chocolate together, and Theo uses orange oil instead of "natural" or "artificial" orange flavor.
• Salazon Chocolate Company's Organic Dark Chocolate with Natural Sea Salt - Chocolate and sea salt is my favorite combination, and this company specializes in exactly that. They have 4 different bars, all with large flakes of sea salt that they harvest from the South Atlantic. They also use 100% organic, Rainforest Alliance-certified cacao beans. They do use soy lecithin, though. 

Dried Apples

I like drying the more tart apples because as they dry, the sugar concentrates, and they become mildly sweet, instead of overly sweet like some of the apples that are already sweet when they are fresh.

Start with as many apples as you want. Wash and dry them, then slice them into 1/8 – ¼ - inch thick slices, working around the core. (There are a couple ways to do this. If you have a small round cookie cutter, you can just slice them all up equator-wise, leaving the core intact, and then using the little cookie cutter to cut out all the cores from the individual slices.

Otherwise, you can slice them non-equator-wise up til you hit the core on both sides, then slice the other two sides off. With this method, you’ll get discs from the first two sides, and then strips from the second two sides.) 

First slice on one side, then the other side.

Then slice the two remaining skinny sides.

Place them on mesh dehydrator trays and dehydrate using the “fruit” setting (if there is one) or at 135 degrees F for about 6 - 10 hours (the time may vary greatly because of the water content of your apples, the airflow, and differences in dehydrators).

You can also do this in the oven. Set your oven to 135 degrees, or its lowest temperature. Arrange the apple slices on cake racks, and bake for about 6 - 10 hours. Rotate the trays every once in a while to ensure even drying.

No matter which method you use, you can tell the dried apples are done when they are leathery and flexible, and are about the consistency of a raisin. 

Some variations:

If you want apple chips, you can leave them in for a really long time (up to 24 hours).

If you want something a little more exciting, you can sprinkle the sliced apples with cinnamon, or nutmeg, or allspice (or anything else for that matter!) before putting them in the dehydrator. 

Kale Chips

This is one of the most delicious snacks I've ever had. I have a very hard time not eating all of them as soon as they come out of the oven. I've found that these chips don't last a super long time stored, so for best quality, I would make them no more than 2 weeks or so before your trip.

1 bunch kale (or more)
Olive oil
Sea salt
Nutritional yeast

Wash the kale and dry it thoroughly with kitchen towels (they turn out way better if the kale is 100% dry, so sometimes if I've bought organic kale, I won't even bother washing it, I'll just dry off whatever moisture is on it and use as is). Remove the center rib and cut or tear the leaves into large pieces (2- or 3-inch squares are a good size, since they are quite brittle and end up breaking into smaller pieces anyways). Put the pieces in a large mixing bowl and drizzle with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of sea salt, and a couple tablespoons of nutritional yeast (adjusting measurements to your taste...I will warn you that a little salt goes a long way). Toss with your hands, massaging the olive oil into the kale. Once all the leaves are thoroughly coated in oil, spread leaves out in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 10-14 minutes, checking every so often to make sure they are not burning. Once they are all dry and crispy, they are done! Allow to cool and package in Ziploc bags marked with the date.

Coconut Oil Trail Mix Jar

This is a fat- and calorie-dense snack. Coconut oil, if you haven't used it before, is solid at room temperature, but becomes liquid at higher temperatures. If you'll be out in hot weather, make sure what you store it in is leak-proof or you'll have a messy, greasy, food bag. Likewise, if you'll be out in freezing temperatures, it will get pretty rock hard and you may have to chip it out with a knife. 

Coconut oil
Assorted berries and/or nuts

Put the berries and nuts in a leak-proof container and set aside. Melt the coconut oil slowly at a low temperature on the stove until it is liquid. Pour the melted oil over the jar of berries, stirring gently to mix. Allow to harden on the counter or in the fridge. Eat by the spoonful!

"Bowls"

I used to really love sandwiches with lots of delicious fillings like cheese, tomato, and avocado, but since “going paleo,” I haven’t eaten many. One day Max decided to just mix all those same fillings up in a bowl and started calling it simply, “a bowl.” I think bowls are actually better than sandwiches, and are just as versatile. Here is our usual list of ingredients that we choose from:

• Sardines
• Salami
• Summer sausage
• Meat sticks (like pepperoni or landjaeger)
• Smoked salmon
• Raw cheese
• Avocado
• Tomato 
• Red pepper
• Red onion (if you like raw...or sauté it if you want!)
• Carrot
• Ground flax seed
• Sprouts 
• Anything else you want!

Then we just top it off with mustard (we're usually never without a bottle) and sea salt (never without sea salt, either!), some olive oil if you want, and mix it all up.

*Note: Due to the large amount of fresh ingredients, this might have to be for just "Day 1" meals, or for car camping. However, if our trip isn't too long, we find it's just worth it to carry the extra weight for a good, fresh meal.

Hard Boiled Eggs with Mustard and Butter

I invented this breakfast while working as a rock climbing guide for a camp in Wisconsin. Every morning my co-guide Erin and I would get up before the kids, do yoga, then make this breakfast together before setting up the ropes. I would actually make soft-boiled eggs, which I prefer, but we had the luxury of car camping at our site, so we would bring raw eggs and boil them every morning. If you have this same luxury and love soft-boiled eggs as much as I do, try it that way; it’s delicious. For backpacking, it is more practical to carry hardboiled eggs.

Ingredients
Hardboiled eggs (or raw ones for soft boiling)

Pastured butter or ghee

Good quality mustard (my favorite is Annie’s Organic Dijon)

Sea salt

Directions

Heat a tablespoon or so of butter or ghee in a pot or pan. Once it has melted, peel the hardboiled eggs or break open the soft-boiled eggs and scoop out the insides into the pot. At this point, you can either keep heating it on the stove to warm the egg, or just mix it as is. Add mustard and sea salt, mix into an egg-salad type texture (or however you like it) and enjoy!

Variation: Substitute olive oil for the butter or ghee
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If you don't mind carrying fresh veggies, some onion, spinach, and mushrooms are really good sauteed in the butter before you add the eggs. Or you can bring basic dehydrated veggies, rehydrate in hot water, and mix in with the eggs and butter.

Cold Weather Note: Hard boiled eggs are hit-or-miss in sub-freezing temperatures. If the shells don't get cracks in them (which is rare because the moisture in the egg probably expands as it freezes and almost always breaks the shell) then you can reboil them in a pot of water and they thaw nicely. However, if they do get cracks in them, then reboiling just turns them into spongey water-bombs. Still edible for the hard-core egg eater, but not the most pleasant thing in the world.