makes 4- 6X8 inch rolls

Making your own fruit leather saves money and has the added advantage of creating a product to suit your own taste buds.  You can use natural sweeteners or artificial (if you must), add spices, flavorings and/or nuts and seeds.  Fresh, frozen or canned fruit may be used.

Fresh Fruit Leather

• ripe or slightly overripe fruit

1. wash fruit or berries
2. peel, remove seeds and stem
3. cut into into cubes
4. 4 cups fruit
5. 4 tsp lemon juice
6. add sweetener (optional) to your taste: corn syrup, honey,sugar or artificial sweetener( aspartame is not recommended).  Honey and corn syrup store longer than sugar.  1/2 to 1 cup of the sweetener seems about right.  Artificial sweeteners: see package directions for equivalent.
7. *optional ingredients would be added now
8. Puree until smooth

Frozen or Canned Variation

1. drain fruit
2. follow steps 3-8

Note: Applesauce can be added if not enough fruit is available

Oven Drying

1. line  pans with plastic wrap, smoothing out wrinkles
2. spread puree about 1/8 inch thick
3. place in 140° F. oven
4. test for doneness by touching center, no indentation should be evident
5. depending on size 12-18 hours

Dehydrator

1. line trays with plastic wrap as above, or if available use specially designed plastic sheets
2. spread puree 1/8 inch thick
3. place in dehydrator
4. test for doneness as above
5. depending on size and dehydrator 5-8 hours

My personal preference is the Excalibur, but here is a link featuring many brands of dehydrators

Sun Drying

1. line trays, as above
2. spread puree, as above
3. place outside in sun
4. cover with screening (no see um type)  or cheesecloth. Use something so it is elevated above surface of leather
5. Bring in  at night
6. takes 1-2 days

Roll up, wrap tightly in plastic wrap.  Will keep up to 1 month at room temperature, 1 year in freezer.

Optional Ingredients

• allspice, ginger, mace, nutmeg, cardamon, clove, mint  Generally 1/8- 1/2 tsp is sufficient

• lemon, lime, or orange peel: lemon, orange vanilla or almond extract.  Again 1/8-1/4 tsp
• coconut, dates, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, chopped nuts (any you desire)

Reminder: You cannot make a mistake: at worse you may find your creation is not suitable for backpacking or does not live up to your  flavor expectations.  Just throw it into a pie or cake you are making.  See, no fuss, no muss, no failure.  Experiment:  Every time you do something you only get better at it.  Were you an expert backpacker first try?

Tradition says tomatoes but I like it with and without.  Raising the kids alone years ago was an exercise in frugality.  Many times the budget didn’t allow cuts anywhere but in the food area.  I’d make a pot of pasta fagioli (fah-zool light on the l) and do something new to it each night.  Here is the basic, with a few variations, adapted for backpacking.

• 1/4 cup very small pasta, orzo,  or alphabet pasta works great (small elbows work, but I’m concerned about space plus you will need much more than 1/4 cup

• 1 onion or garlic bouillon cube

• 1 vegetable bouillon cube

• 1/4 cup freeze dried beans

• 1 TBSP olive oil

• 2 cups water

• sprinkle of basil, pinch of oregano, pinch, red pepper flakes, garlic or onion powder

• 1/4 cup freeze dried mixture carrots, celery( optional)

• 1-2 TBSP tomato powder( optional)

• Packet Parmesan cheese ( available from Minimus, coarse ground black pepper

1. Boil 2 cups water,
2. Add everything except Parmesan and pepper.
3. Return to boil with lid on
4. Once boiling give a good stir, replace lid and remove from stove (if it is cold, cover with something to hold heat).

Sometimes its good to add a little extra olive oil.  No, I am not Italian.  Portuguese mixed.  Enjoy.

*Meat Eaters; some kind of ham, or spam seems to work best.  Even a small tin of deviled ham.   Summer sausage also works.

]]> http://www.eastcoastbackpacking.com/2009/07/backpacking-recipe-beans-and-pasta/feed/ 6 http://www.eastcoastbackpacking.com/2009/06/hummus/ http://www.eastcoastbackpacking.com/2009/06/hummus/#comments Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:01:01 +0000 admin http://www.eastcoastbackpacking.com/?p=1336 Hummus For Dinner or “Formal” Lunch

Hummus a wrap and you

Can be made into sandwiches with alfalfa or radish sprouts in pita bread, served on flatbread with cucumber slices or rolled into a wrap with roasted red peppers and or sundried tomatoes.  Some garnishes may require additional time unless brought fresh from home.

• Alfalfa sprouts should be started before leaving home, the day you plan on eating them give them some sunshine.  I see in the news alfalfa sprouts were recalled again a few days ago, an excellent reason to sprout your own.
• If I’m doing the cucumber slices, I just bring a whole or half cucumber and slice paper thin before eating.
• For the roasted red peppers and sun dried tomatoes, I put them in a zip lock and start them reconstituting at the end of the previous meal.

• At meal time I just reconstitute the hummus mix, add a little extra lemon juice and any seasonings I might be in the mood for.
• The pitas might get a honey mustard dressing, the flatbread some dill, the wraps perhaps cilantro.

Nothing fancy and certainly no need for meat if you are so inclined.  Many of the recipes I will include will give you an option but I couldn’t think of any meat to add to the hummus, that wouldn’t ruin it.

Here is a link for hummus Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage if not available in your area.  Another link for individual use packets of lemon juice.

Logan Bread

Definitely a bread, not a trail bar, but can be used like trailbars.

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

1 ½ c1 1/2 cups  rye flour

1 ½ cups rolled oats, can use quick oats

½ cup wheat germ

¾ cup powered milk

½ cup brown sugar

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

You can substitute flours, unbleached white flour, rice flour, millet, buckwheat. Just be sure one of the flours is a wheat…unless you are allergic to gluten. If you can’t use wheat the texture will just be different.

• Mix together above ingredients

• In another bowl combine

• Preheat oven to 275 degrees

4 eggs, beaten

½ cup honey

½ cup molasses

1 cup applesauce

½ cup vegetable oil

1 cup raisins

½ cup sunflower seeds

Here you can freely make substitutions, try peanut butter, almonds, chocolate chips, dried:cranberries, cherries, pineapple, apricots

• Stir together above ingredients and when mixed well,

• Add to flour mixture

• Grease and flour 2- 9”X9” baking pans.

• Divide mixture evenly between pans

• Place in 275 degree oven approx 90 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

• Let cool in pans 10 minutes. Cut into 3 inch squares. Wrap individually. Can be frozen

Great on the go lunch, especially for the backpacker, hiker or cycler who left his stove at home.  Filling, nutritious I always pack a few extra squares as my emergency meal.

Be sure to look under the category ” Recipes and Menus ” for the most recent entries.