Yesterday we made a surprise trip down to the Finger Lakes Trail to pick up our friends Buttons and Bearwalker. They're thru hiking the North Country Trail, 4500 miles from Vermont to North Dakota, and needed a ride to the post office. Since New York isn't exactly hitchhiker friendly, especially when people aren't used to seeing them, they only had a short amount of time to get to their resupply box, which had their dog food in it. Since Molly had run out of food and the post office was closing soon, we rushed down to get them, getting them to the post office at 5:05 p.m. Even though they closed at 5, the postmistress still allowed them to pick up their package! We got to hang out with them last night and have hiker talk, eat large amounts of food, and look at all their gear. It was a great time with them and we dropped them back off at the trailhead today.
When we got home I was pretty hungry and, probably due to being in full on hiker mode for the day, was craving ramen. Yes, ramen! The cheap staple of broke American diets and thru hiker cuisine de jour. Since I was whipping up a ramen recipe for us to take on the trail, I figured it would be the perfect time to test out the spice blend I was planning on using on our batch. With the fresh veggies I added from the fridge, I had a steaming bowl of hiker supper!
Ramen with broccoli, portobello mushroom, red onion, and carrot.
Here's the trail recipe I developed tonight, and a photo of how nicely it all packs out to camp! (Links provided for hard-to-source ingredients!)
Thai Ramen, packed and ready to hit the trail!
Thai Ramen - 1 serving
1 pack ramen of your choice (chili lime shrimp would be perfect!)
1/4 cup dehydrated mixed vegetables
1 tablespoon powdered coconut milk
1/2 tablespoon powdered peanut butter
1 tablespoon cashews
1 True Lime packet
1 Sriracha packet
At home prep:
+In a snack-sized zipper bag, combine the cashews, powdered peanut butter, and powdered coconut milk.
+In a regular-sized zipper bag, pour in your dehydrated vegetables, place a ramen packet inside, and add the packet of True Lime and sriracha sauce.
+Add the snack-sized bag to the large bag and seal
In Camp:
+Remove the bag with the coconut powder, peanut butter, and cashews. Also remove the True Lime and sriracha sauce.
+Break up the ramen in it's pack, then open it and pour the ramen and the vegetables in your cook pot. Remove the ramen seasoning packet and cover the noodles and vegetables with the water level you chose for your soup.
+Cook ramen according to package directions and turn off the heat.
+Add the ramen seasoning, powdered coconut milk, peanut butter, cashews, and True Lime packets. Add sriracha sauce to your desired level of spiciness. For best flavor, allow the mixture to cool off and let the flavors meld together.