Canadian Ski Marathon 2009 - Food Test

The Problem: Find a delicious, high energy supper to pack for the Canadian Ski Marathon (CSM).

The simplest solution I've heard for this problem is to order pizza the night before and simply wrap a few slices in tin-foil and stuff into backpack. Simple and elegant it is hard to argue with this solution. Somehow, I feel like I want something a bit more substantial. Another solution I like the sound of is to cook up some sausage beforehand and wrap those guys up in foil for the trip. They can be re-heated in the camp-fires when the time to finally eat arrives.

My preferred solution is to use some of those store-bought freeze dried instant wonder meals. Just add hot water and wait for a complete meal to emerge. Not gourmet but they are crazy lightweight to pack and they supply a pretty hefty load of calories. The downside? At the CSM you can't count on getting boiling hot water, and the weather is usually freezing cold. So cold in fact that all the heat in that water can disappear before it has a chance to soften up the freeze dried food. There are few things less appetizing than trying to eat a cold, hard chunk of 'meat'. Blah!

This year I've done a field test to see if I can enjoy a satisfying hot supper if I use a water bottle cozy to insulate my meal while it cooks. Here's a picture of my test products.


I boiled up some water, added it to the food pack as directed and, critical step, stirred thoroughly. I then popped the re-sealed package into the water bottle cozy.



The sealed up cozy then got transported to my special outdoor test environment, known as the back deck, to see if it would cook.



Success! After about 10 minutes I wandered back outside, retrieved my supper and enjoyed a mostly satisfying meal. I figure that if I didn't mind the taste of things while sitting in the comfort of my living room, it will be fantastic after an 8 to 10 hour day of skiing!