This may open up a can of ... but I would be interested to hear what people like in the way of off the shelf kayak camping foods. I am not a keen cook and like my kayak camping food to be quick and easy (and preferably tasty!). I would be interested to hear what people find works well and is easy to pick up at local grocery stores. Specific brands would be great as some are better than others!

Anything from Knorr is good.
Lipton bagged meals are ok...
The ethnic section usually have a good selection.
You can even get tuna steaks in a foil bag! (they are good too)

There is absolutely NO reason to spend 15 bucks a meal for freeze dried food anymore.

The instant mashed spud mixes come in about 4-5 flavors, and are quite good. Can of hash. Heat and eat puddings from Jello.

Yakisoba noodles are quick and tasty -- in the deli case.

Those foil packaged tuna, salmon, etc., units Darren mentioned are really good, and about right for one hungry person.

Refried beans in a can. You can get them dried at a whole foods market, also, in pinto and black bean choices. Heat with water and eat, maybe in a burrito made from a tomato, some cheese, and a couple hot sauce packages from Taco Time. Simple and quick.

I love Fantastic Foods Products, especially their "international line." We tend to eat vegetarian though. You can find these at thrifty foods, save-on foods and lots of other places, as well as health food stores. Here is their website to browse through.

http://www.fantasticfoods.com/catalog/

They use all natural products which is great for people with allergies to preservatives and other things! (me )

They are super simple to make and good size servings. Divide serving estimate in half when kayaking! You can also just make part of the product and use the rest another day. Many of their products you just add boiling water. The black beans and hummus are great for dipping breads and veggies.

This forum was a good idea! We dehydrate like crazy, but it is nice to have some quick and easy options!

Sidkicks pastas are good and very filling.
Jello Pudding.
Mini canned Tuna(aprox 4oz) packs with crackers.(Can't remember the brand) Flavours I've tried are Lemon and Herb, Spicy Tai and both were good. This package also came with a spoon and napkin, crackers.
Pepperoni sticks.
StoneCrackers.
Hummus.
Packaged Smoked Salmon Locs from the deli.
Pitabread.
Aunt Jemima Pancake mix. (Just Add water)
Packaged Pre-cooked bacon strips.

mmmm I'm hungry now!!

I agree. Throw in a can of tuna or chicken to give it more appeal.

I've also tried several o f the Backpackers Pantry meals (available at MEC) and found most of them to be quite tasty -- the Cajun chicken with rice is particularly good (even my kids like it) and their Wicked Good Brownies are, well, wickedly good.

There's a relatively new brand called Tilley's that is now available at Save-On-Foods (not sure if the Island stores are carrying them) -- we tried several of them when I was working at Western Canoeing and each of the ones we tried was absolutely great. No preservatives, reasonably priced, and made locally.

I've tried a few other brands and have found that it's either hit or miss -- a few have been quite palatable but a few others have tasted like cardboard. It would be a good idea to try a few before taking them on a trip if that's all you were planning on taking.

*****

Good old spaghetti! Amp it up with canned or bottled tomatoe sauce if you're on a shorter trip; the dried-in-the-envelope kind if you're out for a while and space and weight matter more.
Bring the dried kind of Chorizo sausage that keeps several days without refrigeration (available at Italian/Spanish/Portuguese deli shops); cut it up into coins and heat it with the tomatoe sauce for spicey, chewy-chunky eating pleasure that fills you right up.

Those pre-filled dried tortillenis are pretty good too. You can get mushroom or cheese filled types. Just boil, drain, and annoint with olive oil if you're feeling lazy; add a pouch of some store-bought dried sauce if you're feeling fancy.

great responses all! Thanks! One of my favourites is a lipton noodle pack with a can of home canned salmon.
another is to make a Thai curry (red green or yellow) with some boiled potatoes and some canned meat and veg
I am also quite partial to canned Chili - lots of varieties have worked wll for me.

check out this site:

http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/index.htm

lots of good info and recipes. she does some recipe videos, too.

DarenN.......

Precooked bacon from Superstore, PC brand comes in 2, 8 slice packs . Although sold chilled, it doesn't need refrigeration. It adds flavor to soups stirfrys , chowmein and rice dishes (mintute rice now comes in brown).
A bag of shredded cabbage with some sunflower seeds and carrots makes a crunchy salad , use prebottled oil and vinigar dressing (no refrigeration) or Mcdonalds mayo packs if you want it creamy.

My choices are heavily influenced by choices appropriate for hiking.

Breakfast is a bowl of oatmeal with a spoon of brown sugar and a handful of dried cranberries or raisins. A one ounce lump of bakers chocolate and a cup of tea. I carry a few oranges or grapefruits but not usually enough for every day. 1 cup of dried rolled oats per day.

Lunch is sometimes bagels and sometimes flatbread usually eaten with peanutbutter. Fresh carrots with peanut butter is tasty. Hard boiled eggs (without peanut butter) are good for a week.

Lots of snack food. Peanuts, chocolate, licorice, and a kilo of jujubes.

Supper:
1 cup rice or pasta per day. Mashed potatoe mixes are good too. A sausage can be brought along for first day and cut up before mixing through the mash.
I throw in a half packet of spices meant for Nasi Goering or Bami Goering.
Soup mixes work well too. I always include a boullion cube and a lump of mozarella. A chunk of garlic keeps vampires, mosquitoes, and other blood suckers away. Sometime I buy the lipton dinners and uncle bens rice dinners and so don't need the soup mixes.
Variety comes from alternating days and changing soup mixes.

After dinner I like to watch the sunset with a cup of hot water mixed with gatorade crystals. Sometimes a shot of Nelson's blood will spill into the cup.

The rule when meal planning is that it can't be on the stove for more than 10 minutes. The second consideration is that the meal is one pot and easy to clean up.

I liked hiking in NZ. There you can buy dried vegatables the way we buy 'em frozen. A hand full of dried vegetables is great if you can get 'em. Too bad you can't get 'em here.

Unlike backpacking, there is always enough room to stick a half dozen beer in the kayak somehow....

i thought that's what the (otherwise useless) dayhatch was for.

The "instant" scalloped potatoes are a nice change from pasta and rice. I like the Cheddar n' Bacon flavour best. If you have any of the instant quick-cook bacon mentioned above, you can add it. As far as I can tell there's no difference between the "brand name" and the store brand Scalloped Potatoes. I suspect, as they do for so many products, the brand names make the store brand product and put their label on it.

Instant is a bit misleading - these potatoes need to be simmered for 20-30 mins, so they're best done on a DragonFly or Trangia stove while you're setting up camp. They do call for butter and milk. Butter keeps well in a kayak; or you can use Carnation evaporated tinned milk, diluted with water to provide the volume of liquid the package calls for. The evaporated milk provides the fat that makes for what foodie techs call "mouth feel" and adds calories. (Usually on tour, the issue with calories is getting enough at the end of a long cold day to keep my "pot bellied stove" burning warmly through the night...)

Oh, and as with freeze dried foods, the "two servings" on the package is creative fiction. I can polish off an entire package solo with room left over for dessert.

No need for that "evaporated" milk. They do sell 250ml and 1l tetrapacks of 2% which has very long shelf-lifes (years). Just the thing for those Lipton Sidekick meals that require milk.

The Lipton Sidekicks are tasty, and several only require water (no milk) making them easier to make.

Peanut butter lasts quite a while, and bread can too, if stored correctly.

Ramen Noodles (Mr. Noodles) are almost cliche, but they are simple and work well.

All the freeze dried meals work very well. Rather expensive, and sometimes of questionable taste, but usually pretty good. I tend not to use as much water as suggested. I find adding the suggested amount of water turns them into soup, rather than a chewy meal. Some of the desserts are fantastic. Apple Brown Betty, and 3 Berry Cobbler are to die for. Seriously.

Tuna and Salmon in vacuum packed foil does not require refrigeration, and is fantastic as an additional course.

When hiking, I tend to lean towards using just a 1 litre pot for boiling water only. No clean up required. The boiling water cooks the meal in the freeze-dry bag, so all that is required to eat is a fork.

I use powdered milk for sidekicks -- just add a couple of tablespoons for each cup of water. Works and stores well.

*****

Same here. But I like the idea of the tetra pack. But the only place Ive ever seen milk sold like this was in Mexico.

Where do you buy yours Moose?

Fairway Market

Since nobody mentioned this so far, i'll ad Chunky soup to the list. Tastes good, has good nutritional value so i think well worth the space/weight it takes up in the boat(though i wouldn't lug it backpacking) Be sure to stir it good or it'll fuse itself to the pot pretty good

I think I could survive on these alone:

http://www.tasti.co.nz/products.php?flavid=88

Available at any Pack'nSave store (in New Zealand).

Perhaps the old adage "you are what you eat" is true afterall.

welcome home nut bar!

They let you back in?

From my Klemtu 2007 trip log............


The rain began in earnest and beat on the metal roof. The spaghetti with meat sauce contributed to the evening ambience in a most vile fashion. I had read a cautionary review on this stuff but had not taken it seriously.

Hear me now! Never eat Backpackers Panty Spaghetti with Meat Sauce!

Gale Cabin to Joassa Cabin 8.5 NM

I can't comment on the Backpacker's Pantry line, never really ate those. Always a little too expensive for me. However, I can attest that the Richmoor Spagetti is quite tasty. One of my favorite actually. Alpinaire Stroganoff is also tasty.