Hi jags!
I almost always toss in my little "Pocket Kitchen" (
http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=3850.msg16915#msg16915 ), consisting of my little beer-can meths stove and pot stand, a folding windscreen, and a nesting alu bowl set with lid. My food goes in th same ittle storage sack. Now I have my little propane/butane cartridge stove, I may occasionally use that instead. I do freezer-bag cooking, so the food is broken-down and stored in a zip-top freezer bag. To cook it, all I need do is boil a cup of water, dump it in the zip-top freezer bag and put the lot in a homemade Reflectix cozy for 5 minutes to steep. When done, there's no dishes to do and the former food bag becomes the new trash sack for responsible disposal in the nearest receptacle.
For eats, I bring along dehydrated soups. My favorites are made by Nile Spice (
http://www.nilespice.com/products/index.php ) and I just break them down and put them in the cooking sacks, then roll. Enough for several meals weigh almost nothing and take up very little space. Kept sealed, they last about a year, so I keep several in reserve in a side pocket of my rack-top pack in case I get caught out unexpectedly or get the munchies along the way. I have eaten them cold out of necessithy on occasion, but they're much better hot.
Often, I'll eat the soups as the come, but I'll also fortify them with torn-off strips of beef or turkey jerky. Put in before the boiling water, the dried or smoked meat strips get nice and soft along with the veggies and broth and go far toward filling my up.
I like these sorts of dehydrated soups better than boullion cubes because they contain *much* less salt, and there is a true variety of flavors that really taste like their billing, which is nice. Though called "Nile Spice", they're only lightly spiced which is nice for bike trips -- I love really hot spices, peppers and such as part of my regular diet, but when I'm working hard on the bike, even subtle flavors seem stronger and I prefer something "interesting" but comparatively bland so it doesn't revisit me afterwards. Besides, if one has a "careful" outlook, these are cheap, ranging from 88 US cents to as much as USD$1.07 per cup -- world's less expensive than dehydrated foods and soups intended for the outdoors/hiking market. These taste better, too...especially after I've doctored them up a bit.
My favorites are their pea soup, lentil, and the red beans and rice; I feel a real jolt of energy after drinking/eating the last. I understand the protein in rice and beans is additive, much greater when combined than when either food is eaten alone.
Occasionally, I'll toss in a little can of potted meat product ("Vienna sausages") and a small can of mandarin oranges in juice. The latter always tastes good and quenches thirst on a hot day without producing phleghm as some canned fruits sometimes do. I also take re-packed pouches of Gatorade for hot weather, and American cereal supplier Kellogg's has a water-added protein drink I sometimes use. It takes the edge off hunger, but sometimes doesn't set so well if you wait too late to drink it.
For a hot drink, I've had good luck with Alpine hot apple cider (
http://www.alpinecider.com/ ) and sometimes small packets of (hot) chocolate or cocoa (
http://www.swissmiss.com/index.jsp ), which seems to sit a little better for me than tea when I'm working hard. As for tea, I've had the best luck with Indian Chai Spice tea (my favorite), peppermint, and chamomile, all caffeine-free. The lack of caffeine made a difference for me on how well I tolerated them afterwards.
A banana is never bad, and I enjoy chunky peanut butter (sometimes with the banana, sliced!) on something like a RyeKrisp cracker. Those sorts of hard crackers store well, resist breakage, and don't mold or mildew in damp conditions as quickly as bread can.
All the best,
Dan.
