HOW TO's - Meals
Many tours include picnic lunches, here are some tips. We get a lot of complaints that 2 weeks is too long for picnics, so please get creative with the food to avoid complaints.
Lunches
Many tours include trail lunches. If you provide trail lunches, it is imperative that the presentation is CLEAN, FRESH, DIVERSE AND INVITING. There are roll tables in the back of the trailer. You can choose to have pax make their own lunches in the parking lot next to the trailer, or take food on the trail and have a picnic spread. In both cases it is advisable to have a picnic blanket. If you carry a picnic, divide the food between pax. In this case, make sure pax make themselves 1-2 snacks per day. The snack is typically nuts, pretzels, dried fruit, (try to get salty snacks to compensate for mineral loss due to heat), cookies, trail mix, plus one piece of fruit per person. The snack food is best bought at Costco.
✓1-2 large cutting boards (or paper plates)
✓plastic knives
✓large kitchen / pocket knife
✓some storage boxes for food storage
✓ziplock bags
✓paper towels
✓some toilet paper for the group
✓some trash bags
✓for German groups buy black bread
✓butter spread (in a plastic tub), hummus and mustard - do not use mayonnaise because it will spoil in the heat (little single-serving mayo packages are fine); another great option is avocados/guacamole on sandwiches
✓cold cuts, pre sliced at Costco (count on 3 slices of cheese per person per day)
✓cheeses, pre sliced at Costco (count on 3 slices of cheese per person per day)
✓pickles
✓veggies such as lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, carrots, onions
✓glass jars of pickles, olives, roasted red peppers
✓paper plates
✓plastic forks
✓napkins/paper towels
✓saran wrap
✓zip lock bags
In addition to a sandwich we also provide 2 snacks per day. The snacks are self packed in zip lock bags.
✓pretzels
✓trail mix
✓dried fruit
✓chocolate
✓nuts
✓cookies
✓salty crackers
✓1 piece of fruit per person per day: banana, apple, orange
Buy a large tub of gatorade for pax to mix with their bottled water (Costco). Pax should fill their water bottles from the tap at the hotel. Suggest using 1/3 or 1/2 the amount of gatorade described to make the drink less sweet and to cover the taste of chlorine. Gatorade also provides essential salts to prevent hyponatremia and dehydration.
Also get toilet paper and large zip locks for people while on hiking tours. Some TDs carry a small stove and an espresso maker / or pot for tea (British groups) for their clients. This is your choice. We do not supply these items.
We have one additional cooler in the trailer. This trailer is for personal drinks. Make clear to the group that the TD is not responsible to monitor who drinks what, but that you will provide the ice for the cooler. Pax can put wine, beer, soda pop in this cooler. It does not work to provide drinks or buy soda pop from group food money, unless the group decides to pitch in money. Generally there are always some heavy drinkers who will consume more than others, which over time can be grating on the group.
If your tour is a camping tour you will either have
✓All meals included, including restaurant meals (typical for French tours)
✓All camp meals included
✓Or you will have a food kitty, meaning no food included, pax pay into a food kitty at the time of arrival
Suggestions for Havasupai meals
✓ Oatmeal (instant packs) and raisins to add
✓ Granola
✓ Instant milk (powder)
✓ Tea
✓ Instant coffee
✓ Sugar
✓ freeze dried eggs from a back packer store
✓ Crackers (for southern Europeans)
✓ Salami
✓ Cheese
✓ Mustard
✓ Veggies such as red bell pepper, cucumber and salt and pepper
✓ Quinoa with cut beans, artichoke hearts with canned white chicken and white sauce or canned tuna
✓ Instant rice with canned peas, canned corn, fresh onion, fresh red bell pepper, canned tuna and spices
✓ Burritos: instant black beans, flour tortilla, with chopped fresh cilantro and salsa (these can be done as breakfast burritos also if you add instant eggs), grated cheese
✓ Salted mixed nuts
✓ Dried fruit
✓ Apple sauce