I happened to find a couple flavors of Carb Boom at my local REI last fall, but never got around to trying them out until this spring. Over all, I’m pretty impressed. The first flavor I tried was Apple Cinnamon. Surprisingly enough, it tastes almost exactly like my own recipe for gel.

A quick look on the back shows why. There’s almost nothing artificial (assuming you can call maltodextrin natural) in the gel. The company uses actual fruit juices in its gels and the taste reflects that. Since then I have tried the raspberry, chocolate cherry, cranberry grapefruit, and grape pomegranate flavors.

While the apple cinnamon remains my favorite, the other flavors aren’t bad either. The raspberry is a bit tart for my taste and the chocolate cherry is a bit grainy due to using actual cocoa, but these are minor complaints. The texture is a bit more watery than my previous standard of GU however.

What really makes up for any shortcomings is the price. I picked up 3 bulk 24 serving packs of Carb Boom for $13 each. That’s pretty much unheard of for energy gel considering 24 servings of GU cost me $31.20.

Carb boom has also given me some new ideas for my own energy gel recipe. So, if I ever get some time (and go through 72 servings of Carb Boom), I might have some new gel recipes available.

When it’s all said and done, Carb Boom tastes great and costs a lot less than what I had been buying. While Carb Boom appears a bit hard to track down locally, it is available from quite a few places on the internet. So, you might want to give it a try.

The PROBAR is definitely a meal in itself, with between 350-400 calories per bar, and anywhere from 8-12 grams of protein per serving. They come in a variety of flavors: Whole Berry Blast, Art’s Original Blend, Koka Moka, Cherry Pretzel, Maple Pecan, and Apple Cinnamon Crunch, just to name a few. The most popular (and widely available) flavors seem to be the Whole Berry Blast and Art’s Original Blend, though my personal favorites have been the Cran-Lemon Twister and Superfood Slam. As for the Fruition bars, they are a new product from PROBAR, after requests to provide a snack-size bar for those times when you need some extra fuel, but don’t want all the calories. With only 160 calories, these fruit-based superfood bars are smaller, have fewer ingredients (but pack a punch with lots of antioxidants and fatty acids), and come in four flavors: blueberry, strawberry, cran-raspberry, and peach (The blueberry and peach flavors were my favorite.) An added bonus: the Fruition bars are vegan and made with mostly organic ingredients.

On the trail, the PROBARs are great for a quick breakfast, especially on those mornings when you don’t want to have to start up the stove (or wash dishes), and are certainly more tasty and filling than freeze-dried eggs. I found they provided enough fuel to get going, even on sluggish mornings. And unlike other bars, which look like dense bricks with no identifiable ingredients, it’s easy to identify the almonds, cashews, oats, raisins, or chocolate chips (or carob, depending on the flavor) that go into the bar.

You can find PROBARs nationwide in Whole Foods, REI, or possibly even your local health food shop, and they are available online to buy as well. I myself have spotted them in REI alongside Clif and Luna bars. However, they are definitely worth the effort to find if you are looking for a meal bar that is made with whole, un-processed ingredients (and don’t have the time to make something in your own kitchen). The PROBAR retails for $3.49 each; the Fruition bars are $2.29. Both are available in money-saving 12-bar boxes, as well.

Want more flavor choices than apple cinnamon for your energy gels? Here’s another recipe that allows you to customize that flavor to your taste.

Last time we made an energy gel recipe, it used a fruit juice base for the liquid. While the results were tasty, the flavor combinations are limited. This recipe makes a plain energy gel that you can customize with any flavor of your choice.

Makes:
10 Servings

Ingredients:
250ml Water
200g Maltodextrin
50g Fructose
3 1/2 tsp Pectin
1 tsp Ball brand fruit fresh
Flavor extracts to taste

Directions:

1. Boil the water over medium heat.

2. Turn the heat down to low and slowly add the maltodextrin and fructose to the water.

3. Whisk the mixture until it has completely dissolved. There will be a bit of foam floating on the top, but the liquid should be clear.

4. Whisk in the Fruit-Fresh and the pectin and let simmer for another minute

5. Cool the mixture down to room temperature.

6. Add any mixture of flavor extracts you want.

For this version of energy gel, some fructose is needed to replace the sugar provided by the apple juice in our previous recipe. Without fructose, the gel is a bit bitter and not very palatable.

The flavor extracts we used were from Nature’s Flavors. While we preferred the fruit juice version of the gel, flavor extracts offer the ability to mix any flavor combination you want.

After a long cold day backpacking, there’s nothing better than a bowl of warm chowder. Here’s our version of corn chowder that only requires boiling water to prepare on the trail.

Like most people, we want to do as little work preparing food on the trail as possible. This tasty corn chowder couldn’t be easier to prepare.

Serves:
2 hungry adults

Ingredients:

1 cup  Instant potato flakes
1/2 cup  Milk powder
1/2 cup Freeze Dried corn
1 tbsp Dehydrated butter
2 tbsp Shelf stable bacon pieces
2 tbsp dehydrated onion
1 tbsp  Freeze dried peas
1 tbsp  Dehydrated carrots
1/2 tsp Garlic Salt

2 1/2 cups water

Directions:

Mix all the dry ingredients ahead of time in a zip-top bag. Note that you can substitute the freeze dried ingredients with their dehydrated equivalents, but you may need to add a bit more water. We like the freeze dried versions as we think they make for a better chowder.

Once ready to cook on the trail, boil 2 1/2 cups of clean water and pour the bag of dry ingredients into the water. Mix well and take off the heat. Cover and wait 10 minutes until ready to eat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I’ve been looking for a cheaper alternative to energy gels for a few years now. Judging by the ingredients in brands like GU, Hammer Gel, CLIF Shot, and Carb BOOM, it wouldn’t be too difficult to replicate a reasonable clone of the products at home. I had tried the other recipes on the web, but didn’t like the results. So, I decided to start experimenting on my own. For my first recipe, I wanted something based on a fruit juice to be as natural as possible.

Aside from the cost savings, why should you bother making your own energy gel? I like to be able to tailor a gel to exactly how I like it. Even though I like many of the gels on the market, none of them are perfect. There are some flavors I’d like to make that I can’t get from a commercial source. By making my own gel, I can change the thickness and flavor to exactly what I like.

Total time: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:

500ml Apple Juice
250g Maltodextrin
3 1/2 tsp Powdered pectin
1 tsp Ball brand Fruit-Fresh
Cinnamon to taste

Directions:

1. Boil the apple juice over medium heat until reduced by 50%.

2. Turn the heat down to low and slowly add the maltodextrin to the juice. If you add too much maltodextrin to the juice it will boil quickly and overflow the pan, so be very careful with this step and slowly add the maltodextrin.

3. Whisk the maltodextrin until it has completely dissolved. There will be a bit of foam floating on the top, but the liquid should look like apple juice.

4. Whisk in the Fruit-Fresh and the pectin and let simmer for another minute

5. Add as much cinnamon as you like and take the pan off the stove

6. Cool down the mixture and move it to the fridge to gel

This recipe results in 10-12 servings of gel that can be loaded into a gel flask. The flasks I have are from Ultimate Direction, but the flasks from Hydrapak are marginally more expensive but hold more gel and pack up much smaller.

So how does it taste? I think it’s a lot like apple pie filling without the chunks of apple. It’s pretty sweet, but over all it tastes pretty decent. The only strange thing I’ve noticed is that the gel will turn from apple juice colored to a cloudy white after a few days in the fridge. Taste is unaffected by the color change.

A note on the Fruit-Fresh in the recipe. I was looking for citric acid to use in the gel, and Ball brand Fruit-Fresh was all that was available. Fruit-Fresh contains citric acid and vitamin C, so it served the purpose I was looking for. Feel free to replace this with citric acid if that’s what you have available. In either case, you must include citric acid in this recipe. The citric acid serves to bring down the pH of the mixture so the pectin will work properly.

Depending how thick you like your gel, you might want to adjust the amount of pectin in the recipe. I’ve found that 3 1/3 teaspoons of pectin is roughly the thickness that I like.

Perhaps the hardest thing to source in this recipe is the maltodextrin. Depending how much of it you want to buy, it can be fairly cheap. Search bodybuilding websites and you should be able to find it in bulk. The product I bought was called ‘Carbo Gain’ by NOW Foods.

Keep an eye out for our next article in this series. I’m going to be trying to make gel using commercial flavor extracts instead of a juice. This should allow a much wider range of flavors that you can split in smaller batches should you get tired of a single flavor.

While these are definitely a bit pricier than your average Clif or Luna bar, you have significantly more control over the ingredients included in your bar (great for those with specific diet concerns, like soy allergies). A 13-bar box of customized bars will cost you between $37.57 for the small bar (35 grams) to $41.47 for the large bar (55 grams). The pre-made popular bars cost a little less, at $32.37 for a 13-bar box.

The company also sells custom protein shakes and trail mixes. While I can understand the custom protein shake mixes, custom trail mix just seems a bit far-fetched. Maybe it’s designed for those with not enough time to stop at Trader Joe’s and pick up some dried fruits and nuts?

Overall, it’s an interesting and innovative concept. I may just have to try my hand at building a custom energy bar in the future.

Dehydrated backpacking meals and snacks seem to be the convenient choice for meals on the trail these days. But for all the ease of preparation, you often pay in flavor. (Read our review of backpacking meals here.) But this doesn’t have to be the case. With a little pre-trip prep, you can have great tasting snacks and meals.

One of my favorite ways to perk up a dull backpacking meal is to add a bit of my own home-dried fruits of veggies. This simple step can add a lot more flavor to the mix, and only takes a few hours of prep time. Nesco has some great dehydrators that are worth the price-after only a few batches of dried cherries or strawberries, they will have paid for themselves. Plus, you have the knowledge of how great the produce tasted before it was dried-something you aren’t guaranteed with pre-packaged dried foods.

The best part about dehydrators is that you can dehydrate just about anything. While they are great for drying fruits and veggies, you can also make your own jerky, fruit leathers, and even dehydrate pasta sauce (just add hot water at camp and mix with pasta). If you are a fan of mushrooms in your pasta, they are an easy addition to a pre-packaged pasta meal that could be less than exciting. Before your trip, just slice the mushrooms, toss with your favorite spices, and dry in the dehydrator. At camp, all you have to do is add a little warm water to the mushrooms, and toss them in with the pasta. Simple and easy, but adds a lot of flavor.

And of course, drying your own fruit is a great base for making your own customized trail mix. (My personal favorite is dried cherries, shaved coconut, dark chocolate chips, and dry roasted peanuts). Strawberries are a great intro to drying fruits-they dry quickly and easily, and the flavor packs a punch. Perfect for adding into your morning oatmeal, or eaten plain as a sweet snack.

I haven’t included drying times because most models vary slightly in performance, and it’s always best to refer to the manufacturer’s guidelines. Most dehydrators come with a booklet that lists recipes, preparation, and drying times for just about anything you could imagine, including nuts and herbs, and are a good place to start because the recipes are designed for the specific model dehydrator.

Do you dehydrate your own food? And if so, what are some of your favorite recipes for on the trail? We’d love to hear about them!

With the recent news that the National Park Service is requiring all overnight hikers to carry and use a bear canister for their food in Rocky Mountain National Park (click here to read more), we thought we would take the time to put together some safety precautions you can follow when hiking in the wilderness.

Use a bear canister to store all food and toiletries. Even inedible items like deodorant have a scent that may attract bears. Keep all food, toiletries, and garbage in the canister at all times, unless you are preparing your food. Read more about packing a bear canister.

Carry bear pepper spray. While federal regulations prohibit bear spray in parks outside of Alaska, many park superintendents override that ban and permit the use of bear spray in their park. Always check with park authorities on the use of bear spray, and if permitted, learn how and when to use it, and carry it with you.

Hike in a group and make your presence known. Except during breeding season, black bears are generally shy animals and will avoid human contact. Grizzly bears are less shy than black bears, though.

Hike only during daylight hours and stay on the trail. Bears are most active during the early morning and cool evening. During the day they will seek refuge under the shade of dense underbrush.

Bottom line? A fed bear is a dead bear. After bears gain an interest in human food, they will search it out and this leads to aggressive bear behavior. Aggressive bears are a threat to human safety and will have to be removed or destroyed. By following the above precautions, you can avoid a run-in with a bear while on the trail.

Natural High: Classic Three Cheese Lasagna

Natural High has been making lightweight backpacking food since the 1950s. One package provides two 260-calorie servings, however, most of the calories are carbohydrate-based from the pasta, as the Classic Three Cheese Lasagna does not contain meat. Simply add 2 cups of boiling water, stir, and let sit for 10 minutes and you have a meal. However, after 12 minutes the meal still had a very soupy consistency, and did not resemble anything like lasagna. While it smelled appetizing, the flavor was bland, and was only superficially filling. After a long day of hiking, this would probably not quell hunger or provide lots of energy.

Mountain House Pro-Pak:  Pasta Primavera

We added the Mountain House Pasta Primavera to the list because of it’s smaller, vacuum-sealed packaging, a nice feature for longer trips where space is at a premium. However, the packaging makes reading instructions and nutritional information difficult until it is opened. One package provides one 470-calorie serving. After opening the package, you can see a variety of bright, freeze-dried vegetables. Preparation is simple, just add 1 ½ cups boiling water, stir, and let sit. The consistency was thicker than other brands, and was very flavorful. The vegetables cooked up nicely and gave lots of variety of flavor and texture and the one serving provides a very full meal.

Backpacker’s Pantry: Katmandu Curry

Backpacker’s Pantry is usually the first brand that people think of for backpacking food. Unlike other meals available, we chose the Katmandu Curry because of its simple ingredient list, containing only dehydrated whole foods. One package makes two 330-calorie servings and has a considerable amount of protein and fiber. Vegetarian and dairy-free, the lentils and rice are hearty and filling, and the meal has lots of flavor and spice. After a long day of hiking, this would fill you up and fuel you for more hiking the next day.

Mary Jane’s Farm Outpost: Organic Sweet Red Bell Pepper Pasta

This was brand that we had not heard of before, and slightly more expensive than other brands available, but we thought we could give it a try. USDA Organic ingredients and a wide variety of meal choices make it a nice alternative. The package is slightly smaller, providing only 1.5 servings per package. Preparation was simple, add ¾ cup boiling water, stir, and let sit. Unlike other backpacking foods, after the designated wait time, all the water had been absorbed. The red bell peppers added a bright color and texture to the meal, and the flavor was quite good. The only downside to the preparation of the Sweet Red Bell Pepper Pasta was that the package was not resealable, making it a little more difficult to seal up while waiting for the water to be absorbed.

Backpacker’s Pantry Chef’s Recipe: Cajun Salmon Inferno

At first glance, the Cajun Salmon Inferno packet looks promising. The ingredients are all natural and it contains no MSG. It also has the added addition of a smoked salmon filet with oil, a welcome addition to the rice and spices. One package makes two 370-calorie servings. However, it’s high in sodium, at 1300 mg per serving.

Preparation is a little messier than the other brands, as the separate smoked salmon pouch requires scissors to be able to open it but be careful not to spray oil all over. But other than the added addition of the salmon filet, prep is the same as other backpacking foods—add the desired amount of boiling water, stir, close the package, and wait for the water to be absorbed. It helps to break up the salmon when stirring the contents, to spread it out over the two servings. As for flavor, the ‘Inferno’ is definitely and indicator of flavor—it’s spicy. Overall, it’s a little spicy, but the salmon adds a nice texture and flavor.

While a first choice for meals on the trail is always combining your own ingredients, pre-packaged backpacking meals are a great lightweight easy-prep alternative. We especially liked the Mountain House Pasta Primavera and the Backpacker’s Pantry Katmandu Curry, and we will probably try more meals from those brands in the future.

Last month we tested and reviewed some of the available energy gels and chews on the market. (Click here to read the article). However, there were still a few products that we wanted to feature but couldn’t get our hands on at the time of the testing.

Gu Chomps

Chomps are a new, yet-to-be-released energy chew product from GU. Since we have always been fans of GUs’ products, we were happy to test the Chomps out. Each package contains two servings of chews. The energy that Chomps provide is from three carbohydrates: tapioca syrup, cane sugar, and maltodextrin.

After we opened the package, there was a distinct sweet smell, a combination of the sugar and the natural flavoring. The chews were larger than some of the other brands we tried, but in the shape of the GU starburst logo.

The Chomps were soft and easy to chew, albeit a little sticky at first. They had a very strong flavor, and a bit of tartness. However, we thought they would be easy to eat on the run. Overall, we enjoyed that the serving size was small (only four chews) and providing about the equivalent calories as a single package of energy gel. The only downside in our opinion is the price: one package of GU Chomps will retail for $2.20, a bit more expensive than other brands of energy chews.

GU has begun shipping out Chomps to retailers this month, so look for it on the shelves soon. It will be available in Blueberry Pomegranate, Orange, Cran-Apple, and Strawberry flavors.

Honey Stinger Honey

While Honey Stinger Honey energy gel is not a new product, it has been one that we have wanted to try for a while, as comparison to other energy gel products on the market. The primary ingredients in Honey Stinger are honey and water, although it does contain a smaller portion of maltodextrin.

With a product that’s primary ingredient is honey, you can’t expect anything less than a distinct honey flavor, and that is exactly what it tasted like. A bit thinner than plain honey, it was far too sweet for us to eat an entire package (1.3 ounces). In general, we are glad we tried the Honey Stinger, but don’t plan on buying it again because it was too sweet for our tastes. However, it does seem to be a popular choice for many in the energy gels field.

Honey Stinger is available in Gold, Ginsting, Banana, Chocolate, and Strawberry flavors.