Program 1: food!

Renee and I woke up early this morning to finalize our food menu for the expedition. It has been the part of the trip where I am least productive at planning and she is amazing! I started this blog so people could get an idea of how we viewed running a program that was therapeutic and education in many aspects of life. Food is one of those that we valued.

Young people we see on our programs are not only taking part in unhealthy, risky activities but also eating poorly. As an intervention program, we acknowledged the importance of helping people make healthier choices around all parts of life.

Breakfast / Lunch Rations
Each participant is given a bag containing their breakfasts and lunches for the first five days of the expedition. They are given the responsibility of rationing this food out until we return to base camp to resupply. In these rations are the traditional: trail mix, oats, muesli bars, granola bars, fresh apple, fresh oranges, powdered milk, tea and coffee etc. 

Dinner
For dinners we wanted to be a bit more forward thinking. We battled through whether or not to dehydrate our own meals or even purchase good food. I really value the challenge of following a recipe and we chose to create recipes for outdoor use from more traditional meals. In the photo above, you'll see two carrots, fresh chilies from our garden, bay leaves and rosemary, also from the garden. This package goes into our Italian Vegetable Minestrone.  When we went fresh, we wanted it to be so fresh, just picked and vacuum sealed.

For the first ration period (5 days), we'll carry the dinners in separate bags with recipes attached. The freshest meals will be scheduled first moving on to the longer preserved as time goes on.  We have done our best to not provide any tinned food or ingredients which are unnatural. We believe in the natural environment as an aid in the therapeutic process and knew we needed to do the same with food.

MENU *Indicated meal at Base Camp

11 March - *Lasagna & Salad
12 March - Veg Curry & Rice
13 March - Baked Corn, Potato & Baked Beans
14 March - Mexican Night (I go crazy here)
15 March - Chicken Noodle Soup w/ Pita Bread
16 March - *Chicken Cacciatore & Rice
17 March - Minestrone Soup
18 March - Mac & Cheese
19 March - Rice & Lentils
20 March - Tomato Pasta
21 March - *Shepherd's Pie