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What kosher food should I pack for a one-week trip? I won't have access to a fridge; and no kosher food will be available at my destination.

The only food idea I can think of is tuna. That would get very boring. I need more variety.

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Where are you going, and (optionally) why? How are you getting there? (Optionally:) Where will you be staying: a tent? a backpackers' hostel? a hotel? a private home? (See also "Being a houseguest in a non-frum or non-Jewish home".) Will you have access to a fridge there? Can you buy kosher cheese there? Kosher meat? Kosher bagels? –  unforgettableid Jun 19 '13 at 23:26
No kosher food available... no fridge –  Desert Star Jun 20 '13 at 0:29
It would also be best to provide the information in the question for context, rather than actually answering @unforgettable's question. –  Seth J Jun 20 '13 at 2:25
La Briute Makes kosher microwave meals. They come double-wrapped, so you can make them in a non-kosher microwave. They're mediocre, but better than eating just tuna for a week. –  Daniel Jul 15 '13 at 15:30
Good that it worked out! In that situation, if you can cook/boil the food you take, think how it's mostly animal products that really need refrigeration. So you can get the same kind of complete protein by making sure to eat both grains and legumes during the day, e.g. rice + lentils, barley + beans... which are all dried or even canned. Plus vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds should give you basically the right nutrition around that. There are lots of vegetables that can keep for a week outside the fridge. And if it's only that long, you'd be fine on that diet even without thinking about it. –  Annelise Aug 6 '13 at 12:13

1 Answer 1

(If you want hot food, then instead see the second half of the linked post. Some things listed there are easy, like instant soup-in-a-cup.)

If you're fine with cold food, then here are some ideas:

Bread: Pita bread or matzah are dense and compact. Another possibility: take along a bread machine - you can buy flour, yeast, etc., anywhere. (Alex has done this on a trip with his family.)

Fish: Canned tuna or salmon. Vacuum-packed tuna without the water. Canned herring in paprika sauce. (Delicious. Try it.) Canned sardines in mustard sauce (but the room and your breath will smell very bad). Canned herring in mustard sauce. Canned "tuna salad" in onions and tomato sauce. Fully cooked and ready to eat (or ready to heat) vacuum-packed salmon or tuna fillets.

Miscellaneous: Vegemite. (Spread an extremely thin layer on bread.) Canned baked beans. Peanut butter. (You can get by for a while eating nothing but peanut butter. When you're hungry, spoon some into a bowl and "enjoy".) Kraft cinnamon-raisin-granola peanut butter. Jam. Chocolate spread. Nutella!

Cereal: Your favorite kind. Granola travels well: it's very dense. Add milk or water. Also add some juicy raisins or other dried fruit if you want.

Milk: Powdered, evaporated, or condensed milk. Or aseptic-packed milk (like Parmalat, which has a hechsher in the US). Or aseptic-packed soy milk, almond milk, or flax milk. Try one of these milks at home; see if you like it. Even if you don't like it plain, you might tolerate it in cereal. After leaving soy milk unrefrigerated, unforgettableid has found that it doesn't go sour for some time: maybe a couple of days or more. Sniff carefully. If it's cool but above freezing, storing it just outside a window might work.

Water: Bring a big water bottle. Make sure that the manufacturer claims it's freezer-safe. Fill it up halfway with water, then freeze it the night before you travel.

Vegetables: Enjoy as many salads as you want. Though lettuce goes bad soon, bell peppers and other veggies are great.

Fruit: Most fruits aside from berries will last you a week. This includes avocados, which are great for long trips.

Oils, vinegars, spice, etc: Lots of shelf-stable foods.

Snacks: Unsalted pretzels. Granola bars. Chips and (individually packaged) salsa. Single-serve packages of apple sauce.

If you bring nuts or chips, repack them into single-serving plastic sandwich bags before you travel. These foods are very calorie-dense. If you eat them straight out of the original package, it can take immense self-control not to eat 500 Calories' worth in one sitting.

Meals: Shelf-stable, self-heating, packaged meals such as LaBriute brand.

Have a good trip!

This post is community wiki. Please edit it, add ideas, and remove mediocre ideas.

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@Alex, the asker assumed no kosher flour is available. –  msh210 Jul 15 '13 at 15:26
@msh210: okay, I assumed he/she meant that no specifically kosher brands are available. [FWIW, I found flour with a hechsher even in some quite remote places in northern Canada - once, if I recall correctly, in the grocery store at a native (First Nations) town.] –  Alex Jul 17 '13 at 2:20
@msh210: is the asker really excluding things that don't need a hechsher? If so, he should ask "there will be no food available at my destination" –  Menachem Jul 31 '13 at 20:57
@Menachem, I don't know. This answer does suggest bringing along water. –  msh210 Aug 1 '13 at 6:52
@msh210: I assumed that the asker will have access to water. The reason why I suggested bringing bottled ice was for convenience: it stays very cold for hours (even colder than "cold" tap water). It's good on long drives: you can sip cold water without having to stop to obtain it. –  unforgettableid Aug 6 '13 at 3:22

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