LVB is the sequel to the authors' original book, Lipsmackin' Backpackin'. In the original book, about two-thirds of the recipes were vegetarian, which doesn't surprise me -- not many granola recipes call for meat. The new book is totally meat-free, and the authors say that it is suitable for ovo-lacto vegetarians (those who eat dairy products and eggs), as well an anyone who likes good trail food. (Disclaimer: although we eat very little meat, my family is not vegetarian. That said, I am firmly in the category of 'anyone who likes good trail food.')

The authors say that they chose the recipes based on the food requirements of a long-distance backpacker: weight, taste, nutritional value, variety, simplicity, and durability.

The book is a collection of recipes from many different people, something like a church or community cookbook.

I started with breakfast, since that's the first category in the book, and I had a lot of the ingredients already. I made up ten different breakfast recipes into quart zipper-lock bags, and proceeded to eat them on the trail and at home. The breakfasts are fairly typical trail food: several different oatmeal recipes, some cheese grits, and farina (cream of wheat) with dried blueberries. However, there are some unusual meals in there, too: two recipes that use instant brown rice, and one that uses couscous.

The first thing that I noticed is that I had to pay very close attention to the number of servings, since this is not consistent among the recipes. For example, there are seven oatmeal recipes: five of them are the expected single-servings, another makes two servings, and one feeds ten people! I made the farina dish one morning, and ended up with blueberry-flavored concrete -- sure enough, when I went back to the book, I discovered it was supposed to make two servings, not one, so when I added 1.5 cups (355 ml) of boiling water for a single serving, it was only half the correct amount. Oops. Even when I was very careful with the directions, some of the proportions were off: The Adirondack Apricot Oatmeal was tasty, but also very runny when made as directed. Mule Fuel calls for a cup of old-fashioned oats, then add one cup of boiling water and let sit for a few minutes. Old fashioned oats normally require two cups of water per cup of oats, and extended cooking. Made as directed, it's inedible.

Then there are the monster recipes: Omega Breakfast uses 15 ingredients to make over four pounds of a hot breakfast mix. There are five recipes for homemade granola, making anywhere from 7 to 14 servings. I didn't attempt to test any of these recipes--it would cost too much to buy the ingredients and my small family would never use such enormous quantities. Looking over these recipes, however, several of them would appeal to me if I were preparing for a long hike.

I did buy ingredients for some lunches and dinners. We ate the Hummous recipe (mix dried hummous and serve on rye crackers) for lunch one Sunday at home. We often make Fantastic Foods brand hummous on the trail, so this was familiar. I added olive oil and lemon juice for flavor. The rye crackers were great, but they seemed fragile for trail use. This might be the simplest recipe in the book, and I just had to smile at the entire collection of lunch recipes -- I am obviously not the only hiker who has a hard time finding good ideas for lunch.

That strength is also the book's weakness: it feels like a random collection of recipes without a strong sense of organization or focus. It might have been more helpful, particularly for the novice backpacker, to organize the book as a series of 'master recipes,' with variations based on the recipes submitted by the contributors. Let's look at breakfast, for example, since that's where I've been concentrating during this phase of the test. There are half a dozen oatmeal recipes, but no ‘master’ recipe that the reader can use as a starting point. The recipes use different types of oatmeal, and make different numbers of servings.

Serving Sizes:
I would like to see the recipes settle on a standard single-serving size. It's easy enough to pay attention when I'm making one meal, but when I have all the ingredients for ten different recipes scattered on my kitchen counter, and I'm making meals for three hikers for a week of hiking, it's very easy to overlook something as simple as 'divide into two separate bags.' That's why I enjoyed that blueberry concrete one morning. (It was tasty, but I had to add a lot of additional milk to make it edible.)

The experienced hiker probably doesn't need to worry about all this. There are some good recipes in here, and anyone with a fair amount of backcountry cooking experience can easily adapt the recipes for their own tastes, or just take some of the ideas and work them into their current menu. That's my plan for using this book after the test is complete. Realize, however, that the recipes require testing at home to ensure the correct proportions.

Nutrition:
The book provides complete nutritional information for each recipe. This is a good thing, because many of the recipes are very high in calories and even higher in sodium. Lots of calories aren't usually a problem for hikers, though some of these recipes are probably too large for a weekend hiker: the Burrito Ole has 1405 calories per serving, Flyin Brian's Garlic Potatoes have 1067, and Trail Dad's Spaghetti weighs in at 1240. For a Triple Crown hike, that's appropriate, but probably not for a week-long hike.

My main concern with a number of these recipes is the sodium content. Like many people, I have to follow a lower-sodium diet for my blood pressure, so I am acutely aware of sodium levels in prepared foods. The Trail Dad's Spaghetti provides 3580 mg of sodium per serving! Of the 52 dinner recipes, 18 have more than 1000 mg of sodium, and 14 have more than 2000 mg, with one having more than 3000 mg. Even breakfast isn't immune -- of the 29 recipes, 5 have more than 1000 mg, and one has more than 2000 mg. Of the 14 lunch recipes (ignoring the gorp and cookie recipes), 7 have more than 1000 mg of sodium per serving. For healthy adults, federal guidelines recommend less than 2400 mg of sodium per day. A low-sodium diet (the DASH diet) recommends less than 1500 mg per day. Again, like calories, this might not be a huge problem for thru-hikers, but it concerns me for weekend and short section hikes.

Given all the nutrition information, I have found it possible to modify some of the recipes to lower the sodium content. For example, the Pacific Crest Tortillas, has 2567 mg of sodium per serving. By leaving out the taco seasoning mix, I can lower that by 430 mg. The recipe tastes just fine (and still has a lot of sodium, but I take what I can get).

1/2 cup Uncle Ben's Instant Brown Rice
1 Fantastic Foods Cha-Cha Chili
1/4 cup dried corn (I used Just Corn)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon lemon powder
1 clove garlic or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

At home: place dry ingredients and the garlic in 1 qt (1 l) zipper lock freezer bag.

On the trail: Bring 1 3/4 cups water to a boil. If using a garlic clove, chop finely and place back in bag. Carefully pour the hot water into the bag, and allow to stand for 8-10 minutes, kneading occasionally to help ensure that all ingredients are evenly hydrated. Serve straight from the bag.