12 boxes

Never in my life did I think that 12 boxes would cause so much distress.

I stuffed 12 boxes (approximately 50 days worth) with nutritious, calorie dense, vegetarian, mostly homemade meals...and it was EXHAUSTING and STRESSFUL.  Perhaps I wasn't the most methodical while preparing these boxes.  I pretty much didn't have a plan.  This lead to a positive outcome of lots of variety within the boxes.  The negative: buying and preparing and buying and preparing, lots of trips to the grocery store, and counting and recounting.  Then thinking that I had all of the breakfasts that I needed, and realizing I had only half as many.  Then pulling out my eyelashes due to stress.  And sleepless nights.  And an increased electric bill from constantly running the food dehydrator.  BUT -- we will be well fed.  We will eat veggies.  It will be worth it.

50 days of food...and I'm spent

But look at me now...they are done!!  (commence celebrating!) We have packed about 50 days worth of food into these 12 boxes.  This will constitute about 1/3 of the food that we will consume on the trail.  These boxes will be mailed to pre-determined locations at specific times, so that we may pick them up along the way.  The other 2/3 of our food will be purchased at grocery stores along the way.  This is typically referred to as a hybrid method of resupply.  Some people have all of their trail food sent to them along the way (I seriously pity those who have to do this x 3).  Some people only buy food as they go.  We chose a hybrid method, because we wanted to be sure to have access to more nutritious foods.  Also, some resupply locations are known to have a poor selection or to be very expensive. Unfortunately, we did not have the time and/or money to sample all of the meals prior to packing them up.  We're hoping they'll be delicious because: 1. What have I ever cooked that wasn't? 2.  We will be starving, so anything should taste great...if these aren't edible, we have a huge problem.  We'll let you know how they turn out, and maybe post some recipes in the future if we find any of the meals to be extra tasty!

12 boxes ready to go!