Provisioning the Boat for 4 Days

This weekend is the 4th of July and we are going to take Ariel (our Gemini 3200) out for her first cruise in the Atlantic. We are planning to spend 4 days out on the boat. We are very excited!

One of the biggest challenges is how do we provision the boat for 4 days. Since we will be leaving our marina this afternoon and will not be returning until sometime on Monday, we need to (at minimum) provision for 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches, and 3 dinners plus snacks.

Breakfasts will consist of pancakes, oatmeal, and fresh fruit. The big decision is whether to make lunch or dinner the "big meal". This will dependent on the heat. Our main lunch and dinner menus are steaks with mash potatoes, hot dogs with buns, steak burritos, chili with rice, chickpea salad, and gazpacho.

In addition to the menu for this weekend, we have our galley staples consisting of canned tuna, lentils, extra chili, canned corn, canned tomatoes, extra rice and potatoes, extra oatmeal and pancake mix, onions, spam, mixed nuts, dry fruit, powder milk, chicken stock, variety of beans, garlic, salsa, basic staples (flour, sugar, salt, pepper, and spices), and a 4lb bag of M&Ms and Twizzlers. Theses staples serve as our food safety net. In the quantities we have on our boat, we believe that we could live off these staples for 3 weeks, if we had to.

Soups On! Time to clean the grill. I can almost smell the steaks now ;).

Popcorn! A marvelous voyaging food

We enjoy snacks when we watch a movie, or when we are sitting around just chatting. We want to take the snack activity with us on the boat as we meander around the world. However, what is a good, economical, spatially compact, immune to the environment of the sea, tastes good with a variety of beverages (kiddie and adult) snack? Chips? NO! Candy? Maybe. Popcorn?! YES! And we do enjoy popcorn very much.

Our plan is to buy 10 lbs of corn kernels and place them in a large Tupperware sealed container. When it is time to party hard with some popcorn, it will be a matter of scooping out a few table spoons of this delicious treat and cooking them in a frying pan. That's right, no microwave action on our boat so we will be making popcorn the old fashioned way, in a pan.

Cooking old school popcorn is quite trivial.

1. Get a frying pan with a fitted lid
2. Out some type of oil in it to help keep the kernels from sticking (canola oil works fine)
3. Heat the pan until you can drop a single kernel in and it pops
4. Take a few table spoons of kernels and put them in the pan
5. Put the lid on quickly!!!
6. Shake the pan around every 30 seconds to ensure that none of the kernels are sticking
7. Once you stop hearing pops, take the pan off the flame
8. Dump the popped corn into a bowl
9. Add in seasonings (cinnamon is good, so is garlic, but the old stand by of salt and butter works too!)
10. Enjoy!

The entire process is less than 5 minutes, so you, your family, and any guests who happen to dinghy over can enjoy this treat immediately.

Sailboat Family's Mission - Ice Cream

This weekend, our family decided on our mission-

On behalf of all humankind, we, the sailboat family,

will sample ice cream from all around the world!

Yes, we know this is an arduous task and very few are capable of taking on such a daunting challenge. Sailing around the world looking for the worlds greatest ice cream is a brutal proposition. However, our family is willing to take on this challenge on your behalf. As we make our way around, we will report on the ice cream we find.

How can you help? Glad you asked .... you can buy us some ice cream!

What Families Spend on Food Around The World

As we continue to validate what it will cost us to sail around the world, I found a very interesting series of photos and articles on how much families spend on food per week in different places around the world. The information is pulled from a book titled Hungry Planet: What The World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio.

The weekly food spend runs quite a gamut: $1.23 USD to $500.07 USD. From bags of lentils and rice for a week, to big steak packages and bottles of beer for a week.

The photos in the book are outstanding. You see families with their entire weekly food outlay right in front of them, in their homes, in their place of eating. Some have live chickens, some have defiant teenagers, some have TVs in their dining rooms, some have 3 generations living off the weekly food, and more. None of which we have, yet.

Flipping through the pictures, it is neat to see so many cans and bottles of Coca-Cola in the photos .... a product from right here in Atlanta, Ga.

The amount of fresh vegetables, from family to family, was also neat. It is encouraging to see how many had good, raw foods.

As you might guess, the more first world the nation of the family, the more that packaged food showed up in the photos.

The family food favorites is fun to peruse too. You find Polar Bear, Pig's Knuckles, Mutton Dumplings, Marge Brown's Quandong, Sheep Soup, and other neat stuff.

Here is a summary of the spend data for 1 week of food per family (family size varies starting at 4 people and going up) in USD:

$1.23 Chad, Breidjing Camp $5.03 Bhutan, Shingkhey Village $26.39 Mali, Kouakourou $31.55 Ecuador, Tingo $39.27 India, Ujjain $40.02 Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar $68.53 Egypt, Cairo $75.70 Guatemala, Todos Santos $145.88 Turkey, Istanbul $151.27 Poland, Konstancin-Jeziorna $155.06 China, Beijing $189.09 Mexico, Cuernavaca $221.45 Kuwait, Kuwait City $253.15 Great Britain, Cllingbourne Ducis $260.11 Italy, Sicily $277.12 Greenland, Cap Hope $317.25 Japan, Kondaira City $341.98 USA, North Carolina $345.00 Canada, Iqaluit-Nunavut Territory $376.45 Australia, River View $419.95 France, Montreuil $465.84 Luxembourge, Erpeldange $500.07 Germany, Bargteheide

Chili Mac Recipe

I came across this recipe last week. It's a one pan recipe that is tasty, easy, cheap and boat-able. Everyone in my family found the food delicious. Total cost was $5.80 and we had plenty for leftovers the next day.

Ingredients:

1lbs Ground Beef

1 Green Bell Pepper - Chopped

1 Large Onion - Chopped

4 Garlic Cloves - Chopped

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Pepper

5 Tablespoons Kikomans Soy Sauce

2 cans Tomato Soup (10 3/4 ounce Campbell Soup)

2 cups of Water

1 1/2 cup of Elbow Macaroni

Cheese (Velveeta or shredded cheese)

Directions:

1. Brown beef and drain off the fat.

2. Add bell pepper, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper and Cook for 2 minutes.

3. Add tomato soup, water, and soy sauce.

4. Bring to a boil; Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

5. Add macaroni and a little more water if needed; Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

6. Add cheese, lightly cover (to taste); Cover till cheese has melted; Serve

Military MREs Are Perfect Boat Food

Mmmmm mmmm ..... there is nothing like a MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) after a long day of marching, covered in camo, and carrying a rucksack. Yep, I served in the military (Army) 20 years ago and I ate many MREs.

The MRE food pack is awesome ... they provided over 1,000 calories (enough to keep a soldier going) in a very easy to carry, small package and the food doesn't require refrigeration. Heck, they even came with mini-heaters so you could warm up the food. I ate many MREs while I served in Korea. I enjoyed every single one.

While considering our food options, I've come to the conclusion that there is no reason why we can't take MREs with us. They have a very long shelf life and they taste really good. We could even throw a few into our ditch bag (our "abandon ship" bag). MREs wouldn't be our main staple, but they could supplement nicely.

Researching MREs, I learned that they are not directly for sale to civilians. I could buy them from an Army/Navy store, but I wanted to get them from the manufacturer or supplier. This lead to 3 main brands that make them for the military and sell their equivalents to civilians.

After reading all the reviews of those who've tried both military MREs and Civilian MREs, it looks like we will be going with Sure-Pak 12 MREs from SOPAKCO. The variety of meals is fantastic, and they can be purchased from TheEpicenter.com.

The Sure-Pak 12 is exactly like the military MREs including the utensils, napkins, main meal, plus desert and drink flavors. Here is an example listing of contents in one Sure-Pak MRE:

• Chicken Breast Strips with Salsa
• Crackers (and these aren't grandmas crackers either ... these are hefty!)
• Grape Jelly
• Cherry Blueberry Cobbler
• Oatmeal Cookie
• Sqwincher Beverage - Orange (this is power to add to water)
• Instant Coffee (strong stuff)

On the low end (e.g. without heaters included), you can buy 12 full on make a soldier go 1,000 + calorie good tasting self contained meal box for $65 (at the time of this writing). This comes out to about $6 per MRE (when you include shipping). Given our targets of only spending $10 per day as a family of 4, this is steep, but considering the convenience, change of pace of food, and its self contained nature, this is a fantastic option as a supplement to any boat provisioning strategy.

Sausage Casserole

This is a delicious recipe that my mom gave me. The casserole is great for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack. I make it occasionally, but for whatever reason it taste especially good after a holiday. We like to eat it with corn chips and Tabasco sauce.

I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to make it on the boat. Our propane oven is inefficient and propane is a very important commodity to us.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Jimmy Dean HOT Pork Sausage
• 2 envelopes of Chicken Noodle Soup Mix
• 1/2 cup uncooked Instant Rice
• 4 cups boiling Hot Water
• 1 Green Bell Pepper - chopped
• 1 Red Bell Pepper - chopped
• 1 Medium Onion - chopped
• 1 cup Shredded Cheese (Kraft 4 Cheese)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Brown and Crumble sausage; drain
3. In a sauce pan, on medium heat, combine soup mix, water, and instant rice; cook for 7 minutes. Add sausage, onion, and bell peppers
4. Pour mixture into 2qt covered casserole dish
5. Cover, and bake for 60 minutes. Remove from heat, add cheese, and let rest for at least 10 minutes

Our Turkey Day Feast at 11AM? On a sailboat?

Happy Turkey Day! This holiday falls right below Halloween in our family in terms of favorites. On this day, we start eating our Thanksgiving meal around 11AM. After the first round of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, cranberry, rolls, corn, stuffing, and pumpkin pie we fall asleep... this is around noon. Then we wake up around 1:30pm and do another round. This pattern continues until 7pm. Gluttony at its best. This will be our first year of Thanksgiving on the sailboat. Will we have as much food and will the pattern hold? At this very moment we are finding out. How does one handle Thanksgiving on a sailboat? Maybe some new tradition will spring forward.

Today is indeed a day to give thanks. For us, we give thanks that we were born in the U.S.A. Our country provides enough freedom for us to pursue our interests, our way. There are so many other places in the world where this isn't true. Thank you forefathers.

Super Tasty Chicken

I love this savory fast dinner. Not only does it look and taste terrific, but it takes a total of 45 minutes from start to finish. Total cost of the ingredient is $7.45. Not great, considering that we try to keep to the food budget of $10/day, for the entire family. However, we usually have enough chicken and sauce leftover for a lunch so the cost is spread over 2 meals on different days.

The first time we had it, Bill said that it looked and tasted like something we would get in a elegant restaurant. I agree!

Enjoy!

Chicken Breast with Balsamic Vinegar and Shallot Sauce

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon good olive oil

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (each about 6 ounces)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/3 cup chopped shallots

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon ketchup

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

Vegetables

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon good olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

4 cups of fresh or frozen vegetables

Heat the oven to 200 degrees F. Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter and the oil over high heat in a heavy saucepan or skillet large enough to hold the chicken breasts in one layer. When hot, add the chicken breasts, and sprinkle them with the salt and pepper. Saute, uncovered, for about 3 minutes on each side. Transfer the breasts to an ovenproof plate, reserving the drippings in the pan, and place them in the oven and continue cooking for at least 18 minutes but no more than 30 minutes. (Could be less if you have gas oven)

Add the shallots to the drippings in the pan, and cook for about 1 minute over high heat. Add the vinegar and ketchup and continue for another minute. Add the water, and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and stir until it is incorporated.

Meanwhile, for the vegetables: Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the vegetables, salt, and pepper. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked through.

To serve, place the vegetables on plate and spread the vegetable into a circle (place a spoon in the middle of the plate and make a circular motion, but don't push vegetables off the plate). Place the chicken breast in the center and coat with the sauce, sprinkle with chives and serve.

Corn Chowder Recipe

With the onset of cooler weather, I've started making soups for dinner. Corn Chowder is quickly becoming a favorite. The recipe is super easy and take about 30 minutes from start to finish. The really nice thing is that it cost $3.87 to make and serves 6 adults. In our family we usually have enough leftovers for lunch the next day. I serve it with sweet corn bread. I know it sound like a lot of maze, but it goes really well together.

Enjoy!

• 3 tablespoons good olive oil

• 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped garlic

• 1 cup chopped onion

• 1/2 cup minced scallion

• 1/2 cup Green Hot Salsa or less for a milder soup

• 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes in sauce

• 1 (28-ounce) can white hominy (about 3 cups kernels and juice)

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 2 teaspoons ground cumin

• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

• 4 cups chicken stock, homemade or low-salt canned chicken broth

• About 1/2 teaspoon salt (less if using canned chicken broth)

• 1 1/2 cups corn kernels (from 2 ears of corn or a can of corn)

• 1/2 cup (lightly packed) fresh cilantro, finely chopped

Preparation

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add the garlic, onion, and scallions.

Cook for 3 minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients, except for the corn and cilantro.

Bring to a boil, and cook for 15 minutes.

Stir in the corn and cilantro, return to a boil, and serve.

A whole lot of fun for less than $4 at Old McDonalds

The Golden Arches are magnets for kids. Our daughters, 4 and 1.5 years old, see them and say, "Look Daddy! Old McDonalds!" They see the playground, the clown, other kids, and the vibrant colors. It magically draws them in. Given that we don't have cable or satellite TV, the only marketing draw mechanism is the facility itself.

Do we deny our children the delight of going in and enjoying this part of their childhood? No. We elect to talk with them about why the place seems so alluring, and then head in to have fun!

We usually start off by playing on the equipment ... spending a good 20 minutes enjoying the playground. Next stop, bathrooms to wash up. Then we buy just a few food items.

• At breakfast, we buy 2 or maybe 3 sausage biscuits at $1 a piece and get cups of water all around; we split the biscuits off and put grape jelly on them and enjoy a full meal .... this provides more than enough calories for the morning.
• Past breakfast, we will get 2 or 3 hamburgers, at $0.89 a piece, plus 1 small fry, and get cups of water all around.

We take about 15 minutes to enjoy the food, talk about the fun we are having, and get ready to play some more. We wash up again, and then re-enter the playground for another 20 minutes.

All this fun for an hour, and sustenance, is had for less than $4.... and at McDonalds! So, our kids don't "miss out", and we don't, "Spend out."

Red Bean Ragout Recipe

One of our favorite one-pot-meals is Red Bean Ragout.
This recipe not only taste GREAT, but is really good for you, very versatile, and cooks in less than 30 minutes. What more can you ask for.

2 T - Olive Oil (good quality)
2 C - Tomato(diced) or 1 can of diced tomatoes
1/2 Med - White or Yellow Onion (chopped)
2 to 3 - cloves of Garlic (crushed)
1/2 C - Scallions (chopped)
2 C - Chicken Stock
1 t - Kosher Salt
1 t - Black Pepper
1 can - Red Kidney Beans (drained)
8.8oz - Couscous (Israeli)
Parsley or dry parsley flakes

Heat olive oil, add onion and scallions and saute for a minute or two until the onion starts to turn brown. Add garlic and couscous and brown for 30 seconds. Add tomato, beans, chicken stock, salt, and pepper, bring to a low boil and cover. Cook for 10 minutes (covered). Uncover and add fresh parsley and let cook a little longer until liquid is almost gone.

Total Cost: $3.67 (less if use Rice as substitute for Couscous)
Servings: 4 adult


Tips:
Use a good size frying pan with lid.
If you use dry Parsley flakes, add it when you add the salt and pepper
For heavier meal serve with steamed Asparagus, Broccoli, or grilled Chicken
Other beans that work well: Chickpea, White Northern, and Cannellini
Rice can be substituted for Couscous, just make sure to adjust Chicken Stock (in general, 1 C of Rice to 2 C of liquid)

Beans Beans the Magical Fruit, The More You Eat ..

... the more you save! Yeah, I know, my version of the catchy song isn't as rhymey ... but it is so true!

As we studied how people provision their boats for long journeys, we learned that a lot of folks stock up on beans. Not only do beans last a long time. beans are incredibly healthy for you and they are

C-H-E-A-P!!!

We bought a book titled The Bean Book by Rose Elliot and we have become true beanophiles! We always liked beans, but now we love them. There are so many ways to enjoy them, and the varieties are so varied. Beans have been a staple for our family for about a year now and other than a few comical gaseous moments, there have been no downsides. Get this book, learn how to really enjoy beans, improve your health, and save money. Beans are a beautiful food.

Culinary Skills

Culinary skills are close to the top of the list of skills we need to live self-sufficiently.

Before starting to prepare for our journey, I would describe my culinary skills as basic. I could basically cook most things from a box, can, mix, and frozen foods sections of the grocery store.

In our research regarding provisioning for the boat, we came to realize that frozen foods would be out of the question and that I would need to learn how to cook. I needed to find a teacher. A teacher that could work around my busy schedule of being a full-time wife and mother of two small children.

Enter Jacques Pepin: Chef Pepin has been the most encouraging, empowering, flexible teacher I could ask for and not to mention free!

I became familiar with Chef Pepin while watching season 5 of "Top Chef" on Bravo and I became a fan. Chef Pepin has authored/co-authored over 20 books and has had several cooking shows on public broadcasting. There are also several websites courtesy of KQED public media of Northern California. These websites have episode videos and recipes from Chef Pepin's cooking shows and his books. My favorites are "Fast Food My Way" and "More Fast Food My Way". The videos cover how to make the recipes from start to finish with culinary techniques explained as an added bonus. After watching a couple of the videos, I felt confident enough to try the recipes and to tweak them to my family's preferences.

Here are the links to where you can find out more about Chef Pepin and where you can view his videos and recipes.

http://www.kqed.org/food/jacquespepin/
http://www.kqed.org/w/jpfastfood/home.html
http://www.kqed.org/w/completepepin/
http://www.kqed.org/w/morefastfoodmyway/
http://www.kqed.org/w/theapprentice/noflash.html
http://www.kqed.org/w/jacquespepin/