Lunch outing, Pressure Cooker practice

1/3 cup dry black beans is 200-230 calories after cooking.    100grams of uncooked rice is 350 calories after cooking.   Add 100-200 calories after adding cooking oil.    Decent dinner.   I think I may tweak the ratio to 1/2cup beans, 1/3 cup rice.

 

Either way, it's way less salt and preservatives than dehydrated backpacking meals, and the beans have 12 grams of fiber.    I try to eat 30-38 grams of fiber per day.

I biked from my house to the West Boylston Rail trails to Maple Spring Pond.    About a mile before the pond, found a cool little lunch spot with a running brook and a bench.    Never noticed it before, and it feels like a little oasis I know about now.    Biked 3.5 hours, 33 miles today.   1900 ft of climbing felt fine, and it was hot.   Fingers crossed I'm totally ready for the bike trip I want to do from my parent's house to Moose River Plains and back.

 

Anyhoo, back to the cooking... 

Pre-soaking the beans cuts down on the cooking time dramatically.   < 10 minutes total cooking time, and more than half of that time is with the burner on simmer.    For a week long bike trip, I think I can get away with my Primus stove's small fuel bottle.   Less weight.   Worst case I can buy some high octane gas somewhere if I run out.   Or if I do bring the large 1 liter fuel bottle, I only need to fill it halfway, but I'd rather not use up that much space in my rack bag.

Today, I also brought my Keith multifunction cooker for cooking the rice.   I figured while the pressure cooker cooled down, I could cook the rice.    Worked great tbh, but i think for bikepacking, I'm not going to bother.    More work, another pot to clean, and takes up space.   And I just dumped the rice in the pressure cooker anyway to eat it.   Not bringing a plate or a bowl.

Instead, I'm going to just add the rice and water (1:1.5 ratio respectively) to the pressure cooker pot when I cook the beans.   I fully expect the rice to pretty much liquify or be super mushy at best, but it's not worth the hassle or fuel time (10-15 minutes in the Keith) to cook perfect rice when touring.  Black beans need 6 minutes at pressure and a 10 minute cool down.   White rice (basmati) only needs 3 minutes in the pressure pot, and a quick pressure release, which is a burn hazard.   

The bigger issue is the Keith requires 100 grams of rice at minimum (like 2/3rds cup) which is more rice than I want to eat.    I'd rather eat more beans and less rice. 

For Breakfast, I'll cook Steel cut oats, which are even faster.   I'll presoak the oats overnight to prevent foaming that spits out the vent.   Foaming is dangerous because if the vent clogs, it can't vent, and you'll blow the safety valve on the lid.   

I've practiced using the pressure cooker at home and oats foam like crazy unless you pre-soak them.  The Hawkins instructions suggested adding oil to the oats to avoid pre-soaking,  but it doesn't work in my experience.   The key is to discard the starchy soaking water and add fresh water to the pressure cooker with the oats.    Pre-soaked Steel Cut Oats only need 3 minutes at pressure and a 10 minute cool down before opening.     After opening,  I add some orgain protein powder to the oatmeal, and more water as needed until the consistency is right.    During the cool down time, I may boil some water for tea and cleaning up.  I'll just have to bring my 1liter titanium mug/pot, which is fine.   The stove's fuel bottle can nest inside the mug when I store things.

In either case (oatmeal vs beans & rice), I'll eat straight from the pressure cooker pot using my long GSR spoon, https://gsioutdoors.com/products/essential-spoon

Weird how when bike touring, my eating/cooking mindset changes.   First and foremost, is it enough calories.   On today's ride, I burned an extra 1300 calories biking 3.5 hours.    After a year of dieting, it's weird to worry about eating enough.    But without enough calories, muscles cramp and it's hard to sleep.  After calories, it's about how much storage space the food takes up.   Will it fit?   After that, how fast and easy is it to cook?    And last but still an important concern, is it healthy?   Enough protein, minerals, vitamins, carbs and fat?   Is there enough fiber to keep the old poop chute happy?       The joys of getting older, sigh....      

So I think I'll plan on oatmeal for breakfast,  buying lunch and snacks out on the road somewhere, and beans and rice for dinner after setting up camp.

My long term goal is to bike cross country, and I feel like finding steel cut oats, dry beans, and uncooked rice in grocery stores along the way will be far easier than finding dehydrated meals.    And my tummy will be far happier if I'm not eating gas station food or fast food every meal.

Click or tap on the photos to make them bigger. 

The benches along the trail are memorial benches for the people that have donated.   Hopefully it wasn't sacrilegious to use one for cooking my lunch

 

 

 

Moose River Plains Bike Tour Planning

 

If I don't take a rest day, my next bike tour will take 6 days, but it should be manageable.   40-50 mile days, < 2600 ft of elevation gain per day.    262 miles.   12,200 ft elevation gain

 

I'll be starting from my folks' place and returning there after doing a loop through Moose River Plains. 

• day 1   Belleville to Lowville Whetstone Gulf NY state park, 41 miles 2200 ft gain
• day 2   Whetstone to 8th lake campground, lunch in Old Forge/Inlet, 53 miles 2600 ft gain
• day 3   8th Lake to Wakely Dam, detour to Indian Lake for lunch at Stewart's,  43 miles, 2400ft gain
• day 4   Wakely to Otter Brook to swim then double back to camp closer to Inlet, OR 
• bike to Limekiln Campground, 30 miles 1700ft.  Bonus... if hungry i could bike to Screamen Eagle into Inlet for dinner.
• day 5   Limekiln/Campsite to Whetstone Gulf, 53 miles 2000 ft
• day 6   Whetstone to belleville.  42 miles 1300 ft.   mostly downhill last day!

I've done plenty of 2-3 hour rides to prep.  Biked 100 miles per week in May.   Only issue I notice is my back gets just a tiny bit sore on the longer rides, but if I focus on straightening my back while pedaling, or if I just stretch a little it goes away.   Not bad for 53!  Way better than my butt getting sore.    

 

Speaking of, and just as a reminder, towards the end of my Erie Canal ride last September, I was standing on the pedals as often as I could the last couple of days.   Every downhill, I stood up while coasting just to give my butt a break.     My butt is comfy on the new seat and better suspension post.   After the Erie Canal ride I did more googling on the seat I had back then and found it had mixed reviews.   One person described it as a cheese grater for their a$$.    I think light riders loved it, but heavier riders like me, we bottomed out the foam and the grippy 3d texture on the saddle was the cheese grater.   Anyway, fingers crossed, my butt, legs and everything else is good now.     Loving the SQ Lab infinergy saddles.   They flex a little and the foam is more dense, perfect for big guys.

 

So I'm think I'm ready for some long day rides.      Not getting any younger, and I try not to think in terms like, how many Summers left where you can do big trips like this?    Once I am too old, I can just switch up and buy a nice camper van and do day trips from a cushy van with all the amenities.      Good consolation prize.   Worse worse case, I can get an ebike at some point too.

The trip from my folks will be far easier than the VTXL route I want to do in Vermont later this year.  Just like in Vermont, on this Moose River Plains trip, there will be food options in Lowville, Old Forge, Inlet, or Indian Lake.   And I've routed my trip to avoid the busy roads as much as possible.    Click on the photos to make them bigger.

 

I'll update this blog later with my packing list.  Just for giggles.    I post some links about the Vermont trips I'm considering below the map photos.

   

 

 

The VTXL has 5,000ft of climbing every 50 miles.   https://bikepacking.com/routes/vtxl/  It's a 320mile trip with 30,000ft of climbing.    There are guys that do it all in one go.   Like a marathon 24-36 hour ride.    Nuts!   Even in my prime I doubt I could have done that.

 

The Vermont Gravel Growler, is a little easier.   250 miles, 21000ft of climbing  https://bikepacking.com/routes/green-mountain-gravel-growler/

 

I also need to plan on doing some weekend gatherings with other nutty bikepacking people.     Like the Farm Ride in Amherst MA in August or the Nutmeg in Connecticut in October.

Rogue Panda Blue Ridge Handlebar Harness

 The weather's been gorgeous, I need to get bike touring.

 I've had the itch to dump cash on something bike related.    Couldn't justify another bike, or another set of wheels for my current Salsa Fargo touring bike.  

 Even though I've lost a ton of weight, I'm still "Clydesdale" size for bike riders.    For wheels/bikes you often have to add your weight, the bike's weight, and the weight of stuff you're going to carry.    So the "heavy" rims I have are actually perfect for my 222lbs, 30lb bike, and 20-30lbs of gear when touring.

And at 222 lbs, I'm not sure there's a point in getting a fancy carbon fiber bike for faster rides.    The roads are awful near me.   Especially the road I ride on.   I'd just break the bike frame or wheels.    The potholes are horrifically bad.   I often stand on the pedals when I bomb down the hill and do my best to avoid the potholes, but I'm not always successful.     It's actually worse for the bike hitting a pothole at road speeds than if I was on a gravel road.

What I may do is just before Winter, buy a steel bike frame, like a Surly Straggler and build it out myself.  So many Youtube videos show how to install the shifters, pedals, brakes and rear derailleur.   I have a spare set of rims that would be great for it.    The Fargo is probably overkill for road touring.   The Straggler would be better for road. 

So...I spent a stupid amount of money for a better front harness instead (like $235 with shipping).   https://roguepanda.com/products/blue-ridge-handlebar-harness-v2

It only weighs half a pound because it's a mix of lightweight aluminum for the frame and it holds carbon fiber tubes to strap stuff too.   I also got their accessories mount, so I've actually made my current bike more comfortable because I've freed up handlebar space.    For faster riding I have my hands on the hoods/shifter/brake levers.    But for slow climbs I have my hands like you see in the photo below

 And I love the accessory bar brings the phone and GPS computer up closer.   Easier to see.

I'll be leaving the new front rack on the handlebars all the time, probably with the fanny pack I made strapped in place.  I like having the fanny pack when I go into stores; it makes it easy to carry my phone and bike computer in with me.

 

 

Getting Back on Track

Back to 222 something after a couple weeks!

Recently changed to having a hot bowl of oatmeal, instead of my typical breakfast smoothie. The bowl of oatmeal wasn't as filling either.     Maybe it's just the morning smoothie is easier to digest so my body gets the hit of protein more quickly in the morning, calming the appetite down

Anyhoo, my weight jumped up from 222 something to a consistent 224lbs for well over a week after I made the switch to Oatmeal bowls for breakfast.   Stayed stuck around 224 for almost 2 weeks even though I've been biking a lot.   Makes sense though after calculating the calories of my new breakfast.

A heaping cup of peanut butter flavored Oatmeal is about 400 calories, (see recipe), but I also ended up eating more for breakfast in general

• a peeled apple (100 calories)
• a hefty slice of 50% whole wheat sourdough bread with PB (200-250 calories)
• 9-12 dark chocolate covered almonds, 160 calories
• a 1/2 cup of roasted peanuts in the shell, 160 calories

total  = 970 calories 

I switched back to my Smoothie breakfast option, (~250 calories... 1 cup soy milk, 1 Scoop Orgain protein powder, 1 scoop pbfit powder, 1 cup of water)

• 1/2 cup COLD peanut butter oatmeal   OR  a thin slice of 50% ww bread with PB.  150-200 calories
• 1 apple or 1 peach  80-100 calories
• 3 dark choc almonds   50 calories

total = 500-550 calories 

I think the smoothie may help me feel "full" enough more quickly because of the bigger volume?   When losing weight you always feel slightly hungry, but there's tolerable hunger and then there's low blood sugar HUNGRY!!!!.       The smoothie keeps me in the tolerable hungry zone, where the bigger oatmeal breakfast pushed me completely out of weight loss mode, and it's hard to shift back and forth.

So I'm switching back to my Smoothie breakfasts as I do my final weight loss push to get under 220lbs. 

To lose 1 pound per week, I need a 500 calorie deficit per day, so it's easy to see why I got stuck at 224 after switching to daily oatmeal bowl breakfasts.   I added 500 calories of food per day, unintentionally.

 BUT!!! this experiment was worth it because I've found 2 new dessert ideas that should work long term with my new healthy lifestyle

Eating a cold half cup portion of the aforementioned peanut butter flavored Oatmeal satisfies my ice cream cravings and it's only 150-200 calories, (see recipe).   Oats are great for cholesterol too.    As the weather warms up, a salad for dinner with some cold oatmeal for dessert doesn't sound that bad to me.

I also found this  Almond Flour Based Protein Bars recipe     Completely unrelated to the smoothie vs oatmeal breakfast issue, I wanted to find a healthy alternative to Clif Bars when I'm out doing long bike rides.   I had a bag of almond flour in the pantry I needed to figure out how to use.   It's also corrected my cravings to overindulge in unsalted roasted peanuts.    Just a 1/2 cup portion of peanuts IN THE SHELL!!! is 160 calories.   Yowza!     And apologies for TMI, I'm already eating a lot of fiber, so the extra fiber from the peanuts was making #2's painful.   Who knew?    

The first batch of almond flour protein bars I made using Orgain Peanut Butter Protein Powder, https://a.co/d/03iQw5A7   and BJ's Wellsley brand natural peanut butter, and it frikkin rocked!   

Totally reminded me of these peanut butter squares I made a lot during Covid shutdown, this recipe,  which (oopsie) totals nearly 5000 calories per batch vs the 1600 calorie total of the almond flour recipe.     No wonder I ballooned to over 300 lbs during Covid.    Btw, it's easy to copy and paste recipes into Google's Search, and its AI prompt will give you a calorie total if you just first type, What is the calorie total of the following recipe.    Just FYI.

Back to the Almond Flour recipe, the 2nd batch I made with Orgain Chocolate Fudge Protein Powder, and BJ's almond butter.    Still good, but way less addictive, a good thing.      I cut them into small 50 calorie, 1 inch square sizes.    I also only use 1/3 cup of maple syrup because the Orgain Protein Powders have natural sweeteners like Stevia. 

The almond squares help me not overeat after getting home from a long bike ride.   They should pack well on longer rides too, but we haven't had a super hot day yet.   They could get messy when it's over 80F/27C.   Clif bars get boring after awhile, and I don't want to get in the habit of eating junk food when I'm out bike riding.    Part of my minor weight uptick was overindulging in ice cream or a pizza slice when I was out on a longer 2-3 hour ride.    I buy snacks more AFTER I get down into the lower 210's, but I need to lose the last 10lbs first.    No regrets, I need to take a short break and have some fun, but back to the final push.

Once I'm down to the lower 210's I can enjoy the extra 3300 calories per week then.   Subtracting about 200 calories because my Basal Metabolic rate will be less per day.    Food-wise,  I'm still very happy with the healthier stuff I make and eat now, but the occasional pizza slice or ice cream cone will be fun.     Almost there!

 

Peanut Butter Protein Oatmeal for Dessert

 

Peanut Butter Oatmeal 

ratio of steel cut oats to water is 1:3 

i usually cook  1-1/3 cups of steel oats to 4 cups water 

coat cooking pot in a thin schmear of neutral cooking oil first.  < 1 tablespoon 

• In a rice cooker, set to porridge setting.    
• In an instant pot,  4 minutes high pressure.    Wait at least 10 minutes after the 4min is done before releasing the pressure.

 

PER cup of water used....     

1 scoop of Orgain Plant Based Peanut Butter Protein Powder, https://a.co/d/03iQw5A7

1 scoop of  PB Fit Powder, https://a.co/d/0hF4yNRR 

1/2 tablespoon of natural Peanut Butter 

~ 1/4 cup of plain milk.     

NOTE:    I add just the powders and peanut butter with the cooked oats first and mix.   The oatmeal will be super dry and lumpy.    Then I slowly add milk to the mix as I stir to get the consistency I like.     Don't overshoot. 

(I prefer Soy milk for it's creaminess and long shelf life, but any milk works) 

so, if you cook 1 and 1/3 cups of steel cut oats in 4 cups water (~650 calories),   add the following

• cooking oil, 80 calories 
• 4 scoops of Orgain Peanut Protein powder (4x80 = 320 calories)
• 4 scoops PB fit powder (4x60 = 240calories)
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter  (180 calories)
• ~1 cup Soy Milk  (110 calories) 

Totals 1580 calories, and when I had it for breakfast instead of a smoothie, I'd eat about a quarter of it,   ~400 calories.    When I have it for dessert or a snack, I eat a small, half-cup 150-200 calorie serving.

It's very satisfying, reminds me of rice pudding.    But more fiber and doesn't spike your blood sugar.

Truck Camper Kitchen Drawer updates

 

Before I begin.  My weight backslid a couple pounds.    Currently at 223.5 after seeing a low of 221.1 lbs.   Sigh... will need to get busy to reach my goal of <220 before June 10th, which will end my 1 year weight loss mania that began at 291.6 lbs.    Heck <221.6 will be cool too.   70lbs lost.     Lately, I've just been eating too much of my sourdough bread,  unsalted roasted peanuts, and getting food or a beer when out biking for more than a couple hours.   

No regrets, I needed to have some fun before the final push.      The last 10lbs I want to lose should come off once Summer warms up and I can start doing week long bike touring trips.    Weighing lower 210's and staying under 220lbs over the Winter is my long term goal from here on out.  

Anyhoo, the truck camper's kitchen drawer bag project is done!   

First a couple photos of what the drawer looked like before I made the bags.     It was semi-organized dumpster diving AND I didn't have room for the 3qt instant pot in the drawer that you see in the After photos.   So this project fixed a bunch of problems.     And I designed the bags so I don't have to fully remove them if I'm just stopping somewhere to make a quick lunch.    Some bags use mesh fabric for air drying.   The hooks I added to the bumper swing arms work great for hanging the bags when I'm doing some proper cooking at the tailgate.

 I'll make a youtube video next time I'm out camping.     I will say, I'm a big fan of adding aluminum structure to sewn bags.    Lightweight and functional.    If I build my own van, I think i'll do cabinets that way.   3/4" thick wood is way too heavy and wastes space

 

 

After bags and rack hooks

 

  

Weight and Truck Camper Drawer progress

Weight loss continues!    Hoping to see <220 before June 11th (when I started dieting at 291.6lbs).   Still even if I say I'm only 6'1 now, i'm only overweight with a BMI of 29.2 (>29.9 is obese).   To be fair, I still feel like I've got a belly, but it's weird fitting into 36" waist jeans.    At my heaviest, I was wearing 44's

Honestly, I wasn't expecting such a low weigh-in today (was 222.9 yesterday), but I think because I took it a little easy the last couple of days, my body let go of the water it retains when I'm training harder.  AND, I've been eating sourdough bread.   Yay!    

Enough of the weight loss crud!    Lets talk truck stuff.   

This week, I rotated my truck tires (including the 5th wheel spare).    Because I added a cast iron rear diff cover, I can jack up the rear axle via the rear diff and drop the rear axle down onto jack stands easily.    Then, I jack up via the frame behind each front tire separately as I move tires around.    I have a nice wide driveway, a cordless heavy duty 1/2" Dewalt impact wrench gun, and a good floorjack.    I bet it takes me half the time to rotate tires myself versus driving to the tire shop and sitting in the waiting room, and I know the tires were rotated correctly.    The nice thing with my Ford Ranger, after you drive a couple miles the computer automatically updates the tire locations so when I'm on the tire pressure screen, the tire pressures are accurate, no need to update the truck's computer manually.    For weight reasons, I run my rear tires at 39-40psi, and the fronts at 35-36psi, so I use the onboard air compressor on the truck to fix that after rotating too.   Something the shops won't do.

 

I also changed the oil, but I didn't bother changing the oil filter for the first time.    I'm changing the oil every 5,000 miles (earlier than needed) and I'm using Mobil 1 oil filters rated for 20,000 miles.   On the Ranger, you have to remove the driver side tire and remove some of the wheel well flap to get to the sideways mounted oil filter.     When you remove the filter, it always leaks some oil.  There's even a drip tray for that, but I can't use it properly anymore after adding a skid plate to protect my transmission transfer case.   That skid plate also has some wing extensions so the crackheads can't steal my catalytic convertor with a sawzall.   So because I can't use the drip tray,  I have to use paper towels to catch the drips, and it's even more of a PITA.    I figure if the filter is good for 20,000 miles, I can safely leave it on for 2-3 oil changes (up to 15,000 miles).  

In the truck bed camper area, I also upgraded some usb charging outlets to new ones that include usb c .   Usb C charges faster than the old USA A outlets, and the usb C plugs go in either way.   These still have a USB A slot for my older gadgets.    https://a.co/d/00buJZGS     Easy change out.

 

First two bags for my kitchen drawer are complete.   See left image below.   I already had a bag for my induction burner, but as you can see the drawer will look way cleaner with everything in bags

Inside the bags I'm using 1/16" thick aluminum angle or flat bar that I rivet together to make framing as needed.   I use an angle grinder to round off any sharp edges.     The aluminum provides structure to the bags and it lets me re-add the plastic dividers.    I think for subsequent bags I'm going to switch to 1/20" thick aluminum to save weight, 1/16" is overkill.   I did buy a metal cutting blade to cut the aluminum and it works great.    Leaves a clean edge that requires almost no sanding/filing. https://a.co/d/0hsRd9Fy

First bag is what I'll call my Eat bag.   Likely to get the most use.    It holds everything I need to reheat or eat my food, but not stuff I need for proper meal prepping/cooking.     

 

In theory, I could have made my Eat bag into two separate bags, but I'm planning ahead for when I'm hanging bags on the rear bumper swing arm.    Attaching the lower bag holding the plates, bowls, cups means it'll take up less room horizontally when I hang stuff on the rear bump arms.   Should have photos of that by next Sunday.   I'm hoping I can hang my eat, cooking, and spices bags side by side on the tire arm.

Inside my Eat bag, I did re-use the pvc railings and post sleeves to help keep the cutlery organized and separated.  Lots of riveting to the aluminum framing I adding to the inside of the bag.  I'm probably going to add some of the smaller pvc railing pieces in the lower tray of the upper bag too.   For longer knives and scissors and stuff.     For the upper row, I back-cut them at a 60 degree angle, so I'm not storing forks, spoons knives straight up and down.   I didn't want them blocked by the top of the bag

the plate, bowl, cup/mug lower bag is open at the top when hanging open, but it inverts and threatens to dump everything out when I fold up the bag to put it away in the drawer.   So I added extra straps to keep stuff from spilling out, but I'm not 100% sure they're needed, I can cut them off in the future if I end up not needing them.    I also sewed the black mesh front panel on so I can put them in wet after washing.   I figure they can air dry in the bag.  I may also add a couple half inch grommets in the bottom to let excess water drain.   In retrospect I should have probably made then entire lower part of the bag out of mesh,  maybe I'll do that in the future.      

Next is the bag for my backpacking stove stuff.   I bring it as a backup stove in case my electrical system dies.

 

This bag is 15 inches wide, 10 inches high and only about 5 inches deep/thick.    It was a game of tetris to make it all fit, but I saved a lot of truck camper drawer space with this bag by vertically storing stuff.   in the drawer it was way more spread out.   Probably a subconscious thing because of the fuel