Provisioning ...

We planned to be at Carnarvon for six nights.  The closest towns were either Rolleston (103km) or Injune (153km). (Both had small grocery shops).  

There was a convenience kiosk at our caravan park but we didn't want to depend on it for meal provisions, so did a large shop at home on Saturday (the day before departure).  What did we buy?  I hadn't prepared a proper meal plan but jotted down the days we would be away and where we would be each night (to judge energy levels for cheffing).  

Our initial thought was to take one Engel only, running as a fridge - so I picked three of the vacuumed packed Coles One Pot meals. There was also butterflied pork shoulder, a pack of lamb steaks and a pack of marinated pork steaks. All pre-packed options had long expiry dates.

We actually took both Engels, so the meat packs were frozen.  We also froze some bacon, pulled pork and chicken (for wraps/sandwiches), as well as a loaf of bread.  Nick froze some bottles of water, to help the effectiveness of the freezer.  It would have made sense to freeze some milk and I'm sure we'll do that another time, now we've been reminded of how horrid UHT skim milk tastes!

Once the meat portions were in the trolley, the other main meal ingredients were fairly easy to select.  We also took packet pasta cabonara, plain pasta and rice.  There were wraps, peanut butter and vegemite, juice boxes and small fruit packs along with various snacks to have when walking.  There was a carton of UHT custard and two small cartons of UHT cream. (Cheese and antipasto were chosen for a celebratory platter at the end of all our walking).  

Flour, six eggs and a few other basics were packed from home, including frozen corn.  We picked up extra groceries at Roma - bottled water, a pre-mix salad pack, a few vegies, some mushrooms and a small bottle of red wine (for the beef bourginon).  I think there was a packet of chips and another block of chocolate.  

I made creamy bacon and mushroom pasta for our first night.  There was some leftover, which was used as a side dish the second night - with lamb steaks and salad.  We had beef bourguignon the third night, when the mushrooms were good.  Beef madras may have been after that.  I know we had Mexican beef at the end of our 24km/12-hour hike cos Nick put that one together!  I BBQ-ed the marinated pork on our second-last night and we had a cheese platter finale to round off our Carnavon week.  

There was another round of creamy bacon pasta at Mitchell (made with UHT cream), though sundried tomatoes were substituted for mushrooms.  We had the pork steak on our first Chinchilla night.  The second night was BBQed chops purchased from the local butcher, served with potatoes done over the coals and some simple coleslaw.

The one pot meals had good flavour and only needed an onion, a tin of tomatoes and one or two other extras.  We liked them but thought we could choose better quality meat in a DIY version.