Wow - time has flown and we are getting towards the business end. Only 5 weeks till we leave and its time to put all that thinking and planning into practice.

We've all heard horror stories about people being stranded in the outback - some ending well and others not.  I do not want to be on the 6pm news with "Couple found stranded days after running out of food"

Weight, space and fridge space is at a premium so its all about making sure we take enough food but not too much food, leftovers are wonderful at home, but on an outback trip could end with salmonella with no doctor for thousands of kms.  And the last thing I want to do is eat the same food every day.  So its all about prep and portions.  

Things we need to take into consideration are
* quarantine rules when crossing borders or going thru food production areas - the fines can be huge plus you don't want to inadvertently destroy our food production
* restock points (and what we can reasonably expect to be able to buy) - outback areas rely on trucks to deliver food and these are often delayed due to weather or road closure.   
* what needs refrigeration - we only have a 40 litre fridge / freezer
* that for some of the trip we are running on someone else's agenda so we may not be able to wait till a shop opens or a truck delivery or do a detour to a town with a shop
* where can we reasonably expect to be able to eat a meal out

Then there's the practical side of things
* how heavy is the packaging - a 400g tin of tomatoes has 60g of tin
* how do we dispose of rubbish - depending on where you go you might have to bring the rubbish out with you, or you might be able to burn it so its much easier to create less rubbish in the first place.
* how hard is it to cook - we are only carrying a limited amount of cooking gear and we don't want to spend hours cooking when we arrive 
* how much mess does it make - water is limited so we want to have as little cleanup as possible
 

At our last restock point we have to have 22 days of food plus 5 extra days in case we get stranded. And it will take us 13 days to get to that restock point. So ideally it would be good to leave home with as close to 40 days as possible.  That's 40 breakfasts, 40 lunches, 40 dinners, 40 before dinner (we call them 5'ies) or desserts + 40 morning/afternoon teas.

When making meals to reheat on the road, I like to make them at least 2 weeks before we leave so that they are frozen solid before we put them in the camp freezer. So the next week will be spent gathering dry ingredients and then the week after will be cooking meals.

Here's some ideas of what we will be eating on the trip
* garlic prawns with home made garlic and herb bread
* butter chicken and naan bread
* savoury mince
* corned beef and vegies
* breakfast sweet potato, pepperoni and beans
* chia seed french toast