HGPT

R Duck show live improvised electronic music

Happy Guy Production Team: Sensible Meal Planning

Your source for economical healthy food on the go and practical off grid living techniques.

Happy Guy home

If you have ideas or recipes that would appear to expand on what is already here, please send them to: R Duck c/o FRSC po box 7507 Santa Cruz, CA, 95061 or email             recipes first meal second meal third meal more coming kombucha

recipe PDF files:

UB bar: a food bar recipe requiring some preparation and cleanup - bowls, knife, spoon, fork, sticky stuff - takes about an hour to prepare 20-30 bars that will require some refrigeration for storage, but can travel for several days safely. Use fork instead of food processor/blender (gives a more chunky consistency too!), and soften almond butter mixture in sun.

TIP: To save on cleanup - use an old water bottle, cut off the top and use the bottom as a bowl that can be thrown away when finished.

Lebanese Date: more compact variation of UB bar making it all the more a sensible snack. If you don't mind washing your hand before and after (or don't care about washing you hands before and after) this recipe does not require any utensils, bowls or nothing. Just three simple ingredients for a sensible on the road traveling snack! Should travel for many days without cooling.
Waiting for southern correspondent use report. -- report in -- "Tasty and nourishing, leisurely afternoon snack"

Feta olive stuffed sandwich: a simple sandwich with a complex savory finish and a whole wheat nose. A quick sandwich on the go with all portion specific ingredients available fresh at the local rich mans deli (this means no leftovers). Sit outside, prepare and eat at a local strip mall coffee shop with a cup of mint tea made from the hot water the deli will give you for free. An excellent treat- balance with a chocolate mint brownie and let the conversation flow.

coming soon: Tibetan peasant bread sandwich

First meal:

With roots going way back in HG studio lore, cereal still comes out on top. In the cool northern California climate, we find soy milk to last about 4-5 days without any cooling. More than adequate time if you have cereal each morning. However, finding soy milk only lasts so long without a refrigerator in the hot So Cal environment, rizorkestra instinctually combines a favorite healthy beverage (Emergen-C and water, a.k.a. ‘fizzy’) with a good healthy plain granola and comes out with an organic breakfast that can be eaten out of the bottom of the very water bottle you just emptied to make the fizzy, with utensils made from the top half of the bottle (which when cut properly still allows use of the top of the bottle as a cup)(save the cap).
As an alternative, you can mix the fizzy right in the bottle if you don't have a Starbucks tea cup left from the night before handy. All of the ingredients for this sensible meal are non-perishable. Excellent for traveling! Also, having a box of fizzies can make for an excellent healthy beverage to accompany cheaper, restaurant fare when mixed with the free water that is always available.

TIP: When you buy a tea from the mermaid, they double cup it. Before finishing your tea and leaving, have your barista refill the cup (for free) save the outer cup for the next mornings fizzy and enjoy a cool cup of tea later in the day.

Second meal/snack:

Tea and toast, an old favorite, realized the real need for a snack of some sort at this middle time of day. Since the closure of the favorite local toast store and needing to fill the gap while on the road, the following has been proposed and continues to be tested:

Drink for several hours in the sun. A seat near a shade umbrella may be useful here in providing a certain amount of comfort, on the face in particular. Note to look to where to shadow is, not the umbrella, a small but critical point that can be missed. This may locate you in any number of fascinating locations that would otherwise be unused. Great fun and provides entertainment for the passerby.
We have found sunglasses to be invaluable so as to allow a certain amount of leisurely resting to take place for a prolonged period of time in what is other wise a busy public space. A real part of the performance here is to maintain a half-full cup of warm tea on your lap, open and exposed to the suns rays, without tipping.
Consider snacking on one or two of the following:

Smoothy type fruit drinks have also been proposed in the warmer months. Further experimentation is required as we explore various red and green powders, concentrates and liquid combinations (perhaps
kombucha- we are just starting our research here with our first home brewed batch started August 10, 2006 with hopes it will brew well on the road and without cooling/heating in various climates (updates here).
In house we make a potent mix of frozen fruit, red powder, green powder, sea weed, banana, grape-cherry-blueberry and acai berry concentrates with a kombucha chaser in a blender. About 8-16 oz drink
best consumed sitting on a weather worn sofa in the front yard, on a sunny day, in the shade of a plum tree. Proper mixture and proportion of ingredients allow this to transition quite smoothly into a powerfully relaxing nap.

Another pleasant drink experience is to purchase a small tea from the mermaid with one tea bag and ask for a large cup of ice. Let the tea sit while you adjust your seating, snack and/or play a game of Go. Remove the tea bag from the brewing water and place it flat on top of the ice in the other cup. Poor the slightly cooled down tea water over the tea bag and into the ice for a fresh cup of iced tea and a pleasant afternoon.

A cost conscious coffee drinker may consider a tried and true soy latte experience for pennies on the dollar. From a local coffee shop obtain 1-3 shots espresso, pour an organic soy beverage (chocolate is a favorite) into your large mug... try with a free cup of ice!

Third Meal:

This meal presents a certain challenge when taken out as most of the preferred items are perishable or require preparations beyond the call of duty.

Handy shopping tips include a regional store, Trader Joe's, with the infuriating habit of not consistently having organic garden salads, discontinuing items and plain denial that an item was ever sold by the company. It's busy atmosphere and long lines don't make it ideal for a simple snack, but its prices, cheery employees and healthy food samples make for frequent visits when traveling up and down the california coast and elsewhere. Also free coffee if that is your thing.

Try your local health food stores. Not your typical vitamin enriched pill store, but the ones that carry local foods. These will often have a deli/cafe where you can find organic rice and beans- cooking included. Often these are considered sides, so you may want to ask if they are not listed on the chalk board. It is here that you may find your best bet for wheat grass juice, conversation and an interesting variety of people with something good on their minds.

*new* Dessert:

You can prepare a Duck Bill quite easily using a nice dark chocolate bar with coco nibs mixed in and a green food bar pressed to shape with your fingers on top. Open face style. First created at the R Duck show on a warm summers nite by the sensible meal planning crew August 25, 2006 in a fit of delighted laughter. (see archives) Giggles may last for 2-3 minutes. Prepare yourself with proper breathing exercises before consuming.

Details Coming:

Proposed research:
Cook beans and rice on the road, use engine heat or ‘other’ heat and insulating methods to create a slow cooker.
Test 12v toaster

Tea Bag:
12v water heater- tests have failed. Very poor so far.
Homemade alcohol or from fondue set stove- clumsy, cheap. Effective for boiling a couple cups of water pretty quick.
Camp stove (propane, butane)
Electric coffee pot- cheap from thrift store and garage sales. My stainless steel percolator has been very effective in-doors for green teas. Drinkable temperature and good tasting tea comfortably. Works OK with Pu_erh tea and herbal teas.
Tea (loose or bags)
Tea ball (with loose leaf tea)
Good travel mug. The largest metal cup travel mug I have found is from Liquid Solutions called “Hector” at 22oz.
Thermos - has been working OK with boiled water. Currently using a Stanley double wall metal thermos from a local thrift-outlet store (if you can imagine such a thing). The metal thermos is working well because it does not need to be preheated first. A real pain when just boiled water is precious.
Kettle/pot

alcohol stove recipes - soup, eggs...

dumpster aged wines

recipes:

Sea Veggie Pizza
by John Kohler

Brown rice in curry sauce
By Vanessa Johnson

Peanut goulash Elvin's Puddle of Psychedelic Drool
by Edubalicious Calzonicus

What's new kombucha?

August 21, 2006- Tasted batch with mellow quality. Poured out into large plastic cup a small quantity. Still tastes pretty sweet, good summer time youngster brew. Nice in the warmth of the sun too. I will however let it age some more.
My lovely neighbor recommends a wider container than the one gallon jar I am using and loaned me a very wide fish bowl for my next batch. The reasoning is, unlike brewing wine and beer, there is 'one' organism living intact at the top of the bottle so the wider the bottle, the larger the mushroom and the faster it can brew and process sugars.
Tricia, my kombucha friend, recommends adding ginger and stronger oils after fermentation. Kombucha likes a fragrance free environment. However herbs would possibly be added with the tea in the beginning of the process.

*new* September 20- Harvested first batch. Tastes great. Very slow brewing may have caused some off flavors.

*new* September 28- Started new two gallon batch in large mouth fish tank. It looks like a fish bowl but is shorter and not so bowl shaped. Split the mushroom into two and am brewing a smaller batch in the old jar too. The mushroom is 1/3 the diameter of the new fish tank. Will it get bigger before other bacteria can get a hold on things?
Looking for new bottles for shipping too. The convenient and inexpensive Ball jar lids have to much exposed metal which gives the delicate Kombucha a somewhat metallic taste.

email