As someone whose blood runs a bit too sweet, we tend to go for more protein and less carbos. Well, beer is the carb provider usually.

 

Fresh fish on the grill (Mahi, Ono, wahoo, red snapper, tuna, swordfish, grouper, bass - take your pick) with natural homemade salsas like Mango black bean roasted corn
Grilled pineapples and grilled veggies
Lots of mangos
Grilled chicken salad with a roasted red pepper pastachio aoli instead of mayo
Quinoa and date/ apricot salad
Lots of Watermelon
Good red wine- Pinot noir especially
Lox , bagels good tomatoes and capers for breakfast Sunday AM
Kona Coffee is a requirement made in a press only

 

Simple tastes. While under way, sandwiches, pretzels, chips, banans and oranges. Things you can eat with your hands easily without even need for a plate or utensils.

While tied up: Anything grilled, from steaks and burgers down to bratwurst. Bratwurst is a particular favorite of myself and my sailing friends because of the ease of preparation and eating with our hands, and we just plain like it.

I don't have a good way to make coffee aboard my boat which makes me a sad skipper.

 

I don't have a good way to make coffee aboard my boat which makes me a sad skipper.

If you can boil water, get a French press for coffee. I got quart-sized one at a Tuesday Morning for like five bucks. I carry cans of evaporated milk for creamer.

 

Drop a brick of Philly cream cheese in a bowl.

Pour a whole jar of salsa on top. We like Pace medium, but peach-mango has been a recent favorite.

Put it on the cockpit table with a sleeve of club crackers and some plastic knives, then stand back while everybody dives in.

My buddy calls it boat crack. Dead simple and deceptively tasty.

 

What I like to eat when I'm not on the boat.

Had a guest on board jut yesterday and we were having sandwiches in the cockpit while sailing. She asked: "Got any paper plates?"

Huh? We eat off real china and glasses, not paper or plastic and when sailing who needs a plate of any kind flopping around in the cockpit?

 

Bangers and Mashed! That's a meal...kevin

 

For breakfast, it's usually sausage, egg beaters with a bit of salsa added and topped with yellow american cheese, an english muffin, preferably corn muffin flavor. Or French toast, or beer pancakes - yeah, beer pancakes. Light, fluffy, and real tasty. Maple syrup, margarine (I'm allergic to butter.
Lunch, can be a sandwich, grilled hotdog with fresh, sweet onions, Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Mustard, relish, or maybe just a sandwich or cold cut sub.

Supper, well, I'm getting a bit lazy, and sometimes it's just a TV dinner, some of which are pretty good, and healthy as well. Some nights, I'll fire up the grill, plop a lean, fillet mignon on the grill, saute some sweet onions and mushrooms, grill some veggies, or do a twice baked potato with roasted garlic, cream cheese and chives mixed in. Wash it down with a green coconut Margaretta.

I enjoy the taste of Johnsonville bratwurst and Johnsonville grillers (bacon and cheddar flavor0, sprinkled with a bit of Montreal steak seasoning, topped with a slice of sweet onion and some mayo - OH YEAH! Wash that down with an ice cold beer.

Last night, I fired up the gas grill at home and cooked some Kielbasa,red and orange peppers and onions, some french bread in the oven flavored with margarine and garlic powder and Italian seasoning - Came out real good. I do this one on the boat as well. I baste the veggies with Yoshida Gourmet Sauce, which is also great on the steaks.

Some days, when I'm in the lower reaches of Chesapeake Bay, I'll catch some tautog or flounder near the concrete ships at Kiptopeke, skin and fillet them, then fire up the gas grill at low heat, cover the fillets with real mayo, then sprinkle on some Old Bay Seafood Seasoning and grill until the mayo begins to brown and bubble.

Other nights may be quite productive for chicken necking up a couple dozen crabs, which are quickly steamed with Old Bay and a bit of Beer in the pot. The left overs are made into crab cake and placed in zip lock bags and stored in the freezer until I decide to get lazy again and fry them up for supper.

I recently purchased one of those copper frying pans that you see advertised on TV - so far, after two weeks, it really works great using metal utensils. I got one for the house, another for the boat. I also purchased a Cookina sheet, that will go to the boat to be used on the grill. I've used it at home on the grill and it also works great.

Good luck,

Gary

 

Halcyon's List is odd, to say the least. Take "Sausage and Mash". They really meant Bangers and Mash... and Fried Onions and Gravy and Mushy Peas. Classic after-race Pub Grub. Not really a seagoing dish.

"Shepherd's Pie". What they probably mean is "Cottage Pie", made with ground or diced Beef. "Shepherd's Pie" is made with ground or diced Shepher.... Sheep. Nominally Lamb, but Mutton or even Goat works. Or canned Ham, Salt Pork, Corned Beef or canned Chicken or whatever.
The Recipe is more of a Principle than a list of ingredients. And the Principle is this: Root Vegetables and no refrigeration.
Root Vegetables needn't be refrigerated, except maybe in the Tropics. Such things as Potatoes, Yams, Carrots, Onions, Turnips, Parsnips, Celeriac, and the Radishes can be stored in a cool, dark, dry place for a long time; certainly weeks, along with Butter, Real Cheese, and waxed eggs. In the era before refrigeration, all sorts of foods were stored in a Larder or a Root Cellar, at home or at sea.
Deep, _dry_ Bilges are good.

Sea Pie
1 Lb. lean Meat, ground or diced
1 Lb. mixed Root vegetables, diced
1 small Onion
2 Lbs. Potatoes, mashed
~1/2 cup Meat Stock, depending on Meat
Oil, spices, tinned milk, butter, to taste.

Peel, Boil, and then Mash the Potatoes with maybe some salt, butter and enough milk. (Tinned Condensed works very well.) This is one dish where lumpiness doesn't matter much. Set to one side, if using only one Burner.
In a _heavy_ Skillet or Dutch Oven on your single Burner, heat a couple of Tablespoons of oil or butter until smoking slightly. Dice a small Onion, add, cover and brown for a couple of minutes, occasionally stirring.
Dice the Carrots, Parsnips and whatever, add to the Onions, cover and cook for another couple of minutes, occasionally stirring.
Add 1 Tin of diced or ground Corned Beef, (Just for example...), and stir around for another couple of minutes, and then add some Beef Stock mixed with a bit of the Mash for thickening, maybe a splash of Bottom Shelf Burgundy, and stir sufficiently, and cover for another couple of minutes. (Fresh Meats require more initial cooking time.)
About Spices: Corned Meats really don't need added Salt, but some fresh-ground Pepper is nice, and a smidgeon of Leaf Spices, like Bay added with the Root vegetables can be interesting. For variation, try some Chile or Curry Powder.
Once the Stock begins to simmer, top with the Mash, cover for a final time, and set to one side to finish cooking on its own, from the residual heat. ~15 minutes.
Note that most of the time, the cooking is done covered, which is important in choppy waters.

Some think that Presentation is everything, and they Present such "Pies" with scores cut in the Mash, and then sprinkled with Cheese and browned under a Broiler. It really doesn't matter much, and I never got that sprinkled Cheese thing anyway.
Serves 4-6 hungry Adults. Scoop some Pie onto a plate, and pour some of the Gravy over the Mash.

This is a good chance to have practiced your Skillet or Dutch Oven quick breads or biscuits just beforehand, so that some can be served still warm with the Pie. Here is a Trick- The metal Cover for the Skillet or Dutch Oven can be kept hot on a separate Burner when not in immediate use, so that heating occurs down as well as up.

¬Erindipity

 

Chicken With Dumplings/Chicken Maryland
These are basically the same dishes; Chicken Maryland is finished off in an Oven.
You will need Chicken. Or Turkey. Possibly Duck.

1-1/2 Lb. canned, frozen, fresh, or stolen Chicken.
1 Lb. canned, frozen, or fresh Peas. Dried Peas don't really work for me.
1/2 Lb. Diced Carrots. Maybe.
1 Medium Onion
1 to 1-1/2 Cups Chicken Stock, depending on desired consistency.
Water, Milk, Dry White Wine
Salt, Pepper, and some or all of Rosemary, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme. Or "Poultry Spice".
Bisquick. This stuff is actually wonderful, and has been for decades. BUT... Pour it into a Mason Jar after purchase; those cardboard boxes are rubbish at sea. Save the recipes.

The Chicken can be bone-in or bone-out. A lot depends on Crew Views about Finger Food. If the Chicken is Stolen, don't leave a trail of plucked Evidence in your wake. If not bone-in, the Chicken should be pre-cut into bite-sized morsels for quicker cooking.

In your heavy Skillet or Dutch Oven on a Burner, bring the Stock to a simmer, and add Peas, diced Carrots if you like diced Carrots, slivered Onion, and Chicken, and then bring to a simmer again. Add Spices, and cover and simmer for ~10 minutes.
Take some Wine, Water or Milk, (Tinned Condensed is good.), mix in a tablespoon or so of Bisquick, and stir in the stew to thicken, and simmer a bit longer, while you make the Bisquick Dumplings. Follow whatever Dumpling recipe that you like.
Ladle the Dumplings over the stew, and cook covered until Dumplings are done. Halfway there, flip the Dumplings over.
For Chicken Maryland, there is no need to flip the Dumplings, since it is finished off uncovered in a ~350F Oven, until the crust is golden brown. So Mix up the dough and place it intact over the Stew.
Feeds 6.

This recipe is open to interpretation. For instance, it can be Alfredoed up with some heavy cream, grated hard cheese, breadcrumbs, and coarse-ground Pepper, instead of using the Bisquick Roux.
Or add some heavy red wine to a packet of powdered brown gravy, after initially adding some diced fresh or canned tomatoes, for Chicken Bloody Maryland.

¬Erindipity

 

I read the OP's title to mean meals, while underway. Their list is certainly loaded with carbs, which are easy to make, provide calories and, to many, are real comfort food. I do subscribe to the notion that comfort food is good for moral and good moral is good for the passage.

However, I'm doing my best to avoid the simple carb addictions that follow when the passage is then over. I could sit at the helm and mow throw absolutely any size container of goldfish or cheez-it crackers. It's a sickness. With hours at the helm, I will eat whatever is left in the cockpit, like a serious alcoholic would empty a free mini-bar. My wife wont' buy them anymore.

I've been trying to move on to high quality salted peanuts (not mushy planters), which I also love, but physically can't eat as much.

Most underway meals are pre-prepared and vary so widely, I don't know where to begin. We generally eat cold for lunch, yogurt and fruit for breakfast and reheat something for dinner. Keeping hot water in a dispenser 24 hrs a day, allows for a cup of hot tea or cup of instant soup on demand.

At anchor (or on a very calm passage), the options are also endless. Breakfast is often eggs and bacon (we love the pre-cooked bacon you just microwave, for simplicity aboard) Love one-pot meals, so chilis, stir fries, etc are great. I've really come to love making a paella, for which I have a small 13" ceramic paella pan that fits on my galley burner. It's time consuming (which can be a good thing, if you have the time). If you have the very basics to make a sofrito and the proper bomba paella rice, all other ingredients can be whatever you have. Fish, meat, cured meats, vegetables, anything works.

 

However, I'm doing my best to avoid the simple carb addictions that follow when the passage is then over. I could sit at the helm and mow throw absolutely any size container of goldfish or cheez-it crackers. It's a sickness. With hours at the helm, I will eat whatever is left in the cockpit, like a serious alcoholic would empty a free mini-bar. My wife wont' buy them anymore.

I've been trying to move on to high quality salted peanuts (not mushy planters), which I also love, but physically can't eat as much.

All of which varies. On my boat with lots of raw teak and certainly on customer boats nothing coated with salt or a lot of grease like chips, salted nuts, and such cross the deck edge.

 

I am definitely low carb. But I can eat everything on Petes menu:
Bolonaise without the spaghetti
Chili Carne sin con
Bangers and mash without the mash

For the other Low Carbers I have my special SECRET recipe for home make tomato ketchup/sauce, attached, made without sugar and tastes better than stuff with.

I find cooking on the boat easy and I have the time to do it well and experiment.
Love using local herbs and spices and love using the oven. Maybe Sea Life uses more propane than any other boat? The oven is always on.
Love doing slow roast chicken, pork, pork belly. Grill steak. But a health specialty is bone broths. The Chinese supermarkets here have good inexpensive ox tail bones. They are about 50% meat and simmered for an afternoon (15 mins on, 15 off) a great dish. Of course, not so easy to do at sea in rough water but fine usually.

All in all I love cooking on the boat and advice to people still in their early cruising 'keep it simple' is experiment, have fun, go cullinary delight

 

Normally:
Beer and good sandwiches

Snacks:
Japanese Rice Crackers
Potato Chips
Peanut butter filled pretzels.
Dessert: Chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels.

Unless I am trying to burn off the beer and chocolate covered pretzels:
Carrots and low fat dressing
Cucumber slices.
Sparkling Water

 

On any trip longer than a daysail, my appetite falls off a cliff and I don't desire nearly as much food.

Breakfast is anything from fruit to a bagel to oatmeal. On weekends if my significant other is with me, I'll make pancakes or a good fry-up. I do love ham, egg and cheddar on a bagel with a smear of Vegemite.
Coffee...always coffee unless the morning starts out blistering hot.
Italian roast of any number of brands.

I usually don't bother with lunch. A snack will be wasabi peas or almonds or a Clif bar. I do carry chips when the odd urge strikes me.
When I had crew racing on my boat, I supplied Wawa subs or a huge box of Royal Farms chicken and Jo-Jo's. The crew always scarfed it down.

During the cooler months, dinner is often cooked in the cabin on the alcohol stove. Again, heavier meals on weekends only. Pasta and sauce or chili or stew. Never did chicken and dumplings. I'll have to investigate that. During hotter months, it's grilled marinated pork loin, grilled chicken, grilled sausages, corn on the cob and lots of salad. Salads are a great meal in the summer. Nice and cool, and plenty filling for the level of appetite that I have.

I drink water most of the time with the occasional G2 Gatorade. Maybe a glass of wine with dinner or a dark 'n stormy once the anchor is down. I don't drink a lot of beer, but I do carry it. Soda makes me feel like crap so I never touch the stuff except for the rare ginger ale.

 

When I had crew racing on my boat, I supplied Wawa subs or a huge box of Royal Farms chicken and Jo-Jo's. The crew always scarfed it down.

Good for you. Don't see much of that approach from racing skippers anymore. When I raced a Chance 30-30 back in the early 80s the owner's wife would call Wednesday or Thursday to ask what sort of sandwich and snacks we wanted for lunches. We all loved her and were fiercely loyal to the boat. Everyone showed up and we worked our butts off. We had work days. We had practice. We were a team. Those sandwiches were not THE reason but they sure made us feel appreciated. I miss that.

Ladies and gentlemen: Ajax_MD, who I have had the pleasure to sail with, an old-fashioned skipper and gentleman.

 

Hell, I consider myself at the cheap end of the spectrum.

Latest gossip has it that the skipper pays for hotel accommodations for the crew at finish line of distance races instead of sleeping on the boat as well as paying for everyone's meal and drink tickets at the after-party. This is on top of providing everyone's personal safety equipment, you understand. (hats, team shirts, gloves, sun screen, PFD, harness and tether, etc)

 

Skip the sissy food. Garlic and oatmeal, man:

 

I give the OP a thumbs up for using the word "whilst" in a sailing thread )
We eat the same stuff on the boat that we eat at home, lots of salmon (frozen and smoked), fresh bread (you have a grain grinder on board don't you?), prawns, other fish that we catch, etc. No special recipes but lately I've fallen in love with Mojito Lime spice for fish on the barbie, from the same folks that make the Monterey Steak spice (Grill Mates?).

 

I give the OP a thumbs up for using the word "whilst" in a sailing thread )

Whilst looking at the bottom of the page, I chanced to notice that all the "similar threads" at the bottom of the page are ones that have "whilst" in the title.

 

Spam musubi (with rice and nori/seaweed wrapper) is also a great breakfast. Sushi is a yummy snack. And grapes! Anything that you can pop in your mouth and not make a mess.

I remember making a ton of sandwiches with my mom and sisters for my dad's crew when he was racing (and yes, I got to eat them too once I started racing with him). When they did the Around the State Race (Hawaii) we'd drag several shopping carts around Foodland for the week they'd be out - the bad old days before Costco or other warehouse shops. All easy to prep/eat foods.

I have two food-related memories that are cautionary tales. My mom fed my dad clam chowder right before a night race across the Molokai channel - big mistake! He said it sloshed in his stomach all night. The second - we were sailing back from Molokai to Oahu on Easter morning. We couldn't exactly make and dye hard-boiled eggs in the Sheraton. So mom bought foil-covered chocolate eggs and hid them all over the boat. Guess what happens when 4 young girls go on their egg hunt and DON'T FIND all the foil-covered chocolate eggs? LOL! My dad was NOT happy to find the occasional chocolate smear on sails or behind settees.

We are big on sandwiches, wraps, fruit, cut up veggies and pretzels for a day sail or in-between races. I admit, I've never cooked while underway. We are getting the LPG replaced, including all the hardware and hoses, and servicing the stove on our new-to-us boat and replacing the grill, so I'll be taking notes from this thread on ideas for what we can learn to do. I've been reading the threads for the easiest/best way to make coffee on board. I have a LOT to learn now that I'm the adult with a big boat!

 

... we were sailing back from Molokai to Oahu on Easter morning. We couldn't exactly make and dye hard-boiled eggs in the Sheraton. So mom bought foil-covered chocolate eggs and hid them all over the boat. Guess what happens when 4 young girls go on their egg hunt and DON'T FIND all the foil-covered chocolate eggs? LOL! My dad was NOT happy to find the occasional chocolate smear on sails or behind settees.

To be fair to the chocolate eggs, I would prefer to suffer some chocolate smears over the long-term effects of a real hard-boiled egg that is NOT found by the egg seekers and left behind a settee... :devil

 

Kids will look for a chocolate egg far longer than a hard boiled egg.

And I would lick the sail clean even years later...

 

Hey, don't hate on SPAM. It's not my favorite or go-to, but it has its uses.

 

Door stop? *grin*

 

OMG you guys are funny!

I didn't actually grow up eating SPAM - my mom was from Delaware and dad was born in Massachusetts though he grew up in Hawaii.

So I grew up eating scrapple. I'm not sure that's an improvement LOL! Spam musubi is really awesome though - you can pick some up at 7-11 on the way to the boat. We did pick up the habit at some point and it stuck. If you've had a little too much to drink, try frying up some diced spam and onions and serve it over rice (which I might have done in college). My older kids love Spam - dad sent up a big box with one of every flavor right after the Spam festival back home. Cans of Spam probably keep well for cruising. You can get lower sodium Spam, but the fat content is stupid high.

McDonald's doesn't go as far as using Spam back home, but they do serve scrambled eggs, portugese sausage and rice for breakfast.

We did experience the lost hard-boiled egg at home, which we then later found by following our noses. Piu! (pee-you!) Stinky! And for those who would willingly lick the chocolate off the sails, you must like salted caramel candies - Hawaii means salt water

 

Spam -- Food of the Sea Gods!

Seriously, spam is my emergency rations. I always keep a can or two on the boat. Should I decide to anchor out spontaneously, this, a can of beans (part two of my emergency supplies), and a cup of tea (part three) makes dinner.

Do I have to emphasize that a chef I ain't?

 

Spam can't be all bad. SailNet has an emoticon for it!

:spam

 

Wow!

 

I, too have SPAM in my hard rations larder. :spam :spam
There's very few tinned meats that are meat (more or less ). Most are stuffed with fillers like potatoes.

The more you cook it the better it tastes...

Smear with Vegemite and anything is wonderful

 

I stopped using Spam years ago when high quality, canned, Danish hams came to the grocery shelves. We had it in Navy and I grew tired of it very quickly.

Gary

 

I have a number of cookbooks, and one of my favorites is the Official Navy Cookbook from 1944. It has some interesting comments here and there: "...Soup is one means of getting men to eat vegetables."
https://archive.org/details/TheCookBookOfTheUnitedStatesNavy1944

This isn't Betty Crocker's salmon croquette territory. Basic recipes are for serving 100; proportions may need to be adjusted up or down as necessary.

As for Spam Haiku...

Have some Soylent Spam.
Delicious and nutritious,
It's made from People!

¬Erindipity