Canyon REO’s Great, Flexible Meals

At Canyon REO we combine our love of the river with our love of great food.

We appreciate fresh fruit and veggies with our river lunches, the smell of shish kebabs sizzling over coals, the taste of dutch oven brownies when they’re still warm and slightly gooey, and half & half in our fresh, gourmet coffee. In our twenty-plus years of experience as private boaters we have developed menus and kitchen systems that work to meet the special needs of private boaters.

We also understand that food preferences vary. We have accommodated common and uncommon food allergies, and plenty of vegetarian and organic food preferences.
More recently, we’ve received a lot of requests for decent meals that don’t cost a lot. Whether you have competing gourmet cook teams, or need a recession-buster menu plan, we can accommodate your needs.

 Why have us pack food for your trip?
A short trip is not that difficult to do yourself, but when you’re planning a longer trip for a large group of people, the complexities are enormous. (Not to mention the amount of table space you need to organize all that food!) A 21-day trip with 16 people means you’re planning, shopping, and packing for over 1,000 meals!

We can pack food in your coolers or in ours, but most of our clients have us pack food into our containers so they don’t have to pay to ship their coolers and food boxes. It’s also nice to have Canyon REO deal with the trash and cleaning when your trip is over.

 Canyon REO’s food packing system
We pack by camp so your food is easy to find and stays fresh as long as possible. Dry goods for each camp are packed in rocket boxes. Coolers (except for produce, which gets packed separately) are also packed by camp, with all perishables carefully packaged to prevent contamination.

 Ice
Most of our groups end their trips with ice left in their last camp cooler. We attribute this to 1) the high-density, long-lasting ice we make ourselves, 2) the Icee-Kool coolers we use to pack in, and 3) our pack-by-camp system, which preserves ice for late camps.

 Custom menu packages
So many food choices! You can choose one of our standardized menus, customize one of those plans, or build your own menu from our database of Canyon-tested recipes.

You choose the food you want, and pay only for the food you order.

Our menu planner describes all our recipes and guides you through the menu development process. Whether you choose a standardized menu or customize, we send you the complete set of recipes you’ve chosen. Before we finalize your menu, you have a chance to tweak your selections.

Except for the recession-busters Cheap Eats food pack, we include a spice box with 29 spices and an extremely robust staples box.

 Food Costs
Typical food costs are $16 to $18 per person per day. If your group wants a less expensive option, check out our Cheap Eats menu.

 Sample Menus
Below are samplemenus for some common preferences. More menus and hundreds more recipes are available if you want to develop your own menu.

 Canyon REO’s Favorites (click for sample menu - 44kb PDF file)
This menu includes our favorite recipes, with lots of variety, and assumes that folks in your group have no food restrictions.

 Canyon REO’s Favorites for Mixed Groups  (click for sample menu - 44kb PDF file)
This menu is adapted from our Canyon REO’s Favorites to accommodate mixed groups of meat-eaters and vegetarians.

 Canyon REO’s Quick & Easy (click for sample menu - 40kb PDF file)
This option is for groups who want to spend a minimal amount of time cooking and washing dishes.  You can tweak the full menu to make it even simpler by repeating some meals and/or swapping out grill and Dutch oven meals for stove-top options.

 Canyon REO’s Cheap Eats  (click for sample menu - 44kb PDF file)

In our Cheap Eats menu, we have reduced the number of salads and desserts, but you won’t starve. (And you won’t have to eat cabbage and beans, like Donnie Dove did for the last week of one of his early Canyon trips.) Cheap Eats contains lots of comfort foods at a low price. Some of the recipes are new, and some are less-expensive adaptations of our popular recipes. The Cheap Eats food pack does not include spices or staples, but we can give you a suggested list. Add-ons and customization are available for additional costs.