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Backpacking Meals

mesha

mesha

By endurance we conquer
Location
A.F.
mountain house tastes better than the rest. Beef stroganoff is my favorite. It is the only backpacking meal with meat in it that I like.

The name of the game is calories per ounce. Any food is good backpacking food as long as it is calorie dense. Add butter or, my favorite, olive oil to your meals to make them contain more calories. Don't worry about well balanced meals, unless you are going for a really long time(months). Nuts are really good backpacking food. Macadamia nuts are over 200 calories per ounce.

Go through the grocery store and check out any food you can and see what has high calories. My wife and I have spent many hours checking out different menus for backpacking. Most of the time you should be around 2-2.2 lbs per day for backpacking meals. If you can cut it down to around 1.5lbs per day you are doing really good.
 
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sixstringsteve

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
Spud Bombs

Teressa and I found this recipe in our favorite book.

A spud bomb is instant mashed potatoes with seasonings and nuts (protein) and fritos (calories). Quick, light-weight and very tasty. Sometimes we eat it for dinner at home because we love it so much.

Be mindful of the fact that a spud bomb prior to rehydration does look like a very small amount of food - you may look at it and wonder if you'll get a decent feed from it. It's likely that you will (you always end up with more food than expected), but it's also for this reason that I recommend having a play at home first, before relying on it in nature.

- 2 cups instant potatoes
- 1/4 cup shredded parmesian cheese (the stuff in the plastic bottle with the green top)
- some garlic powder
- some onion powder
- 1/2 cup crushed nuts (sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews, peanuts, whatever you like)
- 1/2 cup crushed fritos
- salt and pepper
- whatever else sounds good (bacon bits, herbs, spices, etc)

All you do is heat water and mix it in with your dried food. Super filling, super tasty, and super quick and easy.
 
jentzschman

jentzschman

Well-Known Member
Location
Sandy, Utah
sixstringsteve said:
Teressa and I found this recipe in our favorite book.

A spud bomb is instant mashed potatoes with seasonings and nuts (protein) and fritos (calories). Quick, light-weight and very tasty. Sometimes we eat it for dinner at home because we love it so much.

Be mindful of the fact that a spud bomb prior to rehydration does look like a very small amount of food - you may look at it and wonder if you'll get a decent feed from it. It's likely that you will (you always end up with more food than expected), but it's also for this reason that I recommend having a play at home first, before relying on it in nature.

- 2 cups instant potatoes
- 1/4 cup shredded parmesian cheese (the stuff in the plastic bottle with the green top)
- some garlic powder
- some onion powder
- 1/2 cup crushed nuts (sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews, peanuts, whatever you like)
- 1/2 cup crushed fritos
- salt and pepper
- whatever else sounds good (bacon bits, herbs, spices, etc)

All you do is heat water and mix it in with your dried food. Super filling, super tasty, and super quick and easy.
Click to expand...

Wow!
 
sixstringsteve

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
I thought Davy was weird when he recommended eating instant oatmeal cold; it sounded disgusting. Then I realized Davy is hardly ever wrong. After all, he's a scientist. So I tried it, and it wasn't bad. Then I added my crushed nut mix (sunflower seeds, almonds, and cashews) and I really liked it. The nuts give it a nice crunch, and a good boost of protein. I now prefer cold instant oatmeal and nuts to warm instant oatmeal.

Side note for Davy: Teressa bought a few foraging books and she can't put them down.
 
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mesha

mesha

By endurance we conquer
Location
A.F.
sixstringsteve said:
I thought Davy was weird when he recommended eating instant oatmeal cold; it sounded disgusting. Then I realized Davy is hardly ever wrong. After all, he's a scientist. So I tried it, and it wasn't bad. Then I added my crushed nut mix (sunflower seeds, almonds, and cashews) and I really liked it. The nuts give it a nice crunch, and a good boost of protein. I now prefer cold instant oatmeal and nuts to warm instant oatmeal.

Side note for Davy: Teressa bought a few foraging books and she can't put them down.
Click to expand...

Cold oatmeal is the only way to eat it. Throw in some nuts and wild berries and it is hard to beat.

We need someone to forage with. Everyone always thinks we are weird when we are grubbing on weeds :)
 
Unimog

Unimog

Eric
Location
Stansbury Park, UT
X2 on mountain house being the best flavor. I like that you can get different size servings with the smaller propak and larger "2 serving" size. Stroganoff is a favorite as well as spaghetti and lasagna.

I like easy. Kindof similar to the spud bomb above, Idahoan instant potatoes in your favorite flavor with a handful of mixed freeze dried vegetables thrown in makes a really appetizing carb-loaded meal.
 
DAA

DAA

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Location
West Bountiful, UT
I take a variety of MH, Backpackers Pantry and Mary Jane's stuff. I like the Mary Jane's because it's organic, not nearly the sodium blast the others are and the bags are paper so they burn. In addition, some home made gorp - mixed nuts, m&m's and dried mango. Some Fritos. Usually a chunk of salami and cheese for the first day. And usually one or two Larabars for each day.

For me and my Son, I have found anything over 1.6 pounds a day each, and we are carrying some of it all the way back out. For me, 1.5 seems to be the sweet spot, to where I'm completely out of food when I get back to the car. I'm sure on a three day trip I could get along just fine on 1.4 lbs a day - I intend to find out on my first canyon BP trip this year. But if it is a Uintas trip, which means I'm carrying fishing gear, I can carry my little titanium grill and cut the food to more like 1 pound a day and be fine eating fish.

- DAA
 
DAA

DAA

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Location
West Bountiful, UT
I have been getting all my freeze dried stuff online from REI. When they have a sale, I order enough to last the whole back packing season for both me and my Son all at once. Last year, I went overboard and have enough still on the shelf to probably cover this whole year as well.

Our favorite Mary Janes meals are in order, red pesto pasta, shephards meat pie and curried lentil bisque. My Son could seriously eat the red pesto pasta every night of every trip.

- DAA
 
sixstringsteve

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
red pesto pasta sounds delicious. We should have a food sampling campout sometime. Everyone brings their favorite backpacking food and we all get costco size samples to see what we like.
 
Unimog

Unimog

Eric
Location
Stansbury Park, UT
I guess I never realized REI's prices on food were ever good. I buy on sale online as well. I just view it as another form a food storage. Just bought 16 MH meals from some guy on BackpackingLight for $60 shipped. We will easily go through those this year.
 
sixstringsteve

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
Check these videos out for a few ideas.

[video=youtube;q5CS5sVuquI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5CS5sVuquI[/video]

[video=youtube;Lfzh02d2jcc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfzh02d2jcc[/video]
 
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Houndoc

Houndoc

Registered User
Location
Grantsville
One thing my son and I found worked great is the little packs of flavored potato flakes (usually make 4 servings) you can get at the grocery store. Made an easy supplement to freeze dried meals. Cheap, light and can make them right in the foil package.
 
S

skeptic

Registered User
I don't back pack anymore (broken vertebrae and getting older), but I used to do it a fair amount and tried all kinds of things. If I were to go on a multi-day back packing trip now I'd take a combination of Mountain House meals, instant oatmeal, and trail mix. I know trail mix is heavy compared to the rest, but it's good calories and ready to eat without any prep. I've heard good things about bannock as well, and I'd probably give it a try. Take it as a dry mix, add water and knead, then cook on a stick over the fire. The idea of fresh bread after a day of hiking would be great.
 
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