Backpacking Menu

[stefan]

They have these things called Tasty Bites

tasty bites are great, but they are a little heavy, so on extended backpacking trips i either take them only for the first 1-2 nights or not at all, depending on how demanding the hiking is.

[KillEmAll]

Went to REI today and picked up some chili by Backpackers Pantry. It was fairly cheap so I thought I would give it a taste test. The consistency was more like a soup than the Nally's chili I'm used to, but it was surprisingly good. It will make an excellent side to my fish.

[Alex]

About the PB&J, I like to make them a night before and put them in seperate sandwich zip lock bags, then you don't get any mess around. I agree with the bagel idea, I have done that in the past and found it gave me more calories than regular bread (which I want on my bping adventures).

Another cool idea one of my buddies did was to smoke the salmon before the trip. It was a perfect snack that day, even though we smelled like smoked salmon the rest of the trip it was sure tasty!

[Mtnman1830]

I have been tasting the Mountain House foods for a trip, (I don't want to get suck with a nasty meal -beef and potatoes with onions- on a trip. Link: http://uutah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2304

I favor the Chicken a la King with noodles (my fav). And my way of cooking fish, is after they are cleaned, put a sapling thru the mouth and firmly into the tail meat, and cook like a hot dog.

[Glockguy]

When are you guys going up?

[Sombeech]

When are you guys going up?

The week of the 24th.

[Shan]

The food packing is my task when ever hubs and I go backpacking. (Though he helps plan, because I'm not going to hear complaining 10 mi. because there's no candy!)

Here are some links I found:

http://www.isu.edu/outdoor/bkrecipe.htm
http://www.ziplink.net/~24601/recipes/bprecipe.htm
http://www.wta.org/~wta/magazine/1174.pdf
http://mattfischer.com/ramen/ (Official Ramen Homepage)


What we usually have:
Breakfast
-oatmeal packets topped w/brown sugar, raisins, walnuts
-coffee
-dried fruit
-flapjacks (get that pancake mix in a jar stuff, or even a packet of Jiffy's fruity muffins and have fruity flapjacks - just omit the egg)

Lunch/Snacks
-bagels
-turkey pepporni (by Hormel) keeps well w/o fridge and very tasty!
-peanut butter and jelly in those tubes
-store bought hummus, does well without fridge.
-cheese
-gorp
-jerkey
-granola bars
-powdered drink mixes (cocoa, gatorade, koolaid)

Dinner
-burritos. I dehydrate a can of refried beans at home, bring along a rice packet that has corn and beans, and some tortillas.
-chili and corncakes. I make up a pot of chili at home and dehydrate it. corncakes are a packet of jiffy corn muffin mix, mixed with water, and fried in a pan.
-spaghetti and meat sauce. Again dehydrate the sauce at home. smaller pasta cooks faster. Angel hair only 4 minutes.
-chicken and noodles. packet of Lipton noodles of your choice, foil pouch of chicken. Dehydrate some mixed veggies at home to add in.

Really any one pot dish you eat at home can be dehydrated. I bet even beef stew as long as the pieces weren't too big. I can't have cheese or milk so that's why there are all dairy free.

Cooked ground beef dries really well into beef "gravel" and can be added to lots of things.

I tried dehydrating scrambled eggs using a recipe and that wasn't good.


Lipsmackin' Backpackin': Lightweight Trail-tested Recipes for Backcountry Trips by Tim and Christine Connors is a good book. It was at my library.

[Shan]

The best way I ever had trout:

cut off heads and tails, I think he took the guts out too, steam in a cast iron skillet with water with skins still on.

After meat seems cooked, peel off skin and debone.

Fry up some butter (lots!) and onions, add the steamed trout (that is bone and skin free).

Eat it up - yum!

(this was on a canoe camp trip - hence the cast iron skillet)

[Shan]

Hmm, I found this about eggs:

http://outside.away.com/outside/gear.../20020930.html

Q: I have a weakness for eggs. Love 'em. Don't care what they'll do to me, I have to have them. In the Navy, eggs are coated with a thin wax layer that will keep them fresh for about a month. Can I get these eggs somewhere, or can I do this myself? Also how long will a raw egg stay good when unrefrigerated? I would love to enjoy my eggs no matter how long I may be on the trail.

A: I like eggs, too, and often take them backpacking. Eggs are extremely long lasting, and I am hard put to imagine a scenario in which they would not stay good for as long as you care to lug them. Two weeks, easy. Fresh eggs, in fact, have natural bacteria-killing agents and actually will last longer than unrefrigerated hard-boiled eggs. In short, you can pack in as many eggs as you think you'll want to eat (or carry

[KillEmAll]

Shan, thanks for the info on the eggs and all of the suggestions on meals! If only my wife would take care of the food. I heard fresh eggs are the best to take, but was never sure why. Now I know. Also, you have great suggestions for dehydrating. My dad gave me an old dehydrator. Maybe I should test it out. Those store bought meals are so expensive, but I also don't trust my own food yet.

[Shan]

Ha! I only do the food if I'm actually going on the trip! Otherwise he's on his own.

[Alex]

Those store bought meals are so expensive, but I also don't trust my own food yet.

$5 per meal practically.... that ain't expensive is it? No mess to clean up, dishes to do, just add water, eat and go have fun.... I'd pay for $5 for that.

Now when my wife is going camping with me, that's another story, cause she'd setup the table (with table cloth!), she'd get the veggies lined up, take care of the kid, get the drinks ready and clean EVERYTHING up after food. So all I have to do is grill the steaks. Now thats camping!

[stefan]

Ha! I only do the food if I'm actually going on the trip! Otherwise he's on his own.

but now i assume that's because you have a higher standard and you're ensuring it.

[Shan]

Those store bought meals are so expensive, but I also don't trust my own food yet.

$5 per meal practically.... that ain't expensive is it? No mess to clean up, dishes to do, just add water, eat and go have fun.... I'd pay for $5 for that.

Now when my wife is going camping with me, that's another story, cause she'd setup the table (with table cloth!), she'd get the veggies lined up, take care of the kid, get the drinks ready and clean EVERYTHING up after food. So all I have to do is grill the steaks. Now thats camping!

Ah see now, whoever does the cooking, the other has dish duty. We make it pretty 50/50. Lunch is a free for all.

Are you not taking care of the kid too?

$5-6 isn't bad when you consider the convenience of it all really. Sure you could make your own for less if you're good about it, but not scrubbing out a burnt pot is priceless!

However lots have milk/cheese/sodium, so I make my own.

[Alex]

However lots have milk/cheese/sodium, so I make my own.

Ya I have to agree with you there, lots of sodium.

But frankly, I wouldn't even know where to start how to dehydrate the food and pack it. It's much easier for me to walk over to REI and buy 2-3 bags of Mountain Houses. Also, if you catch a sale there you can get it for 20% off :)

[mroy]

For breakfast I usually buy a pack of granola from the cereal section, dried blueberries from the baking section, and add some deyhdrated milk to that stuff in a ziplock bag, then in camp you add a couple tablespoons of water and that's pretty good.

My other breakfast consists of dehydrated milk, 2 scoops of chocolate whey protein, and a couple packets of carnation instant breakfast that I keep in a ziplock and dump into a nalgene that I fill up with water and shake up.

I have to eat on the trail while backpacking to get enough energy so I use the mountain house pro-packs for lunches.

In general the dehydrated backpacking foods call for too much water. The higher you go up, the less I put in. At normal elevations that means 1-2 oz less than what they call for and it comes out perfect. 1-2 less for every 5000 ft is what I always do. I'd rather have slightly crunchy than soupy any day so I go for less.

For Mountain House Brands:
Noodles & Chicken (and tuna) good if you don't mind the tuna, at least it was in there last time I tried it
Rice & Chicken, good, but bring some chicken bouillon powder to add to it cause it's kind of bland otherwise
Mexican-Style Chicken w/Rice - Good+
Grilled Chicken Breast w/ Mashed Potatoes - Good, but they want you to cook the meat and potatoes separately, I just let the breasts sit in the boiling water for the prescribed time and then dump the potatoes in, break the chicken up w/ a fork and call it good.
Spaghetti w/ Meat Sauce - Kind of on the sweeter side, and okay
Beef Stroganoff - Really good
Lasagna w/ Meat Sauce - Really good
Pasta Primavera - Never liked it
Wild Rice & Mushroom Pilaf - Good, but would be better if you added some dehydrated meat to it.
Granola w/Blueberries & Milk - Excellent, but easy enough to make your own.
Raspberry Crumble - More like hot raspberry goo, but damn if it's still not good
Ice Cream Bars - Kind of like a crispy meringue

Alpine Aire's Beef Stroganoff is by far the best I've ever had. I'm going to be trying more of their different meals later this summer. They're going to be at the next Outdoor Retailer, so I'm hoping to get a bunch of samples from them to try out. They're expensive but after trying their Stroganoff, I think they're worth it.

Richmoor's Beef Stroganoff was bland, and the food never absorbed water very well, so it was a nasty crunchy soup.

Backpacker's Pantry is an okay brand, not as good as mountain house, but they make up for it with variety. I'm not a fan of their packaging, cause it's way too tall for comfortable eating, unless you have an 18" fork, but even then. I'd stay away from their Thai Satay w/ Beef. If I can't finish something after a long day of backpacking, it's gotta be terrible, and this stuff really is.

I have large bags of dehydrated beef & chicken I'll use to supplement the protein in all those foods. Adding half a cup doesn't have too much of an impact on how much water you need to put in.

If you're into making your own stuff, which you can, but you absolutely have to try things out at home before you put your trust in your own creations, here's a site to help out: http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/dinnerricedishes.htm

MRE's are always an option, but they do weigh more than the standard dehydrated meals, and they cost more depending where you go.

Gourmet jelly beans, powerbar powergels, and those mini cookie packs are my snacks of choice. Goldfish hold up pretty well too.

Remember to read the prep directions on the package before you buy it, cause my goal in the backcountry is to never have to wash a single dish, so everything has to be boiling water or nothing at all, and there are some meals, especially breakfasts where they want you to cook stuff outside the pouch.

They are loaded with sodium, but looking at my shirts after trips, and seeing my white salt streaks, I know I need all I can get.

[Alex]

mroy great post! I have been buying Mountain House for about 7-8 years now. Started with their lame packaging where you had to pull the see through bag out and put the round paper on top, remember those?

I didn't try everything on your list, but I tend to agree with your taste. I have never tried Alpine brand, that will be my next choice (thanks! )

[accadacca]

Yes...this is great info mroy. Thanks for the love...

[mroy]

I do remember those old school bags from Mountain House. Those were a pain.

I'm glad to share what I've learned, tried out and what works for me. I can't wait to plunder the sample racks at the Outdoor Retailer show again in a month for more food to try out. Just gives me more reasons to go backpacking

[Alex]

Outdoor Retailer show again in a month for more food to try out. Just gives me more reasons to go backpacking

How do you get in? Or get a pass?