Backpacking Meal Ideas
First Night Dinners – Sous Vide Cooking 101
Notes about cooking on backpacking stoves:
- Food scorches onto pots and make them a mess to clean, which can be very hard in the backcountry, so it is best to create meals that only require boiling water (i.e., rehydrating food using boiling water, or heating bagged food in boiling water sous vide style).
- If cooking noodles, the thinner the better so that they cook quickly. Rice noodles or angel hair or ramen are great choices for noodles! Linguini, not so much.
Breakfasts
Oatmeal
Top with with nuts, dried fruit, coconut
Grits
Supplement with real bacon bits & cheese
Salmon Bagel
Bagel
Cereal Aisle Breakfast
Nature Valley or Quaker Chewy granola Bars
Fruit Leather or dried leather
Homemade Granola
Search for Granola recipes online and pick one that looks good. You can serve with powdered milk (add water) for a cereal-style breakfast.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake
1 packet Carnation Breakfast Essentials drink mix
1 c water
Shake and enjoy
Trail Lunches
Roll-up Sandwich
1 tortilla
Cover with nut butters (peanut, sunflower, nutella, any combination) and/or jelly
Banana chips give this a nice crunch
Charcuterie
Summer Sausage or jerky
Dried Fruit
Sliced Cheese (this will be okay unrefrigerated for a couple days if you keep it out of the sun)
Tuna Sandwich
1 hot sauce package (optional)
diced celery (optional)
Serve on a tortilla or on crackers
The Backpacker Elvis
1 tortilla or bagel
Top with bacon jerky or vegan jerky for extra protein
Pita Wrap
Pita Wrap
Fresh veggies (cucumber, peppers)
Combine all and eat as a wrapped sandwich
Pizza Wrap
Tortilla
Shredded cheese
Dinners
Thanksgiving Dinner
1/2 c stovetop stuffing mix
1/2 c instant mashed potatoes
1 T powdered gravy
1 package starkist vacuum sealed chicken
1 package freeze-dried vegetables
1/4 c fried onions
Dried cranberries
Boil 1 1/2 c water and add to bag that has stuffing mix, potatoes, vegetables and gravy powder. Wait about 5-10 min to rehydrate. Top with chicken and fried onions and cranberries
Cheesy Chicken Casserole
1 c boiling water
1 package stovetop stuffing mix
Dehydrated vegetables (optional – you can make these at home with a dehydrator if you have access to one)
4 oz velveeta cheese sauce pouch
Crispy fried onions
Top with crushed ritz crackers
Rehydrate stuffing with boiling water. Add chicken and cheese, and top with fried onions and ritz crackers
Super Ramen
4 package Ramen noodles
1 package starkist vacuum sealed chicken or shelf-stable tofu
Mix all in food bowl, not pot
Loaded Potatoes
1 package instant potatoes – rehydrated according to instructions
Cheese, bacon bits, crispy onions, diced vegetables (dehydrated or fresh) to add in
Can also add dried ground beef or TVP (vegetarian option) for Shepard’s Pie-like dish
Tacos
Taco seasoning
Shredded cheese
Salsa
Serve on a tortilla
Ramen Soup
Instant ramen noodles (vegetarian options)–nothing fancy, but everyone loves it. You can add veggies or boiled egg to make this a healthier meal.
Pasta
Angel Hair Noodles (boil in pot and drain)
Top with pesto (frozen to eat first night or jarred for later nights) or jarred tomato sauce (combine noodles and sauce on individual plates, not in cooking pot)
Macaroni and cheese
1/2 c shell noodles
1 c boiling water
4oz Velveeta Cheese sauce pouch
Combine water and noodles in quart-sized zip-lock bag and let rehydrate for 5-10 minutes and drain extra water. Add cheese. Top with real bacon bits if desired.
Miso Udon Soup
1 T dried shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 t dried seaweed (optional)
1 bundle udon noodles (~3oz)
1 packet instant miso soup (~.63oz)
Put mushrooms in pot, add 1 cup water, and let stand 10 minutes. Place pot over medium heat and bring to boil. Add noodles and cook for 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat, add miso, and stir until paste dissolves completely. Add
First Night Dinners – Sous Vide Cooking 101
For your first night, prepare your food at home, seal in a a quart-sized freezer bag, and then boil in the bag on the trail (don’t take your food out of the bag: just put the bag right in the boiling water!) The food will still be cold (and safe) when you’re ready to cook it at dinner time.
Good options include
- Chili (vegetarian or meat)
- Butter Chicken (or substitute tofu for vegetarian) served over boil-in-bag rice, with saag paneer on the side (this is a favorite with the adults)
Desserts
Oreo Cheesecake
20 Oreos
1 packet no-bake cheesecake mix
Place cookies in a ziptop bag and pound into crumbs, and add about half of crust mix from cheesecake mix packet. Put crumbs in bottom of serving container(s). Add water to cheesecake mix (as directed) and knead until you have a custard-like consistencey. Transfer cheesecake into serving container(s) and give about 10 minutes to set.
Pudding
1 package Instant Pudding
Before your trip, empty the pudding mix into a bowl. Add the instant milk powder and mix well
At camp, add 1/2 c water and mix well in the baggie (or dump powder package into your bowl and combine in there, to save on having a messy bag)