What food should I take on a hiking and camping trip?
Posted: August 17th, 2010 | Author: Mitch | Filed under: Camping Recipes | Tags: backpacking, camping, cooked rice, oatmeal, trail mix | 10 Comments »I need some good suggestions for food for a backpacking and camping trip. Trail mix, Jerky, and half cooked rice or oatmeal just doesn’t seem to cut it for me. There has to be something that is fulfilling and hearty.
There are only two considerations when it comes to food: weight and bulk. Remember, you’re carrying everything on your back.
Any outdoor recreation shop carries a line of freeze-dried foods, with almost the diversity as regular a regular market. But freeze-dried tends to be expensive. MREs are available at surplus stores, too.
Don’t neglect the supermarket, though. Browse the shelves and there’s an incredibly variety of dried, pouched, and lite-weight foods that are less expensive. For instance, tuna now comes in foil pouches. And there is an incredibly choice of dried soups, etc.
For hiking, lightweight, high-energy foods, heavy in carbohydrates are preferred. You can buy energy bars, for instance. Or you can make your own. Here are some possibilities:
you can go to a army navy shop and get some mre’s. The food the military uses that you just add water too. My husband used to be in the army and he said that’s what he would do! Have fun!
one thing that helped spice up my camp cooking was my dehydrator (you can use an oven on lowest setting with door cracked).
I brown hamburger meat and rinse it well to get most fat off and then dry it until it crumbles
add it to packaged noodles (I like stroganoff or noddles with broccoli in garlic sauce)
you can also dry a jar of prepared spaghetti sauce and add to water, freshly cooked pasta and add some dried hamburger
usually had dried onions, green peppers, and garlic with me as well
If you want to cut down on pack weight and make meal preparation easy I suggest you take freeze dried meals. You only need hot water to prepare them.
There are many to choose from but in my opinion Mountain House brand is far better than any other brand. Some of my favorites are beef stroganoff, lasanga with meat sauce and chicken teriyaki. If you like New England style chowder the seafood chowder is awesome. Just make sure you take some crackers to go with the chowder.
Bagels are also a good trail food. For breakfast I’ll cut a bagel in half, pan fry it in margarine until it’s toasted brown and have it with strawberry jam, cream cheese or both. You can get individual packs of cream cheese and jam at some bagel shops and they don’t require refrigeration.
Some people think freeze dried meals are expensive, but consider the cost of a meal at McDonalds. Five dollars isn’t that bad for two hot servings out in the wilderness.
This place has has the best prices on Mountain House meals by far.
http://www.vitacost.com/MountainHouseProducts
Have fun and don’t leave any trash behind.
In my mind there is nothing better than Mountain House Beef Stroganoff.
310 calories of pure goodness. They have a lot of other good meals too.
oatmeal and rice
I don’t know what you should take but I know you should just make sure animals cant smell any of it. We too bread once and the raccoons riped through the tend and took it lol.
survival foods>http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/foodpak1.aspx
Granola makes a good on trail snack for meals MRE’s and Freeze Dried are great. I also like to pack Ramen and prepare it with olive oil and parmesan cheese.
I know weight is a consideration, but depending on the size of your group & the length of your hike, here is one of my favorite camping meals…if you don’t have to carry it too far… (maybe put it in one of the kids backpacks)
If you can take a large pot & water, this is a great family meal…it’s really hot & hearty. take a small head of cabbage, 6 or 8 potatoes, 6 or 8 large carrots & a pack or 2 of beef kielbasa. Cut it all into 2" pcs(cabbage in eighths), throw in a large pot with lid & boil for about 45 minutes…Its a full balanced meal & you can drink the hot cabbage liquor(broth) on the side…It’s sooooo good!!!