what food do you eat on backpaking/camping trip?

breakfast: oatmeat, bacon,eggs ?

lunch:?

dinner: pasta, ground beef?

Base camp (car)

First day:

Breakfast-Scrambled eggs with grated cheese and salsa, seasoned tater tots, cinnamon crisps with coffee

Lunch-Ham or roast beef hoagie sandwiches with tomato and lettuce on fresh whole wheat sesame buns, Sunchips and hummis, M&Ms and sliced peaches

Dinner- Steak fillet wrapped in bacon, sauteed mushrooms, tiny red potatos in olive oil, garden salad with raspberry vinagrette, chocolate brownie, chilled red wine

Last day:

Breakfast- Cap'n Crunch with water in a used dixie cup

Lunch- Three cold hotdogs wrapped in wet cheese, a half onion, swig of warm Fresca, and two red Twizzlers

Dinner- Cheese doodles, beer, peanut butter hand-dipped on a stick, more beer

We are car campers so pretty much its the same as at home with the exception of no baking perhaps.

Usually MRE's, trail mixes, Granola Bars, cheese, crackers, pre-baked biscuits, pre-hardboiled eggs, & instant grits.

Nicely done, Byrd_. Just about hurt myself laughing.

A lot depends on how many are in the Group as sometimes you may have to eat what others prefer and how bad the hangover from the night before is



For a camping/trekking trip that has been planned it is usually quite easy to have eggs, bacon, sausage, black pudding, baked beans etc for breakfast if you have a couple of single burner stoves. Better to also arrange to be the cook and agree that some one does the washing up!

Supermarkets carry some very nice boil in the bag range meals such as i.e. Chicken Tikka Masala etc

http://www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk/Page/ProductsByCategory.aspx?CatID=1

Very tasty when combined with Tilda Microwave Boil in the Bag Range of rice dishes.

http://www.tilda.com/our-rice-range/tilda-steamed-basmati-rice

There are lots and lots of different supermarket convenience meals available and some of them are very good even compared to home cooking.

Bug Out Bag (Survival requirement) have a different set of requirements due to the required energy density. i.e. a 21 day food bag weighs in around 10Kg and contains around 45,000 Kcal. Freeze dried meals such as Mountain house are very useful due to there storage life times around 5 years. The downside though is the cost of Freeze dried.

I will combine Freeze dried meals such as those from Expedition foods and longer life tinned products from the Supermarket such as canned Oatmeal and Dried Milk etc and other foil pouches such as Tuna etc.

http://www.expeditionfoods.com/online-shop/

A vacuum sealer is a very useful item to have to make you own homemade MREs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAIj5l_uh-4

A vast subject, and depending upon the objectives and length of your trip, almost anything will work. I tend to favor oatmeal with fruits and various flavoring, good quantities of nuts and dried item like jerky and raisins. A good soup can really hit the spot. Sometimes your cook kit can be quite basic, so that you will be heating water and adding it to all kinds of things; at the other extreme you can carry portable ovens, etc. and undertake to fabricate baked goods and produce all sorts of delicacies.

A lot of things right from the supermarket do well in the woods (dehydrated potatoes, freeze dried fruit snacks, good old mac and cheese, as well as other pasta items). While more expensive, freeze dried meals usually work quite well.

Basically, take whatever appeals to you at a price and weight that you can tolerate, and items that don't overtax your culinary abilities. Fortunately we are pretty capable omnivores.

what's the appeal of oatmeal ? does it taste great?

Picard, I take it you have never tried oatmeal or are you just trolling us with these constant inane questions?

That looks good, except the black pudding would be a tough sell in my group.

Camping is pretty much what I do for any backyard or beach bbq, noting that I would be storing food in ice chests or areas out of direct sunlight that I do not have to actually carry on me.


Backpacking i've kind of done it all and think that its dependent on the trip purpose, length and your age. Younger would have a case of beer and beef jerky for an overnight 10 miler. Then I found MRE's good but bulky and heavy. Switched to Mountain House (et al) and some are hit and miss but the most part are tasty and cover all meals.

The year after I decided to not carry the kitchen sink into the back country I went as Ultralight as i could and did a 10 day Yosemite trip with very boring but UL food and a white box stove. Took instant oatmeal packs, Starbucks via, dehydrated re-fried beans and minute rice. I did ziplock cooking with the beans and rice using a homemade Reflectix cozy. okay, I brought a liter of brandy too.

Now I have gone back to mountain house but depending on the speed of the adventure I may not cook it. I learned a tip from Adventure racing to add cold water to the meal bag, seal it up, shake it and wait an hour to eat. its cold but it works and it gets 600 calories in you tasting better than dehydrated beans and Uncle Bens. A lot better than gels and chews.

I also pack a couple payday candy bars for the harder days. They don't melt in extreme heat (trust me) and they have lots of fat, sugar and salt.

Some good tips here. I won't be doing any racing, but I can see an occasional benefit for me from the soaking technique you describe when I need to keep moving. I'm going to try it on my upcoming solo national forest trip. Water is readily availble and easily treated where I live. I have always brought my own food; oatmeal, ramen, tuna pouches, jerky, bannock mix, GORP, dry fruit, etc. but I might try a few Mountain House or Coleman freeze-dried entrees this time. I'm also eyeballing dried eggs and hot sauce.

Agreed - I use mostly grocery store stuff; instant oatmeal, chili in a box, balance bars, gorp, tuna in a foil packet, beef jerky...remember your caffeine!

lots,and lots and lots!!



this is a lay out of just the dinners for a two week solo canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
there is no place to resupply once your in unlike some of the big hiking trails that pass thru or close to towns.
in that heap are fourteen dinners.three MRE meat packs with a rice side for a big filler after a long day.three freeze dry meals for a quick meal,i use these if i pull into a campsite late or in bad weather and while the water boils for the meal the tent go's up.seven are rice sides with freeze dry chicken that has been repacked into meal sizes and one back up meal of wild rice,soup mix and pasta.other items are a Tang type orange drink,a pint of rum and cookies.
not in the photo is lunch which is crackers with tubes of jam and peanut butter with some sort of power bar and the breakfast below is dry egg with rice and dry tomato and bacon chips.the rice makes the egg more filling.



yes that's a heap of chow but canoe tripping means you can go like a trapper and not a hobo.my Prospector canoe will carry over 800 pounds with no problem if need be.i take two 45 pound packs.
the portages between lakes can be a grunt but the max is about 20 minutes per bag so your back on the water in no time.
some of the carry,s are better than others!





well not much about survival but there you are on the subject of what i eat while i'm out camping.

I never ate oatmeal. I am not trolling for inane questions.

I don't really go backpacking anymore. But for our yearly car-camping "Old Men's Camping Trip":

Night one: Wines, exotic cheeses, fruits, salami, crackers, fondue (chicken, pork & beef), for desert: chocolate fondue dipped srawberries, bananas, etc.

Breakfast (all days except for the last day): Captain Crunch, milk, fruit, coffee

Lunch (all days): Sandwiches. Big "Dagwood's". Homemade breads, butcher shop high end lunchmeats, cheeses, lettuce, tomato, onion, horseradish sauce. Pringles potatoe chips. Beer. Chocolate chip cookies.

Night two: Tortilla chips, salsa for appetisers while we grill things. Jack Daniels and Coke. Grilled steaks or stuffed pork chops, grilled potato/onion mix, exotic salad greens with exotic vinegrette mix dressings, blueberry or peach cobbler (dutch oven).

Night three: Varies. Sometimes bratwurst, sometimes grilled fish. While our other meals are pretty much set in stone year after year, this one is the "surprise" meal. Beer. Wine. Jack Daniels. (Gotta finish all that stuff up - at home, none of us drink much!)

Last day breakfast: Huge scramble. Eggs, sausage, onions, green peppers, cheese, potatoes, salsa. Orange juice. Coffee.

I think we eat better (not "healthier", but "better"!) on these yearly campouts than at home!

Heartig,you think just like us,nothing like a good clambake.In fact,your gourmet time is just what we do.

Our Old Men's Campouts started about 30 years ago as a day trip canoing down a river. Then we decided to spend the night. Now we spend three nights. We don't do any more than we used to, it just takes us longer to do it. We canoe/kayak, mountain bike, hike, fish, ... trying to prove we're still young. But after all that "work" is complete, it's largely a bunch of naps thrown in between eating binges these days...

Picard, oatmeal is a pretty simple, pretty lightweight meal, and its pretty nourishing. Some people don't like the texture. We eat ours with fruit, brown sugar, maple syrup, it just depends. You can make it with milk or water.

For backpacking, this seems to work for me:

Breakfast: Quaker instant oatmeal & Mountain House eggs ... plus you can't forget the Starbucks Via instant coffee!

Lunch: Snack sized flavored tuna & crackers or bagel

Dinner: Mountain House (or equivalent) entree (Note: In my opinion, many of the 2 serving bags are good for one person ... I've often found a full bag only contains five or six hundred calories)

Good snack foods include bars (I like LÄRABARs best now), trail mix and beef jerky.

One note about the Mountain House eggs ... I really have to find a something better for protein in the morning. While I enjoy scrambled eggs & oatmeal as a meal, re-hydrated eggs are only vaguely egg-like . I'm thinking at a minimum I need to break down and buy a small fry pan and some powdered eggs; as you can tell by my food list above, I really just boil water now - I don't cook.

Also, for anyone interested in making their own backpacking food, I'd check out BackpackingChef.com. While I haven't tried any of the recipes my self yet, he seems to have some really good ideas for home-made backpacking food.

My hiking (also biking) fare is very similar to yours, with some variations.

I generally make up my own oatmeal packets, using rolled oats, with powdered non fat milk, nuts, dried fruit, and whatever. Much cheaper than the silly Quaker packets - a victory of packaging over price. For variety, I will make pancakes (if I am packing a skillet).

Lunch is usually just a series of snacks, similar to yours. I like Tanka bars - they are mostly protein and really tasty, but they ain't cheap. Nuts are hard to beat for lightweight nutrition.

Dinners include instant potatoes with beef jerky and assorted vegetables or pasta with whatever, typically lots of cheeses.

I am a tea drinker, but when I do coffee, I really like Via. In cold weather, it is great to eat hot Jello. Combine hot Jello with your oatmeal for an unusual breakfast.

What hikermor said! :-)

My personal favorites are:

Dinner -chilie with bannock/stew with bannock
*I add instant rice to the mix while I'm cooking it to bulk it up. I either prep homemade before the trip and take it frozen, or bring freeze dried. (MH Chilie Mac is my fav of the freeze dried I've tried.)
*I think there are as many different bannock recipies and methods of cooking as there are days in a lifetime. Experiment!

Lunch - wraps or subs, soup or stew
*I add instant rice to soups and stews to bulk them up.
*Left-over or fresh banock is nice with soups and stew too
*Myfave wraps and sandwiches are good old PB&J OR hummas with spinach *smoked turkey is heavenly in warps and sandwiches, as are lettace, onion, tomato, cuke....

Breakfast - oatmeal or granola with fruit
*mixed with hot chocolate is great on cold mormings

Snacks - peanut butter with celery, trail mix with dried fruit and chocolate (peanut m&ms work well), oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies

Drinks - VIA, Tang, Koolaid hot chocolate

My son would argue that all you really need is KD, weiners, marshmallows and hot chocolate to make any overnighter menu a success.

what food do you eat on backpaking/camping trip?

Whatever makes me happy at the time ... and usually way more than I should eat :-)

But I did screw up on my last trip a few weeks ago - had no way to do some fresh coffee. That was a disaster! I need a some sort of compact coffee brewing system. That is a MUST.

Pete2

Pete, you need to try Starbucks Via. SO good! No grinds to clean up either.

As an alternative, I have a metal coffee filter that fits on my Nalgene. Works great! I got it in my Christmas stocking so I have no idea who makes it, sorry.

A cup, hot water, and ground coffee will get it done. Nice if you can filter/strain the grounds, but not strictly necessary---just don't drink it to the bottom and swallow the grounds.

Ground coffee in hot water is the way we make coffee in our "french press" coffee maker: I prefer it.

Maybe I got used to dumping coffee into the hot water from my old Army field days. . .

Filtering coffee grounds - another use for our trusty bandanas!

Another vote here for Starbucks Via ... definitely the best and most compact way to have a good cup of coffee when camping, although not the cheapest.

As far as other ways to make coffee, I've tried a lot of different ways and my preference before Starbucks Via came along is the very simple solution from Coghlan's: one-cup coffee filters. It allows you to make good coffee with minimal hassles and cost.

Basically for a few dollars you get 40 single cup filters and a plastic stick that the filters slide on to like this:



Coffee quality aside, the problem with every other brewing method is that clean-up is a pain; with the Coghlan's solution at least you only have to deal with the waste. Obviously this is still a better solution for car camping than it would be for backpacking where you're packing out all your garbage.

Be careful with some of those pre-packaged dehydrated meals and soups. I nearly did myself in last week with an MSG overload!

For supper I had a package of mushroom soup mix, farmer's sausage, bagel & PB. As soon as I devoured the soup, I started getting a tingly feeling in my fingers and originally thought I was just cold. But by the time I finished the entire meal, I was "bouncing" around the campsite. I felt like I needed to puke. Knowing how my brother's heart arrhythmia reacts to MSG (hospitalized 2x), I was immediately concerned and drank as much water as I could to dilute effect. I've reacted before to heavy amounts of MSG but this time it was on the extreme side for me. I followed up with some very weird dreams that night.

Even though the packaging often say MSG free, there is MSG used in the manufacturing/processing that doesn't get reported or labelled properly. In any case, the remaining mushroom soup mix in my stock will get deep sixed.

seeing as how the thread is about camping food and i ran a photo of some of the chow i took on my solo canoe trip here is a link to my Youtube of "unboxing" the Duluth Pack used to carry the food and related gear in.as this was packed the last morning i was out and would not be used again a lot of odd items went into it so i could even out weight between this and the pack that has the tent,clothes and such in it.
it's about 10-12 minutes long and if nothing else you should get a laugh out of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgDk6d7AB...mp;feature=plcp

Not sure how I missed this the first time around, Dennis, but thanks for the great link!

http://www.backpackingchef.com/