Contributors to this thread:
Other than freeze dried meals, what are some lightweight meal options for 10 days of backpacking? For whatever reason, my stomach doesn't like Mtn House. I plan to take Ramon Noodles, but need more ideas. Thanks!
Tuna, precooked salmon, precooked chicken, peanut butter and bacon, lots of different home made trail mixes, cereals with powdered milk, granola, oatmeal, mini summer sausage, cheese wedges (non refrigerated), crackers, couscous, potato flakes, rice, macaroni, dehydrated fruits/veggies, various candy/trail bars......that's all I have for now.
Aron Snyder has a good meal prep for making your own freeze dried stews and what not. Can't remember where I saw it, but I'm sure you can find it if you google it.
Rokslide.com What Dyjack said.
Ramen doesn't have the protein and calories you need when you're backpacking, unless you plan on eating like 20 of them a day. I do bring some cup-o-noodles though - they really hit the spot when you're exhausted and just want something easy and warm.
I can't stand daily Mt House either. I eat a lot of pepperoni and cheese, but it's pretty heavy. Nuts are good. I eat a lot of wasabi almonds. Hard-boiled eggs are great, but are only reliable for 3 days. They last 5 or more if you bury them in tupperware or if it's cold. Canned fish/shellfish are great, but also heavy. Smoked sausage are great for quite some time. Keep in mind a lot of these ideas are bear bait. I've buried a lot of food and also hung it and *knock on wood* never lost food to bears in over 400 days in bear country. But a lot of of those were with a bear canister and if I'm packing things like pepperoni, I think a bear canister is a must.
For a 10 day trip, you can bring a lot of things that are good eating that will only last you 5ish days and it makes the stuff you have to suffer through at the end not so bad because it's just a few days. The Mt House chicken breast with mashed potatoes is not that bad. Especially if you bring a 1/2 oz of red pepper to sprinkle on it, you can do that for a few days with some triscuits and almonds. Check out Phillipine brand dried mangos too. Great breakfast along with a cliff bar.
I eat a ton of these: Pepperoni in resealable bags don't go bad in 10 days. Neither does Manchego cheese. Combine in a baguette (which are strong enough to not get smashed in your pack and last if you cut them and reseal them in ziplocks) in tinfoil over fire and you've got yourself a high-calorie delicious meal.
I once went on a non-hunting backpacking trip in Washington and ate nothing but sausage for the entire 6 day trip. Yes, my partner and I each had 15 lbs of food, but we ate like kings and going the extra mile on that trip was easy knowing we'd be feasting each night. Fresh sausage for the first few days, then smoked sausage the last 3. Bring some mustard.
Ike, those baguettes are the bomb! I take the little packets of Dijon to put on.
Never have found that Manchego cheese, tho, so use Provolone.
And thanks to Kevin Dill on this tip....2 oz., 370 calories and taste EXACTLY like real eggs!
For light weight and to get protein, dried eggs, hard sausages, cheese, and dried meat are best. Sausage and cheese provide the most calories. Freeze dried's like MT House are quite skimpy on calories but awful satisfying at the end of a hard day.
Midwest, do they really claim 370 calories for 2 oz? Seems high. Butter is about that level.
Get your tuna and salmon in foil packs versus cans (lighter and pack better). Also love "Finn Crisp" rye crisp style crackers. They are tough (don't break up) and efficiently packed and go great with fish or cheese.
Also add dried mashed potatoes to the list. Add them to Mt House meals or reconstitute them with boiling water, some powdered milk, add butter or seasoning if you like. I like the big box from Costco........"Honest Earth Creamy Mash" that is packaged with 14 pouches of 8 servings each. Great taste and is light, I take one or two pouches, depending on the trip duration.
Toasted whole wheat bread, spread thick with honey, peanut butter and several slices of semi-crispy bacon. Each in a zip-lock. Carbs, quick energy and protein. Plus they keep for a long time.
I pack each days food in separate large zip-locs, except my evening meal., breakfast included, which I like to eat when I get to the first glassing spot of the morning.
Instant oatmeal, raisins, nuts, granola bars, fruit bars, dried sausages, chocolate, drink crystals, cheese, coffee tubes, hard candies [never backpack without a pound of Werthers Originals] a noodle packet for emergency over nighters, and any special favourite you may have.
But I find Mountain house to be the best nighttime meal after a long day and you're just too tired to deal with food.
If you can find protein powder meal packets that could work as a decent breakfast, or lunch. can measure out your own servings and throw them in ziplocks.
Kurt, don't forget those awesome protein shakes!!! aahaha!
Buy a dehydrator! You'll come up with all kinds of good things to eat. Chilli, soups, hamburger, All sorts of fruit, even ice cream. The list is endless.
I like a few of the Mtn House. One item I always take on backpack trips is Bacon jerky. Stays good at room temp, and the texture/taste is about the same as regular bacon, if not better. Other ready-to-eat must-haves for me are dried fruits including bananas, cheese/cracker packs, Little Debbie Nutty Bars, peanut M&M's, peanut butter Snickers bars, and Pop Tarts.
Ambush......I gave the protein shake powder back to Luke! Wonder where they will get re-gifted next? Only stuff I was unable to eat on a backpack trip (puke). Brand unknown as it was in a ziplock when I got it. It had a lot of miles in backpacks on it when I got rid of it.
I dehydrate my leftover elk spaghetti and vacuum seal it up
Also do some fruit too
Midwest, that's really up there, but who has a 1 egg serving. I really like the cholesterol number. Still, that's a lot of calories in a light pack. I figure one pack per person.
LKH, The entire pack makes a big pile of eggs but I could easily eat it while hunting.
Again, the quality is outstanding. I seriously would not be able to tell the difference between this and real scrambled eggs if no one told me.
I was out in San Fran Chinatown recently. Lots of shops with dehydrated bulk food. Fish, shrimp and other unrecognizables. I had to wonder how palatable they would be. Anybody have any experience?
Nick. You get those eggs locally or order them online?
Went to a Chinese wedding in Taiwan about 45 years ago. Wedding feast included a soup with lots of dried minnows in it. They were still a bit crunchy and had a fairly strong flavor. I ate some things that I still have no idea what they were.
A judo point, a willing bunny and I made a killer rabbit omelet for the boys several years ago with freeze dried eggs. Worst part was cleaning the pan.... If I did it again I'd make some kind of foil pouch or boil bag or something.
Scrambled eggs and whatever you have on hand in a flour tortilla wrap works awesome in the pack for the day and has a decent shelf life WRT smashed and edible.....
Check out Heather's Choice, pricey, but supposed to be good and easy on the stomach. Supplement that with jerky, hard salami with triscuits etc.
other options? Center of picture, are pouched tuna or chicken and instant potatoes. A meal for less than a freezed dried meal.
For breakfast I usually add 1.5 servings of granola, a scoop of protein powder, and a scoop of dehy milk into a freezer ziplock (granola will poke holes in std ziplocks under pressure). Add water and stir to eat. If memory serves, this was ~750 cals for breakfast.
Take ziplock packs of dried butter for a lightweight way to boost calorie intake. Add it to just about anything, including your coffee.
Anyone have an idea for a powdered breakfast, just add water? I looked at Carnation Instant Breakfast but it requires milk. I need more calories in the morning. Two honey stinger waffles isn't cutting it. I want quick w/o heating water.
Love my dehydrator. Every time I dehydrate prime veggies and fruit it brings me that much closer to the day I take off for the mountains, for pennies compared to what prepackaged costs. Still, I've never heard of dehydrating leftover elk spaghetti before - gotta try it! Makes me wonder what you can't cook up, then dehydrate and vacuum seal? A really good chunky oatmeal/muesli with nuts and fruit comes to immediately to mind. How far can you dehydrate peanut butter before you break a tooth? Modern hardtack!
I eat "horse feed" for breakfast......whether at home or backpacking. It is heavy on rolled oats (old fashioned and quick flakes blended as a base), plus wheat germ, sliced almonds, wheat and oat bran and chia seeds. At home it sits in mixed in a bowl with cold milk for about 15 minutes before I eat it. On a backpack trip I layer in the powdered milk into it in my cup, mix it up with cold water and start eating. I typically eat 3/4 of a cup (measured) at home and a full cup everyday when I am backpacking. You can cook it up as hot cereal but I never do. Anyway, it is inexpensive when mixed up from bulk ingredients, tastes good to me, is decent for you, and makes you a regular guy. We store it in the freezer in 1 or 2.5 gallon Ziplocks until we use it to keep it fresh. I usually carry the dry mix in pint or quart freezer style Ziplocks when backpacking. You could probably pre-mix in the powdered milk but I don't as any moisture will gum the works up. I like a mug of hot tea with Tang as well when backpacking, but make due with cold Tang if rushed.
Some of this stuff sounds like the goo they ate in the Matrix that drove the one dude to kill all his friends for a steak.
Ike. That is why I am looking for other options. I did the granola dehydrated milk thing in 1998. My granola was tainted with pepper taste while in my pack. I choked that cr@p down for 5 days because I had to. Russians in Stalin's gulags ate better than I did. I won't punish myself again.
I do like the waffles because I can eat them while hiking. But 300 calories aren't enough for a breakfast.
Z Barebow: A friend found this "recipe" on a website, said he likes it. Can't say I have ever tried it.
Carnation Instant Breakfast Mix, Brownie Mix, Oats and Instant Coffee Powder. Mix it all up into one, secure bag at home before leaving. Eyeball your 1/5 portion each morning into a cup and add some water. Mix it and sluuuurp it up.
Z, I mix powdered milk and protein powder with Instant Breakfast. Just add water.
light weight meal and can be gathered on the spot
Right there wid ya! Paul x2!
I do the same as Midwest (protein powder, carnation instant milk, and instant breakfast) I call it "Mountain Milk". Mix it up in a ziplock bag at night before I go to bed and drink it with a straw out of the ziplock bag the next morning for a quick high calorie/protein boost. Letting it sit overnight helps to dissolve all the powder.
"Letting it sit overnight helps to dissolve all the powder."
Thanks for that tip, Mike! I've just been sucking down the chunks. :-)
Oversize straws help.....
Amazing how good fresh meat can be over the fire when you haven't had much else. Killed a chicken with a hatchet one time years ago on a camping trip and cooked it on rocks glazed with canned mandarin juices and salt and I still swear that was the best chicken I ever ate...
Dehydrate good food. Easy, cheap and u control salt, sugar, calories. I do piles of bananas,jerky cooked:carrots, sweet potato, stew, porridge with berries n yogurt. If u are trying to boost calories the obvious ones of nuts and bacon but also coconut cream with pineapple bits.
Gonna try n figure out how to turn peanut powder into peanut butter. Probably just. Gotta add some sugar and rehydrate.
Been my experience.... dehydrated is not the same as freeze dried. I have tried re-hydrating things like jerky and fruits with, um, less than stellar success.
A few hard core guys (had a really cool conversation with South Cox at a P&Y convention about it) had actually gone to the lengths of getting a Freeze Drier and prepares his own. Interesting..... but in my case it would be assuming I was a better cook than many others......
TD my experiences resemble yours. If it tastes like cr@p before I dehydrate it, odds of it tasting better after I rehydrate it are low!
"dehydrated is not the same as freeze dried"
Bingo.
Op said "other than freeze dried" . Yes dehydrated is different. U can make test batches, dehydrate the wifes good cooking(leftovers). I am a good cook so making good food for hunting is no biggie. Some foods dont rehydrate quickly and cause me to plan accordingly.
