What do you do for meals when backpacking?



I am planning a trip to Havasupai and it will be about 3-4 days. I am thinking mostly Mountain House and a few MRE's along with oatmeal for breakfast and trailmix for snacks.

I make a teriyaki chicken bento, freeze it and vacuum pack it. Simply throw it in warming water to reheat, doesn't take long since it thaws while hiking in.  Heat instant rice and at least the first night ends with real food. After that it's instant oatmeal and MH/backpackers pantry meals.

My pro tip is to grab a couple rolls to go along with the meals( beef stew/pasta) takes it to a different level.

Everybody has their own way of doing it but when I'm out on a multiple day hike I like to have a big breakfast very early in the morning (in the dark) and be off as soon as it's light enough to see.  I usually have a quick snack around mid day and keep pushing until afternoon when I'll stop and set up for the night and dinner.  For meals it's usually something like this:

5:00AM - pancakes, spam, coffee
9:00AM - Protein bar, granola bar
Noon - Tuna, crackers, dried fruit
3:00PM - Nuts,      
6:00PM - Soup fortified with tuna or chicken and cracker

First and last meal requires heat and can be cooked on one pot or pan.  
Pancake mixes are premeasured and put in ziplock bags so all I have to do is add water and then squirt the batter out of the corner of the bag.
Add up and see how much calories you are eating per day.  I try to keep it around 4,000-4,400 per day.

I usually hike in warm weather areas so I prefer to start early before it gets hot and then stop earlier than other people so I have choices on where I want to spend the night.

I hiked into Havasupai Falls a few years ago....one of the most amazing things I have ever done/seen.  I just had Mountain House meals, and some jerky/granola bars for snacks....anything else is too heavy.

That is the best way to go IMO.

 

look up hawk vittles. They are like mountian house but better. good breakfast. Peanut butter with tortillas for lunch with some trail mix and jerky allong the way. Hawks for dinner

Looks awesome. Thank you



 

Depends on if you like to cook or just want to eat.

On shorter trips you can generally eat out of the grocery store available items for the most part.
Cooking more than simply boiling water and adding to a bag will require additional fuel and perhaps utensils, which adds weight.

I generally get my breakfast and most lunch items, plus GORP fixins, from the grocery store and use FD meals for dinners.
Even Walmart has some good FD or "just add boiling water" meals in the grocery section.  
I particularly like the Cheese and Broccoli Rice with the National Geographic logo.
Unless it's cold I don't cook lunch.  When it's cold I like soup for lunch.
On a longer trip I do like at least one more involved dinner with a dessert just for morale.

I think MREs are too heavy because the water is still in the food.

We use noodles or rice packets for dinners mostly.

Bagels take up a lot of room but aren't that heavy, tortillas are a smaller option.   Some squeeze jelly and peanut butter or cream cheese will work with bagels for breakfast and lunch.

Bagged tuna is not a bad way to go for meat, although I like to take some vacuum packed bacon if it is cool enough to keep for a couple of days as well, it is a great luxury.

Granola bars to augment meals or for snacks while hiking.

A couple of apples are a treat as well.

I like oatmeal for breakfast, nuts and granola bars maybe apples for snacks, MH meal for dinner.

I don't like cooking, bulk, or excessive weight and find the above to be the best compromise, and most importantly, satisfying!

They are very heavy. I was planning on bringing only 2-3 and the rest of my meals would be freeze dried with other small stuff.



 

My wife does a lot of dehydrating for our meals, but we often plan the more elaborate or heavy meals for the first night.  I’ve done so much as marinate and freeze a T-bone and pack in freezer Ziploc; but that does require an open fire and trench-grill.

Tortillas are a big staple for us.  Use with peanut butter (or some chocolate stuff my wife likes) and roll up.  Another excellent tortilla “sandwich” is foil-packed salmon with cream cheese.  My favorite is my wife would pack along either dehydrated refried beans or just the foil-packaged chicken (or even hamburger), a small bag of instant rice, taco-seasonings, and those little “baby-bell” rounds of cheese sealed in wax and packaged salsa.  These make the most scrumptious trail-burritos and you can cook everything over a stove.

I prefer instant oatmeal in the morning along with instant (Starbucks Via) or tea-bag (Folders) coffee.  If we’re on the trail and shooting for miles, we often just get up and start hiking with trail snacks, leaving the hot meal just for the evening.  For multi-day hikes, we really like to add some variety, but there is some value to packing a few freeze dried meals.  They are fast, filling and easy.  There are more options than Mountain House but do avoid the high-sodium content ones or at least limit the number of those meals.  One of my favorite deserts, my wife uses those real small Ziplocs and adds two large table spoons of instant pudding and two large table spoons of powdered milk.  Add cold water mix/knead at the start of your dinner prep and at the end of your meal, it’s awesome trail pudding!

We’re a little anal, but my wife will package each day in a large Ziploc; the Ziplocs also get used as pack-out garbage bags and we use a bear bag, so they can stay sealed from our other meals.  This also helps to make sure every day is planned properly.  It the morning, you pull out your breakfast, snacks/lunch and pack for easy access keeping your dinner/desert for the evening.  Daily snacks are usually a couple of favorite granola/energy bars (Probar, Clif, Luna, etc.); some of those “energy jelly beans” (great alternative to coffee if it’s a cold breakfast); fruit chews, and small bag of trail-mix.  It’s easy to have too many snacks, so plan wisely otherwise you’ll be packing out a lot of food.  Our daily meal bag is typically between 1.25-2.0 pounds (with entrees either dehydrated or freeze-dried).    

ROCK6

I like MREs over dried foods.  The fact that they contain their own moisture and can be eaten uncooked is everything to me.  Plus they are cheap.  I've hiked enough ridge lines and found enough blue lines on the map that turned out to be bone-dry stream beds over the years to not count on water being available for cooking.

I also like tuna packs and Cliff bars.

Winter hiking is the best though because your backpack becomes a refrigerator and you can safely pack bratwursts, eggs, bacon and other delicious, perishable stuff.

All the standard stuff has been mentioned, tortillas with individual packets of PB&J, pouches of tuna/chicken, lipton pasta sides, ect.



I'll add that I like to bring a couple eggs for the first mornings breakfast. If you get farm fresh eggs that have never been refrigerated then they don't need to be refrigerated. Kind of a hassle but it's a comfort item I like to bring.

MH and lots of beef jerky.  I like rice crispy bars for breakfast, they're light and full of calories.  Last trip we splurged and carried a couple frozen deer steaks in a soft crushable cooler,  some potatoes and fresh garlic.  Made for a great fire cooked dinner.  One of the benefits of being in decent shape and walking regularly is carrying a few extra lb's one day isn't too bad.  

"Real" food is the gold standard for quality eating.  Often takes lots of stove fuel, and is heavy.  Did I say heavy?  Tastes great.

When I did the JMT, my ultralight expensive food minimum was 2x two serving MH freezedrieds, and 4x Cliff Bars per day.  Worked great, I lost weight.  

Skurka has a website where he discusses homemade, home dried food:

http://andrewskurka.com/2015/backpacking-dinner-recipe-beans-rice-with-fritos-cheese/

I made this at home and it is as good as a mediocre freeze dry meal, but much cheaper.  Be advised, he gives his recipe in weight ounces!   Adding a large pinch of excessively dessicated and then powdered homemade jerkey improves this recipe, markedly.

This is exactly what I do.  Use to go fancy, or cheap, but this is what I settled on after many years.

I like the packets of tuna with some curry and mayo.

I know it is heavy but the last time I went on a 3 day trip I brought some frozen hot dogs and a can of baked beans for the first nights dinner.  I split it with my friend who I was hiking with, and he said it really hit the spot.  

Rest was a mixture of MH meals and MRE's.  I'm one of the weird people who like MRE's, so I usually pack a couple of them stripped down to the essentials.  I also love MH granola with milk and blueberries for breakfast.

I usually make my own trail mix just because I like some nuts more than others and can never find a pre-packaged kind I like.

This only goes for winter camping when it's very cold out BUT sometimes I'll fill a freezer bag with black beans and rice (pre-cooked) or frozen veggies and chicken (also pre-cooked) for spicing up Ramen.  In a freezer bag it lays flat and in the winter it stays frozen until you need it.

Mmmm... snow-Ramen.  Maybe it's just me but I think it really hits the spot after a day of hiking in the cold.

Typically oatmeal for breakfast. I find I don't usually eat lunch when I'm on the trail. Dinner is DIY dehydrated meals. Sometimes I get fancy with stuff like spicy tuna linguine. Depends on how much I want to carry in the way of spices and cooking/cleaning gear.

For three or four days anything will work.  Honey Buns, Little Debbies, Snickers, protein bars, peanut butter, GORP, Fritos, etc.

Lipton noodle pouches with a pouch of chicken or beef is good.

This.
Dried fruits and nuts....
Jerky...tvp...
Small 2-3 oz bags of Bisquick ...add to the souls mixes with chicken bullion...add water need..tear corner drop into boiling water...distant dumplings ...or...lay in your pan or foil for a fast flat bread /pancake deal.
Dehydrate chili ...add water to it in a zip lock...stuff in a beer coozie or clothing...come back in 30 minutes ..hot dinner.
Cliff bars or nuts as snacks..
Emergen -C drink mixes for drinks and coffee in the tea bags...

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For two days? easy
day 1 pasta and sauce. dehydrate or freaze in a bag
day 2 instant potatoes and a foil pack of chicken
oat meal for breakfast, eags and pre cooked bacon if you want.
tuna, hard cheese etc for lunch

Keep in mind I cannot build a fire. It's all gonna be on a small stove. Most likely a pocket rocket.

I boil my MRE and then use the hot water to make coffee.

The food I pack depends on who is with me

More people better choices


if just myself I try to keep it as simplest as possible

Ive gone on trips with ramen and sardines and a peanut butter with tortillas

Oh, if all you have is a pocket rocket then just boil water and go with freeze dry. Pocket rockets suck to cook on.

I have trouble separating out what I would carry normally when camping vs what I would carry in a BOB.

My thought though is that if I'm working in the big city.  A horrible event happens and I try to leave, somehow I'm forced to park my car and hoof it.

I'd probably go for lightweight foods like some here have already suggested.  So, granola bars, lipton soup, things that can handle heat well.

Otherwise pack out with as many goodies as I can stuff my bag with (salmon, steak etc).