Meal planning in your subsequent backpacking journey? We’ve compiled our favourite backpacking meals, elements, and meal concepts that will help you get began. Discover out what meals is greatest for mountaineering, uncover new elements, and get impressed by a few of our scrumptious DIY backpacking meals.
Backpacking is an effective way to unplug, immerse your self in nature, and problem your self each bodily and mentally. Whereas there’s loads of pure magnificence to soak up, skilled backpackers know that irrespective of how spectacular the surroundings is, a lot of the day is spent serious about the subsequent meal!
However determining what meals to pack can a be problem all by itself! Because you’ll be carrying all of it in your again, backpacking meals must strike the correct stability between vitamin, weight, and ease of preparation.
On this publish, we share our favourite backpacking meals concepts from a whole lot of miles hiked over the previous few years. From freeze-dried choices to selfmade meals, you’ll discover every kind of filling and light-weight path meals to assist hold your vitality up and your style buds happy.
Backpacking breakfast concepts
A great day on the path begins with a stable breakfast. If you wish to get by means of the morning with out working out of steam, it’s greatest to start out with some energy within the tank.
Seasoned backpackers shall be conversant in the tried-and-true instantaneous oat pouches, however fortunately there are much more choices to check out!
Listed below are some nice backpacking breakfasts to take a look at.
Freeze-Dried or Dehydrated Meals
Whenever you want a considerable meal to start out the day, it doesn’t get any simpler than including boiling water to a meal pouch. Listed below are a few of our favourite freeze-dried and dehydrated breakfasts:
OvaEasy Eggs
When you don’t thoughts cooking within the morning, OvaEasy’s powdered egg crystals are surprisingly near the actual factor! Take pleasure in scrambled eggs on their very own, with dehydrated hash browns, or as a veggie scramble.
DIY Yogurt Parfait
This simple DIY meal makes use of freeze-dried “yogurt melts” (you may often discover them within the child meals aisle), granola, and dried fruit. Get our recipe right here!
Dehydrated Quinoa Porridge
Loaded with protein and full of energy, our Quinoa Porridge dehydrator recipes are an ideal choice in case you have entry to a meals dehydrator. Begin with one among these or customise it with your personal favourite flavors!
Instantaneous oatmeal
Instantaneous oatmeal is fast, simple, low cost, and completely customizable. Simply add scorching water. Professional Tip: Use the packet as your bowl. Simply tear off the highest, pour the water in, and stir. The bag will get scorching, however received’t leak. Up the energy by including coconut or entire milk powder, or stirring in a packet of nut butter.
Bobo’s Oat Bars
A no-cook “breakfast” bar is a superb grab-and-go choice for anybody who desires to streamline their morning routine. It will also be good for individuals who don’t get up hungry and wish to get a bit mountaineering performed earlier than consuming. We notably like Bobo’s Oat Bars for breakfast, which pack 340+ energy right into a 3oz bar.
Instantaneous Espresso
There was an enormous enchancment within the QUALITY of instantaneous espresso in recent times. Our prime go-to favorites are Mt. Hagen and Alpine Begin.
Instantaneous Tea
Desire tea over espresso? No worries. Take a look at Instantaneous Tea from Cusa, with flavors like English Breakfast, Chai, and quite a lot of natural teas. These tea packets dissolve totally into the water, so there’s no soggy tea bag to pack out with you.
Backpacking lunches, snacks, and bars
When backpacking, the aim is to devour a continuing stream of energy all through the day. This gradual drip affords your physique a constant and steady gasoline supply, stopping your blood sugar from taking a nosedive (i.e. bonking).
So we like to consider mountaineering as one lengthy, moveable feast. A lot of little backpacking snacks right here and there, an enormous snack in the course of the day (in any other case referred to as lunch), after which extra snacking all through the afternoon. The important thing to creating this work is selection. Don’t get burnt out consuming the identical factor again and again.
Listed below are a few of the greatest backpacking snacks and lunch concepts to pack in your journey!
Greenbelly meal bars
Greenbelly meal bars boast 650 energy per serving and are available in a bunch of flavors. They’re mainly a full meal that requires zero cooking—good for lunch on the path!
No-cook meals
There are a selection of no-cook meal choices accessible, comparable to Outside Herbivore’s Waldorf Salad and Lazy Lentil Salad, and Packit Gourmand’s Curry Mango or Cajun Ranch Hen Salads.
DIY Chilly Soak Meals
If in case you have entry to a meals dehydrator, strive making your personal cold-soak meals utilizing quite a lot of pasta, beans, and veggies. Take a look at these recipes to start out: Pasta Salad or Cowboy Caviar.
Hen, tuna, or SPAM packets
These may not be probably the most weight-efficient gadgets in your bear canister, however they do an ideal job of offering protein. Purchase them plain and physician them up with condiments, or purchase a few of the many taste choices.
Our favorites had been Buffalo Hen, Hen Salad, Deli Model Tuna Salad, and Lemon Pepper Tuna.
These wild-caught tuna packets are packed in oil for additional energy.
If salmon is extra your velocity, Patagonia Provisions has some superior choices.
SPAM additionally is available in a foil packet and generally is a good change of tempo from seafood. We had been hesitant about this one, nevertheless it’s truly very tasty.
NB: Be sure you’re shopping for the foil packets, not cans!
Packaroons
These macaroons pack in 170 energy per ounce, so that they positively pull their weight (pun supposed) in your pack. They arrive in a number of flavors together with Amaretto, Blueberry Almond, and Candy Coconut.
Power Bars
Our greatest recommendation when packing bars is to go for VARIETY. Don’t simply load up in your favourite bar for a multi-day hike. As a result of after your journey, it received’t be your favourite anymore. There are extra vitality bar firms on the market than we are able to hold monitor of, however listed here are a few of the prime manufacturers that we’ve tried: Bobo, RX Bars, Munkpack Nut & Seeds, Kate’s Actual Meals bars, GoMacro, Lara Bar, Bearded Brothers, and Aloha.
Peak Refuel Cookie Dough Bites
I used to be skeptical about these however I’m type of obsessive about them now! They’ve each Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites and Fudge Brownie Bites.
Nut butter
On a tortilla or straight from the packet, nut butter is a superb addition to path lunches. Our favourite on the JMT was RX Vanilla Almond Butter. Justin’s and TrailButter are different good choices.
Jerky and meat bars
Jerky and meat bars are usually a bit low on energy, however excessive in protein — which is crucial for muscle restore. We like Epic Provisions and Wild Zora. On longer multi-day hikes, these are good to eat in direction of the top of the day to assist your physique restore. Primal Spirit Meals and Louisville Vegan Jerky Co are good vegan choices to strive.
If in case you have a bit little bit of expertise utilizing a dehydrator, strive your hand at making your personal jerky! The flavour combos are infinite! Right here’s our fundamental beef jerky recipe, and one for teriyaki beef jerky.
Honey Stinger Waffles
A fast hit of vitality, Honey Stingers Waffles are an ideal little upkeep snack. Good for once you’re feeling a bit low-energy and want a bit additional zip to get you up the subsequent hill. They’ve quite a lot of flavors to select from, and a few also have a little bit of caffeine for an additional little increase.
Power Gummies
The stable, chewy type of a gel, there are a number of vitality gummies like Honey Stinger Chews, Clif Shot Bloks, GU Power Chews, and Scratch Lab Chews These are nice to have readily available if you happen to ever begin to really feel your self bonking. We consider these as a “Break Glass If In Want of Energy” kind of emergency snack.
Tailwind Vitamin
When you’d want to drink your energy, Tailwind Vitamin is an effective way to do it. One serving holds 200 energy together with 50g of carbohydrates, giving your physique some fast vitality to make use of (nice if you happen to really feel your self beginning to hit the wall!).
Peanut Butter Crammed Pretzels
We love peanut butter-filled pretzels! What mad hatter got here up with the loopy concept, we don’t know. However they’re superb. Quinn has quite a lot of flavors price testing like Maple Almond Butter and basic peanut butter.
Olives
We completely love olives when backpacking. Not solely are they loaded with energy, however they provide a momentary burst of savory refinement that’s laborious to check. Instantaneous morale booster. We’re huge followers of Oloves packable olives, or on shorter journeys we’ll pack some in small zip-top baggage.
Cheese
Laborious cheese and cheeses which can be individually packaged are nice choices. We additionally LOVE the Dealer Joe’s Baked Cheese Bites in addition to Parmesan or Cheddar Whisps (the latter are a bit much less sturdy although).
Path combine, nuts, and dried fruit
Packing an assortment of path combine, nuts, and dried fruits is an effective way to have some calorie boosts readily available to eat whereas mountaineering (there’s a cause GORP has been handed down by means of the generations!). Our favourite locations for nuts and dried fruit in bulk are Nuts.com and Dealer Joe’s. You will discover a few of our favourite path combine recipes right here.
Drying your personal fruit is an effective way to chop prices and make the most of seasonal produce when it’s on sale. We love dried apples, dehydrated bananas, pineapple, and kiwis!
Sweet
The snack we didn’t pack sufficient of for the JMT however we want we did: Sweet! We’re not sweet folks usually, however the calorie and mid-day sugar increase would have been superior. Black Forest Gummy Bears, Swedish Fish, or Jelly Stomach’s “Sports activities Beans” are all good picks. No matter you decide, be certain it received’t be too melty.
Backpacking dinners
After a protracted day on the path, among the finest issues is taking off your pack, discovering a cushty cease to take a seat, and having fun with a scorching dinner! That is why it’s so necessary to discover a meal that can finish your day on a contented and satisfying word.
Whereas there are extra backpacking dinner choices to select from than ever earlier than, our suggestion is to stay to your pre-existing meals preferences. If a meal sounds good to you now, you’ll doubtless find it irresistible after a protracted day of mountaineering. However if you happen to’re not an adventurous eater at dwelling, then you definitely’re doubtless not going to magically develop into one on the path.
Right here’s an inventory of a few of the greatest backpacking meals manufacturers together with a number of of their top-rated entrees:
Backpacker’s Pantry
Backpacker’s Pantry makes one among our favourite freeze-dried backpacking meals of all time (Hen Pad Thai), and their manufacturing line runs 100% on photo voltaic vitality, which is fairly cool. Listed below are a number of favourite meals:
Farm to Summit
Farm to Summit makes dehydrated backpacking meals with low-impact packaging and seasonal farm-fresh produce. Meals to take a look at:
Good-To-Go
Producing dehydrated meals from high quality elements, Good To-Go has actually expanded its lineup up to now few years. We’ll be trustworthy, in our private expertise, we’ve had some winner and loser meals from them. Nothing was dangerous, we simply discovered a number of meals to be tragically undersalted. Meals to take a look at:
Heather’s Alternative
Primarily based in Anchorage, Alaska, Heather’s Alternative makes use of high-quality, entire meals elements to create packable, dehydrated provisions. We now have not personally tried these meals but, however they get good opinions on-line. They’re gluten and dairy-free and have a various vary of flavors. Meals to take a look at:
Mountain Home
The OG of backpacking meals, Mountain Home has been making freeze-dried meals for the reason that Nineteen Seventies. Over time they’ve developed some absolute basic meals that stay a few of our favorites:
Nomad Vitamin
Primarily based in British Columbia, Canada, Nomad Vitamin affords a completely plant-based line of dehydrated backpacking meals. Whether or not you’re a vegan, vegetarian, or simply seeking to scale down your meat consumption on the path, this can be a nice firm to look into. Meals to take a look at:
Peak ReFuel
Though they’re comparatively new to the area, Peak ReFuel feels prefer it’s been round for some time. That is likely to be as a result of their founder spent practically a decade within the freeze-dried world earlier than branching out to launch Peak ReFuel. They provide loads of consolation meals classics which can be positive to hit the spot. Meals to take a look at:
Gastro Gnome
Based by a formally skilled chef, Gastro Gnome boasts a menu of legit freeze-dried meals like Indian Yogurt Braised Hen, Mushroom Ragu Farfalle, Hen Pozole, and Montana Beef Shepherd’s Pie.
Outside Herbivore
Vegetarian and vegan hikers will discover tons of choices at Outside Herbivore. The Basil Walnut Penne and Switchback Burrito Stuffer sound nice.
Packit Gourmand
It is a small firm out of Texas that focuses on dehydrated fare. We’re wanting ahead to making an attempt the Texas State Truthful Chili, Tortilla Soup, or the Fajita Hen Burrito on our subsequent journey!
Wild Zora
Primarily based in Colorado, Wild Zora makes a speciality of low-sugar, high-protein, gluten-free, and Paleo backpacking meals. In addition they supply a line of AIP (autoimmune protocol) meals. If in case you have any dietary restrictions, this can be a nice firm to take a look at. We’ve heard nice issues in regards to the Bedrock Beef Chili.
Avoid wasting money! When you purchase 8 or extra backpacking meals at a time from REI, you’ll mechanically get a ten% low cost on all of them!
DIY Backpacking Meals
The sky’s the restrict if you happen to’re as much as making your personal selfmade meals. Whereas we’ve developed loads of completely different backpacking recipes over there years, we’ll offer you a shortlist of our a few of our favorites meals (ssh, don’t inform the others!):
Dehydrator Recipes:
No Dehydrator Required:
Extra DIY Backcountry Meal Sources:
Grocery retailer backpacking meals concepts
Whether or not you’re making your personal customized meals or in search of a technique to stretch a freeze-dried meal, there are a bunch of store-bought elements you may pack alongside.
Desserts
When creating your backpacking meal plan, desserts completely have a spot! As a particular deal with to mark a notable day, a morale booster after an actual doozy, or only a technique to pad out your dinner’s calorie rely, backpacking desserts are an ideal trick to have within the backside of your bear barrel.
Freeze-dried desserts
There are a variety of freeze-dried dessert choices available on the market, whether or not you like one thing homey like Cinnamon Apple Crisp or Blueberry Peach Crisp, one thing fancy like Creme Brulee, or one thing completely space-age like this Neapolitan Ice Cream.
Treehouse Consuming Chocolate
When you don’t essentially wish to eat dessert, take into account consuming it! This consuming chocolate (AKA completely indulgent scorching chocolate) is a fully pretty technique to wind down at camp.
Nutella
This chocolate hazelnut unfold is full of energy which can be derived largely from fat, making it nicely definitely worth the weight. A scoop right here and there’ll give your physique loads of long-lasting gasoline to burn. Plus, it’s freaking scrumptious!
Stroopwafels
A scrumptious Dutch deal with, stroopwafels are delicate, toasted waffles stuffed with caramel. They’re loaded with energy and fairly sturdy. Strive spreading a bit Nutella between two of them and make your self an “ice cream” sandwich.
These are a few of our favourite extras so as to add both energy or taste to our meals.
Backpacking Meals Technique
On this part, we’ll dive into every part it’s good to find out about making a backpacking meal plan—what to search for when selecting meals, packing the correct quantity of meals you want, ideas for planning and packing, and some gear solutions.
What makes for good backpacking meals?
There are a number of components to remember to find out the kinds of meals which can be good for backpacking: shelf-stable, weight, calorie density, and prepare dinner velocity.
Shelf-Steady: It’s necessary that the meals could be saved at room temperature. You will get away with bringing some issues like cheese or salami if you happen to eat them within the first few days, however for probably the most half, you wish to skip something perishable.
Light-weight: Since you must carry it each step of the best way, backpacking meals must be as light-weight as potential. Dehydrated and freeze-dried meals are usually lightest, although there are many on a regular basis grocery retailer gadgets that match the invoice as nicely!
Calorie Dense: Backpacking takes loads of vitality, so that you want meals that may correctly refuel you. Once we plan our backpacking meals, we attempt to common 125+ energy per ounce to maintain the burden down.
Cooking Time: Think about how a lot endurance you must prepare dinner your meals and the way a lot gasoline you can be bringing. We extremely suggest quick-cooking meals which can be simple to organize
How a lot meals do you have to pack for backpacking?
Backpacker journal means that backpackers who plan to hike lengthy days with a heavier pack ought to purpose for 25-30 energy per pound of physique weight, per day.
When you’re going to do shorter days (lower than 2 hours of mountaineering) or will cowl much less strenuous terrain, you may scale it all the way down to 21-25 energy per pound of physique weight, per day.
As a substitute of consuming simply three meals per day as you may at dwelling, purpose to eat snacks all through the day and devour 30-60 grams of carbohydrates per hour (supply) to maintain your vitality excessive and stop you from hitting the proverbial wall.
These, in fact, are simply a place to begin and you must alter based mostly by yourself expertise.
plan meals for backpacking journeys
Meal planning for backpacking journeys is one among our favourite issues to do! It’s additionally tremendous necessary.
Creating an in depth meal plan not solely ensures you deliver sufficient meals in your journey however lets you see how all of your meals will work collectively. It’s an ideal alternative to construct in selection and double-check that you simply’ll be hitting your calorie rely each day.
Listed below are the steps that go into our meal-planning technique:
1.) Work out what number of days your journey shall be and what number of meals you will have on the path.
2.) Decide what number of energy per day it’s good to pack (see the earlier part).
3.) Select your breakfast and dinner for every day. Be aware of what number of energy are in every of those.
4.) Subtract the energy of your breakfast and dinner out of your complete calorie quantity. These are the remaining energy that you simply’ll must pack in the best way of snacks, lunch, drink mixes, or dessert. Plan for quite a lot of snacks, conserving in thoughts that to keep away from dropping steam throughout the day, you’ll wish to eat 30-60 grams of carbohydrates per hour as you hike.
Finest backpacking meal ideas
Packing & meals storage ideas
Favourite backpacking cooking gear
We now have entire posts devoted to backpacking cooking gear and backpacking stoves, however listed here are a few of our favourite gear gadgets to organize your backcountry meals on the path.
Searching for extra backpacking meals assets? Take a look at our guides to vegan backpacking meals, gluten-free backpacking meals, these light-weight backpacking recipes, and our final information to dehydrating meals for backpacking!
This publish was first printed on November 9, 2017, and was up to date in 2024. There are a ton of recent backpacking meals merchandise that we included!
