What's in you food bag?

[B-Rabbit]

Just trying to get some ideas on hiker food. What would you pack for 4-5 days?

[Hooch]

Here's some ideas from Water Monkey. I do about the same. Add some more calories for longer days, colder weather, or any other increased caloric needs.

[royalusa]

A typical day for us might be:

Breakfast - 3/4 cup old fashioned oats w/ nuts and dried fruit
Lunch - burrito with peanut butter (or cheddar cheese & summer sausage, weather permitting)
Snacks - fig newtons, lance crackers, fritos, nuts/dried fruit
Dinner - Ramon and/or 4 ounces of Loaded Baked mashed potatoes (sometimes in a burrito shell) and cookies

By the way, we are cookless, so for those items above typically served warm, we just add water and eat. It's not for everyone, but it works for us. Simple, easy and less weight.

[bigcranky]

For 5 hiking days, I need 4 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 4 dinners. (I'll eat the first breakfast and the last dinner in town.) So, in my food bag:

Breakfast: I like hot cereal with powdered milk, nuts, dried fruit, that sort of thing. Oatmeal, grits, or granola all work, as do various cereals in the grocery store. Gotta have coffee, and sometimes a hot chocolate pouch to throw in with the coffee.

Second breakfast: something to eat mid-morning. Pop tarts are great, or just a Clif bar. This is separate from any snacks.

Lunch: Various things wrapped in a tortilla -- tuna and mayo packs, PB and Nutella, maybe some deli meat the first day out from town. Or instant hummus and crackers. Or sausage and cheese. Or crackers and sharp cheddar and jerky. Lots of easy choices in any grocery story.

Dinner: Knorr Sides, like the Teriyaki Noodles, maybe with a packet of chicken tossed in. Or a homemade freezer bag meal, like couscous with dried mushrooms. Or in rare cases a freeze dried meal from the backpacking store. Get a freezer-bag backpacking cookbook (www.freezerbagcooking.com). I like dessert with dinner, so I bring good chocolate, or instant pudding. Except in the hottest part of summer I like to have hot tea with dinner, so I bring decaf green tea bags.

Snacks: I eat a lot of snacks during the day. Gorp, pretzels, Combos, fried fruit, chocolate covered espresso beans, Snickers, peanuts, I like to mix it up between sweet and savory.

Drinks: besides the coffee and tea bags, I bring a lot of 1-liter instant iced tea and lemonade packets too. Very useful especially in warm weather.

[Firefighter503]

If just going out for 4-5 days, I usually go with easy stuff - a couple of packs of oatmeal per day for breakfast, gorp/jerky for snacks during the day, and a mixture of knorr sides/mashed potatoes/ramen for dinners. Of course this also depends on MPD. On the first night out sometimes I'll bring a steak, or subway sub or something stupid like that, just because I can.

[B-Rabbit]

Great ideas.. Thanks!

[Rayo]

I posted a video a few days ago of my entire food bag. Here's the link http://followingblazes.blogspot.com/p/videos.html
(Check back in a few hours for a vid of my pack contents.)

[Rusty Nail]

I purchased the big #10 cans of freeze dried (Doomsday preppers type supplier) food and then break them down to pre-measured ziplocks. They are really salty but not that bad.
I love the taco stuffer packages with chicken, heat and eat or go cold (directions dont call for it but a little water helps a lot).
Ziplock omelets with cheddar and summer sausage, but dont crush the eggs in your food bag.
Knorr sides are awesome. Buffalo chicken rice is my favorite.
Bear creek soups, I did not like them but that is just me.
Granola cereal or special K and powdered milk and freeze dried strawberries or raspberries.
Snickers or protein bars, I relly like the metrx Big 100 or colossal
Flat bread or tortillas, work with just about anything
chow mein dishes
fresh fruits and veggies
hard salami or peperoni
gorp
Nutrigrain
Cous cous or pasta
Hummus
Refried beans

Absolute favorite is a foil pack with steak and veggies to throw in the fire. Has to be dinner on a resupply day.

[Rusty Nail]

Almost forgot corn on the cob over the fire.

[quilteresq]

Spaghetti Carbonarra all the way - my fav. hiker food. Use bacon bits and lots of parmesan. Powdered egg is fine for this.

[takethisbread]

Peanut butter and jelly burritos. Gorp. Crispy Kale. Salami . Dried fruit. bagels

[Rocket Jones]

Crackers, cheese, salami or pepperoni, olives. Peanut butter and honey burritos. Avocado. Oranges. I've recently tried dehydrating some different things, and so far the big winners are mashed sweet potatoes (spread thin and it comes out like flakes), angel food cake (perfect with instant pudding or juicy, fresh fruit) and quinoa (with powdered milk, almonds and dried cherries for breakfast).

[Creek Dancer]

Crackers, cheese, salami or pepperoni, olives. Peanut butter and honey burritos. Avocado. Oranges. I've recently tried dehydrating some different things, and so far the big winners are mashed sweet potatoes (spread thin and it comes out like flakes), angel food cake (perfect with instant pudding or juicy, fresh fruit) and quinoa (with powdered milk, almonds and dried cherries for breakfast).

I have dried mashed sweet potatoes, which work very well, but not angel food cake. How do you prepare this? Do you just add water, throw it in with the instant pudding concoction, or prepare some other way?

[un panda]

breakfast: instant grits
lunch, totillas, tuna and taco bell mild sauce
dinner: liptons with tuna or chicken.
snacks: jerky, pepporoni,peanuts/ trailmix.

[Spokes]

Nothing really changes in the thru hiker food selection department so here's another slant. Your food bag is a great place to squirrel away and extra set of AquaMira and spare Bic lighter. Oh, and consider carrying two spoons (each in different locations). Make sure one is the long handles titanium variety which is best for attacking a hard frozen pint of Ben and Jerry's. The ones made out of Acetal just don't cut it.

Cheers!

[Capt Nat]

Thanks, I picked up some food ideas from some of these replies too. I love Ramon noodles but know that I need to mix it up a bit..

[Rocket Jones]

I have dried mashed sweet potatoes, which work very well, but not angel food cake. How do you prepare this? Do you just add water, throw it in with the instant pudding concoction, or prepare some other way?

You can munch the dehydrated cake as is, but it's too sweet for me that way. I'll either throw it in with the pudding, which softens it some but still leaves some crunch, or on a shorter trip I'll add crumbled cake to a baggie, then toss in some frozen sliced strawberries. By dinner time, the strawberries have defrosted and all that juice gets absorbed by the cake. Amazing desert for the first night out.

[rustmd]

dehydrated muffins great w/ morning coffee or after-dinner dessert.

[Blissful]

Check out my blog on food suggestions. Easier to do that then write it all out again.

[Pony]

Your food bag is a great place to squirrel away and extra set of AquaMira and spare Bic lighter. Oh, and consider carrying two spoons (each in different locations). Make sure one is the long handles titanium variety which is best for attacking a hard frozen pint of Ben and Jerry's. The ones made out of Acetal just don't cut it.

Cheers!

My first night out of hot springs in 2008 my lighter died and my spork broke. Luckily I had some waterproof matches, but I spent the next four days using a tent stake with part of my spork duct taped to it. I've since switched to a titanium spork, since I always break those light my fire sporks. And they are indeed the best weapon to attacka pint of ben and jerry's.

As far as food, I could pretty much live off of those jumbo sized fudge rounds. For some reason though, now I have to squash them like they've been in my food bag when I eat them at home. Not sure if they actually taste better that way, or if I just like it because it reminds me of the trail.