Grocery store backpacking food

[HangNhike]

Since dehydrated "backpacking" meals can be so expensive, my fellow hikers and I have decided to keep it on the cheap for food and go with things we can carry on the trail. Breakfast is easy with instant oatmeal, instant grits, pop tarts...

But what about lunches and dinners? We talked about the Knorr sides... What have you guy used and what should we avoid? We are going tomorrow to do a group shop for all the food...

[Lugnut]

Foil packs of chicken, tuna, spam. Tortillas. Cheese, crackers, and most important snicker bars!

[Canyonero]

Peanut butter/honey/cheese/sausage and crackers, GORP, dried fruit, granola bars for lunch.
Mac and cheese, pouch chicken/tuna/salmon, instant potatoes for dinner.

Check out trailcooking.com for some more ideas

[rocketsocks]

Instant mashed potato's,poptarts,and did I mention poptarts?

[JAK]

For soup, lentils or split peas, dried vegetable mix and dried onion mix sold in spice/herb section, parsley, chives, paprika, pepper, etc.
You can add oats, oil, tuna, whatever. Good for rehydrating at night.

[Moose2001]

Knorr sides, Stove Top Stuffing, instant mashed potatoes, Betty Crocker Au Gratin potatoes, Burritos (chicken packages, dried taco seasoning, cheese, inside a tortilla), chicken packages, beef jerky, smoked sausage, bread. The list is only limited by your imagination!

[Spokes]

Never made sense to me to fire up a stove and cook lunch so I snacked. Beef stick and cheese, Clif Bars, dried fruit, nuts, Snickers, a Subway Hoagie the first day leaving town or even cold pizza, etc. Sometimes I'd make a sandwich by splitting a Ramen Noodle block and spreading Nutella on the inside. By the end of my thru I was eating 2 jars of peanut butter a week. Yum!

Lots of options that don't require cooking. Save the Knorr Sides for dinner.

[flemdawg1]

Pretty much any "box meal" that doesn't require over a half hour of simmering can be made on the trail (esp if you're carrying instant milk and olive oil). You do usually have to reduce the water amounts significantly on most things though. Otherwise you get Alfredo flavored soup.

[WingedMonkey]

Sometimes I'd make a sandwich by splitting a Ramen Noodle block and spreading Nutella on the inside.

Every time you post that my gag reflex kicks in.

[Spokes]

Sorry WingedMonkey. But I do enjoy making them. Just shuck 'em open like an oyster.

Amazing the things you learn on the trail.

[Spirit Walker]

Poptarts are heavy and crumble easily. After a while they get very boring. Instant oatmeal and grits gets old very quickly, and in summer you might not want to eat hot.
Breakfast for us is cold cereal with dried milk.

Lunch is english muffins or bagles or tortillas with cheese, coldcuts or peanut butter.

Dinner is some sort of rice or pasta dish with tuna, salmon, chicken, spam, sausage or ham.

Snacks and desserts are cookies, dried fruit, chocolate, or gorp. Occasionally we make pudding.

[lunchbx]

+1 on uncooked ramen, yum!

[Bronk]

By "group shop" I hope you don't mean everybody's going to throw some money in a pot and then you're going to buy one big pile of food that everybody will share. That's a terrible idea for several different reasons. But if you mean that everybody will go to the store together and everyone buys their own food separately I guess that's ok if you are into the social aspects of shopping.

[bwburgin1015]

I eat a lot of Peanut Butter and Honey on the sandwich rounds...light, tasty, calorie and protein rich, and filling. I'll eat them for breakfast and lunch. Although that might get old if you're thru-hiking! The mashed potatoe packets are delightful. Just add water. But to beef it up, so to speak, dehydrate some cooked ground beef or sausage, toss it in there before you pour your water in, and voila!
-Brandon

[Connie]

Breakfast of Jello No-Bake Cheesecake and coffee.

There are several No Bake choices. If warmish weather, then a sealed container and a cold stream may be required.

[sweeper]

instant pudding, just add h2o and shake

[Ktaadn]

Has no one mentioned pre-cooked bacon?

[LDog]

By "group shop" I hope you don't mean everybody's going to throw some money in a pot and then you're going to buy one big pile of food that everybody will share. That's a terrible idea for several different reasons. But if you mean that everybody will go to the store together and everyone buys their own food separately I guess that's ok if you are into the social aspects of shopping.

I found that shopping with another hiker or two allowed us to split things that came in greater qtys than one person needed, and would otherwise end up in hiker boxes.

[Wise Old Owl]

Ahh Spokes came thru - that's what I do. Woo

Pre cooked cold bacon - no Summer sausage and block Cheese on wheat crackers yes.

[LDog]

A couple of items that are nutritionally good, and that offer lots of flexibility are cous cous (try to find whole wheat) and fine milled (instant) bulgar wheat. Both can be mixed with dried milk, sugar, nuts and dried fruit for breakfast, or with spices, dried veggies and meat, or cheese powder for dinner. Mixed nuts are high in fat content and high in calories per oz. Great for snacking on during the day. Jerky can be snacked upon while hiking, or cut-up into your cook pot for dinner. I carried small qtys of chili powder, Italian seasoning, tomato powder, dried veggies, dried onions, garlic powder, parsley, salt, pepper, cheese powder, raisins, nuts ... I could whip up a chili, an Italian tomato sauce, or a cheezy cous cous - all soaked liberally with olive oil. Olive oil is real high in calories/oz, high in fat, and it's good fat - loaded with omega-3 fatty acids. Tortillas with peanut butter is an easy lunch. Instant hummus mixed with water and oliv oil is pretty great on tortillas too. Finally, I swear peanut butter mixed into granola was one of my greatest discoveries out there ...