Lunch on a Thru Hike

[kayak karl]

im looking for ideas for a COLD lunch on the trail, where the ingredients can be purchased at resupply. i like cold spam pita pocket w/ketchup. so i doubt anything you post i will turn my nose up to. so be creative;)

Thank You
Sir Lunchalot

[gungho]

I use tortilla wraps(cut them into sections of four) and eat them with either peanut butter,string cheese, or turkey pepperoni's. I am sure there are several different variations you can use.

[MamaCat]

I like crackers and salami or pepperoni with some hard cheese. I also get dried fruit from grocery stores and eat that with it and sometimes some granola or trail mix. Haven't thru hiked -- but all of this comes from a standard grocery store.

[sasquatch2014]

I use tortilla wraps(cut them into sections of four) and eat them with either peanut butter,string cheese, or turkey pepperoni's. I am sure there are several different variations you can use.

I have done the same but kept it whole put the PB on one half and marshmallow fluff on the other side then match the two half's up.

[Scrapes]

Tortillas and PB&J, or tuna, or pepperoni and cheeeeese. Tuna right out of the foil pouch, get the one "in oil" more calories. Followed by a "Little Debbie" of your liking.

[rafe]

Whatever works, or whatever I'm in the mood for. Cheese, sausage, pepperoni, sardines, PB & J, GORP, crackers, cookies, Pringles, dried fruit, or maybe some treat I picked up at the last road crossing or town stop. (Eg. those little dessert cups made for kiddies' lunches.) Nice thing about hiking, you can eat whatever (and whenever) you want. On the trail, it all tastes good.

[sloopjonboswell]

take the foil tuna pack, smash up your pack of snack crackers, add s+p, add condiments, enjoy right out of the pouch.

[modiyooch]

egg and cheese sandwich. I boil eggs. I know they will last a week in the shell. sometimes you can find them boiled at resupply places.

[Red Hat]

I vary tortillas, bagels, or english muffins depending upon what I can find. I eat them with peanut butter, nutella, or cheese. this is my breakfast and my lunch. If I have pb for breakfast, I'll have cheese for lunch, just for variety. If I find a really cool grocery, I splurge on pita and hummus.

[Johnny Swank]

I've been on a big dried hummus or dried bean dip kick lately. Either are the perfect topping on top of a Frito! nom nom nom!

[Blissful]

tortillas, bagels, english muffins, PB (sometimes with honey), spam in packets, homemade jerky (or store bought), pepperoni, cheddar cheese (sharp), hard salami

I didn't discover Nutella until MA. Shame on me. That stuff is sooo good.

[kayak karl]

I didn't discover Nutella until MA. Shame on me. That stuff is sooo good.
what is NUTELLA:confused:

[Lellers]

what is NUTELLA:confused:

Mmmm, Nutella is a staple of my Italian upbringing! It's a chocolate-hazelnut spread. Think along the lines of sophisticated peanut butter. I like smearing that on fruit or bread, or anything actually.

For me, lunch is my long rest break during the day. If the weather is good, I prefer to use the time for quiet time or even a nap rather than fussing with food. So like most other people, I usually snack on something high protein and salty... crackers, pepperoni, hard cheeses, energy bars... that sort of thing.

One of my more elaborate trail lunches is "Traveling Tacos". I think I heard about this through some of our local high school students who are served this at lunch. Open a bag of Fritos (if they smash in your pack, no big deal), dump a can of chili on top, toss in some cheese (occasionally I even have some individual packs of sour cream or cream cheese that I pick up at restaurants), and eat the entire messy thing. Admittedly, it's better when the chili is warm, but it's not bad cold. I usually carry home-dehydrated chili with me. If I plan ahead, when I'm boiling water in the morning for tea or oatmeal, I boil extra, dump the dry chili in a small plastic container, and cover with hot water. By lunch time, it's rehydrated, and I slop the whole concoction together. It's messy, but it's good.

[Captain]

or could solve the pesky fly and mosquito problem and fry them all up

[mudhead]

what is NUTELLA:confused:

It is very (too) sweet. And I have a sweet tooth.

Uncut english muffin. PB and raisins. Together or separate.

[Heater]

One of my more elaborate trail lunches is "Traveling Tacos". I think I heard about this through some of our local high school students who are served this at lunch. Open a bag of Fritos (if they smash in your pack, no big deal), dump a can of chili on top, toss in some cheese (occasionally I even have some individual packs of sour cream or cream cheese that I pick up at restaurants), and eat the entire messy thing.

Sounds like Frito pie in a bag! ;)

If you go to a convenience store that has one of the condiment trays/carts for their hot dogs you can just buy a bag of Fritos and dump the chili, "cheese" and onions right into the bag. :D

Probably should ask first. :-?

[Heater]

Damn. After reading that, I just realized how really cheap I am! :D:D:D :sun

[hammock engineer]

Ahh lunch. I was and still am so sick of candy bars.

pepperoni and chz work well for me. You can eat anything in a tortea.

One thing I do now and towards the end of my hike was sandwiches. A loaf of bread, hard salomi, and cheese. It lasts for 3 or 4 days in the pack. Works with PB and J too. If you can toast the bread it seems to hold up better. I make all the sandwiches, put them back in the bread bag, then smash them down. Great stuff. Add some doritos for some complete tasty goodness.

[Strategic]

I'm very fond of pita as a lunch item. It's more bread-like than tortillas and goes better with more things you can pick up easily. I'll use almost any kind of hard sausage or cheese that I can find, and in a lot of pretty small grocery stores these days you can find things other than pepperoni or hard salami (things like hunter sausages, italian dry sausage, things like that) and many decent cheeses (even a relatively soft cheese like muenster will last two or three days in your pack in most weather.) It also takes PB and nutella well, with whatever else you'd like to include (I'll usually mix the two with a bit of honey.)

A really good one is to use a foil pack of tuna or one of the foil packed chicken breasts (or chunk chicken), break it up in the bag, squirt in packets of olive oil, mayo (x2), pickle relish, and lemon juice (you can get all but the olive oil off of most fast food or convenience store stops), mix it up well and dump it on the pita, fold up, and wolf down. Very satisfying and has a nice bite to it; I always miss foods that have that kind of bread-and-meat chewiness to them when I'm on the trail and this satisfies the craving while giving me a good lunchtime carb and protein boost.

Here's one last one for a day after a town stop. You'll need a small pack of chopped walnuts (any market will have these, usually near the flour and other baking supplies), a pack of crumbled bacon (these shelf stable 3oz packs have become common, look for them near salad dressings next to the fake bacon), and a small package of blue cheese (most stores have one of the commercial brands, often already crumbled, get what you can at about 4oz) and a packet of olive oil and one of balsamic vinegar. Mix these together (crumble the cheese first if it isn't already) in the cheese package (usually the largest) or a ziplock, then spread on a pita. Top it with leaves of boston lettuce (again, something any grocery store will have, no matter how small) pretty thickly, fold it over, and enjoy. The boston (or butter) lettuce you must get whole (the heads are usually small) and pack carefully, but it's pretty durable as long as it's head is intact and if you strip off the outer leaves at the market it will be pretty compact and will take packing. It won't last beyond about a day and a half at normal temps, but for lunch the day after a resupply it makes an awfully nice sandwich/salad with a lot of flavor, tons of calories, carbs and protein, and lots of good fiber too.

If you want more in the vein of this kind of trail cooking, take a look at Sarbar's FreezerBagCooking (http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/) site, she has a lot of good stuff online and her book is fabulous for expanding you trail food possibilities.

[gold bond]

A guy that I was hiking with this past weekend had 4 dinner type rolls, summer sausage and a cucumber. He put some mustard on the roll, after splitting it in half, two pieces of summer sausage and two pieces of cucumber. I tried it and it was vey good!

[Pootz]

I used whole wheat mini bagels, On them I put every type of meat and cheese that I could find. The deli department has a few meats that do not need refrigeration, they come in vacuum sealed packs. I eat a whole pack for each lunch, can usually make 3 bagels with a pack of meat. I also found that smoked deli meats would keep for a couple days in cooler weather.

And do not forget the condiment packs: mayo, ketchup, mustard, horseradish mayo, BBQ sauce, etc. You local subway is a great place to get condiments, they have a large variety. Talk to the manager before you go stealing six months worth and put them in your mail drops, grocery stores usually have condiment packages also.

Nutella and peanut butter are also great on bagels.

[Bear Cables]

I like the beef jerky nuggets with hard cheese and dried fruit. I also roast almonds coated in olive oil and have a handfull of these as well. I find the beef jerky nuggets are more tender than the strips.