Trail Food

[Mother Natures Son]

What is the best (or worst) trail food you have on your hike? We've got just back and had some pre-made hiker packs (from one of the big, national brands) that tasted like.....! Is there one or two sure fire meals that you all way love to eat on your trip?

[HooKooDooKu]

My three favorites:
1) Tyson chick pouches and Minute Rice
2) Instant Mash Potatoes mixed with Bacon Bits
3) Jif Chocolate Silk (Peanut butter) on Walmart Flour Tortillas (the tortillas taste like plain bread... but it's flat).

[Symba]

mac n cheese. I never tire of it for some reason. After months of liptons on my thru I couldn't look at one for two years.

[Sunshine82]

Backpackers pantry has some vegatarian dishes that almost taste gourmet!its amazing.but you can't beat Nutella and tortillas lol

[NY HIKER 50]

I get some great meals in pouches that all you need to do is add boiled water. One is lentils and rice. The other is veggies and cous cous and another is med. cous cous.. They are actually imported from Israel and you need to look in some ethnic markets for them. They are good though. Remember, food is food. I need to get the name though.

[Biggie Master]

Someone on WB posted a link to this gentleman before - http://blip.tv/babelfish5

I've tried several of his recipes, and they are tasty and rehydrate well. I'll be packing several of these on my upcoming hike.

[NY HIKER 50]

I'm still checking those meals.

[Drybones]

I get quickly get tired of the dehydrated meals, I'd rather have Raimen noodles with dehydrate burger or tuna added. The best lunch I've had was a tortilla with peanut butter spread on it then covered with sorgum mollasses and rolled, a little messy but exceptionall good. For breakfast I like high protein cereal in a baggy with powder milk and honey to up the calories...and taste, just add water and eat before I get out of the bag. Those 490 calorie cherry or apple fried pies are hard to beat for a mid morning snack. I get beef stick and cheese every chance I have, eat it first to reduce weight.

[Rocket Jones]

Cans aren't always the answer, but sometimes...

http://asset3.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim2/2013/08/09/ku-xlarge_4_610x406.jpg

Here's what's in your 12 Course Meal (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57597778-1/yum-tuck-into-this-12-course-meal-in-a-can/).

[Xristos]

Best I've ever had is http://www.packitgourmet.com/

They have some really good food. The Texas State Fair Chili is freakin' amazing!
I'm still searching for the perfect meals...some of packit's is heavy (for me). I'm so tired of the general dehydrated meals...I know I can do better.

[RF_ace]

mary janes outpost organic meals; taste like real food

[Hikes in Rain]

Just about anything from Hawk Vittles. (http://hawkvittles.com/) Unless I dehydrate something myself.

[rowan]

I'm of the opinion that you should eat as closely to your regular diet on trail as you do back home. You're expending a lot of energy, you are going to need some nutrition to go along with all the snacking that hiking usually encompasses. And the last thing you need is to be holed up in a privy because your gut wasn't used to the processed crap that so many hikers eat.

With that being said, you have to be flexible or its a real pain. On my thru-hike, here were some of my go-to meals:

Quinoa with a veggie bouillon cube, with a handful of spinach or kale thrown in + cheese if I had it or wanted it.
VIGO black beans or red beans and rice. Many dollar generals carry 8oz bags of this, which is perfect for a solo hiker meal. They take a little longer than the instant stuff, but in my experience not more than maybe 15 min. Boil water, add mix, let pot sit in coozie. They are so good, and really fill you up.
Pasta sides with sliced fresh red pepper. I ate a lot of teryaki noodles, "chipolte rosa", and some of the rice sides as well.
Annie's White Cheddar Mac and Cheese. What can I say? Annie's makes a mean mac, I sometimes eat that at home too.
These were my go-to dinners.

For lunch? Bagel, apple, cheese sandwich. Usually an everything bagel, smoked gouda or gruyere cheese (these both keep exceptionally well and are very tasty) and a few slices of apple. If I could get my hands on a packet of spicy brown mustard, that made this sandwich even better.
Another go-to was a cheese, pepper, and avocado wrap with a bit of hot sauce. Same cheeses (or whatever I had), fresh red pepper slices, and fresh avocado. Yes, the fresh stuff is a little heavy, but you eat it on the first day or two and its SO GOOD IN THE WOODS. You will also be the envy of other hikers, and may share if you have a kind heart.
For breakfast I would eat 2 bagels loaded up with cream cheese quite often. So if I was resupplying, I'd pick up bagels that would consist of my breakfast as well as bread for lunch sandwiches. I found that cream cheese had no problem keepin for 2 days, even in some fairly hot weather.
On other occasions I ate cold oatmeal. Lots of cold oatmeal. I got to the point where I just didn't think it tasted that much better hot, especially in the summer. So filtered water and 3 bags of maple oatmeal had me full and moving pretty quick in the morning.

Augment all these meals with plenty of pop tarts, granola bars, candy bars, honey bbq frito twists, and all of the other junk food that you can validate eating because you're burning so many cals.

I never ate one mountain house (or any other dehydrated camper food) meal on my entire thru-hike. I actually loathe the things simply because the entitled dumb asses that eat them will frequently leave the foil in the fire place. No disrespect intended to those who eat mountain houses and properly dispose of their trash.

[rocketsocks]

Cans aren't always the answer, but sometimes...

http://asset3.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim2/2013/08/09/ku-xlarge_4_610x406.jpg

Here's what's in your 12 Course Meal (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57597778-1/yum-tuck-into-this-12-course-meal-in-a-can/).
I's buy that for a dolla, eh hmm, a quarter.

Only one thing missing, a bottom layer of tooth paste.

[Dogwood]

I'm usually doing about 2000 or more trail miles per yr. With all those nights on trail I simply will not cough up $6 or more for a night's dinner night after night by purchasing pricey dehydrated name brand hiking meals. I throw in lots of variety with whole grains(brown rice, quinoa, millet, amaranth, non wheat pastas, etc), mixed proteins, some seafood, a small screw capped bottle or squeeze tube of EVOO, and like to always have some fresh produce(greens(spinach, Swiss chard, mustard, kale, etc), green onions, garlic, peppers, a small potato, carrot, ginger, fresh turmeric root, trailside grown sprouts, etc). But to answer your question, I always seem to have a packet of Knorr's/Lipton side noodles and a foil pack of Wild salmon in water or preferably Yellowfin tuna in Olive Oil and a pre cooked dehydrated brown rice and bean dinner in all my 5 day trail food hauls. This keeps the annual trail food costs reasonable for my hiking budgets. To all my dinners and cooked b-fasts I tweak the cals/oz ratio upwards with additions to get the total; daily cals I'm aiming for.

[Dogwood]

Here's a simple yet high cals/oz with decent nutrition dinner anyone can make. I buy those packages of Buckwheat SOBA noodles that often contain 3 bundles per package. They costs about $2 for the three bundles. I divide a dinner into 1 1/2 bundles. To each dinner I add 1 oz of NATURAL REAL peanut butter(no trans fats(hydrogenated oil crap), 3/4 oz of dried coconut milk powder( I find these in some Wal Marts for about $1/pack, each pack weighs 1 1/2 oz), a packet of dried crushed red pepper flakes, a tbsp of sesame seeds, dried mango bits, and some chives(green onions, I prefer fresh). I eat warm or cold. This is my trail version of cold sesame noodles that are sold at fast food Chinese Restaurants. If you want add in some chicken, dried shrimp(found in many grocery stores in the Mexican/Latino dried foods section), or some jerky. To tweak the cals up add more dried coconut milk and/or PB. You could do the same thing with Ramen. Throw away the Ramen salt and MSG laden foil spice packets. Buckwheat and rice noodles are gluten free and healthier though. Costs about $2 - 2.25 per dinner without the meat. Don't forget you can carry real repackaged squeeze tubes of tahini(sesame seed paste) in lieu of the PB. And, tahini is usually higher in cals/oz than PB.