Backpacking Recipes

[Mafaking 10]

 

Ok how about some of your favorite Backpacking recipes.

 

I am actually looking for two types of recipes.

Ones for the more mature pallet and ones for the less developed pallet.

 

 

[gwd-scouter 11]

Some of our boys' easy favorites:

 

Breakfast: spam and grits: cut up and fry spam in skillet, add to instant grits. Instant Oatmeal is also on the menu a lot.

 

Dinner: chicken and rice: using the quick cook rice (type in a microwavable pouch - you can just add some boiling water in the pouch to heat it up), add precooked chicken chunks, seal pouch for a few minutes until hot. Some of the guys add veggies too (corn, peas).

 

Also, ramen noodles with pieces of precooked chicken added.

 

Quick no cook lunches - the favorite by far is summer sausage, cheese, and crackers. A close second is tuna or chicken salad packets (tuna or chicken, with crackers and mayo, relish).

 

All the guys like the variety of Mountain House meals. Very lightweight and most will feed two Scouts. Some of the examples above came about in an effort to get them away from the expensive prepackaged backpacking meals and figure out ways to make the same things for less.

 

We've only started emphasizing backpacking trips in our Troop for the past couple of years. The guys are really getting into it and I imagine they will be coming up with more interesting menu items.

 

 

[mikecummings157 10]

Here's one the boys really enjoyed on our last hike.

 

Just Add Water Backpacking Feast

 

In a small sandwich bag combine:

 

cup instant potatoes

 

cup dry stuffing

 

Dried cranberries

 

Beef or turkey jerky pieces

 

Powdered gravy mix

 

At camp, stir in boiling water and let stand before eating.

[raisinemright 13]

There's a pretty good website, www.freezerbagcooking.com. It contains many recipes for backpacking. The author is a regular poster on the backpacker.com forums, which also has some good info.

 

Lip Smackin' Backpackin' is a cookbook written by a couple that is chock full o' good ideas.

 

They just published a new book full of Scout tested and submitted recipes. I have it at home but I think it's called The Scout Cookbook.

 

Local grocery stores carry some dried soups from Bear Creek. They make one called "Darn Good Chili." It's a troop favorite. Add some dried beef, noodles and cheese and you got a feast.

 

Here's a trick I picked up for noodles. Cook them at home and dehydrate them. Then, at the campsite, just drop them into a pot of boiling water, or pour the water on the noodles in a freezer bag and seal the bag wrapped in a stocking cap for about five minutes. Noodles are hot and rehydrated. Takes far less time and cooking fuel.

[GKlose 24]

I haven't tried this myself, yet, but...

 

At a recent council U. of Scouting event, I attended a session on backpacking food that was led by an SM with a whole lot of experience at this. He basically said "you can dehydrate anything" and then gave some examples. One was chicken parmesan. He said cook it regularly, cut into small bits, place on baking tray, put in 200F oven with door propped open, then let it sit for about six hours. He said to experiment with how much boiling water to use to reconstitute it.

 

I think it would be fun to try this. He gave many other examples of the things they use, but it is probably what you would expect (instant oatmeal, cup o'soup, ramen noodles, etc).

 

On a similar matter, I asked at the session, but the instructor didn't hear me correctly, about how does one nutritionally plan for adolescent through adult...he heard "individually" and answered that he double-checked meals for his younger scouts. He didn't have time left to answer my real question. Does anyone know? For example, do you shoot for some total calorie amount per day, with a certain amount of protein, etc.?

 

Thanks,

Guy

[GKlose 24]

BTW, Mike, I like the sounds of that turkey recipe. Thanks for sharing it.

 

I'm kind of a foodie, and this sounds like a good one...

 

Guy(This message has been edited by GKlose)

[GKlose 24]

Sorry for the "hat trick" here, but I just thought of something else --

 

Let's say you're dehydrating something yourself. If you weigh it before cooking, and then weight it after dehydrated, wouldn't the difference be in the water lost? Therefore, reconstitution could be based on the weight of boiling water? Give or take a little, maybe?(This message has been edited by GKlose)

[Stosh 3452]

Our boys really enjoyed "VAN PUD" and "CHOC PUD".

 

Take a package of vanilla or chocolate pudding, open and pour into ziplock bag. Add 2 cup equivalent of powdered milk. Zip shut with no air. When ready to serve, add 2 cups cold water, zip shut, shake it around for 2 minutes, snip bottom corner with knife and squeeze out portions to the boys.

 

We tried this experiment a number of years back when we were repackaging food for a canoe trip to BWCA. It's a staple on all backpack trips now.

 

We found that a lot of waste is in packaging and so we repackage everything, taking 7 shopping bags down to about 2.5 bags. The secret is ziplocks.

 

Anything that requires eggs/milk can be mixed in with powdered eggs and dry milk. Just add water, and massage the ziplock. Works for any pancake, muffin, etc. kinds of things.

 

Dried blueberries go well in muffins and can be rehydrated separately before mixing into batter at the last minute.

 

Dumplings on dried soup mixes are great.

 

Write with marker on the ziplocks to identify and amount of water to add. This is where the VAN PUD and CHOC PUD comes from.

 

Although heavier, the bags of chicken (no can) work great and stuff in a pack well and taste a lot better that dehydrated chicken. It's a great base for chicken and dumplings on a canoe trip.

 

For those that love to eat and still want to do BWCA, an aluminum dutch oven is the best investment known to man. Otherwise, learn to dutch oven cook in a messkit. While everyone else eats grits and oatmeal, you could be knocking off a blueberry muffin or two.

 

Take your breading along premixed in ziplocks for the fish you catch.

 

Onions reconstitute well in a soup base.

 

I ate ramen noodles once a long time ago. That was enough for me. They also don't pack down well, a lot of air in the package unless you crush them.

 

Stosh

[Mafaking 10]

 

good stuff

 

Anyone got a good bread recipe?

 

I found online, whole powdered eggs. Do whole powder eggs rehydrate into a sort of scrambled eggs? Beacuse they seel a seperate mix.

 

 

 

 

[Eagle1982 10]

For my own meals, I have dehydrated leftover meat (and other things) at home and taken them on the trail.

 

Dehydrate leftover taco meat and sweet corn kernels.

Add that to a powdered cheddar cheese soup mix with water and start cooking.

When hot, take a package of corn bread mix, add some powdered milk and water to make it a thick dough, and spoon on top of the soup like making dumplings. Season with a touch of Tabasco and yummy!!!

 

Cook a roast in the crock pot. Take the leftovers, shred and dehydrate, dehydrate some BBQ sauce too. Put in pot with water, rehydrate and heat, put on bread and make a sandwich. If you weigh the food prior to dehydrating and after, you will get an idea of how much water to use to rehydrate. Or put in tortilla with some rice and cheese and have a burrito.

 

Dehydrate leftover shredded pork. Dehydrade some coleslaw. Take a bun and make a good'ole southern pork sandwich.

 

Hummus keeps for a few days. Hummus on bagels or crackers is good. Cheese keeps for several days also. Take cheese to go with your sandwiches, it makes a big difference in taste.

[Eagle1982 10]

Gklose,

 

For weekend backpacking (2 nights) I'm not worried about protein content or calorie count. Let the Scouts eat what they want and like. If I were doing a long trek, or many days, then I would start to take it more into consideration. You need enough long lasting carbs to make it through the day. Protein with dinner is good for repairing your body as you sleep.

 

I have in the past mixed a little protein powder with milk or egg powder. Also, slipped some in a soup or two. Increase the calorie count if it's going to be cold, or you are gaining a lot of elevation. Keep some emergency gel packs in case someone bonks.

[Mafaking 10]

 

I am amazed at how many people dehydrate their own food for camping. Almost every time one does a search or reviews a book about backpacking recipes it starts "at home dehydrate the..."

 

 

[Eagle1982 10]

Nafaking, yeah, dehydrate at home, it's way cheaper (or thriftier). If you were to do a weekend (2 dinners, 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and 2 night snacks) using the store bought prepared backpacking foods from a company like Mountainhouse (http://www.mountainhouse.com/bkp_fds.cfm) you'd spend for a sample weekend:

 

Rice and Chicken - $6.00

Cheesecake - $3.25 (6.50 bag for 2)

Scrambled eggs - $5.00

Chowder - $3.55 (7.10 bag for 2)

Chicken Teriyaki w Rice $6.00

Granola w Blueberries $4.50

Chili Mac $3.00

 

Total: $31.30 if you went with all backpacking prepared stuff (which you probably would not). That's why a lot of people got he dehydrator route and prepare their own.

 

[Hal_Crawford 15]

If you want to use prepared backpacking meals check with the trading post at Philmont. They sell via e-mail surplus trail meals. The breakfasts and lunches are easily reproduced at home but the dinners are a bargain. We used them for our shakedowns when preparing for Lenhok'sin High Adventure. LAH gets their food from Philmont so it allowed the scouts to train using the same meals they would take on the trail.

 

If I recall dinner for two was about $6 or $7 and it included several different items so no one went hungry. The only complaint was the scouts noticed that some of the commercial items (crackers, power bars etc.- mostly in the breakfasts and lunches) were past their sell by dates. They were fine though, nothing was stale and I suspect the actual shelf life could be measured in centuries.

 

Hal

 

 

[Knot Head 10]

The thread has good suggesstions.

 

When I backpack I like:

Breakfast Oatmeal & instant grits.

Snacks - Power bars

 

Lunch - Flat bread and peanut butter. Two of my favorite things.

 

Dinner...

(you can get cubed chicked in an air vaccum bag)

my faviroes to choose from are

Mountain House Beef Stroganoff (sp?)

Jerky with dehdrated mashed potatoes.

mack & cheese + frozen bag of mixed veggies (boiled) + cubed chicken

cubed chicken + rice soup

cubed chicken + frozen bag of mixed veggies soup

 

That freezerbag cooking website is great but I have not tried many yet.(This message has been edited by knot head)