Backpacking Dinner Ideas?

[Tom_H]

Most of my life I cooked the way Wandering Daisy does. We both learned the NOLS group system. When I quit leading groups, I still followed the system sans the divvying stuff up between a cook group. If you backpack a lot, you can buy numerous freeze dried meats, fish, vegetables, etc. by themselves. Then reconstitute, cook the noodles, rice, pasta, etc, add typical spices and cook from scratch this way. This gives you almost infinite variations on meal choices. Curried chicken and rice and shrimp creole were two of my favorites.

I do have a new dehydrator in box that I never got around to opening. It is sitting in our pile of things for the yard sale before we sell the house and move. If you live near or will be passing through Sacto, you're welcome to come buy it on the cheap.

BTW, Kool Aid powder stirred into a cup of snow (ice) is great on a warm spring day. Best snow cones I've ever had.

I personally enjoy baking on the trail. I started out baking in a covered frying pan buried in coals. When we quit building fires we went to the Optimus oven. This post shows the oven I use now (the name is slightly changed):

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=7941

I bake gingerbread, pineapple upside down cake, pizza, fish casserole, bread, cinnamon buns, brownies, you name it. You can flatten cookie dough very thin in the U shaped bottom for cookies. You can also make cheesecake, bury it in a snow bank and have a nice desert after dinner.

They have become a bit pricey as of late, but you can bake so many things in them.

This thing does weigh 1 lb., but in the old days when our packs averaged almost 90 lb. on the first day out, this wasn't much extra weight. In a group of 16 with 4 cook groups, a different group could use it every night, sometimes 2 groups in one night, so it wasn't that much extra weight per person with maximized use between many people.

[RoguePhotonic]

I've been living off Knorr "sides" for years now in the back country. You can find them in most any store for a dollar. There is probably 25 different flavors to mix it up and then I typically add spam to it although tuna or any other type of meat will work fine. Then if you have some cheese with you to melt over the top and throw in some hot sauce and they are great meals. You just need to have a pot. I carry a 1.3L pot. And then they may say to boil them for 8 minutes or so but I do less and then let them sit for 20 minutes or so covered.

I recently started including blue box mac n cheese with most of my resupplies also. It tastes just fine with no milk added. I'll boil it with maybe a cup and a half of water and you don't drain it. The best is yet again if you bring some cheese and then mix it in to make it more cheesy. Then throw in some red pepper flakes to spice it up.

[rlown]

I recently started including blue box mac n cheese with most of my resupplies also. It tastes just fine with no milk added. I'll boil it with maybe a cup and a half of water and you don't drain it. The best is yet again if you bring some cheese and then mix it in to make it more cheesy. Then throw in some red pepper flakes to spice it up.

Your spam thing would work with that dish as well. Brown the spam before the boil, remove said spam chunks, leave the oil in the pot, boil the pasta, re-add said chunks. A hard cheese sprinkle afterwords is a good touch. You can also carry some of that dehydrated sour cream powder to add to the mix.

I sometimes do a vat of mac n cheese at home, but I use Adele's precooked cajun sausage with a bit of char on it to give a little kick.

[dave54]

I hate ramen. It is basically junk food.(Have some noodles with your salt...)
But if you want to use ramen, make it the seasoning of the meal, not the whole meal. Throw in some dried mixed vegetables and instant brown rice to add some nutrition. Sprinkle some parmesan or romano cheese on top just before serving. If you have powdered egg mix in a little.

But if you are going to do all that you can skip the premade ramen and just make your own with instant soup mix and the above extras.

When you stop for lunch, put some dried bean, ric, and/or vegetables into a wide mouth bottle with a little water. It will partially rehydrate as it sloshes down the trail with you and be ready to heat and eat at dinner. Or do the same at breakfast with any leftover hot water. You can add a bouillon cube for flavor if you wish. There is a large variety of different types of rices and beans in most stores. Each one has a slightly different texture and flavor. Experiment.

Dehydrate your own, as mentioned above. And try different vegetables than the normal peas and carrots. Parsnips, rutabagas, kohlrabi, jicama, et al are available in most large grocery stores. Be adventurous. You may find a new favorite. You will find a few dislikes too, so try new recipes at home first. I always tell my grandkids it's OK to have foods you do not like. Not OK to say you do not like them without trying them. I use the same rule for myself.

As mentioned above, there is nothing wrong with fresh fish, wild onions, and berries for dessert.

[BSquared]

Something I relatively recently learned to appreciate (thank you, Mary Maryland!) is the amazing things change caused by addition of a tiny bit of meat. A single-serving foil package of tuna, or a couple of tablespoons of Costco precooked bacon can do incredible things to an otherwise ordinary mac-and-cheese do-it-yourself dinner. Of course, a little fresh Parmesan doesn't hurt either The tuna's heavy, of course, but you don't have it every night...