Weight Goal
Our goal when meal planning is to stay below the
NOLS 1000 gram per day per person
"strenuous" estimate. Some people get by with a lot less than this. However,
a good dinner is often the highlight of a hard day, and we'd rather carry some
extra weight and be happy than skimp and be miserable.
Fuel
Our Primus EtaExpress stove uses fuel stored in little Lindal-valve canisters.
The fuel is a mixture of gases, and the exact mixture seems to vary by brand.
(It's usually a mixture of propane, isopropane, butane, and/or isobutane.)
These canisters come in several different sizes. The small ones are almost
always net 100g, and the larger ones range from 200g up to over 400g. The can
usually weighs another 100g beyond the net weight of the fuel.
As discussed on the Cooking page, we cook most of
our meals using a freezer-bag cozy. As a result, we do not use very much fuel.
For our Glacier trip, we ended up buying a large 230g (net) can of JetBoil fuel
for our stove. Even after cooking for 4 days, we didn't use even half this
can. In fact, it took us several hours to burn off the remainder of the fuel
after the hike, so we could safely dispose of the can. We estimate that we
will never need more than a single 100g (net) can of fuel for any trip of 5
days or less.
Packing and Storing Food at Camp
Since racoons and bears are a concern on many of the trails we hike, we have to
take this into account when packing and storing food, smelly items, dishes, and
cooking utensils. See Bear and Critter Protection
for a more detailed discussion.
Ingredients
When we went canoeing in the
Boundary Waters
in 2001, we dried all of our own food rather than buying pre-packaged meals.
Besides just being fun, we liked the result because we got to eat what we
wanted, and we had control over the portions.
There were a few ingredients which did not dry well in our home dehydrator
(i.e. chicken), so when we started backpacking we decided to buy some
freeze-dried ingredients rather than drying everything ourselves. However, we
still assemble all of our own meals rather than purchasing complete meals
from someplace like Mountain House.
What is the difference between dehydrated and freeze-dried food? We found this
page useful:
Our primary source for freeze-dried food has been
Packit Gourmet.
We have used Packit as a source for ingredients including freeze-dried chicken,
freeze-dried broccoli (it's difficult to dry whole florets), tomato powder,
butter powder, and coconut milk powder. We have purchased salad dressing
and olive oil packets at Minimus.
Other things like dried onion flakes, shelf-stable tuna and chicken, tortillas,
etc. we can usually find at a local grocery store.
Most everything else we have dried at home in our American Harvest Snackmaster
dehydator. We have used the Snackmaster to dry ingredients such as ground
beef, vegetables, spaghetti sauce, etc. One good reference we have used for
temperatures and estimated drying times is
Drying Food - Technical Notes.
Some of our recipes use powdered milk. Some powdered milk brands taste pretty
nasty. The best we've found is Nestle's Nido Dry Whole Milk Powder. It tastes
pretty good (especially in cereal or hot chocolate), has plenty of calories,
and keeps well even after the canister has been opened. We can't find it
locally, so we buy it at Amazon.
Storing Meals and Ingredients at Home
Although dehydrated food keeps very well, we have read that it is best to
freeze it if you are not going to use it soon. We store all of our dehydrated
ingredients and complete meals in our extremely cold chest freezer, which we
keep at a temperature of around -20 degrees F (-28 degrees C). Commercial
freeze-dried ingredients, once opened, are also put in the freezer.
We have eaten 3-year old meals stored like this with no problems. However, the
freezer bags themselves are vulnerable to wear and tear, and older bags
occasionally spring very small leaks. When we choose to use very old meals, we
repack them in a new freezer bag before setting out on a hike.
Menu Items
Below is our running set of menu items for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
We have tried all of the items below, and they're on the menu because we think
they work well.
We have found two different strategies for constructing meals: either assemble
individually-dried ingredients into a complete meal (the method favored by
trailcooking.com), or cook a complete
meal and dry the entire thing together on a
fruit roll sheet
in the dehydrator (the method suggested by Linda Yaffe in her book
Backpack Gourmet).
We were initially skeptical that Linda's "entire meal" method would work, but
we have found that we like it for certain kinds of meals — for instance, pasta
meals that contain sauces, or chili. Besides that, it certainly is less work
to dry a complete meal than to dry all of the individual ingredients
separately. However, you need to be careful to use pasta that won't poke
holes in your freezer bag (we use miniature shells).
Below, where a menu item is a link, it will take you to the recipe we use, plus
references to any other recipes we based it on (i.e. from a web site or a book).
Snacks and Desserts
| Menu Item |
Notes |
| Cracklin' Oat Bran |
Lots of fiber, crunchy, a little sweet
One portion is about 2 ounces |
| Salty or sweet nuts |
One portion is about 2 ounces |
| Dried fruit |
One portion is about 1.5 to 2 ounces |
| Beef Jerky |
One portion is about 1 to 1.25 ounces |
| Trail mix |
Pre-packaged trail mix
One portion is about 2 ounces |
| Granola |
One portion is about 2 ounces |
| Vegetable chips, like zucchini |
One portion is about 1 to 2 ounces
Be careful not to overdo these, or you'll make yourself sick |
| Fruit leather |
One portion is about 1 to 2 ounces |
| Ginger Snaps or other cookies |
One portion is 3 cookies (about 2 ounces) |
| Snack bars |
One portion is 2-3 bars (about 2.5 ounces) |
| Commercial bars |
Nature Valley granola bars, Cliff Bars, Odwalla Bars
One portion is usually 1/2 to one bar, 150-200 calories |
| Instant pudding |
Mix with powdered milk ahead of time
Doesn't always work well — can be lumpy and thin |
| Apple Pie Pudding |
Interesting recipe — tastes like apple pie filling |
Cold Drinks
| Menu Item |
Notes |
| Instant lemonade |
We usually go with Kool-Aid or Country Time
It's simplest to use the mix that includes sugar
|
| Energy/electrolye drinks |
When it's likely to be hot, we take Cytomax |
Hot Drinks
| Menu Item |
Notes |
| Instant coffee |
Something like International Cafe French Vanilla
Very light becuase it uses non-dairy creamer
|
| Hot chocolate |
Pre-mix Quik with powdered milk
Fairly bulky due to the powdered milk
|
| Hot cider mix |
Consider adding this for variety |
Sample Meal Plan I
3-day SHT Hike
Below is a meal plan that we have used for 3-day/2-night hiking trips on the
SHT in northern Minnesota. We usually get
breakfast on the way there at a restaurant, and eat dinner at a restaurant on
the way back, so those meals are not included in the plan.
Required Items per Person
Breakfast
| 2 breakfast freezer-bag meals |
| 2 portions hot drink mix |
Lunch
| 6 portions cheese/crackers/sausage |
Dinner
| 3 dinner freezer-bag meals |
| 3 portions flavored drink mix |
|
Morning and Afternoon Snacks
| 5-6 portions of bars or jerky or fruit or cookies |
Desserts/Evening Snacks
| 2 portions of bars or desserts |
| 2 portions hot drink mix |
Emergency Rations
| Energy bars, 500 calories |
|
Meal Plan for 2 People
Lunch
| 2 pint bags of Wheat Thins |
| 1 pint bag of bagel chips |
| 1/4 pound sharp cheddar cheese |
| 1x gouda cheese in wax |
| 2x sealed packages Klements beef sticks |
|
Morning and Afternoon Snacks
| 6x packs ginger snaps (3 per pack)
|
| 2x Clif Bars
|
| 1x rhubarb leather
|
| 1x small bag of raisins
|
| 1x small bag of Beef Jerky
|
Desserts/Evening Snacks
| 1x vanilla pudding mix |
| 1x Apple Pie Pudding |
| 4x hot cocoa/coffee |
Emergency Rations
| 4x full-sized Clif Bars |
|
Sample Meal Plan II
4-day Grand Canyon Hike
Below is the meal plan that we used for our 4-day, 3-night
Grand Canyon National Park
hike in October of 2009. We got a big breakfast at the rim before starting the
hike, and got dinner on the rim after returning, so those meals are not
included. We also bought two lunches at the Phantom Ranch concession at the
bottom of the canyon, which helped limit the amount of food we had to bring
along.
Required Items for 3 People
Breakfast
| 9 breakfast freezer-bag meals |
| 9 portions hot drink mix |
Lunch
| 6 portions cheese/crackers/sausage |
Dinner
| 9 dinner freezer-bag meals |
| 9 portions flavored drink mix |
|
Morning and Afternoon Snacks
| 33 portions of bars or jerky or fruit or cookies |
Desserts/Evening Snacks
| 9 portions of bars or desserts |
| 9 portions hot drink mix |
Emergency Rations
| Energy bars, 500 calories per person |
|
Meal Plan for 3 People
Lunch
| 2x sealed packages Klements beef sticks |
| 2x gouda cheese in wax |
| 6 portions Wheat Thins |
|
Morning and Afternoon Snacks
| 6 portions Beef Jerky
|
| 3 portions of dried fruit
|
| 6 portions of Snack bars
|
| 6 portions of ginger snaps
|
| 6x full-sized Clif Bars
|
| 3 portions of Cracklin' Oat Bran
|
| 3 portions of sweet and salty nuts
|
Desserts/Evening Snacks
| 3x packs of ginger snaps |
| 3x Apple Pie Pudding |
| 3x full-sized Clif Bars |
| 9x hot cocoa/coffee |
Emergency Rations
| 6x full-sized Clif bars |
|
Sample Meal Plan III
4-day Glacier Hike
Below is the meal plan that we used for our 4-day, 3-night
Glacier National Park
hike in September of 2011. We got a big breakfast before starting the
hike, and dinner after returning, so those meals are not included. Unlike at
Grand Canyon, we had to carry all required food for this hike, so the total
weight went up. Packed weight was around 8300g, or a bit less than 800g per
person per day.
We definitely had food left over at the end, so there probably was room to cut
this back a little. In particular, we often drank our hot cocoa with dinner
and skipped the evening snack all together (because it was cold and we wanted
to go to bed). On a trip with more evening light and higher temperatures, we
would have been up longer and would have used more of the evening snacks.
Required Items for 3 People
Breakfast
| 9 breakfast freezer-bag meals |
| 9 portions hot drink mix |
Lunch
| 6x freezer-bag lunches |
| 6 portions cheese/crackers/sausage |
Dinner
| 9 dinner freezer-bag meals |
| 9 portions flavored drink mix |
|
Morning and Afternoon Snacks
| 30 portions of bars or jerky or fruit or cookies |
Desserts/Evening Snacks
| 9 portions of bars or desserts |
| 9 portions hot drink mix |
Emergency Rations
| Energy bars, 500 calories per person |
|
Meal Plan for 3 People
Lunch
| 2x Raspberry Chicken (yes, 2x — enough for 3 people) |
| 3x Tuna Bruschetta |
| 2x 12-ounce Klements summer sausage log |
| 2x 7-ounce gouda cheese in wax |
| 2x 3-ounce portions of Wheat Thins |
|
Morning and Afternoon Snacks
| 6 portions of Beef Jerky
|
| 4 portions of dried fruit
|
| 3 portions of Snack Bars
|
| 3 portions Ginger Snaps
|
| 5x Nature Valley granola bars
|
| 3 portions Cracklin' Oat Bran
|
| 3 portions trail mix (nuts and candy)
|
| 3 portions Wheat Thins
|
Desserts/Evening Snacks
| 3 portions of Ginger Snaps |
| 3x full-sized (2.4 ounce) Clif Bars |
| 3 portions of Snack Bars
|
| 9x hot cocoa/coffee |
Emergency Rations
| 6x full-sized (2.4 ounce) Clif bars |
|
Sample Meal Plan IV
4-day Olympic National Park Hike
Below is the meal plan that we used for our 4-day, 3-night
Olympic National Park
hike in September of 2012. We got breakast before entering the park
and dinner after returning, so those meals are not included.
With this hike, we found that we did not eat all of the food we took along.
Partially, this is because Ken was sick and didn't have an appetite. It's also
partially because we left the park about one day earlier than planned.
However, we also think that we probably over-packed a little bit, especially
for snacks. So, before using this list again, we would probably rethink a
little.
Required Items for 2 People
Breakfast
| 6 breakfast freezer-bag meals |
| 6 portions hot drink mix |
Lunch
| 4x freezer-bag lunches |
| 4 portions cheese/crackers/sausage |
Dinner
| 6 dinner freezer-bag meals |
| 6 portions flavored drink mix |
|
Morning and Afternoon Snacks
| 14 portions of bars or jerky or fruit or cookies |
Desserts/Evening Snacks
| 6 portions of bars or desserts |
| 4 portions hot drink mix |
Emergency Rations
| Energy bars, 500 calories per person |
|
Meal Plan for 2 People
|
|
Morning and Afternoon Snacks
| 2 portions of Beef Jerky
|
| 1 portions of dried apples
|
| 4 portions of Snack Bars
|
| 1 portion Ginger Snaps
|
| 2x Nature Valley granola bars
|
| 2 portions Cracklin' Oat Bran
|
| 2 portions raisins
|
Desserts/Evening Snacks
| 3 portions Ginger Snaps
|
| 3x full-sized (2.4 ounce) Clif Bars |
| 4x hot cocoa |
Emergency Rations
| 4x full-sized (2.4 ounce) Clif bars |
|
Sample Meal Plan V
3-day Channel Islands Kayaking Trip
Below is the meal plan that we used for our 3-day, 2-night kayaking tour in Channel Islands National Park in
October of 2015. We got breakast before heading to the park and dinner after
returning, so those meals are not included.
This was not a backpacking trip. We camped in the Scorpion Ranch campground on
Santa Cruz Island and did 3 days of guided out-and-back kayak trips from
Scorpion Ranch harbor each morning. However, we had to take a ferry from
Ventura Beach out to Santa Cruz Island with all of our gear, so we opted to
treat it like a backpacking trip from a food preparation perpective. (Some
local campers brought coolers, but that wasn't practical for us.) However, we
did shop locally for some of the easier-to-find ingredients like crackers and
cheese.
Based on our experience for the last two trips, we tried to be a bit more
realistic this time with the amount of food we took along. In particular,
we brought fewer snacks. We ended up eating almost everything.
Required Items for 2 People
Breakfast
| 4x breakfast freezer-bag meals |
| 4 portions hot drink mix |
Lunch
| 1x freezer-bag lunch |
| 2 portions cheese/crackers/sausage |
Dinner
| 4x dinner freezer-bag meals |
| 4 portions flavored drink mix |
|
Snacks
| 16 portions of bars or jerky or fruit or cookies |
| 4 portions hot drink mix |
|
Meal Plan for 2 People
Lunch
| 1x Raspberry Chicken (yes, 1x — enough for 2 people) |
| 1x 8-ounce Klements beef sticks package |
| 1x 4-ounce cheddar cheese (sealed in plastic) |
| 2x 3-ounce portions of Wheat Thins |
|
Snacks
| 2 portions of Beef Jerky
|
| 1x snack-sized bag of dried apples
|
| 1x partial bag of Craisins
|
| 4x Nature Valley granola bars
|
| 4x full-sized (2.4 ounce) Clif bars
|
| 4x hot cocoa |
|