Quick & Easy Thru-Hike Recipes

[CarlZ993]

I've heard a lot about Nido milk, but never drink anything with cereal besides fresh whole milk. Can you throw Nido in with cereal to cook, i.e., oats or Malto, and not have to mix it up prior to using it?

I mixed Nido in other foods that I've cooked before (Mac & Cheese) & it worked. Nido is the best tasting powdered milk I've tried over the years. It isn't always easy to find. Walmart stores around Austin carry it. A lot of hikers had trouble finding it consistently along the trail (smaller stores). I predominantly used mail drops. It was always in my food drop.

[Second Hand]

I love this thread.
The more backpacking I do the more tired i get of Romen, Tuna packets, Mac and Cheese and cliff bars. This has been an interesting read

[brancher]

For me, breakfast is oatmeal - I like steel cut but those Quaker instant packets are quick, convenient, and pretty tasty. I also like to toss some dried fruit in 'em. I also drink coffee - black but with a pack of cocoa - contains creamer, sugar, and chocolate for an energy punch. Sometimes when I want to get an early start I will just grab a Snickers and walk a couple of hours, then settle into a clearing and cook the breakfast.

Lunch: I like summer sausage and sharp cheese (it's a little heavy so I usually eat that stuff early in my week), Peanut butter and honey w/tortillas, or trail mix. I also take some Gatorade packets to mix with water if I want some flavor. I also take some turkey jerky and some gorp/seed/etc.

Dinner - two words: Harmony House. I buy the stuff and make my own meals by mixing ingredients and putting 'em in those little 'portion packs' you can get from Walmart or elsewhere - tasty, and mixed with ramen and ramen flavor packets, it is a very filling dinner. Also works with those instant mashed potatoes for kind of a perverted shephard's pie.

Oh, and hot tea in the evening. Earl Grey. Because no matter how muddy, wet, dejected, or broken you are at the end of the day, a slowly-sipped, steaming cup of Earl Grey makes you just a little more -- civilized.

[Rocket Jones]

For breakfasts, I like pre-cooked and dehydrated quinoa. Like oatmeal, you can add dried fruit, nuts, brown sugar, honey or anything else you can think of. Add Nido or water, hot or cold, it's all good and you never have to be bored with the same thing every morning.

For the other meals and snacks, the first couple of days I like to bring fresh foods. Hard boiled eggs, olives, an avocado, an orange or two, etc.

[Hoofit]

True enough!
I always carried a few extra bags of oatmeal and found it to be very tasty and would just tear it open, throw a little water right in the packet and voila! Instant gratification ! Got me through some serious hunger on more than one occasion...

[gillian]

Rocket Jones, is the pre-cooked and dehydrated quinoa something that stores carry, or are you sending this to yourself in mail drops?

[Rocket Jones]

I cook my own quinoa and then dehydrate at home. No mail drops, I do shorter section hikes so I don't use 'em.

[vega802]

For coffee, I like to put instant coffee, hot coco mix, powdered milk and a handful of mini marshmallows in snack size baggies, and make one for each day. Then just mix with hot water in a cup on the trail. Yummy! I usually only do this when I'm prepping food at home though.

[RangerZ]

Spam packets for the Knorr sides (like 2.5 times the calories of basic tuna). Also, my current favorite Knorr sides are the pasta/rice blends. For breakfast, and available nearly everywhere, cold cereal of choice. I slightly crumble it so as to take up less space. Roughly 4 - 4.5 ounces in a zip-lock bag. Throw it in cargo pocket and eat throughout the morning.

Breakfast is oatmeal with Nido and my trail mix in it.For cold breakfasts, Cheerios plus Nido, raisins and dried fruit.I mix the Nido up with water in a quart ziplock then add everything else; I just can’t see adding water to cereal. I do summer sausage, tuna on tortillas for lunch early to get rid of the weight then switch to PB&J.I have problems with the Knorr pasta sides clumping together, so I like the rice/pasta ones better; especially the Spanish rice.I can get the 7 ounce chicken packets so I typically use half on tortillas for lunch then the rest with the Spanish rice that night.I’ve been meaning to make up a batch of jambalaya and dehydrate it, mix it with Spam or summer sausage for dinner.TVP with most stuff and I try to remember the EVOO I’m carrying.I’ve done the mashed potatoes with Spam, bacon bits, etc, I’m trying to move away from that – but it is easy.

[woodguy]

I like two packets of oatmeal and a couple of slices of precooked Bacon..

[Poedog]

Some valuable info here...

http://unboundroutes.com/2015/02/02/673/

[Misery]

I feel like lunch gets left out a lot. I love lunch. I find a nice place to sit down and relax and have a nice long lunch break. I'll usually eat some sort of sandwich. Pepperoni, fritos, a little packet of mustard and spinach (well for a day or two out of town) on a flat bread sandwich; or cinnamon pb, an apple nutrigrain bar, peanut m&ms, and gorp, on a tortilla. Sometimes I'l add a little fresh garlic to them too

[Demeter]

Another quinoa lover here. So versatile.

Am I the only person that eats raw oatmeal? Mix in some peanut butter and honey. The oats absorb the oil from the peanut butter to soften them up. Yummmm.

[Bronk]

If you get tired of knorr pasta sides, try the Bear Creek pasta packet thingies. I usually could get 2 meals out of one pouch, if I added summer sausage or pepperoni.

I also liked ramen + peanut butter + hot sauce + nuts or trail mix + jerky/summer sausage/pepperoni

+1 on the Bear Creek sides...they are a premium version of the Knorr sides.