Fueling yourself on the trail is an important part of any backpacking trip, so I’ve come up with the ultimate meal guide for backcountry camping. Since my very first backpacking trip I’ve been honing my food game and I have to admit, I’ve come a long way! I started by carrying steaks and other crazy food ideas with the impression that dehydrated meals were awful.
In a bid to lighten our packs on long trips we gave some dehydrated food a try and it was pleasantly surprising and a great addition to our food bag. Don’t get me wrong, not all of the food packets are good….here’s looking at you super spicy beef pho I couldn’t finish!
Here I detail my food bag contents to help you skip out on the mistakes I spent trip after trip making. Tried and tested I’ve now got my backpacking food game done to a fine art!
Backpacking Breakfast Options
Option 1: Hash Browns and bacon
That’s right, my go to breakfast in the backcountry is hash browns and bacon. Did you know you can pick up dehydrated hash browns at Costco! That’s right, 6 cartons of dehydrated hash browns cost around $9 from Costco Canada. Each carton is realistically about four servings, so this is a cheap breakfast option! To make, just boil water, leave to rehydrate, then fry them up.
We add ready cooked bacon we pick up from the store. This is more expensive and we use one packet over two days to be on the cost effective side. Add it to the hash browns and fry it up together.
Take a GSI salt and pepper shaker and that’ll keep you happy on the seasoning front for at least five days. We also separately dehydrate finely chopped onion and peppers and add these to the mixture for a bit of fresh flavor!
If there is one thing I won’t touch…its dehydrated eggs, I’ve seen the outcome and I don’t want to try. If you’ve had a good experience I’d love to know your secrets! Please share.
Option 2: Oats
The old faithful, tried and tested by many. I prefer the individual serving packets….although it takes two to fuel me for the day. These are pre portioned and can come ready flavored. I really enjoy the Quaker Oats High Fibre Wild Berry Medley. It’s fresh and fruity tasting. Or for a can’t go wrong option apple and cinnamon is always a winner.
We always take a variety of flavors so we don’t end up getting bored after a few days. Plus you can add water directly to the packets to save on all the washing up. Trying to get oats off of dishes with cool water and backcountry soap is not an easy task!
To round out the meal we often fry up some of the bacon strips I mentioned earlier, these are light and don’t need to be refrigerated and add some much needed protein to the morning to keep you hiking for longer!
Lunch In The Backcountry
Not every day on the trail is a sunny pleasant one so rather than pack a big specific lunch, I snack up! So I can eat on the go if I need to. Awesome on cold, windy or wet days!
Mini pepperoni sticks
Baby bells
Trail mix
Dehydrated fruit
Protein bars
Camp snacks
For shorter days when there is more down time at camp on the cards I enjoy packing a few specific treats.
Ham and cheese quesadillas, super simple, mini wraps which fit perfectly in the pan of my backpacking pot set. Sliced cheese and ham. Toast in the pan and remember to flip. A tasty, high calorie treat!
Another go to snack is sundried tomato and basil wheat thins with laughing cow cheese triangles. These crackers are big on the flavor but robust enough not to get crushed to dust in your pack!
I also enjoy packing a bag of mini chips ahoy. Nothing beats dunking them in a hot cup of tea at camp as a nice sweet treat!
Backpacking Dinner Ideas
When it comes to the main meal my go to is dehydrated meals. Having not mastered the method to make them at home, I head straight to the store. My favorite brand is Alpine Aire, however I enjoy some of the Backpacker’s Pantry options as well.
Typically we take a meal per person for dinner and share half and half to mix things up. I personally find the pasta Backpacker Pantry options tend to be pretty heavy and I would struggle to get through one.
We also pack smokie sausages on shorter trips, these are big on calories and add some excitement to more boring dehydrated meals. We don’t take these on longer trips because they are heavy to carry.
A few of my favorite tried and tested dehydrated meals include:
Alpine Aire – Cheese Enchilada Ranchero
Alpine Aire – Spicy Sausage Pasta
Backpacker’s Pantry – Kathmandu Curry
Backpacker’s Pantry – Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken
Backpacker’s Pantry – Sweet and Sour Chicken
Backpacker’s Pantry – Vegetable Lasagne
These are by no means the only good options, but they are my go to options for no nasty surprises after a long day on the trail!
Everything I recommend I have personally tried and tested but please note that some of the links above are affiliate links, so I may earn a small commission on any purchase made, at no additional cost to you. This helps me keep the blog running, so thank you for your support!
I like your breakfast idea with dehydrated hashbrowns and bacon. I always pack bacon jerky for a trail snack which would work great with the hashbrowns I think. I recently have been hooked on PeakRefuel meals which are delicious and require less water and quick rehydration(4-10min). Bushkas Kitchen is another I tried this year and enjoyed. for snacks I pack much the same as you. I also like Heathers Choice Pakaroons, Cliff bars and Snickers bars. I also just added Tailwind nutritions drink mix to my repitoir. 200 cal of delicious drink for those heavy trail days.
Thanks for the information, I’ve never tried bacon jerky but I am definitely going to hunt some down to try, I’m sure it’d go great with the hash browns! I’m trying my first PeakRefuel meal next week on a trip, I’m excited, people seem to rave about them. Thanks for the drink suggestion too, I’m not always that enthusiastic about drinking plain water so I love ideas on how to liven it up!