Supermarket Food Ideas for Extended Tripping

[NikonF5user]

Prepping for a 30+ day trip this summer, would love to hear updated ideas everyone has for supermarket alternatives to backpacking meals. I have been scanning through past posts and there is quite a bit information out there already, but of course things change over time so I figured I would start a new thread. I will be using backpacking meals of course, along with many products from Knorr and Starkist, but I am sure there are MANY more things people do. Sadly I do not have a dehydrator or freeze-dryer (and do not forsee getting one before this summer's trip), so "off-the-shelf" ideas are ideal. I plan on pre-mixing bannock for several meals, but there are so many other ideas I know many of you are already using - would love to hear some of them if you're willing to share!

 

[Mason]

My staples for 6 week trips (involving lots of portages) are: instant brown rice, Bear Valley soup mix (e.g. broccoli/cheddar), and bacon bits; pasta w/Knorr pesto, sundried tomatoes, and bacon bits; Zatarains Jambalaya, dried tomatoes and andouille sausage. The bagged real bacon from Costco is wonderful, and lasts forever. If you can't find the dried stuff you want, you can dry stuff in your oven, vented at low heat. I've made lots of elk jerky that way. Typically, we'd alternate group dinners, and so each of us would have 5-6 dinners that would repeat. I make things simple, and my partners eat it (and may even compliment the food!).

 

[kahel]

may you find this also intresting:

How To Dehydrate Using Oven

How To Dehydrate Food Forbackpacking

 

[Alan Gage]

I've never used backpacking meals and anymore the only thing I dehydrate is fruits and veggies (dump frozen veggies straight onto the tray). Everything I use is straight out of the supermarket and is chosen for quick easy cooking, easy cleanup and low bulk.

Breakfast is oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar.

Lunch is bannock (cooked with olive oil) and peanut butter.

Dinner is Quinoa, lentils and mixed veggies with olive oil added.

Snacks are lightly salted almonds, raisins, lemon drops, dried fruit, peanut M&Ms and hot chocolate. The 'snacks' often serve as a good meal when time is short or I don't feel like cooking.

I make my bannock mix with with whole powered milk (Nido) and if I want pancakes and just mix it runny and disolve sugar in a little bit of water to use as syrup. I'll do this once of twice during the trip when I need a pick me up or to celebrate the halfway point. I usually stash a really good chocolate bar for the halfway point as well.

Simplifying meals makes life so much easier (pre-trip as well as during the trip). I've used this menu for a 40+ day trip and it was great. I never got tired of eating the same thing. Rather than thinking of the meals as monotonous think of them as a luxury compared to what people in that region had available for thousands of years.

This was food packed for 45 days. It fit into a 60 and 30 liter barrel. It's slightly possible I could have gotten it all into a 60 liter barrel if it wasn't for all the dog food.

https://flic.kr/p/JTJmLy

Alan

 

[Art D]

Harmony House foods. http://harmonyhousefoods.com/

 

[jdeerfoot]

While traveling with Uncle Phil and the Wabakimi Project I learned that Phil always packed one emergency meal. My recall is that it consisted of 2 pkg Knorr Spring Vegetable soup mix, 2 pkg of instant rice and dehydrated peas. This recipe made a large pot of soup enough for 4 people. I still make this on some trips and also add several pkg of precooked chicken. If you’re ambitious you can also make a couple of bannocks.

I remember a 2 wk WP trip in 2009 when the plane could not get in for resupply of food due to prolonged low overcast and rain until Tuesday late afternoon (instead of the usual Saturday resupply). We had to make up the soup on that trip. And 2009 was a very rainy year so the Albany Rv was in flood and we had no luck with fishing.

 

[billconner]

I like Trader Joe's selection of nuts, dried fruit, bars, and such. Instant mashed potatoes and stove top stuffings are compact and tasty. I learned to like spam at Philmont - with mustard and cheese. I'm not a fan of oatmeal - too much like wallpaper paste - but grape nuts with dried fruit and Nido is my breakfast of choice.

 

[yknpdlr]

may you find this also intresting:

Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating on the Trail by Linda Yaffe

Really gets you into home dehydrating good stuff. Some may sound a little strange at first, but it is a good lead into what you can do on your own. Hawk (RIP) of Hawk Vittles fame, got his start from recipes in this book. I used many of my own versions to feed 7 voyageur canoe paddlers on two different Yukon 1000 mile races.

 

[Jim Dodd]

This is a great thread ! Maybe make it a sticky ???

I'll offer one quick and easy breakfast, or anytime.
I like Grape nuts.
In a Zip lock bag put GN, Powdered milk (Nido ) and sugar.
Add water, hot or cold, and enjoy.

OH ! Add M&Ms, or milk chocalote chips.

Have a dehydrator, that I put to use all the time, when Apples go on sale at the store.
They are so easy, if you have an Apple peeler/corer. !

Jim

 

[Mason]

I didn't include breakfast and lunch. I can eat the same thing for six weeks at a time. Grape nuts/dried milk/sugar for breakfast, mixed nuts and granola bars for lunch. I average 1.5 pounds of food per day and don't go hungry, but I'm a pretty light eater.

 

[Gamma1214]

I like the flavored oatmeal packets and usually mix 2 flavored with 1 or 2 plain. I also carry dehydrated eggs, Hungry Jack dehydrated hash browns and lots and lots of bacon. No real need to dehydrate as cooked bacon will be fine at room temperature for 6 weeks. I twist it & bake it in the oven until cooked but still on the chewy side. Makes a great shore lunch right out of the bag or shred it into anything.

Alternatively, I'm sure there's a Dollar General (or 10) near you so watch for Clover Valley real bacon bits & Idahoan potatoes. I'll dump about 1/3 of a bag of bacon bits in the water when heating to a boil, add the spuds and eat it right out of the pan. (DG is also the most reliable source I've found for the Hungry Jack hash browns)

Lunch for me is a handful of trail mix and / or a few twists of bacon as, even in domestic life, I'm usually too busy to bother with lunch.

 

[Robin]

I like Idahoan Potatoes and Hungry Jack hash browns too. I didn’t know that cooked bacon will last at room temp, good tip.

I bring pancake mix and real maple syrup, there’s something about a big pancake with local blueberries topped with great maple syrup eaten right out of the cold handle…

 

[Paddlinhal]

30 days without a drier! There is a book "The NOLS Cookery" that probably describes how to do what you're trying to do.

 

[jdeerfoot]

A buddy who likes to camp cook will make pancakes and makes his own maple syrup using Maplene (appears to be a concentrate), which tastes pretty good.

 

[NikonF5user]

I've never used backpacking meals and anymore the only thing I dehydrate is fruits and veggies (dump frozen veggies straight onto the tray). Everything I use is straight out of the supermarket and is chosen for quick easy cooking, easy cleanup and low bulk.

Breakfast is oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar.

Lunch is bannock (cooked with olive oil) and peanut butter.

Dinner is Quinoa, lentils and mixed veggies with olive oil added.

Alan

Fascinating to see you make bannock for lunch - when tripping do you routinely stop and cook lunch, or did you make it in the morning and eat enroute?

 

[ppine]

Instant mashed potatoes, rice, oatmeal, dried fruit, smoked salmon, pouch meat like tuna, chicken and spam.
Flat bread, dehydrated soup, cheese, crackers, When in doubt make pancakes. Keep an eye out for forgeable plants.
Always carry fishing gear. Bring a pistol for pot meat.

 

[Alan Gage]

Fascinating to see you make bannock for lunch - when tripping do you routinely stop and cook lunch, or did you make it in the morning and eat enroute?

I stop and make it fresh. I like paddling long days so I almost always stop to cook lunch. It's often my favorite meal of the day.

 

[Alan Gage]

I don't have a problem with food like canned or bagged tuna and chicken or even bacon but on a long trip trash can get to be a big deal. With all dry ingredients trash is only empty baggies that can often be reused later

On a 30 day trip all my garbage fit in a1 gallon baggy with no smell.

I picked up someone elses trash with a week left in the trip (empty chicken tins) and they made my barrel stink even though they were in a baggy. Unpleasant for me and more likely to be pleasant for a bear.

Alan

 

[Gamma1214]

...they made my barrel stink even though they were in a baggy.

I keep a one gallon(ish) Opsak that I use solely for non-burnable garbage. I've (so far) been very pleased with how effectively they contain odors.

 

[Bob B.]

I too make my food from dry goods. Dehydrated burger ( venison), mixed with hamburger helper. Knorr rice sides with dehydrated burger etc. My breakfast is coffee and a breakfast bar. Lunch, if I eat mid day, is a flat bread with peanut butter and honey and coffee. I usually travel a good bit or adventure seek in the morning with my dog Jake. Long about 10-11 am, I like to pull up to a lone rock on a lake or clear a spot off a trail and make a coffee and a few eggs in my twig stove and cold handle pan.

Some days, especially if it is a layover/rest day, I will make bannock or pancakes. Usually to be eaten with honey … and maybe a walleye fillet or two. I personally used to love the prepackaged dehydrated back pack meals. I realized early in my canoe tripping that these did not pack that small, we’re really expensive and After a few days, I would not feel as “energized”. I think my body just wants real food. I do eat instant mashed potatoes once on a while.

There is something that feeds the soul as well as the body sitting in the back country with a good cup of coffee and some warm bannock or cornbread … honey melting in … looking out over a lake. My sore muscles and hungry belly seem to speak to me … yup, this just feels right.