[Wolfman]

Hi All, I am trying out new ideas and foods for a thru hike this summer. Right now I am trying to work out a cold or just warm breakfast meals. I use an Alcohol stove and heat water in the morning for coffee, this takes about an oz of fuel. Then I usually heat more water for a second cup and hot oatmeal, which uses about 1.5 oz. But oatmeal everyday gets old real fast. So I think if I cut to one cup of coffee and a cold breakfast or just a little hot water, say added to cold water I would save a lot on fuel and have more breakfast options. So far I am kinda drawing a blank on ideas. 1) Instant Oatmeal (hot) 2) Granola w/ powered milk (Cold or warm) this is actually a lot better the I though it would be. 3) Cold Cereal with powdered mild (Cold) I don't think this would be very nutritional or calorie packed. ? ? Thanks for the ideas and help! Wolfman

[Voxxjin]

Pop Tarts and various breakfast bars come to my mind. And depending on how warm it is Snickers bar works too. Though if it is too warm they melt some.

[Wolfman]

I tried Pop Tarts once... Only once just not my cup of tea, my kids love them though. I'll have to check out "breakfast Bars", I am assuming that these are like power bars or something but designed as a breakfast substitute. I have done the carnation breakfast drink mix, but I still would need something solid. I was also thinking about stuff I eat for lunch, like bagels and cream cheese, or salami and crackers, that kind of stuff, which would work, but I would still like some fairly easy breakfast themed items. Wolfman

[Boywonder]

Blueberry bagel with peanut butter. I have been going that route for years.

[Voxxjin]

[trail wiseguy]

i have a hard time eating breakfast, idk i just can eat that early.... but i snack about two or three hours on the trail around 1030 or 11 and its mostly dried fruits, jerky or peperoni. it works for me i'm just one of those people that only eats when i'm hungry and i'm just not hungry at 6-7 am. any way i eat mostly stuff i don't need to cook to save weight on fuel and if i did eat breakfast i would do a bagel with can cheese or something with grain to keep me going till lunch.

[AlpineRose]

Try bulger wheat. Can be prepared hot or cold. Experiment at home with adding ingredients for flavor and sweetness - brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, dried fruits and nuts, dried milk. Pop tarts are crap. Look at the ingredients and weep.

[Alpine Pedestrian]

A few years ago one of the PCT thru-hikers described eating poptarts for breakfast as his morning dose of self-loathing. Try Sarbar's cran-bars. They're probably on her trailcooking.com website. Basically, they're cornflakes, nuts, and craisins held together with sugar, honey, molasses, and peanut butter. They're my backpacking breakfast. I get up, pack up, and munch on one as I hike with a morning drink of instant apple cider. Here's my adaptation: Cranberry Cereal Nut Bars 12 oz box corn flakes or Wheaties or 4 C granola 1 C craisins 1 C walnuts, chopped 1 C honey 1 C white sugar 1 TB molasses 1 ts vanilla 1 C peanut butter Combine cereal, nuts, and fruit. Spray 9 x 13 pan. In saucepan heat honey, sugar, and molasses to full boil. Remove from heat, add peanut butter and vanilla. Add cereal mixture. Press into pan.

[Traildad]

I am a big fan of granola with mixed powdered milk for breakfast. Super easy and no cleanup to speak of.

[grannyhiker]

I use muesli, granola or Grapenuts with added dried fruit, chopped nuts and dried milk, adding cold water just before eating. I can't stand any cooked cereal (never could) and the time/fuel savings of not having to fire up the stove in the morning are well worth skipping coffee or tea. Also, I almost always have cold cereal for breakfast at home, so that's what I'm used to.

[contour5]

I like pastries for breakfast (but not Pop Tarts), but they don't really provide the horsepower for big/long days... and they tend to get squished, rendering them less aesthetically pleasing. Lately I'm experimenting with various types of breakfast sandwiches. Many of them work fine unheated. I like the smaller footprint of a bagel or sandwich thins- these fit well in a ziplock and don't get crushed as badly as regular bread. Cheese and mustard are perhaps the key filler ingredients. To this you can add an infinite number of additional ingredients. Pre-cooked bacon is an unhealthy favorite. Also smoked salmon, proscuitto, or lunchmeat manufactured from pink slime that was scraped up off the slaughterhouse floor. I find it useful to prepare my sammiches from fresh ingredients at the TH, thereby cutting down on the number of implements carried on the trail, and reducing the number of cleaning tasks in camp. Pre-made sandwiches become sad and boring by the third day or so, as the condiments begin to saturate the bread material into a pulpy, globular mass. Out comes the canister stove, the freeze dried eggs and the two and a half pounds of tortillas... note: don't forget the black pepper.

[Riverside Laker]

[Schenk]

I sometimes pack in a pizza for the first night and the first morning. Heat pieces in foil over a small fire or coals, or heat up in a non-stick pan over your stove for dinner. Left over Cold Pizza for breakfast!!

[Wolfman]

Thanks for the ideas everyone! I think I'll stop at Traders Joe's tonight and see what they have for Muesli and bulgur wheat, or other breakfast cereals. I like honey nut cheerios, and the nut/flake cereals too, so I might try that kind of cereal too. Not so sure about the build your breakfast sandwich type meals, I like to be able to eat quick as I pack up and get ready for the day. Although bagels could be done the night before. For those of you that take bagels, do you use the new "thin" bagels or standard ones. I have seen the thin ones, but not tried them. It always seems like a rip-off as they are about the same price or sometimes even more then a normal bagel. I like the pizza idea, but that would probably not be to advisable to ship from home and leave in the post office for a week or so. Although I am sure some of the frozen pizzas could handle it and look just fine. Given that they don't really have any real food in them to start with. As for the danish, I was thinking about that the last time I got one of those boxes of mixed individually wrapped danish from Costco. At about 200 cal each, they are not to bad, and would not be a problem shipping. I also think that it's wouldn't matter much if they got squished. As for Coffee, not doing that in the morning is a no go for me, I GOT to have the coffee. Although I was thinking about making it the night before and then just shaking it up good the next morning. I think this would work better in the summer, not so cold and would save on time and fuel. During the winter, and most likely spring and fall, I am going to still want that hot coffee. Wolfman

[AlpineRose]

PCC also has a great selection of various breakfast granola/grain mixes in bulk. Starbucks VIA dissolves in cold water. I like VIA, but some don't.