[hooker]

Food, what do you all eat over say a weeks trip. Is there a link here for me to check it out. I know how important it's gonna be to replenish my body. That will help make my trip better. I'm sure you know what I mean. Thanks for the info! mtnman

[treasureblue]

Hello mtnman There are several threads posted here that have been helpful to me. You can use the "Search" feature above to track them down; or here is one good one below - and there are links to other threads embedded in this one: https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14261

[Rich Baldwin]

For a week-long, a variety of freeze-dried meals, cliff bars, trail mix, gummy bears, and a few carrots. Toss in some tortilla wraps with peanut butter or something. I try to alternate breakfasts too. A good idea is to arrange your meals before you put them into your stuff sack, reverse order. Include food at the bottom for one extra day. For shorter trips I'l splurge with fresher food, but a week's worth of meals weighs too much for many luxuries. Sometimes I'll bring sake along.

[Gil]

Dinner

[Allison]

[sarbar]

Just like gear..food is an area where everyone takes differentstuff. No matter what though, take food you like. For myself, gagging down a weeks worth of freezedried is not a good thing. But that is my personal taste. Then again there are people who could eat MRE's for a month straight..no thanks! Basically, when I pack, I figure out how many breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks I need. Then I double the snacks In the snacks area I carry candy bars, unsalted cashews, swiss cheese, dried fruit, crackers, etc. These can sub for lunches with no issue. I also carry lots of tea bags and packets of Crystal Lite To Go for my water. Because of my restricted diet I carry high fiber/protien/no sodium cereal for breakfast and dried fruit. Dinners I eat a meal of my making with a good mix of carbs, protien, fat and veggies. I always carry dessert! Be it pudding to candy. For the first couple days Bagels are really nice, and tortillas pack for a week with little problems. You can get many items in shelf stable single packets, from olive oil to cream cheese.

[Starjumper7]

[jenjen]

Tip #1 - vary your breakfasts. Instant oatmeal gets really boring after a couple of days. Cup-o-noodles work well, granola works well, one poster carries regular breakfast cereal and dried milk powder. The freezedried egg dishes are actually pretty good. I've done bean and cheese burritos for breakfast before, they were good and kept me going till well into the afternoon. Tip #2 - carry more snacks than you think you'll need. I use snacks as emergency food. Snacks also become my lunches. If you're still not quite satisfied after your regular dinner, a couple handfuls of trail mix will fix that. If the wind is howling and there's an ice storm coming in, curling up in the tent and eating trailmix for dinner works suprisingly well. My snacks include cheese, nuts, dried fruit, candy, jerky, trail mix, and goldfish crackers. Along with whatever else catches my fancy at the grocery store. Tip #3 - I carry along Carnation instant breakfast that I add dried milk powder to at home. I use these for hot, hard trips when I can feel my blood sugar level drop. Dump the powder in a spare bottle (I use a gatorade bottle or juice bottle), add some water, shake, and slurp. They don't taste great, but they're easy to digest and keep me going until I can stop somewhere and actually eat something. They also make an ok emergency breakfast. At home, I wouldn't touch these with a 10 foot pole, on the trail they work. Tip #4 - don't forget the booze. A good single malt comes along on all of my trips. Good bourbon works, too. Port makes a decent backup if you don't have any heftier booze around. Beer is too heavy to carry along. I bring the high-octane stuff cause it's lighter and I really just want a quick toast to a nice day's exercise, a gorgeous campsite, and a beautiful sunset ---- or in the case of lousy weather closing in and hordes of bugs from Hell, I just want to get toasted and forget the whole experience. Tip #5 - whatever type of dinners you choose to carry, make sure you vary them. You really, really don't want to end up eating chili-mac for 5 days straight. Also, make sure you taste test meals before taking them on the trail. I've packed out more than one freeze dried meal because it was just plain inedible (Alpine Aire had this truly awful shrimp thing - it was just plain nasty!). If you cruise through the grocery store and pay attention, there are all sorts of instant mashed potato things and dried noodle dishes you can just heat up, add some tuna to, and eat. I tend to dehydrate most of my own meals to take along, but the Idahoan instant potatoes have a special place in my food sack.

[Tazz]

tip #4 is the best tip. Nothing like a toast (or two or three )as the sun sets on the mountains. mountain house has a great blueberry granola breakfast cereal. It is just a bit pricey is all. I have gone on strike when it comes to the freeze dried dinners. They make me want to vomit now. I am taking a break from them and going to try something different next trip.

[Gil]

SJ -- that's just a flat, Teflon-covered aluminum tray perched on rocks above an MSR Whisperlite. It's good for that sort of thing and pancakes and such. I wouldn't call it ultralight, but it's not too heavy. Freeze-dried: I actually like some of that stuff, but like Tazz I find it easy to OD on it. So what I usually do is carry something real for the first night. And a liter of wine to start the trip helps ease those next morning aches and pains!

[hooker]

You all got some great ideas!! Thanks alot!! Is there one single thing that you can think of for a mid day snack that will really kick me in the a$$ to keep me fired up and motivated. Thanks alot mtnman

[Allison]

Dried egg tip: Pack them in in a heavy freezer bag. add the requisite amount of water and mix well. Boil the mixture in water. The only mess you make is in the freezer bag. Stuff in bags tip: Write what the stuff is and how much water to add to it. It all looks the same once it leaves the kitchen.

[hooker]

marylou. Ok is this really energy food or just food that will really kick my a$$ . Dried egg? Take it easy on me. I'm a greenhorn!! thanks mtnman

[sarbar]

On eof my favorite snack items for lunch time is a 7 ounce pouch of chicken, a couple packets of mayo (to taste) and curry powder to taste. Raisins, craisins or cucumber are also great added. So are chopped cashews or slivered almonds. Mix up and eat wrapped in tortillas. Yum! Serves 1-3 depending on appetite.

[obladi]

I tend to keep it simple on most hikes since for me the energy expended tends to make most meals appreciably tasty. On my 10 1/2 day PCT hike I took several lipton noodle packets for dinner (the kind in the pouches) along with squeezable butter and powdered milk for mix. I think I also brought some Roman noodles. They carry a lot of calories for the weight. nuts and dried fruit provided good lunches and snacks. For breakfast I brought bagels, peanut butter and a block of cheese (which does not go bad but gets an oily texture). One bad decision that I made was that the nuts I bought were unsalted which I think had something to do with the cramps I experience on day 3 (I have a review of that hike on my website). Next time I might experiment with tofu (does that hold in a sealed container?) and premixed spices with the soft tortilla shells that were mentioned on this thread. After the bagels and cheese were used up I had some grape nuts that I ate with the powdered milk (water added) during the last half of the hike.