One thing I love about planning for a backpacking trip is planning the food! My friend Cheryl and I decided on a menu for this trip, then split up who would prepare what. We cooked, baked, dehydrated and then froze everything. Finally, Cheryl brought her food to my house, where I verified that it was all there, and organized it all into Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4. Our trips always start after lunch, so we pack all our food away in our bear bag except for our afternoon snack on Day 1.
For breakfast, we boil 2 L of water, using it for tea/coffee and hot cereal, and the remainder, if any, for warming up the little bit of dish water we use in our pot.
For lunches, we always have no-cook meals.
For dinners, we sometimes bake fresh bread like bannock or corn bread, or cook something like eggs, but otherwise we usually just boil water to add to something like pasta or soup.
Food ready to go!
This trip though, we didn’t exactly follow our menu! What started out as a 4-day backpacking trip turned into a 3-day trip because of the cold and wet conditions. You can read the trip report here. Below you will find our planned menu, and then what we actually ate!
Planned menu for 4-days for 2 people
Day 1
Afternoon snack: trail mix
Dinner: spinach quinoa soup with bannock
Evening snack: dehydrated fruit and chocolate
Day 2
Breakfast: oatmeal with dried fruit + tea/coffee + gatorade
Morning snack: pizza gorp
Lunch: leftover bannock from Day 1 dinner with cheese, nuts, jerky, dried fruit
Afternoon snack: harvest oat squares
Dinner: pasta Alfredo with bacon, veggies, parmesan
Evening snack: dehydrated fruit and chocolate
Day 3
Breakfast: granola + tea/coffee + gatorade
Morning snack: trail mix
Lunch: apple peanut salad wrap
Afternoon snack: energy squares
Dinner: egg wraps with bacon, veggies, salsa
Evening snack: dehydrated fruit and chocolate
Day 4
Breakfast: strawberry peach muesli + tea/coffee + gatorade
Morning snack: harvest oat squares
Lunch: tomato flatbread, hummus and cheese
Afternoon snack: pizza gorp
Drinks
gatorade
tea and coffee
hot chocolate
Actual menu for 3-days for 2 people
Day 1
All meals as planned + hot chocolate before dinner
Day 2
Breakfast as planned
Morning snack as planned
Lunch as planned
Dinner (at this point, we decided that we didn’t want to spend any more time outside in the freezing cold under a tarp in the pouring rain to cook our dinner): wraps with dehydrated veggies and dehydrated salsa (not rehydrated – a little hard to eat!)
Evening snack: harvest oat squares
On Day 2, we organized all our food into stuff we would eat, and stuff that would require cooking and we would bring home.
Day 3
Breakfast (knowing that we had to hike 20 km to cut our trip short by a day and get back to our vehicle, we opted for an early start and a no-cook breakfast): Day 4 harvest oat squares + gatorade
Morning snack: Day 2 evening snack dehydrated fruit and chocolate + Day 3 morning snack trail mix + Day 4 afternoon snack pizza gorp
Lunch: Day 4 Tomato flatbread and cheese (no hummus) + gatorade
Afternoon snack as planned
Dinner: Day 3 apple peanut salad wrap
Leftover food
Day 2 pasta Alfredo with bacon, veggies, parmesan
Day 3 granola
Day 3 egg from wraps
Day 4 strawberry peach muesli
Day 4 hummus
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