Recipe: Backpacking Food
We ate very well this weekend! Rob and I don’t normally excel at packing food for camping trips. We’re prone to not liking what we’ve brought and going for pizza instead. Having to carry everything we wanted in for four miles made us focus and plan our meals. If you’re going backpacking soon, here are two easy recipes to bring along:
Rob’s Backpacking Pancakes
Krusteaz oat bran cinnamon pancake mix (my new favorite!)
Freeze-dried Crunchies blueberries
Mix the pancake batter with water and blueberries. Wait 10 minutes for the mixture to expand and turn purple from the berries. Serve hot off the pan dipped in maple syrup.
Emily’s Smoked Salmon Pasta
Foil package of smoked salmon
Farfalle (bowtie) noodles
1 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
salt, pepper, olive oil and paprika
Cook the noodles and drain. Mix the smoked salmon into the noodles with olive oil and spices. Put back on the heat until everything is well mixed and hot. Pour into bowls and top with the Parmesan cheese.
We also took freeze dried mango, salt and pepper rice crackers, sport beans, tortilla soup, chocolate chip cookies and saturn nectarines. Yum! Do you have a favorite backpacking recipe?
It might not be the best recipe for backpacking per se, but if you are camping or boating and have a cooler, zip bag omelettes are so much fun to make!
Get a quart size ziploc bag and write your name on it with a Sharpie. Each person puts in 2 eggs and whatever s/he wants in a omelette…crumbled cooked sausage/bacon, cubed cooked ham, shredded cheese, onions, peppers, salsa, etc. Zip bag shut and knead to mix ingredients. Put bags in kettle of boiling water for 15 minutes, then remove with tongs, unzip bags and slide onto plate.
Really fun if you have kids!
Hi Emily, I am a regular reader of your blog – I love your style and am envious of your life! I don’t think I have ever commented before, but I had to this time in answer to your first commenter – genius!! My kids are in Scouts and I’ll have to tell them about this recipe. Thanks!
Ooohh, I love backpacking food!
I've heard good things about the baggie omelets listed above. If you froze them solid, it might work for backpacking.
If you are willing to pack a bit of extra weight and fire restrictions permit, biscuits are always fun!
It's easiest to get a tube of the pre-made grocery store kind. If you don't have backpacking pans, prep by wrapping the tube in lots of foil–it will serve as your cooking vessel. When you arrive at your campsite, get some good coals going and place your dough in 2-3 layers of foil. Seal up the packet and bury it in the coals until done. (Downside: you have to pack the foil out, and it's a bit messy.) It also works to do this in titanium backpacking cookware, but that's also not too tidy. I've used storebought cinnamon rolls & had great results, as well.
Bear Creek Kitchens makes a great dehydrated potato soup. Very filling, and if you want more flavor you can freeze cubes of ham and add them with some broccoli at the campsite.
Tortillas with crunchy peanut butter are a good energy lunch for eating on the trail, and you can get little sticks of honey to jazz the flavor up.
Kashi has a really good instant oatmeal with 7 grams of protein per envelope–couple it with powdered hot chocolate & you have a solid backpacker's breakfast.
(Sorry to be so long-winded; camping and food are two great loves of mine!)
Your trip looks like it was so much fun! We love to bring burrito makings when we backpack with a bunch of friends…everyone brings 1 or 2 items and we have a feast. Some of the items are heavier but if you only have to bring 1-2 things each it’s no big deal. Tortillas, dehydrated refried beans, cheese, salsa, olives, veggies to saute in the skillet, sour cream, etc….We even had someone bring a “margarita in a bag” one time!
Re: Ziploc boiling. Heating plastic releases toxins. Just wanted you to be aware: http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=3959161
My most favorite backpacking recipe: chicken & dumplings.
In the pot: water, a pack of chicken, a packet of cream o' chicken soup, and a handful of dried veggies (although if I eat this on Day 1, I might pack in broccoli or cauliflower for this). While this is heating, I mix in a bowl some Bisquick with water (consistency here is important…it should be good and thick and slightly sticky, like cookie dough…too much water is bad and can be tough to correct). Bisquick can be seasoned with pepper, cumin, curry, anything although I don't reccommend using the cheese pack that comes with Macaroni and Cheese. Too salty and orange.
Drop spoonfuls of the Bisquick paste in the pot, throw the lid on, let it simmer for 5 minutes and then take the pot off the stove and let it sit with the lid on for another 5 minutes. Voila.
Well YUM!! You look like you are doing just fine for backpacking food ideas. 🙂