Food for backcountry travel.

There is so many options for food for back country travel. Whether you buy purpose made product or make it yourself, really this comes down to personal preference. It's all about pre-planning.

 Dehydrated meals, likes of Backcountry Cuisine are light weight and have good nutritional value. They also come in a single or double serves, so this could easily be lunch and dinner. They also do breakfasts and a range of sweets or puddings. The great thing about these types of meals are the weight factor in that breakfast, lunch and dinner could be less than a kg.

 

A range of Back Country Cuisine meals, Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. 

If you worked out the weight of your breakfast, lunch and dinner and times that by the amount of days you would be in the hills for, it is not hard to figure out what weight you will need to carry, food wise for the duration of your time away.

Working out your weight to carry for a easy day trip. Breakfast, lunch, snacks 

There are other heat and eat meals like Go Natives meals, they are really good and very tasty. You just need to boil the billy and put the meal into the boiling water for a few minutes to heat, take out and eat. They also do quick boil rice and mash, just add boiling water, stand and then eat. Again really easy food. Go Natives meals are really tasty but I have found a meal pouch does need to have either rice or mash with the meal to fill the tummy. For a man with an appetite they are not enough on their own. 

A few of Go Natives meals, and their energy fruit bars. 

However you could just take a can of beans or spaghetti or something similar to heat and eat. Rice and two minute noodles are good and easy and you can throw in a can of flavoured tuna for a quick and easy meal. For lunch I pre-make bread rolls, butter them and then add tuna or sardines while in the field.

Simple stuff to look at for snacks or easy an lunch. 

Breakfast,  I make my own, I take a couple of Uncle Toby's  porridge sachets, add a few spoonfuls of  milk powder and sugar with some dried fruit in a zip lock bag and take however many I need for the days away breakfasts. Boil the billy for a cuppa in the morning and add the hot water to your premade mix in a bowl. An easy hot nutritional breakfast.

My easy pre-made porridge breakfast.

Snacks that are high in energy are good when you feel the need for a pick me up. OSM (one square meal)  bars or fruit bars, chocolate is great. (fruit and nut) scroggin mix is also a good option. Mars bars, snickers or Moro bars are easy to carry in your pocket and give good energy.

And drinking plenty of water is essential to replace lost water from sweat. Of late I've been using a Sachets of rehydrating sports drink mix. You add 1 sachet to 600mls of water to replace lost minerals and salts etc. I have found them to be very good (Thorzt) Whether you use a drink bottle or a hydration drinking system like a platypus or Camelback. The important thing is that you drink plenty and regularly. If you don't to run the risk of dehydration which can course fatigue, headaches, cramps and can send you into a downward spiral into a even worst condition. So keep drinking.  

I take a few of the sachets in my pack plus a couple pre-mixed in my hydration system. 

As I've mentioned above, whatever you decide to carry for your breakfast, lunch and dinner you have to carry the rubbish out also.

And don't forget to carry out all your rubbish. 

If you're just going into a hut  for the night and the walks not too hard then there is no reason you can't carry a nice steak, a few eggs, an premade salad or coleslaw and a nice bottle of vino or port and enjoy your surroundings with a little luxuries. While everyone else is having their dehydrated meals your cooking a nice steaks etc.  It's all about pre-planning.