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Our Favorite Three-Ingredient Backpacking Meals
…For When You Hate Everything in Your Food Bag
The first few hundred miles of your hike will be a blissful, face-stuffing party of Snickers and pasta sides, but soon that mail-drop of ramen and power bars sent by your oblivious pre-trail self is going to look pretty unappetizing, and you’ll be combing the stores looking for something you still want to eat. Burning up to 6,000 calories a day on a thru-hike means you have to eat a lot, even when everything starts tasting like paste.
These are meals we made—or saw other people making—starting around mile 700 when our food bags made us want to cry. These ingredients can be found in most trail towns, and some you already have in your food bag… they just need a little flavor boost. The combinations might wrinkle your nose now, but it’s amazing how much your standards tastes change after months of hiking.
You can also read more about our favorite commercial backpacking meals.
3 Ingredient Backpacking Meals
Low-Cash Lo Mein
Ramen + beef jerky + soy Sauce
Piggy Von Spartacus
Tortillas + cream cheese + bacon bits
Shelterside Chicken Alfredo
Alfredo pasta side + chicken packet + sun-dried tomato
Vegan-in-the-Woods
Crackers + almond butter + freeze dried apple slices
Carnivore-in-the-Woods
Crackers + sharp cheddar + salami
Thru-Hiker’s Carb Bomb
Angel hair pasta + salt and pepper + olive oil
Tuna Fish Crunch Surprise
Pita bread + tuna + Doritos crumbs
White Blazin’ Thanksgivin’
Mashed potatoes + gravy + bacon bits
Calorie-Bomb Mouth Glue
Peanut butter + honey + trail mix
Fire-in-the-Hole Backpacking Bowl
Couscous + freeze-dried veggies + curry powder or Tabasco or bullion
In-tents Breakfast Thing
Cereal / granola + powdered milk + dried blueberries
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Comments 24
This is great. I lived on salami and cheese on those little sandwich rounds for lunch. Made a little better with a squeeze of spicy mustard. Another fave of mine was dried tortellini, dehydrated veggies (tomatoes, kale and peppers sent to me by friends who had my dehydrator) and olive oil. Leave a little water in the pot and it’s like an awesome tortellini soup.
Personally they all sound and look fantastic! Except for the sun dried tomatoes. … not a fan. Great job folks!
Thanks for the simple, delicious, creative suggestions. This is just what I’ve been looking for. Definitely a keeper!
After a while I asked, ‘whats you’re add it?’. Meaning what do you add to the Pasta/Rice side. My favorite tuna & garlic. I ate it with many sides. Also parmesan cheese adds a nice touch to the cream based sides.
It’s good to see someone thnnikig it through.
I made 159 different dehydrated dinner meals, the most repetition is 20-something pasta with tomato/veggie sauce, and to those I’ll add either salmon, tuna, chicken, or beef… Also have 180 breakfasts… Different kinds of oatmeals, granola, polenta eggs and potatoes.. Hopefully I made enough variety. When we finish at the end of this season I’ll be able to report back and hopefully put out a little cookbook. 🙂
I hope I get to see your cookbook!!
Tortilla, salami, cheese was my go-to. Adding tuna packets (to just about everything) saved me from completely withering away, after losing 25% of my body weight in the first 1000 miles. I never got tired of Clif bars by keeping a wide variety of flavors. I also would put together some interesting gorp bags from what I could find in town stores.
The granola, powdered milk and freeze dried blue berries or strawberries was what I had almost every morning, yum. And instant espresso of course.
Most others look pretty good too. I tried parts of most too.
Kevin,
What ratio to water did you use for your powdered milk? I have “Milk Man” brand of milk that makes a quart per envelope, but I don’t need that much each morning. Appreciate your feedback on this a-head-of-time.
Far Out!! I like these ideas. Will have to try them.
My grandchildren eat Ramen noodles with the seasoning packet emptied on top with no water. Crunchy yet doable. Also they can be eaten with cold water but, for me, cooking is definitely the best.
I love the “mouth glue” recipe. My teethe were sticking together just reading it…
I laughed a lot reading those suggestions, plus the photos are excellent and inviting !
My favorite is tortillas + cream cheese + bacon. (And if is were not for the expensive crowns in my mouth, I’d love the ‘glue’ !)
🙂
Read that cream cheese one and thought it sounded delicious, but then realized… cream cheese on the trail? Maybe for day one, but soft cheese doesn’t have much of a shelf life. Unless yall know something I dont.
Good call on the cream cheese…. you’ll definitely want to use it up within a day or two, which usually isn’t an issue with thru-hiker’s appetites. We actually only carried cream cheese when it was cold out, and avoided the worry about them going bad. Definitely not an option through Pennsylvania in July though….
I LOVE the simplicity and variety presented in these meals. Old habits kick in when it comes to packing food and even though we crave variety on longer hikes, taking the time to research options never happens because of all the other details that need to be attended to. I saved this to my notes to make it an easy go to! Can’t wait to give it some of it a try!!! Thank you
Oh wow Maggie. May have to print and laminate. I do day hikes that can go 20+ miles at times. I hope you do a packable cookbook or e-version. Saving this to device. Thanks much, reminds me of Army MRE days.?
So, when is the cookbook coming out? I might even have to try some of these at home!
Cold weather packing presents challenges AND opportunities. Packing some luxury items for a scrmptous meal right after restocking in trail towns can be rewarding.consider pack of bacon, some taters and an onion or 2 to fry – this will amaze fellow hikers. Also there are hardshell cases that will hold 6 eggs – boil the other 6 right away to add to your lunch cheese and crackers.
AT thru hiker N to S finished Springer Feb 8, 1974. After ‘Nam service.
Another delicious one is “crepes”–tortilla, nutella and freeze dried strawberries