Easy Backcountry Hiking Meals

When going on long hikes, the most important thing in my opinion is the food! These are my favourite backcountry meal ideas, snacks to bring hikes, and my go-to products I get from Spud to create them! I like to make sure my snacks are not only delicious but also light-weight and packed with some sort of nutrition. It can be hard to eat fruits and vegetables when you are on the trail for a long time, these products help make it a bit easier! All the meals can be made with fresh or dehydrated vegetables depending on how long you are gone for! The best part is – making these simple DIY backcountry meals saves a lot of money over buying the pre-packaged meals!

Backcountry Breakfast Ideas:

My favourite thing to do for breakfast is to pack a breakfast bag filled with essentials to mix and match and create new breakfasts each day.  Breakfasts consist of oats with coconut milk powder, fruit and nuts, and seeds, or mix protein powder and coconut milk powder with water to make milk for cereal/granola! This bag includes:

• Quick oats or Nature’s Path Superfood Instant Oats
• Cinnamon
• Mixed seeds: chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds
• Freeze-dried fruit
• Apple chips
• Coconut milk powder
• Cereal and granola
• Protein Powder
• Extra nuts or trail mix

Backcountry Lunch – Pita wraps:

This ultra-light but filing pita wrap requires no fresh produce and is easy to make on the go! The jerky and the cheesy kale chips provide all the flavour you need! All you need is:

• Pita
• Jerky or Vegan Jerky
• Kale Chips
• Any fresh produce that will keep
• Mustard packages
• Hot sauce packages

Backcountry Dinners:

These are a few simple dinners that require little prep but are packed with flavour!

Mac & Cheese: Pack your favourite box of mac and cheese (I take it out of the box and use a ziplock for lighter packing) and add some cheesy kale chips for vegetables and flavor! Bring hot sauce and ketchup packets for an extra boost! Add some canned tuna or soy protein chunks for extra protein.

Loaded Ramen: These Lotus Foods Ramen packages are great for backpacking, and a fraction of the price of packaged backpacking food! I bring some extra mushrooms, kale(or broccoli), and tofu to bulk it up.

Curry Noodles: Bring coconut milk powder and curry powder for a lightweight spice mix, then pack rice noodles for a quick cooking dinner! Bring fresh or dehydrated vegetables and enjoy!

Top 5 Favourite Hiking Snacks:

Baby Food: Yes you read that right! These squeeze pouches are a great way to get fruits and vegetables in on the trail, and they actually taste pretty good! Try this spinach, apple, kiwi blend!

Electrolyte Tablets: These are important after a long day of hiking, but also make your water taste delicious!

Trail Mix with Chocolate: This doubles as a munchy snack and dessert!

Nut-based bars: There are so many great bars made with only a few ingredients that are great for packing on the trail! My favourites are Lara Bar’s, Honey Bars, and Hornby Bars!

That’s It Bars: Another easy way to get a quick boost of fruit on the trail!