Food. We’d like to bet that besides gear, it’s what hikers think the most about while they’re out on the trail. But if you’re tired of getting your calories from those chicken teriyaki Mountain House meals or a Snickers bar dipped in peanut butter, we don’t blame you. Here’s a few tried-and-true backcountry recipes from our staff.
Ingredients: Package of soft tortilla wraps, individually wrapped small cream cheese containers, summer sausage, and a box of grape tomatoes
Directions: Smear cream cheese on wrap. Place cut up pieces of sausage in cream cheese and then add grape tomatoes. Roll up and enjoy!
Comments: It’s a simple meal, but all the ingredients are extremely durable and the individually wrapped cream cheese containers last for a long time even at room temperature. The cream cheese holds everything in place if you are trying to put it together on an uneven surface, and the tomatoes are a welcome blast of flavor, freshness and water on a hot day. You can also easily turn this into a vegetarian option by eliminating the summer sausage. Perfect!
– Mark Saari
Ingredients: Package of any kind of pasta (Barilla Torellini is great if you’re willing to carry the extra weight), sundried tomatoes, olive oil, pine nuts or walnuts, Italian spices, and a small package of parmesan cheese
Directions: Boil water and cook the pasta with the sundried tomatoes until they become soft. Once the pasta is cooked, toss with olive oil, nuts, spices and cheese. If you want, you can also save the water if you’re hardcore enough to drink some tasty starch-and-tomato broth!
Comments: Pre-trip, package the spices, nutsand parmesan cheese in a zip-lock bag (unless it’s summer, in which case the cheese might melt). This makes the meal easy to prepare on the Trail!
– Kathryn Herndon
Ingredients: Package of ramen noodles, a smear of peanut butter, honey, and cocoa powder
Directions: Open a package of ramen, but don’t cook it! Smear the peanut butter across the top, add the cocoa powder, and then drizzle honey over the whole thing.
Comments: Uncooked ramen might sound disgusting, but don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Adding the peanut butter, cocoa and honey make this snack a satisfying treat full of energy.
– John Csordas
Ingredients: Canned biscuit dough, vegetable oil, and chocolate frosting
Directions: Rip each portion of biscuit dough into four pieces and drop into a small pot of hot vegetable oil. Once golden, remove the fried dough, let cool, and smear with chocolate frosting. Enjoy!
Comments: This is a really easy recipe to satisfy even the most voracious sweet tooth, and you don’t have to mix anything together at all! Just be sure to pack out that empty can of biscuit dough.
– Olivia Divish
Okay, your turn! What are your favorite Trail recipes? Let us know with a comment below.