Cooking in the Wilderness Part 3: Backpacking Meals

My husband, 4 kids and I just returned from a successful 26 mile, 3 night backpacking trip last week. Before the trip I FINALLY took some pics of meals so I could share some of what I have learned about feeding my family on the trails. 

As the title says, this is the third part in my "Cooking in the Wilderness" series. 

Here are the first two parts if you missed them: 

Cooking in the Wilderness Part 1: DIY Cup and Pot Cozies

Cooking in the Wilderness Part 2: Alcohol Stoves

My goal in these posts is to share what I've learned. I am not an expert. My husband and I learn many new skills each time we go out with our family. On our excursions, we have eaten some gross food, some decent food, and some excellent food. And so far we haven't starved.

If you are backpacking for 3 nights by yourself, meal planning is fairly easy. You may just purchase some meal bars and Mountain House Meals (or other pre-made just-add-water meals), and you are good to go.  

But planning meals for a family of 6 for 4 days is more of a challenge. We would spend a fortune if we bought Mountain House Meals for our whole family every time we went. They run about $6-7/meal. We'd be spending $60-$80 a day just to eat on the trail! 

I have come up with some essential criteria for backpacking food:

1. It must use minimal packaging. Remember, all trash must be packed out.

2. It must be cooked in a pot on a backpacking stove--so "just add water," "pre-cooked," and "quick" are desirable features.

3. Calorie dense and high sodium=good.  Your food is your fuel. And you have to carry it on your back. 

4. It needs to be YUMMY.  My kids like knowing what is being served for dinner is something they can look forward to as they walk for miles and miles with a heavy pack.  Delicious food helps our psychological state everywhere, but especially while backpacking. 

First I will share how I do SNACKS on the backpacking trail: 

Before the trip I make a pile of snacks for each member of the family.  Granola bars, trail mix (nuts, cereal, mini-graham cookies, dried fruit, etc). and bags of candy (jelly beans and Sour Patch Kids are family faves). As you can see, Corn Nuts are also a favorite. Everyone carries their own snacks in their packs.  We encourage them to ration it so it can last the entire trip. (This especially applies to the 5-year-old with the jelly beans).

Second, BREAKFAST:

(Who just thought of hobbits?)

Grits, Cream of Wheat, Malt-O-Meal, or other quick-cooking hot cereal makes an excellent breakfast in the wilderness. Measure out the amount you need of the dry cereal, add salt, sugar or other seasoning, then write the amount of water you need to boil with a permanent marker on the bag.  We also love bringing hot cocoa and apple cider to have morning and night. 

It seems almost silly to have photographed our oatmeal packets, but here they are! I LOVE eating pre-packaged instant oatmeal for breakfast on the trail. We dump it all together (yes--every flavor!) in the pot of boiling water and it is ready in a snap. This simple breakfast is cheap and always tastes and feels so good.

Another breakfast we typically have is homemade or store-bought granola bars. We usually eat this on our last day to save time.

Third, I will share some LUNCH ideas:

Bread brought on the trail should be okay when smashed in your pack. So tortillas, pita bread, and bagels are our go-to backpacking breads.  This lunch was so simple, but so enjoyed! My kids said I should've brought twice as much. Mustard and dry salame rolled into a tortilla.  I did bring the mustard in the small bottle. If you really wanted to conserve space, you could squeeze it into a baggy before going, but I didn't want to risk it bursting open.  

This is one of our go-to lunches. We vary the flavor of bagel, but even if we didn't I think it would still be enjoyed.  I did bring the jar of peanut butter to ensure it didn't get squeezed out of a baggy. I also squeezed extra honey into the jar (it wasn't full).  The sweet and salty flavor of peanut butter and honey and the sustained energy of the carbs from the bagel make it a perfect backpacking lunch. 

Now onto DINNER in the wilderness:

On the left of the butter is our dessert:(from top) Dried apples, cinnamon and brown sugar, and an instant oatmeal packet mixed with graham cracker crumbs. On the right is our main course: Pre-cooked bacon, instant mashed potatoes (with cooking directions written on the bag), and powdered milk to make for the potatoes.  Part of the butter is used in the potatoes, the rest is added to dessert.  This meal was another in which the only complaint was that I should have brought more (but no one starved!). 

This is the baked apple dessert. It would also make a delicious breakfast. Cover dehydrated apples in water. Bring to a boil and cover until reconstituted. Add sugar and cinnamon mixture and butter. Sprinkle oatmeal/graham cracker crumbs on top and stir gently. We LOVE this, and it would work with other dried fruit like peaches or berries. 

Cheddar cheese, dehydrated refried beans, and tortillas. This was our meal on our first night out. We didn't want to chance the cheese getting to hot during the next day of hiking. This was an easy, filling, and tasty dinner.  Reconstitute the refried beans by covering them in boiling water and letting them sit for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the cheese. Spread the beans on the tortillas and top with cheese. If you want to melt the cheese, fold the tortilla in fourths and wrap in the foil. Stack in a pot and heat for about 5 minutes. 

Chicken fettucini!  I LOVE that pre-cooked chicken now comes in a pouch! We add it to quick cooking pre-seasoned pasta or rice for a delicious, hearty meal! This was the family's favorite of the trip. 

Other dinners we've enjoyed included macaroni and cheese (yes, from the box), tuna or salmon in pouch packaging, quick cooking rice, couscous, and of course, ramen noodles. 

Each of these meals fed my family of 6, and cost about the same or less than one Mountain House 1-serving meal. 

When we are packing for our trip, I put the contents of each meal in a plastic grocery sack and label it with which meal it is (ex: "Wednesday Lunch").  Then as we are filling our packs, each of us takes note of which meals we are carrying so we are ready when it's time to eat. 

I hope this is helpful to anyone looking to take to the trails! We are always learning about new trail food.  I'd love to hear ideas for meals you have made while backpacking! 

Backpacking with our family takes a great deal of planning and patience, but when we get to be together enjoying God's amazing creations, it is so worth every bit of work! 

Participating in these link-ups.

Cooking in the Wilderness Part Two: Alcohol Stoves

I had never heard of, let alone cooked on, an alcohol stove until a couple of years ago. My husband started saving (read: hoarding) tuna cans. Then I bought a rare 12 pack of Coke, and he kept those cans every time one was used. Then he saved V-8 cans. Then little cans from sliced olives or mushrooms.  All the while he and my boys were making these stoves--and cooking on my nice countertops when there was a perfectly good gas range right behind them.

Needless to say, I wasn't into the can cooking thing at first.  But, I have seen the light (no pun intended---alcohol actually burns invisibly unless it's dark out--so there's no light to see...hahaha).  With multiple multi-day backpacking trips with my family now under my belt, I LOVE these little homemade stoves.  I decided to make a list---

WHY I LOVE ALCOHOL STOVES:

• They are FREE to make; they are made from used food cans!
• De-natured Alcohol is a clean, cheap, easy to store fuel.
• They are light-weight. Every ounce counts when your packing your own stuff!
• My kids can each pack their own, and they can help make our food!
• If they wear out over-time or get lost, no problem--just make more!
• The varied sizes of cans make customizing stoves to fit specific pots easy.

I have nothing against some of the backpacking stoves that are out there.  We have friends who use the MSR Whisperlite Stove and are quite happy with it.  But if evaluated on the same points I outlined above, I would (and do) choose the alcohol stove route.

Tutorials abound on making these stoves. I will link to a few, and then I'll share some helpful tips we have learned through putting these stoves to real use in the wilds of Washington.

HELPFUL ALCOHOL STOVE INSTRUCTION LINKS:

• About a year ago, my oldest son made a post: How to Construct a Camp Stove from a V8 Can. 
• This post from Andrew Skurka first taught us to make alcohol stoves. 
• This post from Indefinitely Wild does an informative side-by-side comparison of alcohol stoves to expensive backpacking stoves.
• This post from ZenStoves is the most comprehensive instruction on alcohol stoves we have found.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED: 

1. Paper hole-punches are meant for paper, not steel. Most tutorials tell you to punch holes in your cans using a regular old  $3 hole-punch (pictured on the left).  What they don't tell you, is it is VERY HARD to get enough torque to actually punch holes, they dull quickly, and they often break in the process. If you know someone who sews or scrapbooks, they may own a heavy-duty hole punch. This one (pictured on the right) is used for setting snaps and grommets. It has a variable-size hole punch and it ROCKS the other paper-punch's world. 

2. Wider cans for wider pots.  Since these stoves don't have variable settings (no high or low--just ON or OFF), you can adjust the power of your stove by the size of the can.  These are side-burner stoves so the flames jet out the sides. You don't want the flames going beyond the circumference of the pot they are heating. For larger pots, use a larger stove; smaller pots, choose a smaller stove. 

3. Wind Screens 4-1-1.  We used to pack a stiff aluminum windscreen made from roof flashing. It worked well, but it took up quite a bit of room and has sharp-ish edges, which isn't good for backpacking. Then my husband and boys used heavy aluminum foil and folded it into 3-4 piece thick rectangles about twice the diameter of their pots.  They folded those accordion style. Voila! Collapsible Wind Screens! 



4. Collapsible Stove / Pot Trivet: I began to wonder about my husband's hoarding problem when he started saving the heavy foil seals from my peanut cans. Then I saw them put to use on the trail. Brilliant man I married!  These stoves don't have little feet that put them an inch or two off the ground like store-bought stoves. So the flame is less than an inch from the ground. And here in Washington it is often muddy, and often cold or snowy up in the mountains. Other areas may be so dry, a flame that close to the ground could pose a fire-threat. The foil reflects heat back up into the pot, making the heating process more efficient. This simple foil trivet is an excellent piece to add to your alcohol stove repertoire. 

5. Fuel Storage and Use: We store our cans of fuel in a cabinet in our kitchen. It is odorless, so no big deal when we open it to fill smaller bottles to take camping.  We have found that any thicker-plastic bottles with tight-closing lids work well for carrying fuel on trips. Empty honey bears have been a go-to staple. The taller bottle pictured is from one of those Sparkling ICE Carbonated Waters. 

We bring along a little medicine measuring cup to measure the fuel as we use it. When you are depending on that fuel to cook your food, you don't want to waste a single ounce.  We have found that 20 milliliters will burn 7-8 minutes.  If we are boiling 3 cups of water for a meal, we will use 40 milliliters. This is enough to bring the water to a boil, and continue the boiling for about 8 minutes--long enough to cook most pasta, quick rice, or vegetables. 

6. Priming your pot: These are side-burning stoves, but in order to push the flames out those little holes in the side--and not just out the big opening in the top of the can--you need to prime your pot before setting it on the stove. This is done by holding the pan a couple of inches above the burning (invisible) flame. Hold the pan there for about 60-90 seconds (longer if it's really cold outside), allowing the bottom of the pot to heat and the flame to begin to move outward instead of upward. Then gently place your pot directly over the stove. 

The great and spacious internets are teeming with information on cooking with these homemade stoves. I don't claim to be an expert--we are definitely still learning as a family every time we go on a trip! But it has been so exciting to have had success with these stoves, I wanted to share our positive experience. I'd love to hear about any adventures you have cooking in the wilderness!

Be sure to check out my first and third posts in this series: 

Part 1: Cup and Pot Cozies

Part 3: Backpacking Meals

And another related post: 

How to Make a Camp Stove from a V8 Can

Participating in these link-ups.

Cooking in the Wilderness Part 1: DIY Cup and Pot Cozies

My husband and I dated more on the trails than we did in restaurants or movie theaters, and we are trying our hardest to pass our love of nature down to our four kids.  We take them hiking or backpacking on pretty much every free weekend with tolerable weather. 

Friends often ask what our "secret" is to getting our kids to go along with our adventures. How do we get them to not whine the whole time? Do the kids carry their own stuff?  And probably the most asked, "What do you bring to eat??"

Hundreds of articles, blogs, books and discussion boards are dedicated to troubleshooting feeding your family--while under the comforts of your own roof.  Take away the comfort and the roof, and the task may seem downright impossible.

For us, the learning curve has definitely been steep. Hopefully I can take some of the elevation gain out of your learning curve by sharing our knowledge.  On our last couple of backpacking trips, we actually looked forward to each and every meal we brought to eat. Real food IS possible on the trail or at the campground. Man cannot live by granola bars alone.  

I am going to share some of our discoveries in my blog post series: "Cooking in the Wilderness."  

1. First, (in this post) I will share a DIY project for making what should be the 11th Essential when packing for a camping trip:  CUP AND POT COZIES. 
2. Second (in a soon-to-come post), I'll share what we have learned making and using HOMEMADE ALCOHOL STOVES.
3. In a third post, I'll share tips and recipes for PLANNING MEALS FOR CAMPING AND BACKPACKING with your family.

Part 2: Alcohol Stoves

Part 3: Backpacking Meals

Cup / Pot Cozy Tutorial 

Most trail food that you will cook will be in a pot. Why? Because most of it will need to be boiled or re-hydrated to become edible.  I'll cover more about this in my meal planning post, but trust me on this. Hot cocoa, oatmeal, soup, rice, pasta----all of these require a POT of boiling water to make.  But so often it is windy and cool and by the time we all get our meal into a cup or passed around to us to take a bite out of, it has already cooled down (yes, we sometimes eat out of the same pot--you'd do it too to avoid cleaning dishes when it's 40 degrees outside!).  

However, NO LONGER are cold camping entrees a problem for us! We made pot cozies from rolled foil insulation, so as soon as our food is ready, we put the lid on it and place it in its custom pot cozy! Hot meals do the body, the spirit, and the psyche good in the wilderness. 

We went a step further and made each of us a cup cozy. When we aren't all eating out of the same pot, we each have our own cup (made from a re-purposed steel vegetable can, sharp edges removed), and each cup has its own cozy!  It is AMAZING how long our food stays hot now! No need to eat quickly. It stays so warm, it actually slows us down--a good problem to have! 

You will need: 

Bubble Foil Insulation 

Aluminum Foil Heat Reflective Tape

Permanent Marker

Good Scissors

Metal Pot or Cup

1. Mark the height of the cup, minus 1/4 inch, on a straight edge of the bubble foil insulation.

2. Roll the insulation around the cup and mark the circumference, plus 1/4 inch, with the marker.

3. Connect the marks with straight lines and cut out the rectangle.

4. Measure and cut a piece of foil tape the same length as your bubble foil rectangle.

5. Foil tape has a paper backing that must be removed to expose the sticky side. Overlap the bubble foil onto half of the width of the foil tape and carefully peel away the paper as you stick the tape to the bubble foil.

6. Fold the tape over the bubble foil and smooth out.

7. Measure and cut a piece of foil tape by folding it around the width of the bubble foil rectangle.

8. Carefully place the width of the rectangle over half the piece of tape, leaving half the width exposed.

9. Wrap the bubble wrap around end to end to form a cylinder and stick it to the exposed tape. Wrap the rest of the tape around to the inside of the cylinder to close the open seam. 

10. Place the cup into the cylinder.

11. On a new piece of bubble foil, trace a circle around the circumference of the cozy with the cup inside. 

http://amzn.to/1HF0j67

12. Cut out the circle.

13. Place the circle on the bottom of the cup inside the bubble foil cylinder.

14. Measure and cut foil tape around the bottom of the cylinder.  Carefully peel away the paper as you stick half the width of the tape to the base of the cylinder. The other half of the width will be exposed and sticking up (with the cup upside down). 

15. Cut slits every inch or so around the exposed tape, creating little tabs.

16. Fold the tabs down over the bottom of the cozy. 

And you are done! You have a completed cup/pot cozy. 

Here is one of our pot cozies.  The method to make a cozy for a pot is exactly the same, except you need to measure and cut out notches for the handles of the pot. 

See how the pot rests nicely in its cozy with the handles free to move? 

Finally, an action shot taken in the actual wilds of Washington. :)

Participating at these link-ups.