Trail or Backpacking meal ideas

Lightweight ingredients are the key to making great meals on the go.  Look for meals that take lightweight equipment too-- and most meals are simply reconstituted dried foods.  Making sure the water is safe on site is the subject of another post, but assuming that one has found a safe water source, or has filtered it sufficiently, allows one to use dehydrated foods without worry.

Meals that don't require cooking can be a combination of dried foods like jerky, dried fruits, nuts, granola, and cereal.  Energy bars are filling and easy to take along.  None of these foods require refrigeration and are lightweight.  Nice and easy!

To satisfy the requirements for the Cooking Merit badge, however, one of the meals that are prepared for Requirement #7 must be cooked using one of the cooking methods in requirement 4.  So these pre-packaged options won't work for both meals.

MRE's will suffice, since adding water and heating will create a meal to share.  Consider any other pre-packaged meal that has you add hot water or cook in boiling water too.  Macaroni and Cheese mixes will work, as well as dried soup mixes, oatmeal packets, flavored rice mixes and other pasta mixes.  Where milk is called for, one could use milk powder and water.  Although water will suffice, it may not be as tasty.  Adding lightweight vegetables to these meals will boost their nutrition and add variety to the meal.  For example, broccoli florets cooked in the boiling water that was used to cook macaroni will add a nice vegetable side for macaroni and cheese.  Eaten with a bit of jerky will round it out.

Eggs can be carried safely in one's pack if packaged well.  (A plastic carrying case works well, even though it doesn't look like it would.)  Adding a raw egg to Ramen soup in the last few minutes of cooking makes it hearty.  Toss in dipping carrots and it's filling and nutritious.

(Note that it is NOT recommended to boil a ziplock bag full of eggs and other ingredients to make an omelet or other meals.  The plastic that compose ziplock bags is not stable and should not be boiled with foods to be consumed.)

Another meal idea is to make up one of the Tuna Helper package meals-- using foil packed tuna.  Consider tossing a handful of vegetables into the hot water after cooking the pasta.  This is such a good way to utilize every part of the cooking process.

For a snack, consider making 'Cereal Dump Trail Mix.'  It's just a combination of the cereals in one's pantry that no one will eat-- like Cheerios, Fruit Loops and the leftovers from Lucky Charms after everyone has eaten the little marshmallow pieces out.  Add to that some nuts, some chocolate chips and mini marshmallows and everyone will want a baggie-full to nibble on as they hike.  This requires some preparation-- how can a counselor consider much preparation for the scout who hands out packaged granola bars to his troop and calls that his snack?  It must be prepared in some way.

To be more health-conscious, consider bagging up a variety of dipping vegetables like carrots, celery, grape tomatoes and broccoli, to nibble on along the trail.  You won't be as popular as the cereal kid, but it will do the job and give your buddies more stamina on the trail.

A flavored beverage will take any weird taste in your treated or filtered water go away. Consider hot cocoa mixes or powdered Gatorade or lemonade mixes.  The variety is endless in the beverage aisle, so be adventurous.