Planning your Backpacking Foods and Meals

Planning your Backpacking Foods and Meals
Copyright 2006 Niche Empire

Even in backpacking, food is always in the priority list. Especially when you prefer to inhibit yourself taking your meals in a restaurant, packing food is very important. Planning your everyday meals must be of primary importance as well.

What food is ideal in backpacking? What are the foods that backpack travellers must include in their everyday meals? The preceding sections may help you to answer those queries.

Dried Foods

It is the ideal food for backpacking travel. Remember that you will be out of for a couple of days, and you are planning to stay outdoors. Of course, you cannot bring your personal refrigerator with you along the way. These dry foods are perfect. It do not need to be refrigerated and it occupies a little space in your backpack.

You will wonder how drying preserves foods. Here is an overview: it removes moisture from the food. You know that bacteria, yeast, and molds can grow in a damp environment. By drying, it eliminates those chances of growing these harmful organisms in the food.

When the dried food is consumed, the water is added back and it will return to its original shape. There are different methods of drying such as sun drying, oven drying, and using a food dehydrator with the right combination of warm temperatures, low humidity, and air current.

Packaging and Storage

These dried foods are prone to insect contamination and moisture reabsorption. Thus, it must be properly packaged and stored right away. Here are the proper ways of packaging and storing dried foods.

•     Cool the food completely. When not cooled completely, it can sweat and eventually providing moisture for mold to grow.

•     Pack the foods into clean containers as tightly as possible. However, avoid crushing it.

•     You can also make use of glass jars with tightly fitted lids or moisture-free cartons to store dried foods.

•     It should be stored in a cool and dry area. Storage times of dried foods are ranging from four months to one year. Ideal temperature storage is at 60 degrees Fahrenheit for one year, and 80 degrees Fahrenheit for six months.

•     Always check your dried foods frequently to see if it is still dry or have acquired moist.

Typical meals during backpacking travel

Did you plan your meals before your backpacking trip? Or are you still uncertain what foods to bring? You can check the following sample meal settings and consider including them in the menu you are going to prepare during your backpacking trip.

Breakfast

Everybody should not miss this very important meal. It gives us the energy that we need for the rest of the day, so it must be nutritious enough.

However, when you are on backpacking, the preparation and clean-up time usually limit your breakfast options. So how will you have that nutritious meal and at the same time preparing it in the easiest time possible?

You can have a quick-cooked or pre-soaked hot or cold cereal. For beverages, you can consider hot chocolate or milk drink or fresh juice extracts of any variant. You can also include boiled eggs or bacon as well.

Lunch

You can have no-cook meats such as salami and sardines accompanied with cheese or plain crackers and bread. For beverages, take your pure water. For desserts, you can have nuts, candies, cookies, or dry fruits. You can also opt to take some mushroom soups that are easy to cook.

Dinner

Most backpack travellers prefer hot soup and a simple dessert or beverage. The purpose of which is to hold the starvation while the main course is cooking. It also replenishes lost body fluids, particularly on typical dry places where dry air evaporates body moisture rapidly.

It is important that you plan what food you will include in your meal while away during backpacking activities. Your health is still important—especially when you are away from your kitchen.