Taking the kids camping/hunting this next week.

Hope to be out for about 4 nights. Backpacking in, but not with perfect backpacking gear (bigger tent, more supplies than I'd like as I am taking in a couple youngsters).

I am looking for some more easy to pack and prepare food.

Already planning on a stack or tortillas, PB, oatmeal, summer sausage and salami.

What are some of your food suggestions? My kids are 11 and 13. I will have a jetboil and plan on a regular campfire. I don't want to haul in a lot of pans etc.

TIA

Bring some pre-cooked foil packet meals for the first night. You can even use left overs. Make the danged kids carry them

Put them in the freezer the night before and they shoudl be thawed and easy to warm up on the first night you are there with the fam.

I like to mix fried garlic rice, diced onions and tomatoes, and chopped up chicharron (deep fried pork bellies). I bring a small lemon and squeeze it on as I eat with a spoon - less complicated because everything is pre-cut.

I am all about what we call hobo food. Anything you can wrap in foil and toss in the coals to heat up.

Mtn House. I tell my kids, though they are younger than yours, that it's what Astronauts eat! And lots and lots of Halloween sized candy bars.

Mtn House meals do work well. Just make sure they meet your calorie needs.
I use Off The Farm Trail Bars along with Nature Valley Fruit and Nut Granola Bars for day time food. Instant Oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. E

My backpacking food has to be lightweight, nonperishable, easy to prepare over camp stove and easy to clean up;
1. Mountain House Freeze-dried meals
2. Cup-O-Noodles
3. Instant Oatmeal (I like Quaker Fruit & Cream)
4. Folgers Coffee Singles
5. Tortillas
6. Beef Jerky
7. Trail Mix
8. Tang
9. Breakfast Cereal and nonfat dry milk

Some things take a little more time and are just a tiny bit heavier;
1. Velveeta Shells & Cheese + can of ham
2. S.O.S. - White Gravy Mix + Slider Rolls + Summer Sausage
3. Chicken Casserole (Knorr Chicken Casserole Mix + can of Chicken)

Enjoy

KC

The steel cut oatmeal will stay with you longer than the instant.Takes a few more minutes to make,but well worth it.Add a pack of the flavored instant or a bit of brown sugar.

I tried that Mountain House stuff on pack trip this past summer.I took one of each of the four dinners they market. One of the four was alright.None were great.One pack was not enough for one,and two were too many.Way over priced at $9-$11 per pack for what they tasted like.

I'd sure test them out on your kids before the trip.Kids usually have a better sense of taste than adults.

Heck, mountain house meals are freaking tasty as hell.
I really like the following:

Lasagne
Chicken breast with taters, and
Sweet and sour pork.
Chicken and dumplings,
Beef stew

Don't forget the Tabasco..

Mtn House spaghetti is the best of all........

I always take at least one spaghetti meal.

Casey

My 11 year old loves MH biscuits and gravy.

Stove Top stuffing and foil pack chicken
Idaho Mashed potatoes
Granola and Nido powdered milk
Justins Almond Butter packets- Vanilla or Maple on a tortilla
Mountain House Chicken salad on a tortilla with a mustard packet
Peanut butter, bacon and honey sandwich

I love MH, until about day 4...

MH is okay. I prefer Alpine Aire. However, I think I'm going to have to try the stuff this soon. Looks delicious - http://www.heatherschoice.com/

MH is a lot less expensive if you buy the #10 can and then put it in your own Ziploc bags in the portions you want.

It is about half the price!

On amazon for example, the #10 can comes out to about $2.29/cup as compared to $4.70/cup for the pouch.

I eat MH and feel like crap for at least 12 hours. I refuse to eat it. I eat Heather's Choice and feel as if I ate mom's cooking. There's two I like a lot; Dark Chocolate Chili and Ethiopian Dor Wat. One complaint is that they are on the spicy side. Chipotle Cherry Chili is aweful. I spit out the first bite and tossed it.

+ 1 for Mountain House.

I buy em from Camper Saver and get em posted to Australia because they are far cheaper than the freeze dried here.

They do get old after 3 or 4 days though.

Another side to this... never paid anywhere near that price, usually buy them in bulk around 6-7 each. Did see them in rural AK around 11 a pack though...

There are some that are not all that great, but depedns on how picky you are. There are a lot of them we really like. Like I said we are not food snobs though.

Chicken and rice, beef stronganoff, chicken and noodles, some kind of jambalaya, lasagna are a few that really go well. Beef stew too.

Wife and I eat one between us. In fact I can NOT eat one by myself ever. Its just to much. If we have to pack a moose out on our backs or such we might eat more. But we eat something like oatmeal in the AM, mountain house at noonish, and then sausage/crackers/cheese, snacks before bed.

That and beef Stroganoff.

One thing I'm going to try next trip is cooked bacon, vacuum-sealed. I've heard it's good and lasts a good while.

That's my favorite. A packet of red pepper flakes from a pizza joint is a good add in.

Good luck to the OP taking the kids out!!

Dehydrated stuff: flour or pancake mixes, pasta (Ramens), rice and other grains, beans, dried tomatoes/onions, and fruit, along with powdered milk, instant masked potatoes, gravies, potent spices, with salt & pepper. Shoot your proteins and fats on site. One or two aluminum pots for cooking.

When I was a kid, we always packed steak for the first night of a thru-hike.

Of course, we packed a tiny cast iron pan to cook it on too. I think I could find a better way these days.

I'm far too lazy to spend the time required to have good food on a regular basis. MH works pretty well for me.

Last month in camp we had steak 3 nights, and hamburger twice.

Coordinates please?

Everyone rolls differently.

We go hunting to hunt, not to shoot grouse, plink, test ammo etc... YMMV.

We go to hunt, not to cook, or take time cooking.

When we want to shoot/plink we do that at other times.

When we want to cook, I don't want to have to get up and go hunting the next morning, or worry if I drank one to many scotch or I am to full and fat to go.

I suspect we think along your lines.

OTOH our best buddys, I swear they go to deer camp moslty to cook and drink,more so than for the hunt part. Of course Carolyn and I benefit, but if they arent at the lease on a weekend, we have instant oatmeal, a sandwhich at lunch and maybe microwave a sausage for supper or not... ain't gonna waste the effort to make a big meal.

YMMV as noted... now back to searching for IBs' camp site for next fall....

60.58 °N, 151.24 °W

5 days you could go with Knorrs

Well no wonder, you were camping at home.....

Nice work!

That should be the airport. I'll pick you up.

Thank you!

I did notice that... didn't get it... GOT it now... Its getting MUCH better!

Next time I'll use crayons!

I was just reading up on bannock, bake it on a hot rock.

Please. The big fat ones.

MH breakfast skillet. my favorite. i only need the 1 serving, the 2 serving fills me up and slows me down

Dinner favorite ic Chicken Teriyaki

With kids, pick up some jelly packets from McDonald's to go with the peanut butter - they've sold em to me for like 10 cents each. I also bought individual peanut butter cups from Jif I think. Makes for a good, easy pb&j sandwich (I carry the wheat sandwich thins myself vs tortillas).

Clif bars, trail mix, jerky, cheese sticks for snacks. Try to take something with some fiber...

My son likes Mountain House and when 8-12ish, thought it was cool too.

They are great in my opinion for a good, hot dinner after a long day hiking/hunting.

The one thing the Mtn. Houses are missing in proportion for backpacking is fat. I usually bring a small bottle of olive oil and add about a tablespoon. It actually makes the spaghetti better tasting IMO. And the stroganoff.

Yeah, like about 5x longer. With instant, I'm hungry before the dishes are washed.

Got back last night.

With the water in that country, fiber is not really a big necessity.

We do too. But then we dont' wash dishes until back to the house in AK. Might be 10 days or so. LOL. Never had 2 packs of oatmeal, instant not be enough for the intial go. But then to be fair, and that needs to be clear here... we eat differently.

We don't load up on fuel unless we have a need. We eat some, snack a lot and then if we have a climb or a pack out or such, we'll add as needed.

Adding olive oil to the MH works well also IMHO, we do that if we are going to be straining after the meal. LOL

OTOH I took a whole medium size moose, 1200 is pounds they guessed, from standing to pieces and back home at 4am, all by myself in 2014, and I never ate anything but constant snacking as I went along. Fuel it as you need it. It was the only way we could do duathlons and triathlons(wife) over the years. Eat some big bowl of steel oats and the race won't go well for us... LOL.

We went in last week.

Took too much heavy food. Lesson learned. Won't be doing that again. More dried food and less of the intact heavy stuff. Only exception is some soup. Nothing better in the evening after a hard day and temps are cooling than some good soup heated up. We like to take either chili or taco soup in that's full of meat and a fair amount of fat. Heat the leftovers up in the am for a great breakfast. Otherwise, mostly dehydrated from now on.

Figures out how much the kids eat while in there so I won't overpack for them again.

Now I just have to figure out how to take in dehydrated water to avoid the water in that country that is so hard on my gut.

Bumping this back up. I have a extended pack-rafting trip across Chichagof next month and could use some lighter weight and easily cooked food for 10 days. Five will be backpacking and rafting, the rest will be glamping in cabins and transported by boat not backpacked but should be fairly non perishable. What do you folks do for extended trips.