Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Homemade backpack meals

I'm trying some different stuff to get away from using ramen to make my meals with. After eating almost zero wheat products most of the year it is a big shock to eat a lot of ramen so going to try and stick with the instant potatoes, rice and cous cous.

Found some flavored cous cous tonight that looks like it will go well with foil chicken and tuna. The potatoes also go well with dehydrated meats, seems like home canned venison or store bought canned beef rehydrates better than just pebbled burger when it's been dehydrated.

Also thinking instant rice would be a nice change. I bought a cheap (.35 cent) mac and cheese dinner tonight, going to see if just using the powdered cheese inside will work OK with the rice, then some kind of protien to go with it too. Where could I find seasoning packets to make it Spanish rice? Anyone ever try the McCormick or Old El Paso ? What kind? I forgot to look at the Lipton soup mixes to see about variety.

Couldn't even get the MH mac and cheese macaroni to rehydrate after 20 minutes, still really chewy. Not much luck with beans in the homemade dinners either, there weren't a lot of them but they stayed tough.

The calorie and fat numbers look good on the pepperoni packs, what does it go well with?

I know this is a recurring topic here but I couldn't get Search to help and didn't want to scan through hundreds of posts. It's hunting season too, can't hurt to do it some more.

Pepperoni goes well with some hard white cheese, pita bread, and the little foil mayo packs you get at a deli.

I just got home from a scout pack trip. One of the scout's parents have a home freeze drier. They sent along a couple big bags of their stuff that was really good. However - this morning I looked at the price of a freeze drier. The rock bottom price I found was $3500. I can buy a lot of Mtn House for that.

Mtn House is barely tolerable to me, but after trying other concoctions, still the best option for dinners when doing a multiple day trip. It's just hard to beat the convenience, weight, and taste (ok). But it is high in sodium and has that chemical taste to it. Adding in some olive oil helps. Last thing I want to do after leaving camp before sunrise, and returning after sunset, is deal with 'cooking' and then dishes. I want a swig of whiskey and a hot meal.

I have thought about taking in a pack of hot dogs and some tortillas just for a change. The dogs could be submerged in the cold creek to prevent spoilage - although unlikely with all the preservatives added.

On my mule deer in hunt in August, we used all homemade dehydrated meals. Anything with burger was a little chewy, but tasted much better than MH. The chili was the best. Just threw a whole bunch of meat, beans, and peppers in a crock pot. It rehydrated really well and tasted great. Also did a rice hot-dish that was really good. I was surprised how easy it was to dehydrate your own. And I can pronounce all the ingredients.

I don't mind eating the same things a few days in a row, especially if my mind is on other things, such as during a backpack hunt. I like the various brand beef stroganoff backpacking meals okay, but find the amount of meat lacking. So, I often bring homemade deer jerky or store bought beef jerky and add that to the bag before adding the boiling water. I generally add a little extra water when I do that. If we're running a campfire, I put it close enough to the coals to stay warm longer (but not close enough to melt), and then "cook" it a little longer than the instructions say. Comes out pretty good for my purposes.

Often, my "breakfast" is just a Cliff Bar or whatever, because I'm only really interested in getting to my hunting spot, which usually is a ways away. When I do make breakfast when backpacking (not generally when hunting), I often use the MH or whatever breakfast scrambles, but I also add bacon jerky, similar to the above, which is really tasty IMO. Sometimes, I do that for dinner.

I did a trip in the Gila this spring. I tried eating very different that normal meals.

- I dehydrated Deer Taco meat (worked great)
- I made some Low carb Tortillas (worked well)
- i took Ova Ease Eggs which worked great as well
- Also took Phat Fudge
- Took pre-cooked bacon
- A bit of cheese


Basically, I'd hit the trail in the AM with Phat Fudge .. for lunch have a couple breakfast tacos ., for dinner a couple deer tacos .. worked great.

A few days later I did a packraft trip in the Escalante and added
-- Veggie Mix for eggs .. so basically I took sort of a veggie mix like onions / potato / zucchini .. and dehydrated it then would add the ova Ease eggs .. eorked great and were very popular with the crew (along with the bottle of whiskey )

Kevin

Google freezer bag cooking. Recipes made with ingredients from grocery store not freeze dried. Uses less fuel to cook and very little clean up. Only downside is shorter shelf life.

tortillas, bacon, cheese-breakfast of champs.

single serve mac n cheese. cook mac with dried burger, drain and then put it in a freezer bag with the cheese for less mess.

is cous cous really much different from ramen?

You can do almost anything you want it just depends.
I've made meals like Chili or deer tacos and dehydrated them , I've also made breakfast veggie scramble and dehydrated as well which worked really well then I used an Ova Ease packet for the eggs.

However, you can also just take pretty regular food and make like mashed potatoes and throw a little sausage in it and add a tortilla

This really isn't an answer to your question but this summer, I went totally heat free. I scouted and hunted without a stove at all and took foods that needed zero prep only. I vacuum sealed an individual day's worth of salami for each day, individually wrapped cheddar slices, honey stinger waffles, almond butter, fruit leather, Clif bars, almonds, dried mangos, jerky, etc and calculated the calories until a reached what I felt was a proper calorie count. I didn't eat structured meals but just snacked as needed throughout the day. I didn't have to carry fuel or a pot this way either although I understand why some wouldn't like going this route. It was new for me but think it might be my new norm.

If you insist on milk on your mush, add a little powdered milk to the bag & just add water.

rayporter, if you're asking me about the cous cous then I'll say after buying and trying it out I probably won't use it either. I didn't know that it was wheat, thought it was something like quinoa.

After watching a bunch of you tubes on it I am going to do like a lot of folks and start dehydrating cooked meat and vegetables, use the instant potatoes for a starchy filler on the late big meals of the day.

Going to try some of the dehydrated frijoles and the hummus too with the gluten free tortillas for daytime snacks . Cutting back on the sugar stuff also, this year after eating my berry/whatever oatmeal with vanilla whey protein and walnuts I would be nauseous for 20 minutes or so on my morning hike. So..straight oatmeal, unflavored protein and just try that with dried cherries/blueberries and walnuts.

Pepperoni and mozzarella cheese stick is good too. Or salami and white cheddar your talking about. Just kinda roll the meat around the cheese.