Trail Recipes

Looking for something to cook on your next hike backpacking or camping trip? Try one of these recipes. We started out this page with a few general suggestions and one each of a breakfast, a lunch, a dinner. Desserts and other recipes are being added by us and from other hikers via the linked web form. Some of these recipes are lightweight, but many are intended for overnight trips where weight is not the concern it is on a distance hike.

We will add a recipe from time to time and we encourage you to add recipes too. Submit a favorite trail recipe (from the basics to the more adventerous), we'll give you credit alongside your culinary creation.

Breakfast Some basic breakfasts are oatmeal, toaster pastries, breakfast bars, instant grits, and cold cereal with powdered milk.

Breakfast Pitas
Serves two
2 pocket pitas
One can Spam
About four ounces of cheddar or other hard cheese

Cut pitas in half and pull the pocket open. Slice the cheese thinly and put 3-4 slices into each pita half. Open the Spam, cut into 1/4 inch slices, and fry in frying pan or the bottom of a pot. When the Spam is cooked, slide it into the pita pocket with the cheese. Briefly fry the pita in the same pan to soften the cheese. Canadian bacon or other meat can be substituted for the Spam.

Lunch or Snack Basic lunch ideas include various cobinations of one or more of the following: summer sausage or pepperoni, cheese and crackers; hard boiled eggs, dried fruit, beef jerky, sunflower seeds, sardines, candy bars, Granola bars, snack cakes and cookies.

Northwoods Bread (a make-at-home recipe)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup light Karo syrup
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 cup margarine
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (remember we said this is a make at home, and carry on the trail kind of recipe). Cream the margarine and sugar together. Then add the other ingredients together in a bowl and mix until well blended. Spread on a greased baking sheet to a thickness of one half inch or less. Bake 15-20 minutes or until light brown. Let cool, cut in half so each hiker can have a ready supply for lunch. This also makes a great trailside snack. For variety, add chopped nuts, raisins, or M&Ms in place of or in addition to coconut and chocolate chips.

Cheese & Bean Stuffed Pitas
Submitted by trail recipe form with no name provided
Pita bread
cheese
bean dip

You can buy the bean dip--Frito Lays is good--or make it yourself. Just be sure to double bag the dip to prevent it from spilling out of a plastic baggy and into your pack. Cut the cheese in slices, slip in to pita and dollop in bean dip for a quick, filling meal.

Dinner For supper, many hikers favor some pasta-based alternative like Lipton Noodle dinners, Ramen or the ever-present macaroni and cheese. Boaxed pasta salads, minute rice and potato dishes including au gratin or mashed potatoes also fit the boil and eat type meal.

Chicken Quesadillas
Serves two
4-5 small flour or corn tortillas
1 small onion
4 ounces moneterey jack cheese (with jalepeno peppers if you like it spicy)
1 6-ounce can chicken
1 teaspoon oil

Dice onion, packing out the skin and end pieces. Thinly slice up cheese. Drain the chicken well away from camp. Assemble quesadillas by sprinkling chicken, onion, and cheese on half of the tortilla. Fold the tortilla over omelet-style and brown lightly in oil in a frying pan or cook pot bottom.

Backcountry Couscous
Submitted by LynLord@aol.com
Whole wheat couscous
Sesame seed salad dressing
broccoli

Couscous is a great backcountry food (though really bland). You can boil water in any small pot, or even a tea kettle and just throw it in, and wham, it's done in minutes. This is a great little recipe that I often eat at home (shhhh). Simply prepare the couscous per usual, then pour in a heaping of the salad dressing to taste. Add the broccoli (I prefer it raw, but you can boil it if need be). Those little Nalgene bottles are great for keeping separate the salad dressing (Uncle Chang's brand is best), which you definitely don't want spilling over your pack contents...

Chili
Submitted by Marty Manzano from a recipe a Florida hiker she met at LeConte shelter in the Great Smokeys taught her.

Serves Two
At home dehydrate:
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1/2 jar salsa

In camp: mix dried ingredients with 1 and 1/2 cups textured vegetable protein (TVP, available in health food stores and some groceries), 1 pkg chili seasoning mix, and 5-6 cups water. Cook until beans are soft. Eat with tortilla chips.

Marty's adaptation: I cooked the beans myself, and then dehydrated 1 cup each of cooked red kidney beans and pinto beans. Dehydrated about 1/2 to 3/4 jar Pace mild salsa. I added about 3/4 cup water to a baggie with the beans, about 4-5 hrs before cooking. To prepare, I mixed the beans, salsa, 1 cup TVP, and pkg of Adolph's chili seasoning mix.
The mixture tends to get thick, so keep adding water as necessary. Also, stir frequently (or continuously) so it doesn't burn. I carried the chili fixings & MtnTopper carried the tortilla chips. Wonderful meal on a cool, rainy evening on Grandfather Mtn!

Dessert

Stuffed Bananas
One banana per person
1 teaspoon of mint or plain chocolate chips per banana
Aluminum foil

Leave the peel on the bananas and cut a slit deep down the side of each. Stuff a teaspoon of chips into each banana and wrap in a double layer of aluminum foil. Cover in coals and bake for 10 minutes. Eat with a spoon. Nuts and marshmallows make a great addition to the stuffing instead of or in addition to chocolate chips.

Outback Key Lime Pie
submitted by Cindi Prudhomme
A recipe she adapted from one learned on the Trailside TV series

Serves Two
Cindi notes: sorry about the lack of measurements guys but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out if you try it out at home.

Filling:
Water
3c sugar
1 pkg unflavored gelatin
Salt
Juice of 3 limes
Condensed milk

Heat water, sugar, gelatin, salt and lime juice in pot don't boil. Then mix in condensed milk and heat again--again not to boiling.

Crust:
Butter
Graham cracker crumbs

Place butter in a pan and melt. Mix in crumbs till makes a crust-like substance. Pour filling into crust and let cool.

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