Backpacking Menus

So I promised that I’d write a post about menus for our backpacking trip. We’ve had lots of stops and starts and experiments on food and I think that we finally have made our decisions.


As I’ve written before we have several considerations with choosing the foods we will eat. I cannot eat gluten at all and eat several small meals as well, Elias eats a major amount of calories a day, Dale can eat plenty too, and it will be cold so we all will eat more.

For breakfasts kids and Dale have chosen various cereals and granolas. We told kids that if they wanted a specific cereal they could have it but they decided to share everything. One morning we will have some pancakes out of the Fat Uncle Pancake Mix. I will eat eggs as cereals leave me too quickly.

Snacks are almonds, dried mangos, apricots, apples, pineapples, raisins, beef jerky and almond butter cookies that Charlotte made this afternoon.

On Tuesday we have fresh hummus, celery, rice crackers, sourdough bread, cheese and salami. The remaining days we will have salami, cheese, crackers and bread, hummus made from freeze dried, and a chicken salad one day.

For dinners:

Tuesday: we will carry in chicken thighs frozen until we leave. We will make Chicken Curry over rice with fresh carrots with a few pinion nuts added.

Wednesday: gluten free pasta with sauce made from sautéed onions and garlic, a little red wine to deglaze the pan, diced canned tomatoes, fresh oregano thyme basil, and pinion nuts.

Thurs: Warm Quinoa Salad; quinoa, artichoke hearts, canned garbanzo beans, pinion nuts and sun dried tomatoes

Friday: Salmon Shepherd’s Pie; a layer of carrots and canned corn, then a layer of canned salmon, then a heap of mashed potatoes, the instant kind.

Saturday: Canned pinto beans and corn over rice with fresh chilies.

We decided that instead of waiting for Monday afternoon to shop we’d start today and we are so glad that we did. We did find that we had a miscommunication so didn’t’ get the rice and did forget a couple of things that we can pick up tomorrow with no problem.

We were gone for hours and there is no way we could have gotten everything done tomorrow without going off the deep end.

Everything is being gathered in our living room now ready to assembly tomorrow.

I wrote this during our camping trip but forgot to post it. This bean salad I've made several times. It is great on a hot summer's day.

An easy lunch or dinner for camping or home is a bean salad. We made this twice and it was completely eaten up. This was what we made to serve about 11 people


Bean Salad

4 Cans of Black Beans or Pinto or some of each

3 largeTomatoes

Chopped onion

½ bag of frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe’s, thawed

1 lg can olives

3 Avocados cut into pieces

Juice from 1 lime for dressing

Mix everything together and chill.

Food for Backpacking

Here is a little background on our backpacking experience as I have some relatives who ask for me to write about earlier experiences.


Dale and I first backpacked before we were married. We hiked into the Sierra’s, a 10 hour hike, over a pass into what is called Evolution Valley. We stayed for several days but we were certainly not as sophisticated then as we are today. Those days we just ate the freeze dried meals and cold granola for breakfast.

When our kids were young we hiked down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up over 3 days. I carried fresh food, one meal we will have on our upcoming backpack trip; Chicken Curry over rice.

We had other backpack trips into the back county; on one I carried angel food cake, frozen strawberries and frozen Cool Whip, for Justin’s birthday.

Several years ago we backpacked rim to rim across the Grand Canyon with some friends. I carried fresh food for the 1st night, Chicken Curry, a bottle of Dom Perignon and a nice bottle of red wine. We had the bottle of red wine the 1st night, ½ way down at Cottonwood into the canyon and the bottle of Dom Perignon ½ way up the South rim at Indian Gardens. At the bottom of the Canyon, Phantom Ranch, we ate dinner at the Ranch and drank beer that we didn’t have to carry.

So now when I talk about food and wine we will carry you can see how its importance has developed.

Easy Quinoa Salad

We have finally had some breathing room for time here. Actually we are camping with no internet and no cell phone service so I can’t even post this until we return to civilization.

Camping for us is all about food. We plan our meals, cook lots of food, and discuss future meals while eating.

One easy meal that Jen planned was a Quinoa Salad to serve 13

4 C uncooked Quinoa

8 C water or broth

1 C corn

Chopped celery

Chopped Onion

1 jar sundried tomatoes

1 can artichoke hearts

1 can garbanzo beans

1 jar pesto for dressing

Cook Quinoa in water or broth,. While it is warm add all other ingredients. It can be eaten warm or cold.