Backpacking Food List – Simple and Nutritious for 7 days

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Backpacking Food

NEW June 2016 – Meal Recipes are Posted. See Nutritious Backpacking Meal Recipes here

This list is packed with nutritious backpacking food for a “week long” trip of 7 days

  • 6 nights of dinners and breakfasts
  • 7 days of lunches and daytime snacks

That is you don’t eat breakfast on the day your go in. And you don’t eat dinner on the day you come out. This is equivalent to around 6.6 full days hiking. I’ve organized the food so that it should be easy to scale to more or fewer hiking days.

Note: any entry with a blank in “qty” means the food item is an alternative that may be a) added and/or b) substituted for another item on the list. For example if you are veggie, you could substitute one of the soy jerkies (Primal & Stonewall) the meat jerky. And to easily add vegetables to my homemade dinners I use freeze dried vegetables from Just Tomatoes. I like the “Hot Just Veggies.”

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A Simple and Nutritious Backpacking Food List for 7 days

Breakfasts (6 mornings) qty oz tot c/oz Comments
Familia Breakfast (with Bob’s Red Mill Muesli) 2 5.5 11.0 125 see Recipe Page
Grape Nuts/Kashi Seven Nuggets (my recipe) 2 5.0 10.0 124 see Recipe Page
Oatmeal Breakfast (my recipe) 2 5.4 10.8 115 see Recipe Page
Coffee, Starbuck’s VIA ($0.72/cup @Amazon) 6 0.1 0.8 4g pkt  = 130-140 mg caffeine
Coffee for gold filter brewing 25g per 12 fl-oz 0.9  alternative to instant coffee, less $
Tea – bag or loose leaf (4-6g per 12 fl-oz) 0.1 if using bags, sealed packets are best
Lunches (7 days) qty oz tot c/oz Comments
Dense whole grain bread (lunch serving) 3 2.0 6.0 80
Almond Butter (2 oz serv) 3 2.0 6.0 155 pers fave – eat w bread/crackers
Tuna in olive oil 2.6 oz pkt (2.9 oz incl packet) 2.9 65 eat w bread, oil adds cal’s & healthy fat
Crackers, Dr Kracker (lunch serving) 2 1.5 3.0 125 Awesome, high calorie & indestructible
Cheese (lunch serving) 2 2.5 5.0 115 eat with crackers
TJ’s whole wheat tortillas 2 2.0 4.0 80
Dry salami (without nitrates) 2 2.5 5.0 105 eat with tortillas
Mustard packets n/a to eat with cheese or salami
Bison Jerkey (3.5 oz bag) 3.5 60  online, or TJs and Whole Foods
Turkey Jerky 4.0 90  online, or TJs and Whole Foods
Primal Strips Meatless Vegan Jerkey (teriyaki) 1.0 100 vegan protein option – up to 11g prot.
Stonewall’s Jerquee (soy based) 1.5 110 veggie protein option – up to 14g prot.
Dinners (6 nights) qty oz tot c/oz Comments
Black Beans & Rice w Cheese & Corn Chips (yum!) 2 5.5 11.0 115 see Recipe Page
Chili Mac Dinner 2 5.5 11.0 120 see Recipe Page
Curry Cous Cous Dinner 2 6.0 12.0 135 see Recipe Page
Desserts (6 nights) qty oz tot c/oz Comments
Snickers Bar or MilkyWay Midnight 2 2.1 4.2 135 daytime snack or dessert
Chocolate (dark) 4 2.0 8.0 153 great when eaten with dried fruit
Cocoa Nibs 1.0 150 tasty when added to dark chocolate
Snakwell Cookie Packet 2 1.7 3.4 123 great with hot chocolate
Hot Chocolate (make your own with Nido) 2 2.2 4.4 130 see Dessert recipe Page
Snack Bars (for ~7 days) qty oz tot c/oz Comments
Kind Bars 4 1.4 5.6 150
Lara Bar 1.8 130
Pro Bar Meal Bar 2 3.0 6.0 125 healthy, easy to eat
ProBar’s Base Protein Bars 2 2.5 4.9 114 adds 20g of soy protein
Cliff Builder’s Protein Bar 2 2.5 4.9 115 adds 20g of soy protein
Snacks (for ~7 days) qty oz tot c/oz Comments
Gorp (50% walnuts, 50% dried fruit – raisins?) 7 2.0 14.0 150  usually mix my own
Honey sesame sticks 7 1.8 12.6 150  online or at Whole Foods
Candied nuts (TJs has a ton of varieties) 3 1.5 4.5 150
Almonds, raw 4 2.0 8.0 165
Walnuts, raw 185
Dried mango un-sweetened/sulfered 3 2.0 6.0 90 also great dessert with dark chocolate!
Apricots (dried, un-sweetened, un-sulfered) 4 1.5 6.0 87 also great dessert with dark chocolate!
Papaya (dried, un-sweetened, un-sulfered) 100  at Whole Foods
Raisins, organic (Thompson, TJs) 95
Generic dried fruit 85
Jelly Bellies 93
Tic-Tacs 0 mindless fun to eat on trail
Pringles 150 tasty, high in calories
Totals
Lb of food for trip 11.5
Lb food per day 1.7
Calories/day 3,530
Calories/oz of food 127