Favorite LIGHT climbing/backpacking foods

Hey,
I am interested in seeing what other people are taking for food when you have to carry your food on your back. Do you go out and load up on Freeze Dried or do you make your own. What do you take when it has to be light but still full of calories?

Here is one of my favorites dinners

Hawaiian Haystacks
Minute Rice
Dried pineapple, peas, green peppers, corn
Coconut
Raisins
ham bought from the grocery store for sandwiches
cashews
sweet and sour sauce found at the grocery store in the mixes isle.
Soy sauce small packets from fast food restaurant

Really good with lots of calories to burn.

Just started using powdered peanut butter. 2 Tbsp powder to 1 Tbsp water. makes a good paste, tastes super good, and none of the weight.

A log of Jimmy dean sausage. It is good with Everything inluding oatmeal.

This time of year I like to stock up on holiday summer sausages and the accompanying, and highly preserved cheese gift boxes. For the most of my backpacking trips I take the following items:

Hobo dinner for first night, always
Dried fruit
Cured/dried meats
Peanut butter (just learned of powdered variety)
Nuts
Oatmeal
Instant rice
Dried soup mixes
Candy
Lipton cup o' noodle
Via instant coffee
Propel electrolyte mix for nasty water
...and other stuff I can't think of now

One thing I've started using recently is instant mashed potatoes packets. They actually taste pretty good and come in little prepackaged 2-3 serving envelopes.

I tend to carry some heavier stuff for the first night and go light for the other nights. But a few things that come to mind

Bacon either pre-cooked or cooked at home
kielbasa sausage
jerky

You can dehydrate nearly anything that you would normally eat. Tried dehydrated spaghetti once. Not the best I ever had but worked pretty well. And a decent dehydrator will run you ~$30 new.

Freeze dried stuff has no fat, and not enough calories, leading to 4 AM shivering wake up sessions where another dose of chow is necessary. Fats are the best calorie to weight ratio in the end, as long as that's not all you eat. Nuts, cheese, jerky, and enough carbs to keep chow interesting is the way to go. A little fresh fruit can do wonders to keep the spirits up and stave off the gag reflex.

I usually bring some Lipton noodle packets. These are pretty light (~3.5 - 4 oz) and there are tons of flavors. I also bring Ramen noodles. I will add butter to either of these if it's winter. Candybars are a staple, as are bagels.

In the past, I would make chili, soups, spaghetti sauce, etc and dehydrate it. This worked well, but took a lot of time, so I don't do it anymore. Fatty sauces like alfredo sauce won't work. That seems like common sense, but I tried it anyhow.

A super-light option for winter hot drinks is crystal light. The packets weight nothing and make 2 quarts of drink. You can make hot lemonade or whatever and they taste pretty decent. I discovered this while being stuck at Denali basecamp for an extra day and a half. I ran out of cocoa, so I heated up the crystal light. It's worth a try.

Bring along some olive oil...a lot of calories.

Nathan Stokes wrote:Just started using powdered peanut butter. 2 Tbsp powder to 1 Tbsp water. makes a good paste, tastes super good, and none of the weight.

I'm curious about powdered peanut butter. Peanut butter isn't really high in water content. Do they make it powdered by removing the liquid oils? That isn't dehydration. That oil isn't just unnecessary weight that can be reconstituted with water. I don't see the point. Yeah, it's lighter. That's because it's less food and calories.

2 tablespoons of powdered peanut butter has 45 calories and weighs 12 grams. That's 3.8 calories per gram.

bellplantation.com/nutrition

2 tablespoons of real peanut butter has 188 calories and weighs 32 grams. That's 5.9 calories per gram.

caloriecount.about.com/calo…

So real peanut butter weighs 2.7 times as much as powdered, but has 4.2 times the calories. So four ounces of real peanut butter would give me 658 calories, while four ounces of powdered peanut butter would only give me 420 calories. Or, put another way, I only need 2.6 ounces of real peanut butter to get the calories found in 4 ounces of powdered.

tons of cliff bars or power bars or whatever is the cheapest, trail mix, and of course some delicious cheese. Thats all I really need along with a little chocolate.

Really depends on the season. Olive oil is awesome but congeals in the cold, so make sure you can get it out of whatever container or throw it in boiling h2o for a minute. salami. instant potato. jameson or laphroig, depending on who i'm out with. freeze dried fine if you wanna just go super light and not have to clean up, but not enough calories and kinda spendy. cheese. Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste to spread on everything, including oatmeal... did I mention Jameson?

from my backpacking list

instant mashed potatos
Knorr rice sides (pasta sides too but might take longer to cook)
cous cous
Orzo
add packet tuna or chicken to any of those. also bacon bits, parm cheese packets, olive oil, powdered milk, french onions.

pepperoni + cheese

Pringles 900 cals for 6.5oz tube

fig newtons.. really calorie dense.

I generally make my own dehydrated meals out of pretty much everything for backpacking.

Most of my climbing lately has been either local day trips or car camping, so weight isn't an issue for camp. For meals on the rock, I just pack whatever sounds tasty that day.

Peanut butter is always a good staple for calories. I found these little snack packs that are about 2 servings worth that weigh next to nothing and are great. Tortillas peanut butter pack and a small honey bear goes a long way for lunches on the trail.

The best chips for backpacking are Fritos- tons more calories then Pringles (I like Pringles too)and you can get them in a handy smash proof tube if you look around. I find myself just hauling a regular bag and eating them throughout a trip.
A really good meal is freeze dried chili MH, BP, AA, or what ever, poured over Fritos with cheese on top. I have also found powered Sour Cream that is really good mixed into the above mix.
Jello is always a great fun diversion. Good calories and easy to make if you have a cold stream, lake or snow patch handy.
Dallen

How about breakfast with oatmeal + hot cocoa powder mix? This is definitely more tasty than oatmeal with sugar and cinnamon!

For savory flavor, some garlic salt/chicken flavor powder + oatmeal is a good combination for me.

I can't get enough of the Backpacker's Pantry Lasagna. Yummy.

Moof wrote:Freeze dried stuff has no fat, and not enough calories, leading to 4 AM shivering wake up sessions where another dose of chow is necessary... Nuts, cheese, jerky, and enough carbs to keep chow interesting is the way to go...

Try checking the nutrition label on freeze-dried, you may be surprised by what you discover. Here's one that's about 15% fat, and at 4 kCal/gram it's about the same calorie content (by weight) as ceddar cheese or salami. Not that I disagree with keeping things interesting.

Backpacker's Pantry Sweet & Sour Chicken

You guys are to fancy for me. I live off flour tortillas and peanut butter on bigwall. I haven't tried honey yet. Sounds tasty.

I like cold Chef Boyardee ravioli straight out of the can, eaten with a nut tool.

bump for any more suggestions?