Favorite Camping / Backpacking Meals

 Any climbers out there that are gourmet cooks with a whisperlite? What are your go-tos and favorites while cooking in camp?!? Usually I keep things simple but I'm looking for things that are a little more fun to make and eat while chilling at camp. I've done pizza myself (with rising dough), cheesy bagels, good ole rice and beans, a shitton of pasta, but not much else...

Cooking with my pocket stove/metal cup I eat a ton of rice/pasta and beans. But sometimes i'll throw in cheese, tuna, baby bella mushrooms, peppers, or an egg to shake things up. The egg just turns into essentially a poached egg and its pretty great. Plus eggs keep well without a refrigerator/cooler. I also eat a lot of oats which are improved by nuts, dried fruits (raisins or others--dehydrated bananas are fantastic), cinnamon, honey, or cocoa power.

If i'm cooking a larger portion/for multiple people I'll use an onion whenever I can. Instant improvement imo.

Peanut butter and tortilla. Or Nutella and tortilla. Hard to pick a favorite.

Not really optimal for the trail but, if you do a fair amount of car camping I’d like to recommend a Dutch Oven. Very simple to use and you can make just about anything in one. In my Dutch Oven I’ve made pizza, beef stew and biscuits, chilli and cornbread, enchiladas, all variety of gumbo and of course just about any desert cobbler you can imagine. Game changer.

Sorry for flipped image..... keeps flipping when I post reply. 

Cowboy Breakfast .....  one of these is required.

I've done a Thanksgiving dinner style meal on a dragonfly before by doing stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy all in the same pot and cooked together.  Really light to pack as well, since everything was dried and powdered.

Fried brownie mix is also a pretty good hit.

Grilled cheese on sourdough is really good.  The trick to making even better is to grill the sourdough with garlic butter, and add a side of tomato soup.

If you have a fry bake, you can do a lot of breads, so cornbread, biscuits, and stuff like that come to mind.  I've seen cinnamon rolls done on a fry bake, but haven't yet tried it myself.

If you have a lot of fuel, you can do dulce de leche by boiling a can of condensed milk for a while.

Eggs, rice and some sausages mixed together. Throw in some cheese and soy sauce and it's the ultimate climbing fuel! 

Ayyy... What do yall use with those Dutch Ovens? A fire or like 3 whisperlites?

I have a food dehydrater and love it for making backpacking meals ahead of time. Don't bother with it if your car camping with a cooler, but you can essentially make mountain house meals with real food and no chemicals. Prep ahead of time then just add water in the backcountry. Chilis and stews come out great

http://www.backpackingchef.com/

I make a pretty killer Indonesian peanut chicken with white rice and broccoli on a backpack stove and pot. It's surprisingly easy and doesn't overwhelm the bear canister, if anyone wants I can post details.

Nolan Huther wrote:

Ayyy... What do yall use with those Dutch Ovens? A fire or like 3 whisperlites?

Fire.....   or some charcoal...      Cowboy breakfast works really well for like 6-8 people, takes 45 min. 

If backpacking.... I like Trout in foil, with garlic, wild onions... but you need to catch Trout. 

Eat well... Life is to short to eat Freez Dried backpacking food.  

Doug S wrote:

I make a pretty killer Indonesian peanut chicken with white rice and broccoli on a backpack stove and pot. It's surprisingly easy and doesn't overwhelm the bear canister, if anyone wants I can post details.

Yes please

Finally someone said booze!  Amongthe most important entries. 

Nolan Huther wrote:

I'm 20, what are these boozes?

Habiki 

David Kerkeslager wrote:

Yes please

You only need to have a backpacking type pan with a skillet for the lid, and one stove. Ingredients: Pack of Tyson white chicken chunks, pack of Uncle Ben's pre-cooked white rice, Olive oil, small snack packs of peanuts and peanut butter, 1 shallot, 1 small broccoli crown, and a small (2 oz or so) bottle of Sambal Oelek chili sauce (you have to pack a small bottle yourself).

In the skillet: Brown the chicken lightly in some olive oil then set the chicken pieces aside in the pot. In the same (unwashed) skillet, saute first the peanuts, then adding the diced shallot. When the shallot is softened add a little water and simmer for a minute, then mix in the peanut butter and chili sauce. If you want to get really crazy, bring a little ginger and add it at this stage. Add the meat back to the finished sauce in the skillet and set aside.

In the pan: Now just cut and steam the broccoli quickly in the pan, using about 1/4 inch of water. When the broccoli is al dente, just add the rice to it, mix and warm it all together for a minute.

Fin.

I've doubled this recipe and was still able to cook it in my medium sized backpack pot. I doubt you could go more than that. Oh... and believe it or not, the broccoli crown will last like 4 days in the bear can.

I love to order delivery to a campsite that is in the middle of the woods. Give them directions in the notes on the order... always fun than setup a camera to watch them going wtf when they get to the address.

ViperScale . wrote:

I love to order delivery to a campsite that is in the middle of the woods. Give them directions in the notes on the order... always fun than setup a camera to watch them going wtf when they get to the address.

Are you 9 years old?

Bean and Cheese (with some onion) Quesadillas...Ramen/Udon with all the fixins is easy too. <<<eggs, green onion, veggies.

You can take the dried noodles out of any Ramen and use them for any kind of pasta too. They are cooked then dried and re-hydrate fast, regular dry pasta takes way too long to cook.

I like to make pesto w/ linguine + sun dried tomatos + pine nuts+ bell peppers+ chicken bits.

Another dish I've been testing is a thai curry w/ veggies, rice, and chicken. Pretty darn tasty!