Memorable Backcountry Meals: 44 Recipes Worth Making

By TBD

This cookbook is for adventurers who want healthier, higher quality, and better tasting food on trips and don't mind spending time on food prep in order to have a better meal experience.

Why make your own backpacking meals? 

Preparing your own meals allows you to control the quality of ingredients, eliminating t

• Language: English
• Publisher: Yulan Studio
• Release date: Nov 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9780991538294

TBD

Patsy Stanley is an artist, illustrator and author and a mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She has authored both nonfiction and fiction books including novels, children's books, energy books, art books, and more. She can reached at:[e-mail] for questions and comments.

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Contents

Introduction

About the Authors

About this Cookbook

Dehydrating Basics

Sourcing Ingredients

Assembling & Storing Dehydrated Meals

Nutrition & Meal Planning

The Backcountry Camp Kitchen

Base Recipes

Beef Meatballs, Italian-Style

Biscuits

Chicken Meatballs, Asian-Style

Chicken Meatballs, Italian-Style

Pulled Pork, Mexican-Style

Tomato Curry Base

Breakfast Recipes

Almond Berry Oatmeal

Biscuits & Sausage Gravy

Creamy Polenta

Egg Scramble

Ginger Peach Cashew Oatmeal

Hash Browns

Snack Recipes

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars

Ginger Mango Rice Crispy Bars

Lemongrass Curry Trail Mix

Sesame Oat Bars

Lunch Recipes (cold soak)

Asian Noodle Salad

Burrito Bowl

Greek Orzo Salad

Kale & Lentil Salad

Smoky Bean Power Salad

Zesty Thai Salad

Dinner Recipes

Artichoke-Spinach Alfredo Orzo

Butternut Squash Risotto

Channa Masala

Cheesy Broccoli Risotto

Chicken Curry

Chicken & Dumplings

Chicken & Noodles

Chicken Piccata

Chipotle Corn Chowder

Fall Harvest Stuffing

Loaded Mashed Potatoes

Mac & Cheese with Pulled Pork

Moroccan Stew

Mushroom Stroganoff

Nepali Red Lentils & Rice

Penne Puttanesca

Pesto Pasta

Pineapple & Pork Fried Rice

Quinoa Lentil Stew

Salmon Chowder

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup

Wild Mushroom Risotto

Zucchini & Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Dessert Recipes

Apple Crisp

Chocolate-Orange Pudding

Ginger Creme Brulee

Mango Rice Pudding

Appendix

Index

Copyright

Inside Back Cover

About the Authors

We’re both graphic designers based in Portland, Oregon, who met while doing volunteer work for a local design association. We’ve been going on outdoor adventures together for over ten years, and when we got started backpacking, we didn’t like the commercial food choices that were available. We’re both picky eaters who prefer fresh, local and organic foods whenever possible, so we decided to start making our own backpacking meals. Over the years, our friends sampled our food on trips and encouraged us to develop this cookbook. Between the two of us, we offer a mix of comfort foods and spicier meal options.

Lisa Deepdive Holmes is a graphic designer, hiking book author and blogger. When she’s not designing websites and marketing materials for clients, she’s diving deep into the details of planning backpacking trips all over the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Learn more about her hiking books and follow her adventures at iheartpacificnorthwest.com.

Sanjana Spice Girl Sachdeva is a graphic designer and photographer. When she’s not hiking or backpacking, she utilizes spices from around the world to create meals using seasonal ingredients. Her passion for photography takes her to beautiful places in the Pacific Northwest, where she creates images that convey peace and harmony. Learn more about her photography at sanjana-sachdeva.com.

About this Cookbook

This cookbook is for adventurers who want healthier, higher quality, and better tasting food on trips and don’t mind spending time on food prep in order to have a better meal experience.

Why make your own backpacking meals?

Preparing your own meals allows you to control the quality of ingredients, eliminating the additives and preservatives found in most commercial meals. It also allows you to customize the flavor and dietary needs of meals to your own preference. We prefer to use organic ingredients and take advantage of home gardens to dehydrate surplus vegetables. It’s all up to you!

Dehydrating ingredients

Most of the recipes in this cookbook require the use of a dehydrator, although many dried ingredients can be purchased instead. The recipes also make use of some specialized ingredients (such as butter powder, milk powder, and cheese powder) that need to be purchased since it’s not feasible to make your own. We provide a list of our favorite resources for these items.

Prep at home, not at camp

The recipes in this cookbook are based on packaging dried foods for cooking with little to no prep done at camp. This saves time and allows for using minimal kitchen gear on trips. There’s no need for a cutting board, cooking utensils, or additional cookware… just a backpacking stove and spoon (or spork). Backpacking is hard enough and we want meals that are easy to prepare once we are at camp.

Cooking in a pot versus rehydrating in a bag

The majority of recipes in this cookbook are best prepared in a pot on a backpacking stove. While most commercial backpacking meals are prepared by adding boiling water to the bag, cooking in a pot allows you to refine the cooking process for better results. Preparing meals this way helps to ensure that everything is thoroughly cooked, doesn’t have too much liquid, and is still hot when you eat it. In addition, you aren’t left with a messy and smelly plastic bag in your camp trash. We would rather spend a small amount of time doing cleanup in order to get an overall better meal experience.

Cold soak options

Not every meal needs to be cooked in order to be full of flavor. In this cookbook, we offer five cold soak recipes that work great for lunches. Just add cold water and let them soak while you hike.

How nutrition info was determined

We used an online calculator to determine the nutritional info for each recipe. While we strived to get accurate data, the nutritional values will vary based on the ingredients used, so the info provided is a general guideline.

Dehydrating Basics

Not only is dehydrating your own ingredients a great way to save money on backpacking food, it’s also a good method for controlling the quality of the items used in meals – as well as being able to tailor the taste of meals to your preferences.

Types of dehydrators

When purchasing a dehydrator, there are many options to consider, including the type of dehydrator, features to consider, and overall cost.

If you are just getting started and don’t want to spend a lot, a round dehydrator with stacking trays is a good option. For this type of dehydrator, we recommend the Nesco brand. On most round dehydrators, the fan is located on the top, so the trays may need to be rotated during the drying process. Feature options include digital temperature and timer controls,