Backpacking Recipes How To

Just Add Water Backpacking Recipes

The Shakedown is about to get delicious! In the coming months, we'll be featuring more and more posts about staying fueled up on trail and in the backcountry, with recipes and tips that will help you make sure you can snarf when and how you need to. But first, we'll start things off nice and easy with some favorite "just-add-water" delicacies from our very own Marketing Project Manager, Kendra Perkins. She and her fella Tyson, (our IT and Customer Service guy) thru hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2016, and these were some go-tos at the ends of big days. Stay tuned as the menu expands!

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Words by Kendra "Lay's" Perkins

A thru hiker would tell you that food selection is less about nutrition and more about cost, convenience, and taste. Not that the two are always mutually exclusive, but when they are, it’s a question of whether you’d prefer a $1.00 honeybun from Dollar General or a $3.00 granola bar from Whole Foods. Personally, I’m reaching for the honeybuns.

So, while these recipes are not completely devoid of nutritional value, they are above all budget friendly, contain easily accessible ingredients, taste good (subjectively), and fill, at least for a moment, the seemingly endless hunger that thru hikers know all too well.

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PIZZA RICE

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Instant White Rice (makes 2 cups cooked rice)
• 5 oz Pizza Sauce Packet
• 2 tbsp Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 20 Pepperoni Slices
• 1 cup Water

Directions:

Bring 1 cup water to a boil. Add rice, stir, cover, and remove from heat. Wait 5 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed the water. Fluff the rice and mix in sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. Serve hot.

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TRAIL BURRITOS

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Water
• 1 cup Instant White Rice (makes 2 cups cooked rice)
• 2 tsp Taco Seasoning Mix
• 2 Flour Tortillas
• 2 Tuna Pouches or 1 Chicken Pouch
• 2 Handfuls of Doritos (about 2oz)

Directions:

Bring 1 cup water to a boil. Add rice, stir, cover, and remove from heat. Wait 5 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed the water. Fluff the rice and mix in seasoning and tuna or chicken. Prepare a tortilla and scoop half the rice into the center of it. Grab a handful of Doritos and crumble on top. Fold the tortilla into a burrito and eat.

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TRAIL BROWNIES

This is a slight variation of Trail Brownies in a Bag by Trailcooking.com

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup Water + 2 cups for boiling
• ¾ cup Graham Cracker Crumbs*
• ¼ cup Slivered Nut of your choice – coconut, pecans, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, macadamia, etc. (optional)
• 2tbsp Powdered Sugar
• 1 cup Milk Chocolate Chips*
• 3tbsp Instant Nonfat Dry Milk
• 2 Quart Freezer Bags

Directions:

In one freezer bag, mix the graham cracker crumbs, slivered nuts, and powdered sugar. In the other freezer bag, mix chocolate chips and powdered milk.

Add ¼ cup water to the freezer bag with chocolate chips and mix together. Bring a small pot of water to a simmer and turn off the heat. Gently dip the closed bag into the water to melt the chocolate. Once melted, add the bag with graham cracker crumbs to the bag with the chocolate chips. Knead together, form to the shape of the freezer bag, and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Break into chunks and eat all of it.

*You can also make Cookies and Cream Brownies by substituting the graham cracker crumbs with ¾ cup crushed chocolate graham crackers and the milk chocolate chips with 1 cup white chocolate chips.