An Adventureful Life

Winter is the perfect time to experiment with new recipes for your upcoming outdoor adventures! Backcountry Foodie is an incredible resource for anyone looking to create their own meals for any kind of travel or adventure. Whether you’re dehydrating your own meals for a custom touch or using pre-made ingredients to save time, there’s so much flexibility in how you approach backcountry meal planning. These are some of my favorite recipes—give them a try and let me know what you think!

What I eat in a day… Backcountry Foodie Style!

• Breakfast: Granola with Milk & Berries (no cook)
• Lunch: Cuban Black Bean Dip w/ plantain chips (no cook)
• Dinner: Sun-dried Tomato Pesto Pasta (cook) 
• Snack: Don’t Knock it Till Ya Try It Trail Mix (no cook)

My typical trail style is to kick off the day with a cold breakfast and hot coffee, enjoy a no-cook lunch, and save my one hot meal for dinner. I’ve listed some of my favorites here—easy to prep, quick to clean up, lightweight, compact, and most importantly, delicious!

Breakfast: Granola with Milk and Berries

This one is incredibly simple—and way more budget-friendly than the pricey prepackaged granola meals from REI! All you need to do is mix your favorite granola with some powdered milk, then toss in a handful of freeze-dried fruit. It’s that easy! For the perfect consistency and flavor, try it out at home first so you can adjust it to your liking before hitting the trail.

• 1 cup Granola
• ¼ cup Whole Milk Powder, full fat (Judees is a great brand)
• 1 Tbsp Blueberries, freeze-dried (I get mine from Trader Joes)
• 2 Tbsp Strawberries, freeze-dried (I get mine from Trader Joes)

1. Mix together in a bag or container (ziplock for example), and when you are ready to eat, just add 4 oz of cold water and mix thoroughly!

Lunch: Cuban Black Bean Dip with Plantain Chips

• ½ cup black bean flakes
• 1 Tbsp red/green bell peppers, dehydrated
• 1 tsp onions, dehydrated
• 1 tsp jalapeno peppers, dehydrated
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp cumin, ground
• ¼ tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp lime powder, 1/2 tsp = 2 packets True Lime powder
• 4 oz water (when ready to eat)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 oz plantain chips, or chips/crackers of choice

1. Put all dry ingredients, except the plantain chips, in your bag or container of choice for use in the backcountry. 
2. Pair with 1 Tbsp olive oil and 2 oz plantain chips.
3. When ready to eat, add 4 oz of hot or cold water, mix and let stand (5 minutes if using hot water and up to 30 minutes if using cold water to rehydrate).
4. Add the olive oil to the mixture, dip chips, and enjoy!

I’m all about savory lunches with a satisfying crunch, and this Cuban Black Bean Dip really hits the spot—especially when paired with crispy plantain chips! The flavors are bold and comforting, and the crunch from the chips adds the perfect texture. Just make sure to give yourself a little time to soak the ingredients (if cold soaking) so everything rehydrates nicely. You can eat it straight out of the bag for convenience, but I enjoy it more from a bowl (or even a Talenti jar).

What I love most about this recipe is that you don’t need a dehydrator! You can easily buy dehydrated ingredients and assemble everything yourself, making meal prep super simple while still delivering on taste and nutrition.

Dinner: Sun-dried Tomato Pesto Pasta (cook) 

• ⅔ cup of dehydrated pasta of choice
• 2 pieces sun-dried tomatoes, oil-free, diced
• 1 Tbsp pine nuts
• 2 tsp basil, dried
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• ⅛ tsp table salt
• 2 Tbsp parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (when ready to eat)
• 8 oz water (when ready to eat)

1. Keep noodles and sun-dried tomatoes in a bag or container to be used in the backcountry.
2. Put the remaining dry ingredients in a separate bag or container to be stored with the dehydrated noodles and sun-dried tomatoes. 
3. Pack 2 Tbsp olive oil in a leakproof container to be added when the meal is consumed.
4. Remove the pesto packet from the noodle bag or container.
5. Add 8 oz hot or cold water, or enough to cover the noodles.
6. Let stand until noodles are fully rehydrated (approximately 5 minutes with hot water or 60 minutes with cold water).
7. Consume or properly discard the noodle water following Leave No Trace principles.
8. Add pesto packet and 2 Tbsp olive oil to the noodles, stir, and enjoy!

It’s really important you choose things you love to eat for your trail menu, and I find this even more critical for dinner. I eat pesto pasta at home quite a bit… so having a meal like this on trail is very comforting. The recipe calls for penne pasta, but I love to use macaroni noodles because they are so cute dehydrated, and they make me think of my kiddos. For this recipe, I recommend dehydrating your noodles. Cook your noodles like you would normally… then spread them out on a dehydrator overnight until they shrink back down to a more appropriate backpacking size. Everything else you can buy from just about any grocery store!

Snack: Don’t Knock it Till Ya Try It Trail Mix (no cook)

• 10 each Wheat Thin® crackers
• 5 each mini pretzels
• 2 Tbsp pecans
• 15 each yogurt covered raisins

1. Put all ingredients in a bag or container for use in the backcountry – enjoy!

This one’s a bit of a wild card, but it was a total hit on my 2024 trip to the Wallowas! I loved it—probably because I’m a fan of each of the ingredients on their own, so when you throw them all together, how can you go wrong?

I hope you enjoyed this little sample menu for the trail! There are so many incredible recipes on Backcountry Foodie, and now is the perfect time to start taste-testing and curating your own ‘best of’ list for all your upcoming adventures. These meals and snacks should help get your 2025 adventure planning off to a tasty start!

I’d love to hear what your favorite trail recipes are—I’m always on the lookout for great food (whether on the trail or at home, to be honest!).

Cheers, and Happy Adventuring! ~ Chevelle aka “CC the Machine”

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