As my backcountry habit has grown, so too has my exploration of lightweight, cost effective, satisfying end of day meals. The less pricey commercial options are lacking in nutrition and flavor (though they still can do the job), while the better tasting, more filling options can be costly for those tallying numerous days on the mountain. Ever the sucker for a project, I aimed to build freeze dried backpacking meals that are tasty and filling for under ten bucks each.
This post shares the first recipe I've deemed worthy of public consumption. Bottom line up front: I spent $8.55 per meal for 23 meals, including reusable, resealable mylar bags, each with 1022 calories, 53g of protein, 20g of fiber, 76g of carbs, 2400mg of sodium, and just under 80mg of fat, that tastes as good as any other freeze dried backpacking meal I've eaten, and collectively required less than 30 minutes to assemble.
If folks like this, I'll pass along other recipes when ready. I owe this site a debt of gratitude for all it has taught me, and this is my first attempt to pay that bill. Credits to others here for inspiration.
Grilled Chicken Fajita Bowl
Building this recipe required bulk purchases, which as noted above yielded 23 complete meals, with varying degrees of extra ingredients (the chicken was the limiting factor). It took seven attempts to find the following balance of ingredients and quantities to fit my needs, though even the first tries were better than the standard commercial freeze dried backpacking meal. Each element can easily be tweaked in pursuit of particular preferences.
Recipe
Wallaby 8.5" x 6.5" mylar pouch
Add two cups of boiling water. Seal and wait 12 minutes.
This is the initial ingredient batch, which didn't include the refried beans that I added later in recipe development to add creaminess to the texture, or the box of 30 Wallaby mylar pouches.
Prep
Note it's critical to use a canning or similar funnel to add the ingredients to the pouch, because any powder at the mouth of the bag can prevent airtight sealing and thus limit shelf life.
Pouches
The Wallaby pouch design--wide and short, rather than tall and narrow, like most commercial meals--eliminates the joyous task of scraping the bottom of a ten-inch deep pouch in search of those last few calories. This recipe does, however, completely fill the pouch. Take care accordingly when resealing after adding water.
Shelf life
This is an open question and I plan to test this batch over time. To minimize ingredient exposure to oxygen and moisture, I packed quickly in a dry place and inserted oxygen absorbers before sealing the mylar pouches. I'm now storing them in a cool, dry place, as I do commercial backpacking meals and other dried food. By far the shortest shelf life ingredient is the cheese, which the manufacturer listed as 1-2 years. It could be omitted, and the calories made up if so desired. I opted instead to cheese bomb the recipe.
Other ingredients
Instant guacamole and sour cream both caught my eye as potential additions to this recipe. I couldn't find enough info on shelf life to take the plunge, but might grab a packet or two of one or the other to give it a try as a separately packaged addition.
Per the note above about other recipes, I'm tinkering with a chicken teriyaki bowl recipe that would use some of the same primary ingredients and thus allow meal diversity without much extra cost. I'm also testing something like a shepherd's pie or stew, with meat, taters, veggies, and gravy. None of the results so far have been disappointing, a fact I hope encourages others to experiment.
JDubya
This post shares the first recipe I've deemed worthy of public consumption. Bottom line up front: I spent $8.55 per meal for 23 meals, including reusable, resealable mylar bags, each with 1022 calories, 53g of protein, 20g of fiber, 76g of carbs, 2400mg of sodium, and just under 80mg of fat, that tastes as good as any other freeze dried backpacking meal I've eaten, and collectively required less than 30 minutes to assemble.
If folks like this, I'll pass along other recipes when ready. I owe this site a debt of gratitude for all it has taught me, and this is my first attempt to pay that bill. Credits to others here for inspiration.
Grilled Chicken Fajita Bowl
Building this recipe required bulk purchases, which as noted above yielded 23 complete meals, with varying degrees of extra ingredients (the chicken was the limiting factor). It took seven attempts to find the following balance of ingredients and quantities to fit my needs, though even the first tries were better than the standard commercial freeze dried backpacking meal. Each element can easily be tweaked in pursuit of particular preferences.
Recipe
| Minute instant rice | 1/2 cup |
| Nutristore freeze dried grilled chicken | 1/2 cup |
| Mexicali Rose freeze dried refried beans | 1/3 cup |
| Harmony House freeze dried black beans | 1/4 cup |
| Harmony House freeze dried bell peppers | 2 tbsp |
| Harmony House freeze dried onions | 2 tbsp |
| Poppyseed Farms freeze dried cheddar cheese | 3 tbsp |
| McCormicks taco seasoning | 2 tsp |
| Knorr vegetable bouillon | 1 tsp |
| Chipotle powder | 1/8 tsp |
Wallaby 8.5" x 6.5" mylar pouch
Add two cups of boiling water. Seal and wait 12 minutes.
This is the initial ingredient batch, which didn't include the refried beans that I added later in recipe development to add creaminess to the texture, or the box of 30 Wallaby mylar pouches.
Prep
Note it's critical to use a canning or similar funnel to add the ingredients to the pouch, because any powder at the mouth of the bag can prevent airtight sealing and thus limit shelf life.
Pouches
The Wallaby pouch design--wide and short, rather than tall and narrow, like most commercial meals--eliminates the joyous task of scraping the bottom of a ten-inch deep pouch in search of those last few calories. This recipe does, however, completely fill the pouch. Take care accordingly when resealing after adding water.
Shelf life
This is an open question and I plan to test this batch over time. To minimize ingredient exposure to oxygen and moisture, I packed quickly in a dry place and inserted oxygen absorbers before sealing the mylar pouches. I'm now storing them in a cool, dry place, as I do commercial backpacking meals and other dried food. By far the shortest shelf life ingredient is the cheese, which the manufacturer listed as 1-2 years. It could be omitted, and the calories made up if so desired. I opted instead to cheese bomb the recipe.
Other ingredients
Instant guacamole and sour cream both caught my eye as potential additions to this recipe. I couldn't find enough info on shelf life to take the plunge, but might grab a packet or two of one or the other to give it a try as a separately packaged addition.
Per the note above about other recipes, I'm tinkering with a chicken teriyaki bowl recipe that would use some of the same primary ingredients and thus allow meal diversity without much extra cost. I'm also testing something like a shepherd's pie or stew, with meat, taters, veggies, and gravy. None of the results so far have been disappointing, a fact I hope encourages others to experiment.
JDubya
