Summit Patrol Journal

Recipes

BSA TROOP 261, PLANO, TX

LOW IMPACT BACKPACKING RECIPES

By Charles Ballard, www.chocchip@flash.net

David Beck, www.Dbeck@fdic.gov

Thad Fenton, Tfenton@fdic.gov

Low impact, light weight backpacking meals don’t have to be expensive, bland or routine. With some advance planning and pre-preparation, you can make great tasting, satisfying meals that require little preparation or clean up at camp.

The following recipes are made from everyday ingredients found at the local grocery stores (with the exception of some freeze dried sliced veggies that Chuck bought to save time – these could be dehydrated at home). Each recipe has been tested both at sea level and at altitudes up to 12,100 feet. The recipes are for patrol sizes of 9-10 older scouts and dads. There were usually plenty of extra servings available for those scouts with bottomless stomachs. Just adjust ingredient amounts down for smaller patrols. We don’t suggest that you portion these recipes up too much more because of potential uniform heating problems and increased likelihood that the cooking bag may burst.

These meals were carried, cooked and enjoyed in the Weminuche Wilderness, north of Durango, Colorado, during a six day, 40 mile long High Adventure hike in July, 1999.

If you have any questions, or want to pass on your recipe suggestions, please e-mail us. We’re always looking for inexpensive, simple low impact cooking ideas suitable for our High Adventure backpacking patrols.

COOKING UTENSILS & MISC

We cooked our meals over a Peak 1 backpacking stove in an 8 quart aluminum cooking pot with lid. We put a metal collapsible vegetable steamer in the bottom to keep the cooking bag from scorching on the bottom.

All main meals are prepped into, cooked in, and served out of a turkey sized Reynolds cooking bag. We only single bagged our meals, but you should have a few spares in your cooking gear in case the meal bag springs a leak and you need to double bag it. We haven’t had that problem yet.

We took along a long wooden spoon; a Pampered Chef brand silicone Super Scooper; a plastic measuring cup; a Container Store 16 oz plastic mixer/shaker; two nesting Rubbermaid round containers with snap lids; and a kitchen towel. Various seasonings to taste.

The largest round container should just fit within the cooking pot; this is the main dessert container. The smaller container is used to mix dessert ingredients when the larger container is already in use. For example, some no-bake cheese cakes have graham cracker crusts which have to be pressed in place before adding the mixed filling; we used the smaller container to mix the filling and then scoop/pour the contents into the larger prepped container.

We spread the kitchen towel on the cleared ground next to the stove as a prep area. Onto this we put the cooking bag when we added water to the bag, or when we took the bag out of the pot to stir or serve. The towel reduced the chance of poking a hole in a cooking bag.

We put each meal, with all consumables for that meal, in an extra large Zip-loc bag and marked the contents and weight on the outside. This organized the meal, protected the contents, and allowed us to equitably redistribute the weight among the hikers throughout the trek.

BREAKFAST

Ingredients:

Store brand instant maple & brown sugar oatmeal, 2 packets (about 1 cup dry) per person
¾ cup raisins
Instant hot chocolate mix, 1 packet per person

Cooking Directions: add ½ cup hot water to each ½ cup oatmeal; about a cup per person was enough. One cup hot water per packet of hot chocolate.

Prep Instructions: We poured all the packets of oatmeal for one breakfast together into a 1 gallon Zip-loc bag to cut down on trail trash. The raisins were put in a snack-size Zip-loc bag, and were available for those who wanted some with their oatmeal. The hot chocolate was left in the individual packets so none of the scouts "accidentally" enhanced their ration.

Weight: 2.4lbs

LUNCH

BAGELS/PB&J

Ingredients:

One pre-packaged bagel per person
1 lb peanut butter in plastic jar
1 13oz (approx) squeeze bottle grape jelly

Weight: 5.3lbs

SAUSAGE/CHEESE/CRACKERS

Ingredients:

1 lb summer sausage
1 6-8oz coated wheel of cheese
1 package 2x2 inch hors d’oerves crackers

Weight: 2lbs

We also supplemented each lunch with about a pound of GORP, which we passed around in its own Zip-loc bag.

DINNERS

CHICKEN & NOODLES IN CREAM SAUCE

Ingredients:

3 boxes Chicken Helper Alfredo Fettucini
6 cans 10oz Swanson white chicken in water
Dry milk to make 1 qt

Cooking Directions: Need 10-12 cups fluid to add to bag. First, drain and measure the fluid from each can of chicken and include in the 10-12 cups of fluid. Then add enough boiling water to bring the total of fluid added to 10-12 cups. Stir in bag, making sure corners are tipped so dry ingredients aren’t trapped. Put the bag back into the pot, with the bag loosely twisted closed, for about 10 to 15 minutes. Take out, mix, check if noodles tender, contents hot. If so, enjoy!

Prep Instructions: Pour all the box ingredients into the cooking bag, as well as the proper amount of powdered milk. Optional: Mix the milk separately, and include that volume in the 10 to 12 cups of fluid to be added.

Weight: 6.3lbs

BEEF STROGANOFF

Ingredients:

3 boxes Hamburger Helper Stroganoff
3 lbs (original weight) lean hamburger
Dry milk to make 1 quart

Cooking Directions: Add 12 cups boiling water. Stir in bag, making sure corners are tipped so dry ingredients aren’t trapped. Put the bag back into the pot, with the bag loosely twisted closed, for about 10 to 15 minutes. Take out, mix, check if noodles tender, contents hot.

Prep Instructions: Cook and drain, then dehydrate the 3lbs of lean hamburger. Optional: use sirloin, or roast meat – no need to pre-cook these cuts of meat, dehydrating cooks it. The hamburger is pre-cooked primarily to eliminate excess fat. Put all the ingredients in the cooking bag. Optional: Mix the milk separately, and include that volume in the 12 cups of fluid to be added.

Weight: 3.7lbs

CHILI MAC

Ingredients:

2 boxes Hamburger Helper Chili Mac
4 lbs (original weight) lean hamburger
1 tsp salt
1 package Williams Chili seasoning (no salt version)
2 tubes 4.5oz Amore brand double concentrated tomato paste
5 oz dry elbow macaroni

Cooking Directions: Mix paste in 4 cups of boiling water and add to big bag and stir; then add 4 more cups of water and stir. Put the bag back into the pot, with the bag loosely twisted closed, for about 15 to 20 minutes until uniformly hot, then serve.

Prep. Instructions: Cook and drain, then dehydrate the 4lbs of lean hamburger. The hamburger is pre-cooked primarily to eliminate excess fat. Put all the ingredients in the cooking bag except the tomato paste, which is diluted and added at the time of final cooking. Optional: This recipe is heavy on the chili and light on the mac. If it’s a hot campout, or you want more carbos, you might want to cut back the meat to 3 lbs and increase the mac to say, a pound added beyond what you get with the Chili Mac packages. You may have to add a little water to the recipe if you do this to assure your noodles soften properly.

Weight: 5.1lbs

RED BEANS & RICE

Ingredients:

4 packages Uncle Ben’s Red Beans & Rice Hearty Soup Mix
4 cups Minute Rice
4 lbs (original weight) Smoked Sausage (Hillshire Farms, Eckridge, or Bryant’s)

Cooking Instructions: Add 10 to 12 cups of boiling water to the bag full of ingredients, stir/mix. Put the bag into the pot, with the bag loosely twisted closed, for about 15 to 20 minutes until uniformly hot and rice soft, then serve. Cajun seasoning is the condiment of choice with this meal.

Prep Instructions: Cut the sausage links cross sectional into 1/8-1/4 inch thick "coins" and dehydrate. Press and blot off the grease. Add this and the rest of the ingredients to the cooking bag and mix contents.

Weight: 4.3lbs

SPAGHETTI & ITALIAN SAUSAGE

Ingredients:

24 oz thin spaghetti (Spagatini)
4 lbs (original weight) Italian Sausage
3 packages spaghetti sauce mix
2 tubes 4.5oz Amore double concentrated tomato paste

Cooking Instructions: Add a total of 10 cups boiling water to the bag full of ingredients (using some to dilute the tomato paste), stir/mix. Put the bag into the pot, with the bag loosely twisted closed, for about 15 to 20 minutes until uniformly hot and spaghetti soft, then serve.

Prep Instructions: Boil the Italian sausages until they float. Cut the sausage links cross sectional into 1/8-1/4 inch thick "coins", blot the excess moisture and grease and dehydrate. Press and blot off the grease. Put all the ingredients in the cooking bag except the tomato paste, which is diluted and added at the time of final cooking.

Weight: 3.9lbs

BEEF, RICE & VEGETABLES

Ingredients:

9 cups Minute Rice
4 cups dehydrated veggies (carrots, corn, peas)
4 lbs (original weight) beef roast, sirloin, or round steak
3 packets of Butter Buds
1 package beef stew/gravy mix

Cooking Instructions: Add 10 to12 cups boiling water to the bag full of ingredients, stir/mix. Put the bag into the pot, with the bag loosely twisted closed, for about 15 to 20 minutes until uniformly hot and rice soft, then serve. Garlic salt is the condiment of choice with this meal.

Prep. Instructions: Cut the meat into bite sized chunks (optional – marinate in worchestershire, terriyaki, or similar sauce overnight) and then dehydrate. Add the dehydrated meat to the rest of the ingredients in the cooking bag, and mix.

Weight: 4.4lbs

DESSERTS

Pick "ingredients included" cakes/brownies, no-bake cheesecakes, and puddings. Except for adding milk (from powder) or water, these items are no-fuss. The cakes/brownies can be baked in the large plastic container (with the lid off) by placing it on top of the bag of dinner in the big pot and cover the big pot for 20-30 minutes. The steam will bake the cake/brownies. For the "cool" desserts, we put the lid on after it’s prepared and place the container in a cool stream (or snow!) to help the dessert chill and thicken. There are no leftovers.

**Last revised 8/8/99**
Formatting improved, September, 2001