WITH PICTURES OF FOOD MADE ON TRAIL. THEY ARE NOT VERY INSTA BUT AT LEAST THEY ARE REAL.

I hate long intros before the recipe, so I’ll try to keep it short. You can jump to recipes if you hate intros even more than me.

If you’d like some food storing tips, go to this blog post.

Notes on ingredients and where to find them are below the intro.

“What do you eat?” is one of the most frequent questions I get.

I must admit, being a vegetarian on trail is not as easy as I thought it would be. And I mean a healthy vegetarian here. You can always eat plain noodles, but that will either not get you far or make you spend some time after the hike undoing the damage you did to your body.

A typical thru-hiker day would be 10 hours of moderate to fast hiking. That is anywhere between 3K and 6K calories burnt (depending on your body). Have you ever looked at the backs of those food packets you eat? Are you eating as much as you are burning? Chances are, you’re not even close. It’s not easy to eat 6K calories per day let alone carry it when the closest food store is in 6 hiking days.

Also, more food equals more weight, equals heavier carry, equals more calories burned, equals now you need to eat even more. Catch-22.

Basically, you will likely be in calorie deficiency all the time, which can lead to some problems I talk about here. To avoid these, you should try to eat as healthy as possible (and make up for the lost calories in town. Yey! Hello, buckets of Ben and Jerrys!). Here are all the answers on what you can find in my food bag, where it all comes from and how to make it into a meal.

INGREDIENTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

Oats - I usually buy the cheapest 500g pack of oats and repackage that to zip locks. New Zealand’s Pack’n’Save has an AMAZING bulk section where you can get those mixes of oats (like oats + seeds, chia, died fruit etc.) that are great too.

Dried and freeze-dried fruit - I found that freeze-dried berries work well but are on the pricey side. Dried apples are cool. Raisins too. Dates are the best. They add sweetness, so most of the time I don’t use sugar (plus I eat them as a snack). If I feel fancy, I add coconut shreds or chia seeds. Dried bananas, on the other hand, become bland and tasteless. Not recommended for cold soaking.

Powders - Milk powder is a classic. I don’t usually use that though. Instead I prefer cocoa or chocolate drink mix, coconut milk powder (although expensive and hard to get), protein powder (shout out to Pack’n’Save bulk section again!) or breakfast essentials (if you are in the US).

“Sauces” or wet ingredients for the wrap - individually wrapped cheese squares or individually wrapped spreadable cheese hold up up to around 5-6 days if it’s not too hot. I’ve eaten hummus for 2 days although packaging makes it bulky. Marmite has become my favorite - adds salt, is a good source of iron and lasts forever (if you are willing to carry a jar). If you are in the states - Doritos bean spread is pretty cool and lasted me up to 3 days too.

Veggies - Baby carrots are irreplaceable and last for ages. Cherry tomatoes last fairly well (if you don’t squish them). Paprika that is pre-cut to pieces. Doesn’t hold very well though after it’s cut, so recently I ditched it. Spring onion is surprisingly pretty long lasting. Shredded beets is my newest edition. Holds for around 4 days! Cucumber - I don’t use it a lot, but it is pretty long lasting too. Olives - those small, resealable plastic packets. Lastly, US store had dried sliced tomatoes that weren’t in oil, right in the fresh veggie section that were absolute gold when added to wraps or dinners.

Crispy things - some salad section in supermarkets have these seed mixes that are great for sprinkling on wraps and dinners. Sometimes they add bread crumbs or cheese bits. Another favorite of mine is nori seaweed snacks. I either repackage it to ziplocks or sometimes they come in flat packs of 8 small squares. Fried and freeze-dried cheese is great! You can find it either near salads, cheeses or fancy snacks like olives. Crisps (or chips?) - yep, crush that into your wraps and dinners for some extra crispiness. Or simply use the crumbs that remain after you eat them.

Dinners - I always try to have a variety of those. Some rice some noodles or pasta, some potatoes and some cous cous. Knorr sides does a pretty good and cheap selection in the US. Continental does the same in New Zealand. I’ll repeat myself but bulk sections in NZ stores are a must visit for spiced cous cous and all sorts of soy mixes. Otherwise, you can pre-mix them yourself. Dried peas and dried mushrooms are a good addition. My newest discovery is instant soup packets. Any soup - miso, tomato, pumpkin, you name it, just add them in to cous cous or potatoes for flavor.

Spices - powdered cheeses (from the sections of soups and gravies), italian herb mix, turmeric (fights inflammation too! And you can put it into tea), mustard powder. Those are my personal choices.

Snacks - if you want somethings fresh - baby food fruit mixes are my to go thing. Dates are my healthy sweet option. Dark chocolate is another one. Of course, PB and nutella. Sometimes I put PB, nutella and dates into a wrap for a calorie bomb sweet snack. For salty snacks I like to pre-mix them myself. I add pretzels + wasabi peas + roasted almonds. For sweet trail mix I do nuts + chocolate MnMs + something salty like salted peanuts. I also recently found that drinking my electrolytes during a lunchtime snack makes my hike more productive after lunch instead of being sloggy.

Ok, now on to the recipes:

BREAKFASTS