10 Best Backpacking Food In 2020

If you want to include ramen noodles in your backpacking meal plan, your best flavorsome option is the Maruchan Flavour Ramen. Made by Maruchan, a well-known manufacturer that has been in the business for years, these packs are a classic.

One case contains 24 packs of Maruchan Ramen flavor of your choice, and the best part is that there are so many flavors to choose from, including chili, Chicken mushroom, lime shrimp, roast beef, pork amongst many others. The packs are lightweight and small, convenient to be packed and carried around in a backpacking bag. This ramen noodle has a long shelf life, so you don’t have to worry about it going bad fast.

One pack of Maruchan Ramen Noodle has two servings, and each serving has 190 calories (so 380 calories total). To prepare it, you’ll need to mix with two cups of water, and while you can cook it on a stove for a couple of minutes, you can also mix these ramen with hot water in a mug.

Maruchan Ramen is one of the best backpacking food if you want something to warm you up on the trail, but also don't want to spend a lot of time making it.

For the most delectable oatmeal for your backpacking meal plan, Quaker Organic Oatmeal is your best choice. Made from 100% whole grain oats, this food is made of high-quality organic ingredients with no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives.

A box of Quaker Organic Oatmeal contains a variety pack with three different flavors in the package – Apple and Cinnamon Spice, Maple and Brown Sugar, and Original. There are 32 individual bags (servings) in the box, plenty to last you a while.

Quaker Organic Oatmeal has a long shelf life of 18 months. The original oats have 100 calories per serving, while the other two varieties (apple and cinnamon spice) 150 calories per serving.

To prepare, you can either cook for a few minutes, or you can add hot water, stir, let it sit for a while, and eat.

No backpacking meal is as nutritious as a park of Peak Refuel Freeze Dried food. While many other brands use added preservatives and high levels of sodium to prolong the shelf life of their meals, Peak Refuel focuses on meals that don’t compromise on nutrients. Made of high-quality non-GMO ingredients, these meal packs are not only nutritious but tasteful too.

There are six dishes to choose from, the breakfast skillet, sweet pork and rice, chicken alfredo pasta, Strawberry granola breakfast, beef pasta marinara, and chicken teriyaki rice. You can also buy a larger variety pack and get several flavors. For this review, we went for the breakfast skillet, which contains eggs, sausage, potatoes, and peppers. The basic pack size is a single pouch, contains two servings.

The Peak Refuel Freeze Dried Meals skillet pouch contains 640 calories, with 39g of pure protein per pouch. It weighs 4.87oz, so it's not a problem to take several of these with you. Since it's freeze-dried, you need to add boiling water, but that's about it when it comes to preparation. Stir, let it sit for 15 minutes and eat – you can eat right out of the bag.

What's also great about the Peak Refuel Freeze-Dried backpacking meal is the 5-year shelf life so that you can store a few packs as emergency food.

Powdered Whole Eggs from OvaEasy are the most scrumptious eggs to include in your hiking food plan. Made with 100% all-natural egg ingredients with no preservatives or chemicals, these eggs are both healthy and tasty.

OvaEasy uses a unique method of evaporating the water, but the egg crystals remain uncooked. This leaves them with a great flavor when you rehydrate and cook them. To prepare, you should add cold water first (as instructed on the pack), whisk it, let it rest a bit, and then cook it as you would regularly cook eggs. For this meal, you will need a pot or pan to cook them in.

A bag of OvaEasy Powdered Whole Eggs weighs 4.5oz, and the powder in each pack is the equivalent of 12 eggs, which you can make several meals out of. This product has a shelf life of 2.5 years.

If your trip involves a lot of physical activity, then you will need food with high caloric density, and there is no better choice than the MREs (Meal-Ready-to- Eat) from Western Frontier.  These packs are designed for active-duty soldiers, so one pack contains about 1250 calories depending on the entrée you get.

One pack typically includes water-activated flameless ration heaters, entree, side dish, snacks, beverage powders, and accessory packs. As these are military surplus meals, and the contents packaged are not controlled, the contents for each pack will vary depending on product availability to Western Frontier, at the time of packaging. There are a total of 24 possible entrée you can get in your pack. A single package weighs between 1 and 2 pounds.

These Western Frontier MRE meals are pre-cooked and you can either eat them right away or choose to heat them on a stove. Every meal has a pack date printed on it, and the shelf life is between 3 and 5 years, depending on storage conditions (best kept somewhere cool and dry). Although the meals are not fresh when packed, they have been inspected and still have a few more years of shelf life when you get them.

For a hearty breakfast pouch meal, the Spicy Southwest Breakfast Hash from Mountain House is your best option. Made of a blend of shredded beef, hash browns, black beans, veggies, and a touch of hot sauce to make it spicy, this hiking food is made without any allergens or gluten.

You can either buy as a six-pack, four-pack, or you can get individual pouches. An individual pouch carries two 3/4-cup servings, and each serving contains 250 calories. Furthermore, the weight of a single pouch is 3.88oz.

As Mountain House meals are always fully cooked in a cooking pot; allowing flavors to mix perfectly before they are freeze-dried, you are sure to get a delicious meal once you rehydrate them. To prepare, simply add hot water directly into the pouch, and mix it and it’s ready in less than 10 minutes.

Mountain House guarantees a 30-year shelf life for this backpacking meal.

If you are on a Paleo diet and clueless on which food to shopping for, you need not worry as Wild Zora has got you covered. Made with 100% grass-fed beef and natural veggies ingredients, Wild Zora foods are delicious, nutritious, healthy, and conveniently packed.

You can choose either one of their seven dishes, which include mountain beef stew, bedrock beef chili, summit savory chicken, palisade pineapple mango, Cliffside coconut berry, butte cacao banana, and caldera chicken curry.

Wild Zora are pouch meals (freeze-dried), so you only need to add hot water, and they rehydrate in 10-15 minutes. The pouch design is practical (shorter and wider), making it easy to eat from it.

You can also buy in bulk and store it for future trips because the shelf life is two years.

For a quick ready-to-eat meal on the go, consider Greenbelly meal bars. They don’t require any preparation and will give you a strong and immediate boost.

These meal bars from Greenbelly are lightweight, but at the same time, packed with calories. A single meal weighs just over 5oz and contains around 650 calories, which is significantly more than many other meal bars. One bag equals one serving portion, and it includes two bars inside. This is a variety pack where you get nine meals with six different flavors.

The balance is just right because eating these Greenbelly meal bars will give you 33% of your daily nutritional needs (protein, carbohydrates, fat, and electrolytes). The bars are made of chunks of dried fruit and nuts mixed with fluffy crisped rice. All its ingredients are whole-food, without gluten. The bag is made of foil that has an easy tear notch above a resealable zip lock.

With the Meal Kit Supply MRE Three-Course Meal, you don't have to worry about getting several packs for your entrée, side dish, and dessert, as all these come in one convenient package. MRE packs include a 3-course meal of America's favorite comfort food.

A large 12-pack and contains 12 different menus inside. Each MRE pack includes an entrée, a side dish, bread, a spread, a dessert, a drink mix with electrolytes, condiments, a spoon, and a napkin, and a flameless ration heater. The entrée options are beef ravioli, chili, spaghetti, meatballs, and oatmeal. While the side dishes options are fried-rice or hash browns, each pack weighs about 2lbs.

No hot water required to prepare this food as each MRE comes with a flameless ration heater, which can be activated with 30ml of any water. Once activated, the heater can be wrapped around your entrée and side dish. Ten minutes later, you'll have a hot, delicious meal.

MRE Backpacking meals come in a secure, hermetically sealed package that ensures no wildlife can be able to smell it in your backpack. These backpacking meals have a shelf life of 5 years.

For mouth-watering food from the sea, Fishpeople have the best on the market. All their seafood is landed in Pacific Northwest ports and blended in a poaching pouch with their farm produce, so you are guaranteed fresh ingredients. All the ingredients are gluten-free.

There are five meal packs to choose from, including alder smoked wild salmon chowder, chili Blanco, coconut red curry seafood bisque, creamy razor clam and bacon chowder, and Dungeness crab and pink salmon bisque.

Each bag of Fishpeople is made of BPA free material and carries one serving with 300 calories. Besides, it has an abundance of Omega-3, which is a big plus. The shelf life for this product is 18 months. As for preparation, you need to heat it in boiling water for about four minutes.