What's your favorite quick and fire-less trail lunch?

tknife

tknife

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Mar 18, 1999
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On day hikes and backpacking trips, it's usually not optimal to have to either break out the stove or get a fire going for a quick meal. I'm pretty bad at meal planning anyway, so I tend to bring the same stuff ad nauseum! :D Chicken salad with pita, peanut butter and pita, apples and PB, summer sausage and cheese, maybe sardines and crackers if I'm not in bear country, or there's the super boring handful of trail mix and beef jerky.

Just wondered what you all take along that's pretty fast and simple to make and eat on a quick trail break. I need some new ideas, badly!
 
Cheese and bread, usually some whole grain sourdough from the local bakery that you couldn't smooch if you tried. Bagels work too. Nuts and fruit. Jerky. Ooh, avocado is great on the bread too.

I'm not usually going on long hikes lately (more than 3 nights) where weight is a big concern, so I can pack extras without much worry. Day hikes are more likely for me and a backpack can hold all of the above.

I haven't heard of busting out the stove for lunch though, is that common?
 
I usually bring a few oranges and trail mix, or a baggy of frosted mini wheats. Salami stick and muenster cheese is pretty good too. Or you could always try MRE's, just add water, no fire necessary. And onion bagels.
 
xylum said:
I haven't heard of busting out the stove for lunch though, is that common?
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Not on a day hike, I don't bring a stove. But when backpacking in a group of say 4 or so, we will sometimes heat up something for lunch, especially if it's cold. But usually it's much easier to keep it simple.
 
clif bars are my favorite. you also cant go wrong with some good ol' fruit or a sandwich of somekind. I like to much on uncooked ramen noodles
 
I used to do a lot of backpacking and we would carry things like sardines, crackers and cheese. Back in those days you could get "squeeze cheese" which was soft cheese in a tube with a flip lid, you could just squeeze the package and the cheese would come out almost like those pastry bags that you use to decorate cakes with. The advantage of the cheese was that it didn't have to be refrigerated. I don't think you can buy it anymore.

We also carried trail mix, the REAL trail mix (also called GORP) made from raisins, peanuts and chocolate M&M's. People have adulterated it since then by adding lots of other things. Actually I have bought some mixes that I thought were pretty good, mostly including other dried fruits and maybe other nuts such as cashews.

We carried the traditional backpacker freeze dried foods for dinners, and sometimes we carried the packages of rice that have seasonings added and then we would add a small can of meat such as tuna or chicken. For a short trip you can even carry something like canned stew because the extra weight is not that critical. We would sometimes carry canned fruit, and usually we carried pudding cups for a dessert. The strategy was always to eat the meals in order of their weight, saving the lighter meals to carry the longest.

For breakfast we would take something like Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix and small packages of oatmeal.
 
It's really hard to beat peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Sour cherry jam, of course.

Hard boiled eggs.

Canned chicken meat with lemon juice and sea salt.
 
Fruit is heavy but a great way to re-hydrate. Nothing like a super juicey pink grapefruit while sitting in the sun. Mostly I just build a fire though, its one of the reasons for getting out there.
 
Apples, cliff bars, PB&J with mini bagel, water. If it's cold, mini propane stove to heat water for tea or Starbucks Via (not good but fast and easy).
 
Pita's and hummus, left over pizza that you freeze and then by lunch time it has thawed in your pack.
 
I usually like to stop a while and eat... not just grab and go, so I carry MRE's from my basement emergency stock. I've got a couole of cases down there for weather emergencies, etc. and I eat 'em on the trail to help rotate the stock. They're also easy to pack. I can carry two in my Maxped Proteus waist pack so I don't have to carry a lot of gear to have lunch. Takes about 12 minutes to heat it up. While that's happening, I feed and water the dogs. By the time they're done, mine is ready. We're all back walking no more than 30 minutes after we stop.
 
Gallo salami slices with cheddar cheese chunks on crackers, dried apple slices and g.o.r.p. (good old raisins & peanuts) were staples of our Boy Scout troop, and remain so today.

I haven't heard of busting out the stove for lunch though, is that common?
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In this day and age of whiz-bang,titanium techno stoveware, I belive it is. Nothing wrong with it, of course, but on a hike in nice weather it seems a bit much.
Cody Lundin mentions this problem; someone in a group is breaking-out the stove, and everyone else is snacking. And waiting.
 
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