No Fire, No Stove, No Problem: Easy Trail and Camping Food Ideas

Camping or hiking with friends and family is a great way to spend time with your favorite people in the outdoors. Sharing meals together can be one of the best parts of camping, especially when you get to eat smoky tasting campfire meals or hot dishes made on the Coleman stove. But what if you’re on a backpacking trip trying to cut pack weight and you only brought your JetBoil? What if there’s a burn ban in your area due to high risk of wildfire starting in dry conditions? What if, like me, you are lazy when it comes to cooking in the first place, much less in the outdoors when you just want some quick and easy fuel to get you up the next ridge? While not as exciting as foil pack steak and potatoes, there are plenty of great options for staying fed outside, quick-and-easy style. Check out some ideas below!

1. Dehydrated fruit. You can buy dehydrated apples, bananas and mangoes at most grocery stores. If you expect to be eating a lot of dehydrated fruit, you can invest in your own dehydrator and make your own snacks from grocery store fruit.
2. Jerky. Great source of protein, which can be tough to get with dried snack food.
3. Tuna packets. Another great source of protein. My advice from personal experience would be to bring along a zip lock baggie to put the empty wrapper in so the tuna juice doesn’t get in your pack.
4. Salami and Cheese. It comes as a surprise to a lot of people that cheese holds up pretty well without refrigeration. It will probably get “sweaty” (appetizing, I know), but is still edible for a few days in a pack. Hard salami will also last for a few days and goes great with cheese.
5. Crackers that won’t turn to dust in your pack. Some good options are Combos or hard pretzels.
6. Canned foods. While a lot of canned foods will add substantial unwanted weight to your pack, there are tons of options for canned foods to bring on a trip. Soups that can be heated up in a JetBoil or even chili or ravioli are some of my favorites. For protein, bring canned chicken and beans and put it in a tortilla with the “sweaty” cheese.
7. Tortillas. Speaking of tortillas, they are another excellent food for camping and hiking. They are great with cream cheese and turkey, if you have a cooler. I use them mostly for peanut butter and honey roll-ups. You can but individual packets of both peanut butter and honey at the grocery store (again, be prepared with a plastic baggie to contain messy packaging). The carbs and sugar are a good source of quick-burning energy for hiking.
8. Flat Bread. Use for all the same things as tortillas, but you can find healthier options like Multigrain that provides more protein than white flour tortillas.
9. Trail Mix. (Obviously!)
10. Bars. This is probably my favorite snack of all, even though it’s boring. There are dozens of different kinds of bars available. If possible, choose snack bars that are higher in nutrients, especially protein. Bars can be expensive, and you want them to fuel you rather than act as an over-glorified candy bar (which is, by the way, another good hiking snack). Bars with higher protein content or made with natural ingredients like nuts help you stay full longer.
11. Oatmeal. These last few foods require hot water, which can be easily made using a JetBoil. Oatmeal mixed with nut butter and other toppings is a good food for keeping you full all morning.
12. Dehydrated meals. These can get pricey really fast, but they provide a lot of needed calories and are tasty at the end of the day. Mountain House is probably the best-known brand, but there are many other options. You can actually reuse the foil bags these commercial meals are packaged in for your own dehydrated foods like noodles and vegetables later. Other dehydrated meals you can make with just a JetBoil include instant potatoes, rice and Ramen Noodles.

The foods listed above have been some of my favorite super-easy, lightweight trail foods for a few years now. It can be fun to get creative with the food you bring with! In my experience, how much fun you’re having on the trail is directly correlated to how fed and energetic you are feeling. I have had horrible trips where uphill hikes felt like a marathon just because I didn’t pack enough calories to keep my body fueled and happy. It’s worth it to bring along some extra snacks for your attitude.

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