One of the most important things on any trip is the food! Check out our menu suggestions. Vegetarians and vegans, go to this page.

Food Ideas

Below is a list of meals and snacks we’ve used on our trips. This should give you some ideas for your planning. Of course, if you are on a long trip, not as much of your food will be fresh. Also, make sure to keep in mind how much weight and space the food takes up; on long trips, or when using kayaks, stick to foods that take up as little space as possible.

Snacks:
Beef jerky
Pepperoni
Granola bars
Cheese slices (with paper between)
Apples (fresh for short trips)
Crackers
Nachos
Peanut brittle (or almond)
Marshmallows
Rice crispie squares
Chocolate (watch pkg – it will melt) — Eatmore are good.
Trail mix
Bagel chips
Dried fruit
Fruit leather

Breakfast ideas:
Dry cereal (corn bran, mini wheats, etc.)
Rice milk (lasts longer than cow’s milk, available in High Level at IDA, elsewhere in grocery stores)
Powdered milk
Granola
Oatmeal (with raisins)
Hemp pancakes (very high protein, available in High Level at IDA, elsewhere in health food stores)
Pie iron: bread, eggs, cheese, wieners, ready-crisp bacon (pack eggs carefully — put carton in ziplock bag, good for short trips)
Coffee/tea

Lunch ideas (that don’t require cooking):
Pitas or tortillas (tortillas keep longer on trips)
filling 1: cucumbers, tomatoes, feta (fresh for short trips)
filling 2: smoked salmon
filling 3: slices of mozza (or other cheese)
filling 4: bologna and cheese (and lettuce, for short trips)
filling 5: peanut butter and jam (pack it in plastic jars, or put jam in double ziplock bag)
Cold salads, such as:
potato salad
pasta salad
chick pea salad (can be dehydrated)
tabouli (dehydrated)
couscous (dehydrated)
Veggies (fresh for short trips)
cucumber spears
tiny tom tomatoes
carrot sticks
celery sticks
Crackers and cheese
Corn bread (made ahead of time)
Hummus (can be dehydrated. Rehydrate and eat with crackers, celery or tortillas)

Lunch ideas (that require cooking):
Soup: Cream of mushroom, carrot, or leek; chicken noodle, vegetable, beef noodle, etc. (any instant soup in grocery isle) You can add dehydrated veggies, bacon bits, or minute rice to make it more hearty, or make your own soup using powdered soup bases.
Mac & cheese
Minute rice & curry sauce (curry powder mixed with rice milk/powdered milk)

Supper ideas:
Pasta – with pasta sauce, or olive oil, parmesan cheese, & parsley
Mac & cheese
Wieners or smokies (for short trips)
In the pie iron: grilled cheese sandwiches (bread, cheese, wieners, butter)
Chili – dehydrated (for long trips), canned, or frozen, let thaw throughout day (for short trips) or use Deluxe Camp Chili recipe from bigoven.com
Beef stew – dehydrated, canned, or frozen, let thaw throughout day (for short trips)
Tuna steak (in envelope, see this webpage: http://www.cloverleaf.ca/en/products/category/steaks-tuna/) & rice (white, quick to boil)
Rice & dehydrated beans or vegetables, beef jerky
Soup: Cream of mushroom, carrot, or leek; chicken noodle, vegetable, beef noodle, etc. (any instant soup in grocery isle) You can add dehydrated veggies, bacon bits, or minute rice to make it more hearty, or make your own soup using OXO cubes (or similar soup bases).
Bannock: 1 cup white flour, 1 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt. Make this mix ahead of time. Two cups of mix makes a nice batch for 2 people, 2″ thick, to fill a frying pan. Full instructions available in Max Finkelstein’s excellent book, Canoeing a Continent: On the Trail of Alexander Mackenzie. If you don’t go buy it and read it, go to Google books, search “Canoeing a Continent” and scroll to page 269. The idea is to add about 3/4 cup of water, make a sticky dough ball, put it into a greased frying pan and cook it SLOWLY.
Corn bread (make your own in a frying pan — look for Camp-Style Corn Bread recipe on bigoven.com)

Dessert ideas:
In the pie iron: apple pie filling “danish” (bread, apple pie filling, butter)
S’mores
Fruit crumble (cooked over fire or stove)
Chocolate cookie squares (made ahead of time)
Tapioca or instant pudding mix
Banana s’mores (keep peel on banana, slice lengthwise, stuff with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows, wrap in foil and heat ~7 minutes, good for short trips, or pack green bananas!)

Drinks:
juice (from crystals)
coffee (instant, or grounds and filter)
tea (green, black, and/or herbal)
hot chocolate
apple cider mix
powdered gatorade mix

Don’t forget:
A small bottle of cooking oil
Bread, if you plan to use a pie iron. Pack it in a box so it doesn’t get smooshed.
Butter or margarine for the pie iron (not required, but makes nicer grilled sandwiches), or you can brush the pie iron with oil.
Spices! salt, pepper, curry, basil, oregano, cayenne, garlic and/or onion powder, etc.
Dehydrated corn, onion, peas, tomatoes (sun-dried are great), bacon bits, etc.
Sugar (for your coffee, of course! And powdered coffee whitener if you desire)

Notes: Canned foods are not the best, because empty cans have to be thoroughly cleaned, stored and carried out (leave no trace, remember?). But for a short trip, when you won’t have too many, they work good.
Cheese does not have to be refrigerated. It will sweat, but it will keep for quite a while before going moldy.
With foods like crackers, don’t take the box. Put them into a ziplock bag (you can even just put the whole inner bag into a zip lock).
Don’t bring bottled water. It takes up way too much space and weight, and you can safely use the water you are paddling on by filtering and adding water purification tablets. We recommend Aquatabs. Just make sure you bring a 1L or 2L water bottle to mix them in.
We haven’t camp-tested the bigoven.com recipes yet.

What About Bears?

All the food should be packed in bear-proof containers (or at the least, bear-resistant containers, such as blue barrels). This is bear country! For more about bear behaviour, read this blog post and look at the Get Bear Smart Society’s webpage at bearsmart.com, in particular this page or this page. Bears are not common in the Peace River valley, but they can be abundant in other areas we paddle in.