Trail Cooking is a unique skill. Finding the perfect balance of calories to weight, ease of preparation, and most of all – deliciousness, is not easy. To complicate matters more, extended backpacking trips require a lot of food. Livestrong estimates that on average, 200 calories are burnt per hour of hiking.

Let’s look at some quick and easily mixable ingredients! Many of these can be eaten exactly as they are, or mixed together to get some calorie packed meals.

Food	Calories/Ounce
Almonds	160
Peanuts	170
Walnuts	183
Sunflower Seeds	173
Peanut Butter	165
Almond Butter	165
Flour Tortillas	90
Muesli	100
Powdered Milk	150
Olive Oil	240
Peanut M&M’s	140
Salmon Packets	70/packet
Powdered Hummus	100
Banana Chips	160
Dark Chocolate	180
Pre-cooked Bacon	150
Powdered Potatoes	110
Pitted Dates	100
Macadamia Nuts	215
Pine Nuts	210
Dried Cranberries	100
Dried Apricots	75
Dried Prunes	72
White Chocolate Chips	140
Summer Sausage	100
Beef Jerky	80

I’ll be updating this list often, adding to it as I come across more backcountry cooking staples and meal ideas. My next post will focus on taking some of the ingredients listed above and creating meals with them.

I’d love it if you left a comment if you have ideas on how to use these ingredients or others, or shared your backcountry meals!