What are the best hiking meals you can buy today? After writing Hiking food packs: what are your options? I realized I had to write another article about the best hiking meals. I researched the best hiking food packs while thinking about price, nutritional values and calorie density.
Note that, if you are willing to put in the time, I would always recommend to dehydrate your own meals. You can learn more about food dehydration in this article: How to eat healthy on the trail. This article will also help you understand the nutritional values of a meal.
This list will be divided in complete meals that you can buy in a hiking food pack and separate ingredients. The benefit of having an entire meal in a pack is that you only have to add boiling water to your meal and you are done. The benefit of buying separate ingredients is that you control the size of your meals and it will generally be cheaper.
Hiking food packs: complete hiking meals
If you want to check out the latest price of any of these meals, simply click on the link in the title.
1. Greenbelly Backpacking Meal Bars
No cooking – No dishes – Perfect for on-the-go
Greenbelly backpacking meal bars are similar to an energy bar, but they are a lot more nutritious and calorie dense. Every meal bag contains two bars, these two bars weigh 155 grams -160 grams and are good for 645 calories.
The main benefits of these meal bars is convenience. You do not have to cook or do any dishes and you can perfectly eat them while you are walking. For those of you who like to eat an energy bar for breakfast, I would recommend giving these meal bars a try. They taste good, are calorie dense and they have decent nutritional values. This is definitely the simplest meals on this “best hiking meals” list.
You can choose between three flavours: Peanut Apricot, Cranberry Almond and Dark Chocolate Banana. All three have the same macronutrients, these are not perfect, but they are pretty decent for a bar. If your daily protein intake is pretty low, you could consider eating a protein bar instead.
- Calories: 645
- Protein: 17g
- Carbs: 100g
- Fat: 22g
The amount proteins and the amount of fat are a too low compared to the amount of carbs. Try to have a protein/fat rich lunch/dinner to compensate.
2. Mountain House Breakfast Skillet
Boiling water required – No dishes – Acceptable for on-the-go
The mountain house breakfast skillet contains hash browns, scrambled eggs, pork sausage patty, pepper and onions. Sounds delicious, right?
This hiking breakfast might not be as convenient as a meal bar, but it is still fairly easy to prepare. No real cooking is required, you can simply add boiling water to the bag and eat it like that. This means that you don’t have to do any dishes.
It’s not optimal to eat on the go, but you could still eat it while walking on a plain surface. You could also put this meal inside a tortilla bread to optimize it as an on-the-go meal.
The breakfast skillet contains 2.5 servings. However, one serving is way too little for a hiker’s breakfast, one serving equals 400 calories. Some hikers will eat the entire bag as their breakfast, other might eat less, but most likely still more than one serving.
I will take a look at the nutritional values of the entire bag, not one serving. One pack weighs 134 grams and has 1000 calories, this is definitely a calorie dense meal.
- Calories: 1000
- Protein: 35g
- Carbs: 75g
- Fat: 60g
These nutritional values look pretty good. Only the amount of fat is a little bit too high and the amount of proteins are still a little bit too low.
3. Mountain House Chicken and Dumplings with Vegetables
Boiling water required – No dishes – Acceptable for on-the-go
Another mountain house meal, this hiking meal is comparable with the breakfast skillet. It only requires boiling water and you can eat straight out of the bag. Once again, definitely one of the best hiking meals you can buy today.
The chicken and dumpling with vegetables meal contains two servings. Once again, one serving will not be enough, this meal only contains 310 calories per serving. You will at least need to eat two servings (= the entire bag).
The entire meal weighs 132 grams and has 630 calories. This meal is not as calorie dense as the breakfast skillet, but it’s still pretty decent when it comes to calorie density. Let’s take a look at the nutritional values.
- Calories: 630
- Protein: 30g
- Carbs: 62g
- Fat: 28g
This meal might not be the most calorie dense and it is actually the most expensive meal on the list so far, but it also has the best nutritional values. If you read How to eat healthy on the trail, you will know that the optimal ratio is around 30% protein, 45% carbohydrates and 25% fat. Well, this meal has 25% protein, 52% carbohydrates and 23% fat. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close.
4. Mountain House Beef Stroganoff with Noodles
Boiling water required – No dishes – Acceptable for on-the-go
The last hiking meal of Mountain House that I will cover in this article is Beef Stronganoff with Noodles. Once again, the same rules apply, simply add boiling water to the bag, wait 10 minutes and you are done.
This meal contains 2.5 servings, but every serving only contains 260 calories. In my opinion, this is pretty scandalous, a naive customer might think that they can eat at least two meals from a bag like this. This is definitely not the case since the entire bag only contains 650 calories.
The meal is still good, but I don’t like the fact that Mountain House tries to deceive their customers. This is a good example of why you should always do your research before buying a meal. You do not want to be limited to 260 calories per meal when you are out on a hiking trip.
Note that it is not only Mountain House that sells meals with only 260 calories, Peak Refuel also does this and probably any other company might do this as well. It’s your job to check those calories before you buy anything.
One bag weighs 136 grams and contains 650 calories. Let’s check out the nutritional values.
- Calories: 650
- Protein: 27.5g
- Carbs: 72.5g
- Fat: 27.5g
5. Peak Refuel | Beef pasta marinara
Boiling water required – No dishes – Acceptable for on-the-go
Just like Mountain House, Peak Refuel has many meals to choose from. My favorite is the beef pasta marinara. The meal weighs 180 grams and has 990 calories. It is a little bit more expensive than the average Mountain House meal, but it generally contains more calories and has better nutritional values.
This meal contains two servings, every serving contains 490 calories.
Just like the Mountain House meals, you only have to add boiling water and you can eat straight from the bag.
- Calories: 990
- Protein: 49g
- Carbs: 50g
- Fat: 59g
I talked a lot about how most hiking meals contain too much carbs and too little protein and fat. Well, this meal is optimal for balancing out your diet. This is one of my favorite hiking meals of all time. This meal definitely earned its spot among the best hiking meals.
Hiking food packs: hiking meal ingredients
Bringing pre-prepared hiking meals is great, but you could also decide to simply bring the ingredients and cook on the trail. The main benefit of this is that it is often cheaper and healthier. Note that the cooking part will still be very simple. So let’s take a look at the best hiking meals that you can “cook” yourself.
If you want to check out the latest price of any of these ingredients, simply click on the link in the title.
Meal 1: Couscous, tuna, veggies and olive oil
Cooking or cold soaking required
StarKist Tuna
This tuna comes in many different flavors, not all of them have the exact same macronutrients, but they are all fairly nutritional. For this meal I will go with the Hickory Smoked flavor.
A single pack weighs 74 grams and contains 110 calories. This will be your main source of protein for this meal.
The nutritional values for one serving:
- Calories: 110
- Protein: 19g
- Carbs: 0g
- Fat: 3.5g
Normally, you will have to add two servings of tuna to each meal.
The Original Israeli Couscous
Couscous is one of the best sources of carbohydrates. Additionally, it tastes very good in combination with the tuna. These two products will be the main ingredients for this meal. The entire bag weighs 2.27kg and contains 8172 calories. Depending on the length of your trip you might want to use a ziploc bag and only bring the amount that you need.
An entire bag contains 45 servings. However, you are going to want to add at least two servings to every meal.
The nutritional values for one serving:
- Calories: 180
- Protein: 6g
- Carbs: 39g
- Fat: 0.5g
Harmony House Foods, Dried Spinach Flakes
You can basically add any vegetable to this meal. Just make sure to bring a variety of vegetables so don’t eat the same vegetable every day. At least some of them should be green vegetables. I like to add dried spinach flakes to this meal.
Adding vegetables to your meal is necessary to get your daily dose of vitamins. However, they will not give you a lot of energy.
The nutritional values for one serving (5g):
- Calories: 12
- Protein: 2g
- Carbs: 2g
- Fat: 0g
Once again, you probably want to add two servings to your meal.
Olive oil
A lot of people probably would not think about bringing olive oil on a hiking trip. However, olive oil is extremely healthy, calorie dense and it contains a lot of unsaturated fat. Also, it can add a lot of flavor to your meals. You can use your own lightweight bottle(s) to store your olive oil in.
One serving weighs 15 grams (one teaspoon). As usual, you probably want to add two servings to your meal.
- Calories: 120
- Protein: 0g
- Carbs: 0g
- Fat: 14g
Don’t have any olive oil with you? You can compensate this lack of fat by having cheese and nuts for dessert.
Couscous, tuna, veggies and olive oil – Overview
Obviously you can decide your own servings, but for this example I will include two servings of every ingredient. Let’s take a look at the combined nutritional values.
- Calories: 824
- Protein: 54g
- Carbs: 72g
- Fat: 36g
This meal is more balanced and nutritious than any prepared meal on this list. Additionally, this will also be the cheapest option and you can decide how big your portions are.
You can prepare this meal either by cold soaking it or by cooking it. Cold soak the spinach and the couscous for one to two hours and add at least two cups of water for every cup of couscous or spinach. Experiment a bit with the soaking time and the amount of water and see what works best for you.
If you are going to cook it, just add everything to you boiling water. Consult the packages for the cooking times.
Meal 2: Beef Jerky, mashed potatoes, mushrooms and olive oil
Cooking required
People’s Choice Beef Jerky
One of my favorite hiking snacks will always be beef jerky. The cool thing is that you can also use beef jerky in your meals.
One serving weighs 28 grams and contains 90 calories. Let’s take a look at the nutritional values for one serving.
- Calories: 90
- Protein: 16g
- Carbs: 0g
- Fat: 2.5g
I will add two servings of beef jerky to this meal.
Idahoan dry mashed potatoes
The main source of carbohydrates in this meal will be these dry mashed potatoes. The Idahoan mashed potatoes come in different flavors, all of these weigh 28 or 29 grams and contain 100 or 110 calories.
In this meal I will include two servings of the garlic flavored mashed potatoes.
The nutritional values for one serving:
- Calories: 110
- Protein: 3g
- Carbs: 20g
- Fat: 2g
Dried Porcini Mushrooms
I love the combination of dry mashed potatoes and dried mushrooms. The fact that it’s healthy as well is just a bonus.
One serving weighs 28 grams and contains 105 calories.
Let’s take a look at the nutritional values.
- Calories: 105
- Protein: 7g
- Carbs: 14g
- Fat: 0g
Beef Jerky, mashed potatoes, mushrooms and olive oil – Overview
Since I already discussed olive oil in the previous hiking meal. I will not mention it again, but note that I will include two servings of olive oil in this meal as well.
Let’s check out the combined nutritional values.
PS: once again, I will include two servings of every ingredient except for the mushrooms.
- Calories: 745
- Protein: 45g
- Carbs: 54g
- Fat: 37g
These nutritional values look extremely good and this meal is not that expensive.
It is also an easy meal to prepare. Simply add everything to your boiling water. Some people like to let the beef jerky soak for a while, feel free to experiment and prepare it the way you prefer.
Conclusion
This was my personal list of the best hiking meals. I covered both pre-prepared hiking meals and hiking meals that you can cook one the trail.
Bringing entire meals or bringing ingredients to the trail is a personal choice. The main benefit of bringing entire meals is that it is very easy to prepare. Simply add some boiling water, wait 10 minutes and you are done. Another benefit is that you do not have to do dishes if you eat straight from the bag. This is very convenient if you do not feel like cooking or doing dishes after a long day of hiking.
That said, bringing separate ingredients will almost always be the cheaper option. Additionally, you have more control over your portions and your hiking meals will often be more balanced and nutritious. Also, making a meal with separate ingredients is not that hard and does not take that much longer than 10 minutes.
My recommendation would be to bring a couple of complete hiking meals that you can use if you really don’t feel like cooking, but mainly bring ingredients.
In addition to eating your regular meals, you should also eat plenty of snacks to keep up with your burned calories. You can learn more about hiking snacks in this article: The 5 best hiking snacks.
What did you think of this list of the best hiking meals? If you have any other recommendations, let me know in the comments below!