What\'s For Dinner

[Swede]

When I am alone, or relegated to the camp cook details, breakfast, lunch and dinner are pretty simple in our elk camp. Breakfast is cold cereal, and a banana or something similar. Lunch is often the big meal, where I fry a steak or hamburger, and bake a spud plus veggies. Dinner is a can of something heated up and some fruit or veggies, or left overs. Cooking is always simple. Snacks are high energy dried foods or bars. I admit I have never had a hungering for dinner from a sack, since I had something similar in a fire spike camp. My son and some others have told me that slime in a sack stuff is actually quite good. I will find out some day, I am sure. To be honest, I lose weight while hunting, and I maximize the use of quality hunting time.
What is on your menu and how do you prioritize hunting and meals?

 

[Zpd307]

instant oatmeal for breakfast. meat sticks, granola bars and candy bars for lunch. supper was rehydrated noodles with packaged meat; chicken, tuna, hamburger. i never went hungry in idaho.....

 

[elky McElkerson]

truck camping is easy. i cook everything at home and freeze it in ziploc bags. super easy to keep frozen in a good icechest. i pull out something and put it in the \"drink\" cooler to thaw. then just heat it in a skillet.

stews, pasta meat sauces..whatever. fried rice, tamales..i eat good.

breakfast is fast oatmeal. lots of it. keeps me regular. haha..lunch is an unheathy amount of pbandJ..usually in a flour tortilla.

back trips...ugh..i eat backpack food. mountain house. hate the stuff, but it packs light and tight.

 

[mtnmutt]

Unfortunately, I get nauseous if I force myself to eat within one hour of waking up, so I nibble on a Probar original blend (compressed trail mix) while I am prepping to leave camp. This means my stomach growls around 7:30 am for more food. I do a cold camp in morning since it gets me out into the woods faster. Frappuccino is my morning coffee or dark chocolate espresso beans.

Nibbling throughout the day works best for me rather than meals. Probars or their core bars (high protein) are my snack for the day. Occasionally, I have bison jerky as a snack.

If out in woods for lunch, sandwich or another snack bar. If back at camp for lunch, I eat my big meal: packitgourmet meal or single propack or regular 2 serving pack mountain house.

Dinner is leftovers from lunch or something light. If I skip an evening hunt, I may head to town for a steak dinner.

In September, I lose 5-7 lbs. I lose my appetite while hunting. I have the same issue on race days for 5ks, Sprint Tris and half marathons.

This season, I may try other foods after trying them during scouting trips.

 

[Deertick]

Well, I\'m still thinking of how to plan meals for this year\'s trip.

I view eggs/sausage like most people see coffee ... in other words, don\'t talk to me until I have consumed them.

But I just can\'t make myself do all that work in the morning. There are elk to chase, and so breakfast is usually a lazy bit of pop-tart or some other high-calorie cold breakfast enjoyed while still in the sleeping bag.

Cnelk has suggested MREs. I think that\'s probably a good idea for a lunch, but I\'m not always a lunch-guy while hunting.

Through the day, I like to snack on a mixture of M&Ms and Peanuts. Very high calories there -- really keeps you going. I put a zip-lock bag of the mixture in my cargo pocket and just nibble through the day.

Evening meals ... I don\'t like \'em, but I usually eat dehydrated meals. Wise Foods seems to make some good ones. Better than Mountain House. I think it was MtnMutt who suggested Packit Gourmet last year, and I tried their stuff. Very good. A bit more expensive, but I\'m not eating it year-round.

I like to enjoy a bit of wine in the evening, so I usually take a box of wine, remove the box, and just have a bag of wine sitting around.

Whatever I bring, I end up bringing most of it back home with me. I have a very erratic appetite while hunting, but it tends toward \"very low\".

 

[elky McElkerson]

I hate MRE\'s. One time while watching Couse deer not bed down, three of us lunched on MRE meals. The kind that self heat. After lunch, the amount of garbage boggled the mind. It came in as a dense compact package. Going out, it was a huge mess. Filled a day pack.

I\'ll keep them for earthquake rations. I\'m

 

[cohunter14]

We eat well around our camp. Breakfast is pre-made breakfast burritos. I pre-cook bacon, sausage, and hash browns before the trip and throw them into gallon zip-locks with some uncooked eggs and some green chilies. Wake up in the morning, throw that mix on the stove with the coffee, and it is ready before I am completely dressed. Throw that in a tortilla and top it with some cheese and slam it with some coffee...good start to the morning

Lunches for us are sandwiches. If we are out of camp all day, just make it in the morning and throw it in the pack. If we are back in camp, the sandwiches might be cooked over the stove.

Dinners are all pre-made as well and typically everyone in our camp brings a meal. Chili and hot dishes are the norm. One night we will have steaks on the grill. Last year the two big hits were huge baked potatoes that we loaded with a green chili mixture and cheese and the other was carnitas burritos. For those who love carnitas, costco makes some of the best I have ever tasted. At home, you typically heat in the microwave for a few minutes and they are good to go. In camp, we took the bags of carnitas and simply let them sit in boiling water for a couple minutes. Very easy and delicious!

 

[elkmtngear]

Breakfast is pop tarts or Fuzzy Meal Bars.

Lunch/snacks are jerky, trail mix, PayDay, and a Peanut Butter and Honey Tortilla.

Mountain House dinners for me; I hunt very long days, and if I\'m going to get any sleep at all, I can\'t be concerned with dishes, cleanup, etc.

10 minutes to prep, and 10 minutes to eat. Then hit the sack for my 5 to 6 hour attempt at sleep.

 

[Olympushunt]

Breakfast is pop tarts or Fuzzy Meal Bars.

Lunch/snacks are jerky, trail mix, PayDay, and a Peanut Butter and Honey Tortilla.

Mountain House dinners for me; I hunt very long days, and if I\'m going to get any sleep at all, I can\'t be concerned with dishes, cleanup, etc.

10 minutes to prep, and 10 minutes to eat. Then hit the sack for my 5 to 6 hour attempt at sleep.

I\'m almost carbon copy of you Jeff. If I can...I like a quick instant coffee in the morning too. But if I am spike camping...your meals are almost identical to mine. I go light with lunch on the go. I like Mountain House meals. They say \"serves two\" but one for each man is more appropriate. If you hunt hard all day....you will think they are awesome, you will be full and you will sleep hard. Plus it isn\'t hard to wash up my spork!

 

[cnelk]

Typically we make some coffee and have a home-made Monster Cookie to get things \'working\' before we leave camp.
Monster cookies are oatmeal, raisin, and peanut M&Ms, and off we go.
Depending on what happens on the morning hunt, we will snack on some trail mix on the way back to camp.

Lunch can vary between a light sandwich, chips and big meal or nothing if we are busy packing elk.
Supper is the same as lunch, light if we had a big lunch, or big meal if lunch was light.

When I plan the menu, it is for one big meal a day and a light one

 

[F M]

We don\'t do a breakfast, just a granola bar. Have some snacks with for if I need one.

We do our bigger meal for lunch unless we stay out then it\'s just a sandwich.

Supper it light usually just leftovers. I don\'t like to try and sleep with a full stomach.

I am like Deertick. I loose my appetite when I hunting. Don\'t know why.