9 Bikepacking Meal Ideas & Tips

saw it on another channel, but honestly love it and it's so tasty for a one pot meal boiled in water for a little while: dry Rice noodles + Biltong Jerky (in oregon, i've only found it at costco) + peanut butter + red peper flakes.

Sadly "make extra room in your bike for food" in grizzly country means "pack a bigger bear canister" (at least for anything you're not going to eat while riding). Maybe I just need to leave the region. haha.

Nutella on a burrito 👍

My best hack is taking frozen leftovers for overnighters. By the time you set up camp the meal is thawed. Freezer bags can hold up to a boil, so the bag goes straight into the pot to be reheated.
Pasta dishes are the best for this.

Great tips as I’m planning my first bike-packing trip with my oldest son (13).

For breakfast, hard boiled eggs and/or oatmeal packets. I heat the eggs in my coffee/oatmeal water. Eggs last for days,
For lunch what I used in France after PBP and ever since: 'Saucisson Sec' - like salami but refrigeration is not required, Some hard cheese, an apple and a carrot and a baguette if available, or naan. All this stuff is durable and lasts days.
For dinner, vegan Indian packets like Tasty Bites or Vimal, dollar store precooked rice packets,, or freeze dried meals if on sale! Maybe a little wine and naan.
Otherwise, I DO dehydrate. Apples, peaches, tomatoes, blueberries, stir fry veggies for soup or frying, and some jerky to keep you going. Fizzy electrolyte tablets energize your water. And of course spices and herbs.

My favorite go to is PB, Nutella and banana burritos. Use snack size zip lock bags for each and the bags come in handy for small trash like candy wrappers and wipes.

Good video! Ive been bringing my Restrap Musette specifically to carry extra food as needed. Already dehydrated ingredients like TVP and couscous are super handy.

I've never seen those silicone bags before and I'm instantly in love with them. For condiments I don't take disposable ones to avoid unnecessary waste, but I did buy some miniature 10ml and 20ml jars which I use for spices, condiments, sugar, toothpaste, soap, chamois cream etc. Just make sure you don't reuse the chamois cream one for condiments. :) In Europe you can get them in Rossman, but I'm sure you they're available across the pond as well.

cries in european cuisine

If you have the room to pack it out, my kids and I have enjoyed just bringing a can of soup and warming it slowly over the stove for an evening meal. Eat it right out of the can and then just bag up the trash for later

Great video because you show a lot of tips. I’m doing some of them in my trips. Today we have a lot of facilities and the weight and space are vital. Congratulations

Totally onboard with the torts. The best quick, easy, tasty meal/snack is a tort with crunchy PB and hot sauce. Also, overnight oats for breakfast are ligit - no cooking required and you still get a high-calorie, healthy start for your day. Lastly, for cold weather camping, bring lots of butter and put it in everything.

We have dehydrated scrambled eggs mixed with instant potatoes and then vacuum sealed them into servings

I always mix dried bananas(sweetened) and dried pineapple together, tons of energy in there and easy to snack on. Also, canned goods! Get the cans with the tabs and you don't even need an opener, start a fire, crack the can a bit and surround it with coals.

Please tell me you're joking about polystyrene containers. I can't believe you still use them in the states

There's a lot of ultra-processed food solutions here!

Cous Cous....food so nice they named it twice!

I made a "cereal" of raisins, sunflower seeds, cashews, pumpkin seeds. Seperate pack of dry oats. And dry powder "milk" (I'm lactose intolerant) also seperate.

Put it in the bowl, add water. Mix. Leave it to soften for a few minutes.

Can use the "milk" in a coffee or tea too.

The No Cook Elvis… Tortilla, peanut butter, banana chips, and precooked Bacon. Best bike packing breakfast ever and texture is important!

Flour torts, package of pre-cooked bacon and pre-shredded cheese of your choice. Makes a great breakfast. Heated with a stove is best but cold works too if you're going stove-less. Add hot sauce/salsa of your choice.

I go hiking on Appalachian Trail every spring and think my food is applicable to bikepacking, always carry 1 pound of Walnut halves, shelf stable, no cook, calorie dense @ 3000/lb, 65% fat + 14% protein + 14% carbs - 7% soluble fiber, a person (or squirrel) could survive on Walnuts, I snack of those all day and don't get hungry, prefer getting energy from fat, not sugar (carbs). My favorite cold breakfast is 1.5 cups of cereal in a freezer bag + 1/4 cup NIDO (powdered milk), add water, shake, instant milk & cereal. My favorite hot meal made in freezer bag is 2/3 cup Dehydrated Refried Beans + 1/3 cup Minute Rice + Taco Seasoning + 1 cup boiling water, eat out of the freezer bag. Imitation Biscuits & Gravy = 1 packet Ramen broken into small pieces (don't use seasoning packet) + 1/2 package Pioneer Country Gravy + Bacon pieces + 1 cup boiling water. Grits & Bacon = 2 packets Instant Grits + Bacon pieces + 1 cup boiling water. 1/3 cup instant Mash Potatoes + 1 cup boiling water + 1 packet BBQ Pulled Pork is great, the steam from the potatoes will heat up the pork. Usually meat & cheese for supper, an 8oz block of sharp cheddar (or Parmesan) keeps a few days, meat is usually precooked bacon, salami, pepperoni, dried sausage, jerky. Also, peanut butter like Skippy gets into bloodstream immediately and provides instant energy due to the fat & sugar, when I am hiking up a mountain, tired and cannot take another step, about 5-6 tablespoon's worth of Skippy gives me instant energy to make it up the mountain.

Great ideas in that video!
Before leaving home, I mix in a bag of oats, raisins, walnuts, cinamon, brown sugar and some vegan protein powder.
After each supper, I add water and let it soak for overnight oats ready in the morning.

Thank you!

Ramen is such a highly processed, inflammatory food. Guaranteed stomach upset and bloat. And if you're worried about saving the planet, hundreds of ramen packages won't do it

Tortillas win over most other bread like things as they don’t fragment and don’t tend to go mouldy over longer trips!

What works best for me is couscous. It comes already precooked, it takes up very little space, you just have to bring the water to a boil and turn off the gas. 3 minutes later you have it. You save space, water, gas, it has it all.

I'm basically lazy and hate cleaning dishes of any sort when camping. So I use the Freezer Bag style of cooking when out there. I put the meals together here at the house one meal to one freezer bag , including condiments. Mark on the outside how much water is needed so I know how much to add to the meal when getting it ready for consumption. roll the bag to get the excess air out and then seal it. In camp , get the water near boiling and then add it to the bag. Mix everything together and seal the bag. Place the bag in a cozy ( insulated container the same size as the bag ) . wait about 8 to 10 minutes , then open the bag and enjoy a hot meal. When everything is done lick the spoon to clean it and save the 1st freezer bag to double as a trash bag for all the others. One easy meal is Ramen noodles with the dehydrated vegetable soup mix ( 4 or 5 tablespoons ) from Harmony House foods and some hot sauce. Since it's a lot of liquid i Leave it in the cozy which acts like a soft sided bowl that I can hold.

My dad used to collect restaurant condiment packs.
Of course, he never camped, much less bikepacked as far as I know. But, he was a Depression survivor.

BTW, don’t bother with the fake parmesan cheese. If something was dry and flavorless before, it’ll be worse.

Flavored couscous sachets with tuna toppers.

Since I‘m a coffee enthusiast, I always carry „brew bags“ reusable, specialty coffee prefilled filter bags. Super thin, easy to pack, delicious coffee! Carrying my meals from LYO Foods, freshly cooked then freeze dried - I‘m a high calorie burner. The „heaviest“ has 752 kcal. Perfect for my dinner. Always: Banana Chips, Nuts, High calorie bars and what I find on my way. Oat meal with honey and a banana if I have one - or dry fruits

For dinner, I pack pouches of bean vivo meals and tasty bite Indian dishes. Great on tortillas. They heat up in less than a minute and are super filling. In places where water is scare, they are nice because you don't have to hydrate them. For breakfast I buy a resealable bag of freeze dried fruit, add oats, milk powder, brown sugar, and chia seeds and pour a cup of hot water on them, let them hydrate while I pack up the tent and chow down before getting back in the saddle.

I never would have guessed that those little brown oatmeal bags were sturdy enough to have hot water poured directly into them..that's a game changer for me.
I generally try to limit my camp meals to a single pot, but those stasher bags look like a really good option for extra food storage too!

Oh c’mon, talks about low-waste bikepacking then immediately endorses high-waste one-serving packet oatmeal? You’re heating water in a pot anyway so take a zip-lock of bulk-bought oatmeal and make your oatmeal in the pot.

Ive tried all sorts of options and nothing holds me over until lunch like peanut butter on tortilla every morning. I add sunflower seed kernals for a complete protein.
I usually carry a few ramens since they come in packs but then in towns pick up a can or two of fish or chicken and maybe even some veggies to add to the ramen in order to pack in some nutrients.
Fats and proteins help me reduce how often I bonk out or gorge on carbs like candy and soda to get back above water. In colder weather I go for more fats. I try to pack more proteins at the end of the day to help muscle regeneration overnight.
Its heavy stuff but Ive been getting bags of the trail mix and packing that into one of the handlebar bottle pouches. Better to eat that between meals than to shop hungry in the first sign of civilization.
Been using those fold up Fozzils dishes for a couple of years and they work great as cutting boards also. The Uco plastic double sided spoon forks are durable lightweight, cheap and work great. The bright color keeps them from getting lost in a bag. After trying nearly every option I've landed on using an alcohol stove with heet and aluminum pot with heat coils for maximum efficiency and lowest cost.

I use an ex army Swiss Army Stove. IT uses a small methylated spirit burner and I use a water proof magnesium fire starter. Kit comes with everything, just add a mug. It was new, it’s Aluminium and around was around $10

Let’s not forget some more whole food options versus all the processed goodies 🥰🙂👍🏻

Peanut butter+granola+makuna honey is super delicious for dessert and breakfast

Im kind of late to the party, but one meal trick that is simple and can be made with ingredients from the gas station--convenience store, which is to get some string cheese and roll it inside a tortilla, heated up makes a nice quesadilla, I like the pepper jack variety and a variation is you can make sort of a calzone with a tortilla they sell stick cheese with meat wrapped around it, put that inside a tortilla with some salsa.
Im vegetarian myself so that is not something I have tried.
You can also make your own Tortilla chips-strips with that pack of tortillas you can make Chilaquiles which is an excellent one pot breakfast dish.
Basically it's chips, eggs, cheese and salsa, I know that is not the correct version, but for camping food LOL I once used a bag of Doritos to make it, if you got onions or jalapeños or hatch chilies that takes the flavors up quite a bit.

Here in sweden they sell alredy grinded cowboy coffy redy to cooc look att gevalia. Thats one of The brands

Ive carried tortelini when hiking its pasta with dryed mest i side only nead to cooc for a few minutes

Thanks for mentioning Stachers. They different size and shapes serve a lot of uses on a bike tour. They are not plastic bags. They are silicon, a type of flexible glass, as all glass made from sand. We use them on the trail and in our kitchen, with a sealable opening, Last for thousands of uses. Put your cold burrito from lunch stop in the stacher or stachers and place in a pot of boiling water until they are piping hot. Make stacher bag Muesli with nuts, dried fruit, half a fresh diced up apple , a cup of powdered NIdo whole 28% butter fat milk, a little sugar. Eat half for breakfast, reseal the stacher and it becomes your No Bonk mid morning picker-upper. Tort's make a great plate. Eat your meal off the tort and finish by eating the tort. If you want to get a little crazy, Years ago when I was leading bike, canoe and backpack trips the first night was shish kababs. Cube almost frozen meat into bite size pieces. Put in a One pint stainless steel double walled drink bottle with a screw lid. Fill with Italian salad dressing. Skewer meat on a tent stake or bring bamboo skewers. Depending on the temperature the meat may stay cold for several days. Serve with rice and apple slices. The dressing will "cold cook" and preserve the meat preventing spoilage for a few days.

ty for this; I'm getting ready to get into bike-packing--but one of the biggest hesitations is the food aspect--I can't cook to save my life (probably literally)--even tho I was in Boy Scouts when i was a kid; so cooking out in the wild def isn't going to work :D

Eat nutrition, not calories. So many backpackers Bike Packers end up eating basically nothing but processed food with very low nutrition. Plan your diet with as much nutrient dense food as you can, because you’re putting out a lot of effort. Do yourself a favor.

You Americans really don't know anything about cooking and food in general 😅. That's sweet. Love from India.

BEEF JERKY, TRAIL MIX, DRIED FRUIT,
FIG NEWTONS, STRING CHEESE, GRANOLA CEREAL MIXED WITH VANILLA CARNATION BREAKFAST AND WATER,, ADD SOME NUTS AND RAISINS,
POWDERED DRINK MIX. AND OF COURSE SNICKER CANDY BARS

Beef jerky can be added to ramen or eaten out of hand.

I saw in the camp clips a PBR and a twix, those are my kind of options.

Xtra virgin olive oil (120cals/tablespoon) is very energy dense, healthy, tasty, doesn't go bad, and makes everything better. On bread, in rice, in a salad or casserole...has a million uses.

I bring the new whisky blonde ..some cigs..summer sausage...cheese..naan bread..tvp..rice ramen..and .. dehydrated fruit..and a couple pack of the long stem black and milds whwn in bear country