Cold Cereal as a Simple and Cheap Backpacking Meal

Why not? Forget the rules while you are backpacking in the presence of the open sky. Muesli and granola cereal is fast to prepare, loaded with calories, and tastes great.

Hikers eat energy bars, trail mixes, candy bars, and other packaged snacks for convenience. However, most snack foods offer zero nutrition, highly processed ingredients, added sweeteners, and an overabundance of sodium. So, the next time you need a quick and easy lunch or dinner meal that doesn’t require cooking, try cereal.

Outdoor Herbivore makes calorie-dense muesli cereal with dried fruit, nuts, and seeds mixed with instant organic soy milk. All you have to do is add water, stir, and enjoy a creamy cereal.

Of course, you can also make an instant dry cereal mix by adding instant milk powder to your own cereals and packaging it into a ziplock bag or waterproof rehydration bag. Some ideas include instant grains (sprouted cereal grains, rice flakes/crisps, quinoa crisps, kamut crisps, rolled oats, barley/wheat flakes, corn flakes, sorghum crisps, spelt flakes, wheat germ), dried fruits (apricots, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, coconut flakes, dates, figs, mango, raisins), mixed nuts and seeds (almonds, pecans, pepitas, walnuts, flax seed, chia seeds, hemp seed, sunflower seeds ), natural flavors (cinnamon, protein powder, vanilla powder) and milk powder to make it creamy (grind up rolled oats to a fine powder if you can’t find milk powder).

What should you look for in a store-bought cold cereal ?

• Muesli / Granola packs the most calories. Look for those containing whole grains, nuts, seeds, and dried fruit.
• Instant Milk Powder. Make sure you find a milk powder that is instant to prevent clumps. If you insist on purchasing dried cow’s milk, get a version that contains fat. Many instant milk powders, such as Carnation, are non-fat, so they will not help you get the energy (calories) you’ll need to endure long days of hiking. Nestle Nido is a popular whole-milk choice among many backpackers because it is easy to find. You can typically find it in the ethnic or Hispanic section of grocery stores. Also, try Hispanic food markets. Instant soy milk is easy to find at health food stores. You can also forgo the dried milk and add water to the cereal — milk with cereal is entirely optional. Learn more about alternative dry milk powders.

Enjoy the trail!

Related Posts:

• Backpacking with Peanut Butter
• How to Cook when Backpacking
• Dried Fruits to take Hiking
• How to Maximize Trail Calories by Champion Chewing
• Cooking Dried Foods at High Altitude