Recipe: Breakfast Cereal “Thru-Hiker Style”
Here’s another ultralight, high calorie trail recipe. I eat this breakfast probably three out of five days on my long hikes. It’s inexpensive, easy to prepare, warms me up on cold mornings and provides lots of energy for the day ahead…
Ingredients:
2 packs Instant Grits (or Oatmeal)
1/4 cup Nestle Nido Whole Powdered Milk
2 tbsp Dried Blueberries (or raisons, craisons)
2 tbsp Almonds (or pecans, walnuts)
1 tbsp Honey (or sugar)
1 tbsp Squeeze Butter
1 dash cinnamon (optional)
Lightweight Packing Tip: Remove powdered milk, nuts and dried fruit from containers and pack in ziplock baggys. Small storage bottles from REI are good for packing honey & spices.
Cooking Instructions:
1. Bring 1 1/4 cups water to boil. Remove from heat.
2. Add Powdered Milk to hot water and stir to dissolve
3. Add Cereal to hot milk and stir (if you have a separate bowl pour hot milk onto cereal)
4. Wait 1-2 minutes for cereal to reach the right consistency
5. Add dried fruit, nuts, honey, butter and cinnamon
6. Enjoy!
Coffee Tip: If you like coffee or another hot drink in the morning with your cereal boil 2 1/4 cups water. Pour the first cup into your coffee mug before you start making the cereal.
Weight and Nutrition Information:
Serves: 1 hungry hiker
Dry Weight: 5.6 ounces
Calories: 637
Carbohydrates: 109 grams
Protein: 15 grams
Fat: 25 grams
Cost: $2.65
Calorie to Weight Ratio: 114 calories per ounce
Calorie to Cost Ratio: 240 calories per $1.00
What are some of your favorite hiking recipes? Post ‘em in the comments below…
Mine is very similar. I like yellow cornmeal better than grits (white cornmeal)or oatmeal. Regular Albers CornMeal cooks in about 5 minutes in a cozy. There are Instant Polentas that are harder to find (try Italian delis)but cook in about 1 minute and don’t require a cozy. I tend to make ghee (clarified butter) and add up to 1/4 cup per day of it. Alternatively, I use coconut oil of half coconut oil and half ghee. I sweeten mostly with Splenda since it adds virtually no weight, but field-add just a little maple syrup (1-2 tsp) for flavor. At various times I have added instant whole dry milk, but some almond meal also works and also adds protein and calories. My favorite fruit addition is dried blueberries, but dried mango is good for a little variety.
Here’s another variation for you. Try brown sugar instead of honey and coconut milk instead of Nido. Adds some variety if you eat this breakfast often. Other dried fruits can also be good. I particularly like apples, which you can find freeze dried for a reasonable price.
This is great! I always pack oatmeal, but not all the goodies to go on top. You could even shed micro ounces by putting all your dry ingredients in one baggy per meal. Then just dump the whole baggy in and add hot H2O. Love it!
Try “Fuel” by Wheaties, 1.5 cups(full bowl or two listed servings), powdered milk, about 3/4 cup (I mix in wheat germ and sugar) with whatever nuts, dried fruits or scraps of Logan Bread I have around.
I’ve used hot water if I’ve got some going anyway for coffee.
In coffee I like to toss in a couple of those little Dove choclates or spme hot cocoa mix. With a Snickers bar morning, its getty dusky before hunger hits. I’m making myself hungry, though, just talkimg about it.
Give Bob’s Red Mill Museli a try. Great hot or cold, less simple carbs, and a little more protein, fat, and fiber content.
I have a similar recipe:
1/2 cu Grape Nuts cereal/Rolled oats
1/3 cu whole milk powder
1/4 cu dried fruit
1/4 cu nuts
1/4 cu seeds (sunflower, pumpkin)
Sweetener is optional
Add water. On a cold morning I warm it up on my stove. Normally go 3 hrs before I need to begin eating.
Variety is good.
1 day grits, the next oatmeal, the next kasha, rice, angelhair pasta, … What ever is available at the trail town.
Vary the type of fruit and nuts you use each day.
Also cheese, peanut butter, … are great additives.
That looks delicious. Thank you for sharing; I’ll definitely give this a try on my next hike!
I like to use vanilla flavored whey protein powder instead of a powdered milk product. It’s a great protein source. Sometimes I throw in a tablespoon of almond meal rather than almonds–saves me from picking almond chunks from between my teeth (a problem as you get older). Besides oatmeal I use the same additives to granola cereal add a few tablespoons of hot water for a quick warm morning meal–all in a plastic bag for easy no cleanup eating.
I like this recipe. If you don’t mind not having coffee in it’s own cup, mix it in with the hot water and make it a coffee flavored breakfast. Not bad!
If the milk powder/whey protein (my choice, too) or other powder is mixed thoroughly with the oats beforehand, it doesn’t really need to be mixed with water beforehand; the whole thing can be in a zipock bag.
My regular breakfast has a few variations, one of ‘em major:
• I use walnuts instead of almonds. Trader Joes has great “Walnut Baking Pieces”, as well as good prices on dried blueberries.
• I mix brown sugar in, skipping the mess of honey.
• I add about 100mg of caffeine.
Yeah, homemade caffeinated oatmeal. It gives a minor boost to the morning (less than one might expect), but more noticeably, the caffeine apparently binds to the soluble fiber and passes deeper into the gut; when it hits the intestine, you will gradually find you need to, er, use Yogi Bear’s bathroom. Great for dealing with some of the unfortunate effects of the sudden switch to such a different diet than off-trail.
Have you ever tried using powered honey instead of “normal” liquid honey? Not a bad option if you don’t want to use a) processed sugar or b)artificial sweetners. My old roommate introduced me to it and it gave the same honey taste but without the sticky mess (a big selling point for me). He got his at a local Korean Store (lots of those in Silicon Valley), but I’m sure you can get it elsewhere.
For the vegans -
You can substitute powdered soy milk and soy cream cheese. Also, they actually make powdered peanut butter that is not bad, which you can reconstitute with light olive or other vegetable oils for spreading on bread or just add it to cereals, soups or noodles for creamier, nutty broth!
If you like a heartier cereal, you can also use bulgar wheat or couscous in place of the grits, by still adding the dried fruits or nuts it’s like a middle eastern style breakfast and a good change of pace from grits or oatmeal.
For vegans concerned about the potential hazards of the phytoestrogens in soy products, powdered almond milk is also a good choice.
I had the idea of preparing oatmeal for my breakfasts, but you have this down to a science. I think I’ll try to add in some of these additional ingredients. Thanks.
Hey Erik!
I just learned a new hiking food trick from a youtube video today.
You prepackage your serving of oatmeal with an equal amount of cake mix (like carrot cake or spice cake ect). It adds on the calories and gives you other things you need like dried oils.
I want to try this out real soon.
@Donald McCullough: That does sound good. I can’t wait to try it out on the trail.
I like this (and MrRedwood’s premixing) idea:
use vanilla flavored whey protein powder instead of a powdered milk product. It’s a great protein source. Sometimes I throw in a tablespoon of almond meal rather than almonds
- almond meal is available as a standard cooking ingredient, but where do you find the vanilla flavored whey protein powder?
@Pete: Whey protein is available in the health food section of most grocery stores. I used to do a lot of weight lifting so I used to eat a lot of it. The difference between powdered milk and whey protein is that whey protein tastes pretty aweful, in my opinion. I would not want to put it on my oatmeal. I prefer to get protein by loading up on steaks and dairy in town stops and then eat mostly carbs and fats on the trail.
Whey protein used to be rather disgusting stuff but I think many companies have heard the call and now make an improved product. I get vanilla flavored whey protein from Costco (made by Cytosport) that is ground to a fine flour like consistency. It dissolves quickly and tastes great. The 27 grams of protein per 38 gram scoop is hard to beat.