What’s your menu for a day?

Sure!

Breakfast = Could be anything from oatmeal to a bagel with toppings. Hot drink

Snack

Snack

Lunch = either cold served on a wrap or crackers or a hot lunch. Depends on weather. Big cold drink, in cool weather a hot drink.

Snack

Snack

Dinner = hearty FBC meal with lots of protein. Hot drink.

Dessert

Just put this together for my 3 day hile mileage/off trail trip to the Sierras. Target 4000cal/day and less for day 3. (Target no food on return.) The malto and recovery are both Maltodextrin mixed with protein and other goodies that I will be drinking on the trail during the most intense portion of the day.

1
Muffin 500
Lays chips 230
cookie 320
snickers 280
Oreos 300
PB MM 400
MH Stew 500
Maltodextrin Mix 1200
Recovery Mix 300
Total 4030

2
snickers 280
Poptarts 400
Mocha 220
cheetos 320
cookie 320
crackers 180
Oreos 250
MH Spaghetti 540
Maltodextrin Mix 1200
Recovery Mix 300
Total 4010

3
snickers 280
Poptarts 400
Mocha 220
BBQ chips 230
cookie 320
crackers 190
Oreos 150
PB MM 200
Maltodextrin Mix 900
Total 2890

Mine often looks like this over a 4 day trip… on top of this I carry extra little baggies of nuts and gorp as well as extra energy bars in case I need the fuel. None of the lunches in this particular menu require the use of a stove.

Day One

B – Harvest Oatmeal Bars
S – Dried Fruit and Almonds
L – Tuna Salad Wraps
S – Dark Chocolate
D – Chicken Stew with Dumplings
D – Caramel Apple Chai (this is a hot tea that doubles as dessert)

Day Two

B – Muesli with milk
S – Dried apples and cheddar
L – Roasted Tomato Dip and Pita
S – Pepperoni sticks
D – Black Bean, Corn and Sweet Potato Soup

Day Three

B – Blueberry Maple Granola with Nido
S – Gorp
L – Citrus Lentil Salad
S – Homemade Energy Bars
D – Minestrone
D – Chocolate Moosey Mousse

Day Four

B – Homemade Energy Bars
S – Frunola Bars (these are purchased from Kettle Valley)
L – Black Bean Dip with Pita
S – Smoked Almonds and white cheddar
D – Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Stopping to cook lunch? It depends on the trip and the weather and who we are hiking with. Most often I have something that requires cold water rehydration such as my various trail salads. On occasion we will stop and have a soup or other warming dish for lunch though.

Greg, what's your calorie breakdown for fat/prot/carb.

Your list seems very carb heavy at a first glance without enough fat and protein to provide sustained energy. But like I said, that's just a first glance.

I have not done the calculations on this. I suspect that it will be very high on the carbs and the Energy Drink is also loaded with Whey or Soy protein depending on which drink. 50% of my calories are from an equivalent product as Hammer Perpetuem and Recovery (maltodextrin). I am maxing on the high carb food to maximize my chance of actually being able to eat it. This diet has worked well for me on 40+ mile days at elevations below 10.5k. It will be first time that I have attempted this diet above 11k but based on the results. We'll see how it works.

I can u.understand that, the best nutrition does you know good if you can't choke down the fuel.

Also each person's body has its preferred source of calories. Personally I feel better when my protein and fat %s are higher than recommended, but my fast metabolism burns through crabs too quickly.

That said I've noticed love me a bag of goldfish crackers throughout a day.

Breakfast:
Coffee!
Clifbar builder bar and/or peanut butter crackers once hiking.

Snack:
Peanut butter crackers or clifbar and Gorp

Snack:
Gorp (I like it with lots and lots of peanut M&M's and dried fruit)

Lunch: Gorp and salami with peanut butter crackers. Cup of coffee if it's cool out.

Snacks: Repeat.

Dinner: Ramen (need to start making my own), salami, or beef jerky etc. Maybe some Gorp.

Oddly enough hard salami, gorp, and jerky are some of my favorite foods and I don't eat them unless I'm traveling or treating myself for some reason so when I go backpacking it's a real treat!

I am starting a 6 day trip Sunday and here is my menu.
All cooking is FBC.
Breakfast – alternate granola and oatmeal and Via – 24 oz
(both have nido, nuts and fruit inc)

Lunch and snacks – jerky, fruit, nuts, bars, and Mike Clellands energy spackle and Nunn tablets for electrolytes
62.5 oz

Dinner – Thai noodle with sauce, Dehydrated mole sauce over Spanish rice and refried beans, Zippy spaghetti, Mango quinoa with chicken, and Pistou. Tea and chocolate.

31.6 oz

mine is

Breakfast- a cold cereal (granola of some sort) w/ Nido dried whole milk- I add dehydrated blueberries (or the like)- just add water and stir

a couple of nutir grain bars

coffee (Via w/ Nido and some hot chocolate- a quasi mocha)

Snacks- usually Clif Mojo bars (one mid morning, one mid afternoon)
powdered gatorade (mid morning/mid afternoon)

Lunch- mini pitas, dried salami, cheddar (or other) cheese

Supper- dehydrated/freeze-dried meal- add hot water- let sit
sometimes a dessert, sometimes fresh trout as a hors d'oeuvre :)

usually in the 1.25# range/day calories ~ 3000

5 Day PCT Menu with Post Trip Notes

Day 1
Breakfast: at home
Lunch: salami and cheese (the little wax covered wheels)
Dinner: Pasta w/Chicken and Artichoke Hearts – excellent!

Day 2
Breakfast: PB Crunch Wrap – good stuff. Packed too much granola, better with the maple almond butter than the cinnamon PB (Justin's Nut Butters)
Lunch: salami and cheese
Dinner: Chili Mac – ok

Day 3
Breakfast: PB Crunch Wrap
Lunch: Wasa crackers and shelf stable cream cheese (eaten with more salami, pepperoni sticks or similar would have been better) – wanted more of this. Better than expected
Dinner: Unstuffed Peppers w/quinoa and chicken

Day 4
Breakfast: Cherry Almond Oatmeal – made with almond milk powder. Very good!
Lunch: Mount Daniel Wraps (black beans, cheese, taco sauce, tortilla) – 5 min to make and awesome! A little too much beans – the excess went on Rooinator's tuna wrap. He said it was good.
Dinner: Rice & Veggies w/ Peanut Sauce

Day 5
Breakfast: Strawberry Almond Oatmeal – made with almond milk powder. Very good.
Lunch: whatever cheese/crackers/salami and snacks are leftover
Dinner: at home/in car

Snacks
Dried mangos – wanted more! MORE! MORE!
PB M&Ms – more! Good fast energy. Or similar candy. Snickers? Payday w/chocolate?
salted cashews – just right amount
California Crunchies (flavored almonds) – love these. More. I think I can reverse engineer these to be made at home too.
EmergenC x 22 – half would be more than enough. Overkill.
Luna Moons x 3 – more would have been good. Easy to eat while walking
1 mini chocolate bar w/dried fruit (Target) – more
1 chocolate cliff nectar bar – didn't eat
1 cherry lara bar – good snack
Just veggies – didn't eat.

Other
Starbucks Via instant coffee – great!
Sugar in the raw packets
Powdered almond milk (only b/c I didn't have regular milk) – good. Really good in the oatmeal
Herbal Tea packets – great! Nice change from plain water and EmergenC w/dinners
1 dessert – Nutella and banana wrap – Made and gave to Rooinator. He said it was good.
Olive oil – only added to the artichoke pasta
salt & pepper packets – didn't use

Day 1

Breakfast on the Road

Lunch: Jerky,cheese, dried fruit, Larabar

Dinner: FBC mexican rice with shredded beef/dried red peppers
Dessert

Day 2

Breakfast: Cheese Grits with Ham/ granola bar

Lunch: Tuna salad sandwich, cheddar cheese, Larabar

Snack: granola bar

Dinner: Coconut Chicken Currey with Rice, FBC
Dessert

Day 3

Breakfast: PB & J sandwiches, cheese

Lunch: jerky, dry cereal (I like Cracklin' Oat Bran), dried fruit.

Dinner: Pig out on the way home