healthiest backpacking breakfast?

Here’s a different paradigm: Use the spiffiest whole-grain, organic, macro-biotic, dolphin-safe oats you want and. . . . bake oatmeal cookies. At home. Put in raisins/craisins if you want some fruit to, er, “keep you regular”. Sweeten as much or as little as you like (honey, brown sugar, white, maple syrup, whatever)

Monster Cookies are another variation of that theme. Nuts, raisins or other dried fruit can be added or used as a substitute for the chocolate chips.

The ring from a standard sized mason jar lid is a great mold for making dense and uniformly large monster cookies that don’t crumble so easily.

I always bring fiber cereal in zip locs-(1 cup),20-30 blueberries with Enfamil infant formula. When you are out in the middle of no where blueberries taste amazing. The Enfamil infant formula comes in (0.62oz) packets plus they are fortified with a lot of vitamins and minerals intended for little ones. MMMMM!!!!!

I too am a great fan of hard boiled eggs (preferrably 2 per day) plus a bagel with cream cheese and a beef stick (the long ones). That's a high protein jump-start to my day. Add a liter of Tang and I've got a down home breakfast.

I leave the eggs in the shell as they last longer that way (still sterile inside). I store the eggs in my cook pot, wrapped in a bandana for cushioning. Yes, I have to deal with the shells but the weight penalty is tiny and my trash bag is huge.

Unfortunately, three days' worth is usually all I can carry. Six eggs and three Bagels don't compress worth a darn and the bagels will stale quickly. Meat sticks are a non-issue; they'll fit anywhere.

The big advantage to me is there's no need to fire the stove in the morning; it's up, pack, and out for me. Make the miles before the afternoon thunderstorms hit.

I find it hard enough to gag down food the first four trail days anyway, so I carry something I know I'll (eventually) eat.

To me, instant oatmeal has less flavor and nutrition that the envelope it is packed in. YUCK! It does make great wallpaper paste though; gotta give it that.

If I really want a hot breakfast or when I find myself with more trail breakfasts than I have eggs and bagels, Cream of Wheat with either raisins or cranberries is actual an edible substitute. On really cold mornings, I must admit I'll grab one of these over the eggs….or in addition to them.

I like chia seeds soaked in water for 20 minutes, add honey, apple/banana, granola. No cooking, healthy, and I find it tasty. Its especially good if you can soak the seeds in coconut water, but carrying in coconut water isn't very practical. Yeah chia seeds probably sound wierd, but 1/4 cup dry is ~120 calories with 6grams protein.

Chia is very good for you! :-) The fat in them is amazing stuff and high in Omegas as well……..and fiber!

On the trail I am a big fan of the Pack-It Gourmet Smoothies. Just add water, shake and drink. They have a nice Fat-Protein-Carb (13g-35g-42g) profile that really gives you sustained energy.

Is there a risk that dropped seeds might sprout and eventually cover the hills and dales with chia? I'm not a chia farmer so I have no idea what climate zones they can get a toehold in.

Down here in SoCal, chia growing wild from dropped seeds would be a non-issue – it's pretty much everywhere it could grow already! You could probably just take it from the trailside on some hikes, if you timed it right for harvesting, and then were willing to deal with winnowing, etc.

Chia is a native plant through much of the southwest and was a staple for many native groups.

http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/creamsicle-protein-smoothie

Randy, that is my version of their smoothies.

I bring Chia Goodness which has some additional nuts/seeds in it. I get it at my local Whole Foods. The taste is pretty good but on one trip I added my desert (Mountainhouse Raspberry Crumble) to the mix and it was delicious. I now prepackage the concoction before a trip using one Mountainhouse package for four breakfasts.

What do you look like after ingesting Chia seeds for days and drinking losts of water while getting lots of sunshine? :)