meal ideas with a vegetarian in mind…

First of all, you have to figure out whether she is vegetarian or vegan. That makes a big difference. Also, I recommend that you don't try to change her diet habits, and then she won't try to change yours. Try to work the meal plans together. That way neither of you can complain afterwards.

I've backpacked a lot with one fellow who is vegetarian. We will generally do some sort of pasta meal, and then if I want extra protein, I nibble on some turkey snacks, sausage snacks, or extra cheese. I don't eat a great deal of meat, myself, so it worked out. Hummus is a good bean protein dip. There are some good milk-based drinks that are nutritious, so you can get your dose of animal protein.

Avoid the free-range tofu if you can.

–B.G.–

We're veggie. Here's what we do:

Mac 'n cheese
Barilla tortellini (this is awesome–cooks fast, high calorie density)
Couscous
Knorr's sides (about half of them are veggie)
Idahoan potatoes
Dried refried beans
Instant rice

If you want to get fancy, you can premake pasta with tomato sauce and dehydrate it. Or you can mix instant rice and dried refried beans with some taco seasoning. Or mix couscous with the dried refried beans. There are zillions of options.

Many of the Mary Jane's meals are veggie, some vegan, generally organic, and all expensive.

But they're tasty. It's what I used to get before I started making my own and dehydrating.

Also, Packit Gourmet has veggie meals. The few Packit Gourmet meals I've tried, I've liked a lot. They're heavier than many, but better tasting, IMO.

"I am in the planning stages for a 11 day backpacking trip in the high sierra this summer and am going to be bring my girlfriend who I have never backpacked with yet."

Brave or foolish.

Total thread drift. Are you going to try her out on a weekend hike first?

I like vegetarian served with fava beans and a nice Chianti :)

I'm a real meat eater and I don't eat much meat while hiking. There are lots of dehydrated dinners without meat, and +1 on the more organic ones. The stuff off the shelf at REI is loaded with salt, etc.

On my regular list: instant mashed potatoes, ramen, quinoa, couscous, tabouli, rice, beans, pasta, cheese (if that's allowed), nuts, dried fruit, oatmeal, peanut butter, jam, pilot bread, coconut, honey, candy, granola bars, energy bars, cookies…

Search the threads for steam baking for breads and other baked delights on the trail.

That all made me hungry– snack time!

Have your girlfriend try meals at home before you go. Some people like simple, some need a three course meal. I like extremely simple. If Purina made vegetarian People Chow, I’d buy 50 pound bags.

Good veggie backpacking recipe sources:

– One Pan Wonders vegetarian meals.

– TrailCooking.com, need to search for veggie meals since they don’t have them conveniently classified.

– Simple Foods for the Pack has been my go-to backpacking recipe book since the 1970s. Mostly veggie meals. I’ve been making Alpine Spaghetti for 35 years.

– (Added) I have a bunch of recipes to try from Lipsmackin’ Vegetarian Backpackin’. Maybe this year!

Others mentioned Packit Gourmet and Mary Jane’s. Haven’t tried them, but every time I try pre-packaged dinners, I go back to MYOD.

You might find a some interesting meals cruising the aisles of Trader Joes and Whole Foods.

Stay away from anything freeze-dried. The very few veggie options are borderline inedible. Coming from me, that’s saying a lot.

— Rex

Rex, yeah….the tagging thing is something I am working on over on Trailcooking. It was one of the few (thankfully) issues when we did the upgrade this last year.
Our blog though does have working tags – which can help :-)
http://blog.trailcooking.com/tag/vegetarian/
and
http://blog.trailcooking.com/tag/vegan/

Otherwise, I am now off to do a round-up of veg-friendly recipes for the website ;-) Hehheh!!

I've written a book on this and would be happy to post some recipes. Please let me know if she is vegan or ovo-lacto and I will do my best to help.

Thanks for all the awesome ideas and input…

First, she is vegitarian, not vegan. SO dairy is A-OK.

Second, she has done a bit of backpacking herself, this will just be the first big trip we have done together.

For myself…my meals go something like this…

Breakfast, I have oatmeal with some dried berries, a granola bar and coffee

Lunch I have hummus with some type of hard cheese and tortillas and will sometimes mix in some salami, or a tuna packet. I also have some type of trail mix, some hard candies and maybe some jerky and dried fruit

Dinner is usually quinoa, cous-cous, instant rice, pasta, insant mac and cheese or polenta and ill sometimes mix in dehydrated refried beans or instant mashpotatoes, and have it with a few tortillas. Ill also mix in a packet of tuna or chicken or some fresh fish I caught that day. Ive made all my own seasonings from organic spices. SO I have a taco seasoning, cajun seasoning, curry, asian and itallian. I bring a little baggie of each and toss in a few teaspoons of one for each dinner.

I always finish the night with some hot cocco and peanut m&ms (and maybe a little whiskey)

So it seems like most of what I eat can pretty easily be made sutable for vegitarians (just leaving out the tuna and chicken packets).

But if you have any other ideas im not thinking of, Id love to hear em!!

One of our absolute favorite meals to dehydrate (and it rehydrates fairly expediently) is the Quinoa and Spinach Soup I’ve posted here…

Quinoa – A Superfood for the Trail

Bryan (meatarian hubby) even loves it.