Costco – trail food options

Hi all,

I was at Costco today and saw a few items that looked like a possible option for trail food. Of course they have all sorts of bars that are convenient for snacking while walking or taking a short break:

Organc perfect bar – no soy, gluten or refined sugaR:
4 Peanut butter 330 cal 71g
4 Cranberry crunch 220 cal 45g
4 almond butter 310 cal 65g

Then there are the dehydrated Golden Grill Hasbrown potatoes – 8 pack for for $7 with a single pack good for 7 servings at 90 cal each in 16g of dry potatoes

Creamy mash potatoes – 14 packs with 8 servings each. 23g is about 150 cal (not much, but it is filling). This one is recommended with butter and/or milk, but I bet can be made with just water. $10

StarKist LunchTo-Go tuna 6 pack that consists of a packet of albacore tuna in water 2.6oz (not ideal as oil would be more calorie packed), packet of mayo, cracker, relish packet, spoon, napkin and a mint!. $9 and individually packed. Take out fork and napkin and a meal ready for hiking trip.

Kirkland Signature bacon crumble 20oz $12. 1Tbso-7g fir 30 calories. Not much, but greatly adds to the enjoyment of many dishes (like the has browns above for example).

These sound like reasonable items for some variety as doing Mountain House gets old too. I would normally take some comfort food like buckwheat or or vermicelli, but they can be heavy.

Anyone seen another other interesting items there?

Since I rarely get out for more than three days at a time this is my go-to beef jerky preference:

Those all seem like things you can find in a regular grocery store, though probably not as cheaply.  I’ve actually purchased a couple of cartons of those hash browns.  I’m going to try them out at home to see if they taste good enough to suggest to the scout troop.  I think they could use more variety in their starches.  But I’d never take them on a regular back packing trip because the cooking process is too involved for me.

+1 on the Costco jerky. Also check out their mixed nuts and KIND bars (less sugar added than most other brands of bars):

MJ – yes, all of these can be found elsewhere. I just dislike going shopping so much, that if I can pick them up at Costco where i shop once a month anyway, then it would save me a trip or two to a regular grocery store.

I’ll have to try jerky and KIND bars. Although i think having some extra sugar may not be a bad idea.

I haven’t actually tried it yet, but there’s at least one recipe on TrailCooking that uses the instant hash browns in an FBC just-add-boiling-water method, rather than following the package instructions:

http://www.trailcooking.com/fbc/chicken-ranch-tater/