Your favorite low/no water requirement foods

hummus and tortillas

Cheese, salami, and crackers

Gold fish crackers, jerky,  chocolate chip cookies.

Fun size Snickers, Landjaeger sausage, pouch tuna, hearty oatmeal cookies, just not mixed together.

A small slab of summer sausage, a smoked mozzarella cheese stick and a slice of beef jerky, eaten together. I call this my “rocket fuel” as it give me a ton of energy for about 30 – 45 minutes, for climbing big hills. It’s also calorie dense, high in protein and is very filling for dinner.

You still need to ingest the same amount of water per day regardless if it is within your food or not.

In fact it may take more water to digest dry food than otherwise.

I could be wrong…

Franco-

I understand this, I’m just looking for foods that do not require a LOT (read: more than 6oz) of water to prep.  As you stated, I’ll need to be drinking the water.

KJ

Early in a trip, I bring foods that aren’t much different than what I might eat at home.  Because (1) I don’t carry the first day’s food very far (better to have super-light and no-fuel foods at the end of a trip because that stuff gets carried the furtherest) and (2) I like to transition over a few meals from around-town food to trail food – I get fewer lower-GI issues if my diet doesn’t change abruptly (YMMV and possibly TMI).

So I like tortilla wraps.  No crumbs.  Can’t break.  Tortilla, cream cheese, hard cheese, cold cuts and/or bacon, maybe some spinach in the first one and kale in the others.  Easy to eat on the trail.  However slowly you hike while eating, you’re making more miles than you would in camp.  That might be the first meal in warm weather.  It could be the first two lunches and a trail dinner in cool weather.

My no-water, no-cook breakfast is oatmeal cookies.  Oatmeal, raisins, sugar, butter, maybe chocolate chips – all stuff that you might cook into a breakfast in camp, but I warm up faster while hiking than while standing around a stove at dawn waiting for water to boil so I can make oatmeal.  Cook your own.  Buy store-bought.  Whatever.  I like these:

1. Beef jerky
2. Turkey jerky
3. Chicken jerky

Breakfast: Bear Valley bars, easy to eat while breaking camp or hiking.

Snacks/Lunch: Larabars, tortillas or pita bread, crunchy baked cheese

Dinner: All my dinners require at least 8 ounces of water. I make sure most of them don’t involve pouring off the water (e.g. boiling spaghetti), so the water becomes part of the meal. Drink it or eat it, works the same in your belly.

— Rex

“I understand this, I’m just looking for foods that do not require a LOT (read: more than 6oz) of water to prep. As you stated, I’ll need to be drinking the water.”

My meals are the add boiling water to it types, so I don’t waste that water I consume it with the meal.

Now in my way of thinking , if I use a cup of water to hydrate my food that is pretty much the same as drinking a cup of water and eating dry food.(for both weigh and hydration)

The problem with some dry food is that it contains a lot of salts and or spices/preservatives that may need more water to ingest and digest.

Jerky and salami would be a good example of thirst inducing foods (for me) however I do take some with me (lunchtime)

My current food is:

Breakfast- cold oatmeal, snickers

Morning/Afternoon snacks- bar

Lunch- bars

Dinner- cold oatmeal, refried beans/rice, meat packet (tuna/spam) ; )

Tasty Bite indian meals – bring a bit of instant mashed potatoes so you can thicken them up, then spoon them into tortillas and eat them like wraps.  My favorite no-added-water, no-cook dinner (you could heat them up but I usually don’t bother).  My favorite one is paneer makhani.

Nick that sounds like a brilliant idea!

And good point all on eating the water being the same as drinking it.  For some reason tho that doesn’t seem to work as well for me.  I tend to drink what I drink, regardless of what I’m eating.  And if I have to carry all my water….then I like to keep that amount to as little as I can get away with safely and comfortably

I love a tortilla with Tuna. I also like Summer Sausage and Cheese.

Slightly flippant idea:

Take any regular, cooked backpacking meal that you like. Reduce proportions until you reach the magic 6 ounces of water specification. Cook and eat that meal. Might not be enough to satisfy you.

Supplement with nuts, hard cheese, energy bars, tortillas, cookies, chocolate, etc. (see suggestions above), until you are no longer hungry.

Piece of cake. (You could take that, too)

— Rex

This is a great thread, I ask myself this question all the time, especially when I’m taking a tiny pack where I only have room for a tiny cook kit.

My favorite low(er)-water hot meals are usually carb-free. It seems like noodles require a lot of water to rehydrate. Veggies and meats, not as much.

Freeze-dried chicken and broccoli:

Fats provide more calories/gm than either protein or carbs.  Tasty, nutrient dense snacks/meals are Bulletproof collagen bars and chocolate fuel bars.  Also, Bulletproof’s refined coconut oils make any meal taste better.  Butter does the same.

And I’ll remind you all that Heather’s Choice dehydrated meals w/ sockeye salmon, elk, bison, venison and quail are very, very tasty.  Her current Kickstarter campaign is for purchase of 75k food prep mylar-lined bags that are 6″ high and 6″ diameter — like a bowl.  Blows Mountain House away.  No contest.

While not the lightest, consider shelf stable packed foods that are already cooked, such as Tasty Bites and similar. You can find rice in similar packs. If you don’t mind cold, you don’t even need to heat these.

But as well, shelf stable tuna, chicken, salmon, etc, combined with condiment packs to make wraps. No cook, no water.

It’s a price that is OK to pay – a little extra weight, but no cooking, no cleanup.

The Barilla “no boil” pasta might be good for this list.

http://www.barilla.com/pronto?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Pasta+Shapes+-+Pronto+-+Generic+-+Non-Brand+-+Exact&utm_term=noboilpasta&gclid=CjwKEAiAy7SzBRD_lv7quOnr6XUSJAAOLkW6V8Fb1zByQC6kEVASzfk24bX3F1fxXkDOL4KavyXQ0hoCPnrw_wcB

I really love this stuff:

http://enjoylifefoods.com/our-food/seed-fruit-mixes/seed-fruit-mixes-beach-bash/

Was introduced to it earlier this year, and I snack on it regularly. I’ve eaten pounds of the stuff and I’ve yet to get tired of it.

Just an FYI, I’ve discovered some pretty darn healthy and VERY tasty snacks at my local Indian grocery store.  Every ingredient is pronounceable, and include things like lentils, potato, corn, chickpeas, watermelon seeds, peanuts…depending on the mix.  All contain a good balance of fats, 2-4g of fiber per serving, on average 4g protein per serving and around 350mg of sodium.  Serving size being 1oz, the bag is 6oz….and the cost?!?!!!  $0.99!  I’m going through a bunch of them and finding some great trail snacks.  Most of them average 145-155 calories per serving (1oz).

More info to come!

KJ

My favorite, no water items:
Bacon Jerky

Big Sur Bars

Bobo Bars

Luna Bars

Chocolate

Chocolate, Ritter with Corn Flakes

String Cheese

Apricots, Dried

Ginger, Crystallized.

Mango, dried

Nuts, Mixed

Granola Bars, Nature Valley

Fig Newtons

Sesame Snaps

Olli Salimini, Mini Salami

Peanut Butter Sandwiches

KJ can you tell us a bit more about the snack food you discovered?  Brand name, product name, or ??

thanks, Matt

Matt-

Here you go: