What do you all eat for Breakfast? I know theres the usual granola, oat meal and such, but what else? I am curious to see some other alternatives. If you could, post the nutrition info, the important stuff that is.

Just trying to gather ideas for breakfast.
Thanks,
Ryan

I usually eat homemade granola from a recipe I copped out of Recipes For A Small Planet, so many years ago I am embarrassed to recall.

However, in accordance with the fine old tradition of eating cold pizza for breakfast, you can eat whatever you darn well please for breakfast - any old thing that sounds good to you. No one else needs to know what that might be: instant grits and maple syrup or thai curried soup, it makes no never mind to me.

I usually go with instant oatmeal or Cream of Wheat, with an occasional pancake breakfast. When I want to impress a woman, though, I'll make my "fruit-dumpling surprise," a recipe I adapted from a book called "The Hungry Hikers Book of Good Cooking" by Gretchen McHugh. It consists of rehydrated dried fruit in a brown sugar sauce with dumplings boiled on the surface.

It's fuel-intensive, but God is it good, and filling too. The dumplings soak up the sauce and fruit flavors on the outside, but are nice and fluffy on the inside. When I have the time I'll post it on the recipe thread.

For me, a hot breakfast is not always desirable. I rarely eat one at home, and I'm not much for eating a different menu on the trail. And finally, after on-and-off backpacking for decades, I've come to the conclusion that I don't really want to hit the trail with a 'filling' breakfast weighing in my gut.

So when I don't feel the need for a hot breakfast, I'll have a couple Logan bread bars and a cup or two of a mix of Carnation Instant breakfast, Nido, and instant coffee/expresso. All of which gives me lots of vitamins, minerals, fat and fiber and lots of calories without a heavy feeling.

FB

If I am fishing I like to go out early and catch a fish - fried fish with cheesy potatoes.

My approach is similar to Fiddleback's --- no hot breakfast, I drink a protein shake and a trail bar, and add general lunch/snack fixings as desired.

All great input. I also find i dont like a super filling breakfast. I am still looking for a breakfast that will be around 1000 calories and still not be super filling...i am still looking. So far a small bowl of any old oat meal with fruit and warmed bread with peanut butter is almost there. I would also put TVP in the oat meal for protein.

Fried fish would be a great breakfast!

I am also looking into trail baking for breakfast, like muffins and such. Though i am having trouble doing this with an alcohol stove. Cant get the stove to simmer, i am using a two piece cat stove.

I am the same as daisy; if I am going on a four day trip and I intend to fish where I am going then I will probably eat fish three or four times (once or twice a day) while I am up there. Not only is fish great for you, but it also saves on the amount of food you need to carry.

If that is the case then my wife and I, occasionally , as a little treat may carry in a few potatoes (baked the night before) and cook up some hash browns.

Most of the time it is just granola, oatmeal or pancakes. You can also look into the freeze dried eggs and bacon combination which isn't bad.

Usually one of
Pop Tarts
Granola and Nido milk
Instant Oatmeal
Egg and Typhus (half a mountain house eggs with half an idahoan mashed potatoes)

Most of the time I like a hot breakfast, sometimes not. I mix and match to what I feel like, and whether or not I'm
trying to get up and start hiking quickly or sit around for a little bit and chill in the morning.

It also depends how cold it is

My favorite is mashed taters, sausage and egg. Instant taters, dehydrated sausage, egg mix.

Other favorites are really cheesy instant grits, lentil soup, miso soup, protein drink mix, or anything I feel like eating - sometimes I eat breakfast for dinner and dinner for breakfast. Just depends. A fresh trout makes good breakfast food also.

Instead of putting TVP in your oatmeal, try topping with nuts. Walnuts over oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar, Pecans with oatmeal and maple syrup, Almonds and dates , the possibilities are endless and yummy!

Who puts TVP in oatmeal????

I don't like oatmeal or TVP. Ew.

Without exception, instant oatmeal and coffee/hot chocolate. It's my favorite meal. I just don't feel the same on the trail without a hot breakfast.

Yeah, but nothing gets you haulin' as fast and with as big a crash at the end as pop tarts and a litre of double strength coffee I don't do it very often because I can feel the effects (and I need to have some more healthy snacks to balance out the rush or I crash fast.. nothing like pure sugar!)

But for those days where I'm getting up early and doing 1000 meters of vertical in the morning, nothing else gets my fat tushy walking uphill as fast

Ha ha! I have now replaced the TVP with pecans, walnuts and brown sugar. My first meal after breakfast is something sugary to get an energy boost.

I also eat a mix of oatmeal and granola for breakfast, with powdered milk.

Still cant push my self to buy those dehydrated breakfasts, like the eggs.
Trail baking still eludes me!

I've had periods where I practically lived on oatmeal. It makes me feel ill to think about it now. I usually have grits/polenta, potatoes with some rehydrated or dry meat of some kind, or instant egg mix - or fresh eggs, which actually keep for a few days on the trail if you can figure out how to package them in shell. Sometimes I just eat a trail bar of some kind. But I always have coffee.

It depends on how long I'm out on the trail. But I like to bring hard boil eggs for a few days of trail. A hunk of cheese with it is good, too. Carnation Instant breakfast (chocolate) with a Lara bar. Sometimes I bring bagels and smear it with p'butter or Nutella. If it's cold enough I bring cream cheese. I'm not a big breakfast eater.

Ate cream of wheat for breakfast this morning and I cant say I like it all that much...
But in a few days I am going to hike the Tahoe Rim, so Ill "test" all these breakfast ideas while I am out there. Ill have to try mashed potatoes for breakfast.

just wanted to quickly comment about mashed potatoes. We found that adding extra water to freeze-dried dinners and adding instant mashed potatoes expanded it to make quite the filling dinner....better suited for the 2 persons it was advertised for.

I think this will be nicer or not-as-nice depending on the freeze-dried dinner flavor.

I could also see this becoming a sort of stone soup situation: "I like it if I add some noodles, oh plus some meat, and I like to add in some flavoring and vegetables ..."

Seriously, I think it's a great idea to extend a pre-packaged meal in this way.

the boys used it to thicken the mix in order to smear it on a tortilla too. Spaghetti burrito is a favorite now!

When I did freeze-dried meals I use to extend them with Ramen noodles. But I think I like the mashed potato idea better...especially given the great flavors of the Idahoan instant mash...

Instant mash for breakfast is interesting too...

FB

The real key for me for mash for breakfast is I like to add in the pre-cooked and dehydrated mountain house egg and bacon things. (NOT regular powdered eggs.. yuck!)

If I don't have those I throw in a whack of real bacon bits - but I go out of my way to get the mountain house egg and bacon or egg with ham and peppers to put in it.

Half an idahoan packet, and half of a Mountain House Eggs with a cup and a half of boiling water added is perfect. I split them at half at home and put 'em in ziploc freezer bags for the trail.

(called "egg and typhus" on the trail with me due to a swedish friend who couldn't read "egg and taters" I wrote on the bag..)

How about adding a foil package of spam to instant ashed potatoes?

It could work well, although for me, I'd probably have to ask for something with a little less spam in it. But that's just my taste

thanks phat, i haven't seen that one in a long time

spammity spam

Fresh eggs, a couple of ounces of hard cheese (usually swiss), and about 1/3 of a bagel. For variety, or after the eggs have run out on a longer trip, Farina with raisins, cinamon and sugar, and nuts, also possibly with a bit of cheese and bagel on the side. Occasionally I also bring along some precooked bacon, which also cooks up easily, with a lot less grease than fresh, uncooked bacon.

I've found that those plastice egg carriers work well to prevent any breakage, and I've also used a cardboard egg carton wrapped in a bit of bubble wrap and that worked fine for carrying the eggs. The cheese and bagel both seem to last at least for the 7-8 day canoe trips I sometimes do and the eggs are fine and could probably go longer.

I tried some of the freeze dried egg meals and found that they all seemed to have some sort of unegglike flavor or taste that I didn't care for. Maybe I'll give Phat's potato and egg mix idea a try. Perhaps the potatoes will drown out the other taste. Most fellow campers go with pop tarts or instant oatmeal, but for some reason, just could never develop a taste for either.

Gerry Magnes
Schenectady, NY

finely chopped jerky was and excellent addition to my dinner mash....

Finally joining in on this discussion of the morning repast: I detest hot cereal, bacon and eggs (ugh!). My breakfast is therefore cold cereal. Formerly it was always muesli (Bob's Red Mill), freeze-dried berries or bananas, and dried skim milk (the equivalent of a cup reconstituted). Possibly I'm part horse, because I love the taste of raw rolled oats even though I truly hate cooked oatmeal (like eating glue!). This year I've discovered that I really like Grape-Nuts as a backpacking breakfast cereal (also with freeze-dried berries and dried skim milk). (I prefer skim milk to whole milk.) Also this year, I've added a couple of tablespoons of slivered almonds to my cereal. So this year I'll be alternating Grape-Nuts and muesli, each with fruit, milk and almonds. Each breakfast is in a separate sandwich bag; I add water to reconstitute the milk and eat it out of the bag. Of course during wild huckleberry season in the NW, I omit the freeze-dried berries!

Because I eat a cold breakfast, I've dispensed with a hot beverage in the mornings and just drink lots of water. Since my preferred beverage at home is cafe au lait (half coffee, half milk) and, to me, making this with dried milk tastes awful, that is not an option when camping. I could have a cup of tea, but I have found that I don't miss the hot morning beverage enough to make it worth the fuss to fire up my stove. I throw a couple of tea bags into my Ursack just in case there's a really heinous morning, but I've never yet had to use them.

I spent part of yesterday putting together enough breakfasts for my 10-day Wind Rivers trip (starting a week from Monday), a 7-day trip in E. Oregon's Wallowas in early September, the 4-day (for me) TLB trip in the Columbia River Gorge coming up in mid-September and a 7-day trip to Washington's Pasayten Wilderness at the end of September. I can't wait to get out there and eat them!

I can eat a hot or cold breakfast. I enjoy granola with any dried fruit, or oat meal with any fruit. To both I add powdered milk. I have found it hard to get a 1000 cal breakfast from one item so i eat multiple items. Like a bowl of granola, fruit and milk with peanut butter on crackers or tortilla. This gets close to the 1000 cal but I also eat a snack an hour or two later of around 400 cal.

I enjoy tea in the morning, black or green.

Ill have to try eggs. I already eat mashed potatoes with sausage TVP.

do you dehydrate your sausage tvp? I actually eat yves brand veggie tvp sausage patties all the time for breakfast (at home not on the trail - favorite Weight Watchers kind of thing)

phat, you can also buy TVP sausage commercially

You can buy TVP really cheap online.

I still cant push myself to spend $5 on those dehydrated eggs...
plus a cup of granola with some fruit maybe powdered milk and i'm good to go in the morning.

Using a friends Pocket Rocket I baked a bread type thing that was great! I put flour, baking powder, honey and sugar in a bag and added water. I wish I could figure out how to simmer on my cat stove...

I try to avoid anything with milk in it, as I'm somewhat lactose intolerant. It will curdle in my stomach and make me feel ill for hours while exerting myself. I like oatmeal, especially with chopped dates added in. My frequent trail companions are not breakfast eaters so all I usually have time to make is a cup of tea or coffee while I munch some sort of fruit (chopped dates, dried blueberries, banana chips, etc) and/or granola bars.

If you haven't had it try coconut cream powder in breakfasts instead of dairy milk. High in fat and quite tasty!

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately I'm not a big fan of coconut either. I don't really miss milk, there are so many pleasant ways to breakfast that don't involve it. Heck, something like 90% of folks who aren't of European descent are in the same boat I am.

Ill have to look for it next time I go to get food.

Tahoe Rim Hike tomorrow! Gonna try a different breakfast every morning.

Try a sandwich made of either a bagel or english muffin with a pre-cooked hard-boiled egg sliced (they keep for many days), a slice of american cheese (also indestructible) and a slice of onion. Easy to make, no cooking on the trail, and tasty. Sort of a trail egg-McMuffin--

We usually have cold granola with powdered milk (Trader Joe's ginger granola is my favorite). I'd gotten some powdered eggs at one point but can't bring myself to use them after the way they taste at home. I once made a home-dehydrated chile relleno casserole that would probably be good for breakfast on the trail, being largely egg. But laziness wins out, and it's easier to pack (and clean up after) a cold breakfast.



Thanks, phat, I was about to ask you about that one - had me scratching my head!

Sarbar,
Does the coconut cream powder taste better than Nido?

IMO? Yes, it does. It isn't overly sweet nor very coconuty but is smooth and creamy.

I just got back from a Tahoe Rim Trail hike. It was going to be a thru hike but my friend hurt his ankle so we had to bail. Anyway we ate a "cold" breakfast every day. Granola and dried fruit, but we drank a cup of hot mint tea everyday. It was great finding wild mint everyday to make tea, we also had oine needle tea too.

Its not really a cold breakfast but, cut way down on fuel. I find i like the hot drink better then i hot breakfast.

Sour patch kids are a good boost! Also tried some instant coffee, good stuff.

My new favorite breakfast is instant brown rice with cinnamon, brown sugar, dried fruits (cherries if I have them), almond slivers and, if I have some to spare, a bit of olive oil which I pack separately. I think the olive oil helps with digestion.

Made a small bread roll yesterday. I steam baked and also dry baked using rocks, though the dry baking didn't bake the bread all the way.

To dry bake bread all the way thru make a hole in the middle.

FBC Oatmeal (1c thick cut oats, 2.5 eggs (honeyville), 2/3oz. dehydro apples, 1.5T wheat bran, cinnamon) and 8 oz milk with a pouch of chocolate Carnation instant breakfast.

The time it takes to "cook" (AKA be cool enough to eat) is, conveniently, the same amount of time it takes to drop the kids off at the pool, roll up the air mattress, stuff the sleeping bag, and take down the tent.

It keeps me going strong and happy until it is lunchtime.

I'm not real interested in normal breakfast on the trail. I'm usually more in need of lots of liquids. I will have a liter of tea with sugar for breakfast. I'll munch some trail snacks as I get going, things like chocolate, gorp, dried fruit, etc.

I never use Quaker Oatmeal anymore B/C it's such a small serving. I like Trader Joe's instant oatmeal with a big addition of granola GORP and either powderd NIDA milk & brown sugar or powdered hot chocolate.

#2 BREAKFAST> (time permitting) is freeze tried omlettes of various kinds W/ added bits of microwaved turkey bacon or just the microwaved turkey bacon slices on the side. In thMmmmmm!

WARNING: Do NOT take the turkey bacon into bear country!

#3 BREAKFAST> Instant Cream of Wheat plus wheat germ.

#4 BREAKFAST> Pablum & powdered milk (Don't knock it 'til you tried it.:-)

Lately I have been enjoying a carnation instant breakfast with a scoop of whey protien and a spoon of instant coffee. I will also have a handful of trail mix or peanut butter pretzels. I haven't been too interested in hot b-fast this summer.

Once it cools down I'll do a hot 5 grain cereal with coconut cream powder, ginger, nuts and brown sugar or cheese grits and mountain house eggs n bacon, with the protien drink heated instead of cold.

I have been eating Granola with dried fruit/ or pop-tarts and jerky. Always instant coffee with powdered milk. I like to eat candy for breakfast with something healthy like dried fruit also.

Oatmeal and Cream of wheat or on the "x" list because i eat that every morning during ski season.
MH eggs and bacon is awesome!! Finally mooched some off a friend.

Bushman,

Good suggestions. What was the brand of that instant coffee you tried?

cafe d'via or something like that, i find i need to add more powder to make it taste good. The milk helps it seem less "watery".

From my post above, "...a mix of Carnation Instant breakfast, Nido, and instant coffee/expresso." The 'coffee' I use is Medaglia D'Oro Caffè Espresso Instant and I premix all three ingredients at home and carry one or two cup servings in baggies on the trail.

During the mixing I sift the stuff with a flour sifter...it reduces the lumping when stirring up the brew on the trail.

FB

When I don't want to take time or dirty a pot, I use Bear Valley Pemican Bars or Meal Packs. In a single bar, they have about 450 calories, using dried fruit, nuts and flower. No unpronounceables. (REI sells them on their web page, but I've had problems with running out at the stores. They are about $1.50 unless you buy them 12+ at a time when the price drops down to just over $1. REI will ship to your nearest store for pick-up and not charge shipping.) I add gorp, energy bars etc. for another 300 calories.

A good cereal meal is 1.5 c Quaker Oatmeal & raisins for 450 calories , with 2 pkgs Carnation Instant Breakfasts instead of milk for 125 calories. I add .25 cups or 5.8 oz raisins for another 125 calories. 700 calories will keep me going until lunch. I follow the European style and don't cook the oatmeal, so there is no messy pot to clean up.

BTW I've been told walnuts have the one of the highest ratios of calories per ounce for backpack foods, about 200 calories per .25 cup or 4.4 oz.

My trail mix/snacks have been heavy on nuts for awhile. Now my lunches lean that way too. The bars I use for breakfast are heavy on dried fruit and nuts as well. Nuts are very healthy, walnuts in particular, and I think the salt from the mixed nuts I use in my gorp is a help on the trail.

But the calorie story is much better than what your were told. Nuts are very calorie dense...approaching that of butter. Walnuts run 185-190c per ounce...more than four times what your told.

FB

I am learning to eat anything for breakfast. Long as its remotely healthy. I thry and eat some where around 1000 calories for breakfast. An easy way is to add pop tarts to any breakfast meal! I heat them on top of the lid when heating water Hot coffee and pop tarts, which fruit and granola never gets old.

Haven't done a hot breakfast (unless tea counts!) for a long time, but last summer on the JMT, I did start soaking one of my 2 food bars in the tea & then ate it with a spoon out of the bottom of the cup. These are homemade food bars, strongly gingered, with loads of nuts, seeds & grains, carrots, apples & dates. You can find the recipe & a link to the nutritional value at my non-commercial backpacking food blog Red Elephant Eats