by AspiringHiker » Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:10 pm
It's actually not that expensive to get good food on hikes.
We normally use two sets - high calorie stuff to eat as snacks and low calorie staples to have at lunch and dinner.
Go to supermarket and check the calories on nuts and dried fruit. Nuts are usually the highest at 500-700 calories per 100g - probably the most energy dense food you can get. Bakery section often has nuts cheaper. Be careful not to overdose on nuts such as, for example, Brazil nuts .
With fruit, we normally avoid anything which is very sugary such as mango or dates, but that's personal taste. Bananas and apples work really well. They also provide fiber. Snack bars are good with morning coffee or tea, but expensive.
For the hot meals, we normally make portions at home using couscous, quick cook rice and quick cook pasta which we then cook for lunch or dinner. These are not main energy source because staples have low calorie density. Mix this with shop bought dried mushrooms, dried tomatoes, raisins, dry curry mix, etc and you have a variety of dishes which are cheap and actually taste good. Try cooking your mixes at home to get the seasoning just right. Also, if you plan to hike for over a week, you can take extra seasoning which is very light and is a pain to find in small villages, and restock on dry pasta, rice, etc. which are usually easy to source.
We normally list the days we are going to be hiking, the calorie content required each day and get the right amount of food to meet that. Pain the first time you do it, but it's worth it.