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The question for backpacking food, like most meals, is how much trouble do you want to go through to prepare the meal? If ease of preparation and minimizing the amount of time to fix the meal is important, the answer is a lot different than if taste is the overriding factor.

For backpacking, the biggest factors are generally weight, space, and durability of the foods. That is why dehydrated meals, trail mix, jerky, and instant foods make up a lot of what people consider backpacking foods. Certainly nothing wrong with any of these. Yet, if that is all you ever eat backpacking, you are shortchanging yourself.

I, like most of my friends, have working taste buds. Variety excites me and makes it easier to consume the calories necessary for long term trips to the back-country. For that reason, I usually front-load my trips with better food and let the tail end get to be heavy on the more predictable meals.

Admittedly, one look at what is in my backpack will scare off most ultra-light packers. Nobody has ever been able to accuse me of packing light. For my last 2-week trip, even with just 5 days of food - due to being resupplied on the trail - my pack was over 60 pounds. So, carrying some extra weight is something I gladly do.

Rather than tell you about specific meals that I prepare, I want to use this article to discuss ingredients and give you some options that will hopefully widen your available dishes on the trail.

Meats
This is an area to get a lot of variety and some much needed protein in your diet. Traditional backpacking items of canned tuna and beef jerky are certainly durable and will last for as long as you plan on being out. I use these and their siblings regularly. Sardines, canned ham, even Spam all have distinct flavors and can be combined with other ingredients for better than average back-country fare.

For even more variety, I will often start out with a frozen steak, ground beef or salmon - well wrapped - in my backpack. By the end of the first day, it will have mostly thawed and can be turned into a delicious meal.

Where possible, throwing in some fishing gear is another way to help ensure variety in meals. On day 7, the smell of fresh trout frying with pepper is a heaven sent scent. It is even pretty good on days 2 and 3.

Fruits
This is another early item for trips. Apples, pears, oranges, grapes, and kiwis all survive fairly well when packed properly. I don't count on any keeping well past about day 3, but until then they liven up mealtimes significantly.

Vegetables
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