This one probably applies only to people who can get by without a morning cup of coffee: camping food that requires no cooking. Folks at TLB Forums have a host of ideas for no-cook meals. A few examples:
Sometimes I’ll bake a loaf or two of yeasted/whole/sprouted/multigrain bread. This is really dense and packs a whallop! It contains complete protein and it almost a meal in itself. I’ll have this with a few slices of cheese; Cheddar or maybe gouda(something waxed will last longer). Maybe some peanut butter and honey. And a little bit of salad or raw greens that I bring along.
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If you do your own dehydrating you can put instant rice and dehydrated ground beef in a baggy/container with water and olive oil a few hours before dinner and use it as stuffing for cold burritoes. I’ve done this on a few day hikes and it is surprisingly tasty. Maybe add cheese or dehydrated salsa? You might even substitute cous cous for the rice.
Any alternative to an all-PowerBar diet is fine by me.
On certain short trips I go “stove-less” and eat only foods that do not need cooking. Before I tried it I thought that eating a cold dinner would be pretty disappointing, but in actual practice it really isn’t so bad at all. Mostly I extend my lunch food (cheeses, good crackers, turkey jerkey, dry fruit, dates, fig bars, etc), however there are meals that are more, uh, meal like that work, too. Hummus on pita bread is a favorite.
I once travelled with a backpacking partner who tried this on a 9 day trip. It wasn’t pretty, and he vowed to not try it again on a long trip. However, on a short trip the weight savings (and simplicity) can be worth it.
Dan