Backpacking food #2: Breakfast and Drinks

Well after the exciting Gorp installment, I know you are all sitting on your hands waiting to find out what excitement comes with breakfast!

Breakfast for us is almost always Granola.    We use dried milk and when you shake it up the night before and let it cool overnight, it's not bad.  This year I used a great Basic Granola formula that I found on the fabulous Chocolate & Zucchini blog.  This formula is super cool!  You can find the full recipe on the Chocolate & Zucchini link above, but below are the items I used.


My Granola Variation3 cups Rolled Grains ( I used oats, quinoa flakes, amaranth)
1 1/2 cups Nuts and Seeds, roughly chopped (I used pecans & sunflower seeds)
2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil (I used (olive oil &coconut oil)
6 tablespoons Liquid Sweetener ) I used honey, maple syrup, & agave nectar)
1 to 2 teaspoons ground spices (I used cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom & cloves)
5 tablespoons ground flaxseeds, soaked in 5 tablespoons water for 15 minutes
1 teaspoon salt flakes
1 tablespoon homemade vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut
1/4 cup) ground flax seed
After baking I made two mixes, one with freeze dried bananas and blueberries, shown below, and one with dried pumpkin.

Drinks:
I am usually good with water when backpacking, just plain filtered water.  We filter all of our water.  We carry coffee more now since the invention of VIA.  Starbucks should win awards for that instant coffee.  It's amazing!  And we always carry decaf tea, in case we need some heat in the evening as the sun goes down or if we got caught in a snow storm.

This time I've found two powders we'll try.  These are two options with no added sugars or fake sugars.  Dried coconut water has a good amount of vitamin C, potassium, sodium, and magnesium.  Ultima is a new electrolyte drink that may come in handy if we feel like we need some vitamins and electrolytes back in our system. I don't use Gatorade or other things because of the added sugars.  Some say we don't have to worry when backpacking, but it doesn't seem like an excuse to me to fill my body with things it doesn't like, just because I could handle the calories.

To close today, I'm sharing a simple flower that has been cheering me for days.  It was cut from our garden. 

The next installment will be dinners. The cool weather this morning has me ready to crawl out of my tent, enjoy my granola and coffee, pack up, and start hiking!