This is because you will have to carry all your food. Foraging for food, in the modern woods or mountains, is only supplemental food. For this reason, a considerable backpacking industry has arisen.

Backpackers often make their primary meal at mid-day or, making camp earlier, at the end of the day. The fire is set, hot water is ready, and the cook starts off with a mug up of a favorite drink.

I think anyone and everyone likes having a camp cook around. The camp kitchen is the center of the campout. Even if the other campers have brought their own food, the hot drink is a welcome first food, in camp. Then, sometimes people will look over their food, share some things, and make a communal meal. This may also be welcome, at the campsite.

If you would like to be the camp cook, I recommend the standard book The Well-Fed Backpacker, by June Fleming. This book is the most thorough book on the subject
I know.

Bring only what you can carry, unless you are car camping.

Nevertheless, people do manage to bring clever pots, the lid serves as a frying pan and the entire outfit can be made to serve for baking, or if small fires are allowed, do both simply with the FryBake.

I have carried the Backpacker's Pantry Ultralight Outback Oven. I made focaccia bread.

If I have only one pot, it is ultralightweight and if that pot has a tight-fitting lid, I make dumplings.

I have also made light and fluffy biscuits in a pan and even biscuits on a stick.

It should not be surprising we will crave bread products, in camp. Make more strongly flavored breads, however. More herbs, add cheese. My bannock is italian herb cheese biscuits or golden raisen and mace biscuits.

If you are too tired to cook, and that can happen at any time, have an instant meal or ready to eat food items for backup. However, if you arrive at the campsite, have a backpacker's stove you know how to operate, get that fire going, and have that hot warming drink, you may find the energy to prepare a meal.

If you are traveling in the mountains, at first you will experience loss of appetite. Drink water. Eat a little. Drink water. This is normal, and necessary. Next, your appetite will increase. There may be more food consumed than at any other time. Spicy food will be craved. This is normal, and expected. Food flavors will need to be stronger, otherwise, food will seem bland.

The effect of altitude, or dry food, well, you may want a few prunes. However, the equivalent of ¼ cup red or black raspberries or ½ cup pears, dried, freeze-dried or fresh, in a digestive interval of 2.5 to 5.5 days are the actual recommended human dietary fiber.

It is possible to prepare ahead trail foods for the lightweight or ultralight backpack, however the food products listed below are shelf stable, requiring no refrigeration, and so, can "live" inside the food bag for quite awhile ready-to-go in your backpack. If not inclined to plan ahead, this is an alternate way to plan ahead. Also, some prepared foods can "liven up" having the usual.

In my opinion, the food products I list are good tasting shelf stable dried or pre-cooked food products.

Most are designed for backpacking, in no-cook, or add water, burnable pouches. There are good tasting shelf stable dried and freeze-dried food products, in no cook, add water, lots of plastic and foil pouches to pack out. For some, rehydration can require as much as 25-30 minutes. There are also instant meals, requiring only 3-5 minutes. There are entrees in boilable foil pouches for purchase or make ahead at home. There are also food products that will "cook" in a ziplock bag: Freezer Bag Cooking has products and recipes.

There are, of course, complete entrees in just-add-water heating pouches that may also be used with the Mountain Oven Flameless Heating Kit.

"MRE-type meals" or HeaterMeals have also been brought to the consumer market, having new meals designed for consumer tastes. Most are high-sodium.

There are some meal product selections more tasty, than others. There are a few that are actually better tasting and better nutrition than most home-cooked meals.

These do not have to be expensive, if compared to eating out.

Do not forget all the instant packaged noodles, instant cheesecake, instant gourmet hot chocolate, and instant pudding mixes. Selective buying in the international section can produce more good-tasting instant meals, and mixes.

Many backpackers stop right there, adding dried and pre-cooked and freeze-dried ingredients sold at bulk prices, for flavor, for texture, for nutrition.

It will come as a surprise, for most, how important a role food texture has. Crunch is a texture often overlooked in planning for provisions, and is easily provisioned: specialty crackers and snacks pack well.

The unguinous or gelatinous texture will most often be missing: examples are certainly fatted meat or joints of meat, ribs, and perhaps, tapioca pudding or mung bean thread noodles.

There is great desire for baked goods, which may be related to texture. There are many ingenious backpacker solutions for baking: bannock, pan bread, or biscuits. Many backpackers will carry store-bought baked goods like tortillas, pita, croissants or bagels. I like chapatis or nan.

There is speculation bread is a craving, especially yeast breads, or fat in bread. The usual cravings for coffee, or tea, or sweets, should not be neglected. Quit coffee another time, not while backpacking. At least one ultralight backpacker carries chocolate covered coffee beans as "food".

The ultralight backpackers substitute granulated fructose for sugar, saving pounds in the pack, and build their own recipe collection based on the "calorie dense foods" at 120-150+ calories per ounce. This means cooking oils and fatty foods like cheese and crackers, and also nuts, nut butters, and nut additions to recipes have more cost-benefit as snacks and as additions or condiments to main dishes as "calorie dense foods".

Many lightweight and ultralight backpackers carry cream of rice, instant grits, instant potatos, instant oatmeal, instant barley, instant rice, couscous, ramen noodles or small macaroni, like ziti macaroni, as the basis of meals or as additions to soups or one-pot entrees.

Do bring cooking oil to add to the cooked entree. This is essential.

Many backpackers are cooking home meals and dehydrating the meal for rehydration and reheating on the trail. There are precautions, as well as technique involved. There are books describing the process.

Pack Lite Sampler, Wild Will's Wild Rice Dinner, Mom's Pasta Primavera, Meals with Wheels, Green Bean Cuisine, Bountiful Bean & Lentil Chili, Pea Pickin' Jambalaya.

Backpacker's Pantry:

salmon entrees: no-cook southwestern smoked salmon pasta, no-cook pesto salmon pasta, breakfast: canola/olive oil packets, huevos rancheros, salsa, bake: baked lasagna, BBQ chicken pizza, cinnamon coffee cake, chicken pot pie, pesto pizza, side dishes: no cook greean bean almondine, no cook sicilian mixed vegetables, no cook taos black beans, no cook southwestern corn, vegetarian entrees: japanese noodle bowl, no cook ginger teriyaki, no cook katmandu curry, no cook lasagna, no cook pasta vegetable parmesan, turkey entrees: no cook risotto with turkey, no cook shephard's pie with turkey, no cook tomato basil pasta with turkey, chicken entrees: no cook jamacian BBQ chicken, no cook hawaiian rice with chicken, no cook kung pao Chicken, no cook sante fe chicken & rice, chicken and dumplings, no cook chicken with rice, no cook cajun chicken & rice, beef entrees: no cook beef stroganoff w/wild forest mushrooms, no cook beef stroganoff, desserts: dark chocolate cheesecake, banana cream pie, charlotte's raspberry blast, cheesecake, hot apple cobbler, lemon cream pie, drink: whole milk, fruit: peach slices, fruit cocktail, fruit & nut mix, wasabi peas, meats & jerky.

Camp Food:

biscuits & gravy, coffee cake mix, buttermilk pancakes, rice pudding w/raisens.

Bakepacker:

sausage and cheese biscuit, egg salad, whitefish and crab salad, german potato salad with ham.

Nitro-Pak:

premium butter powder, deluxe scrambling & omelette egg mix, whole powdered eggs, vegetable powder shortening.

Just Tomatoes:

red raspberries, black raspberries, red bell peppers, corn, hot veggies, roasted garlic.

Packlite Foods:

pea-pickin' jambalaya, green bean cuisine, wild will's wild rice dinner.

LDP:

Gourmet Reserves chicken gumbo, BBQ Beef & Turkey w/beans, chicken, diced, turkey, diced, Alpine Aire tomato powder.

Taste Adventure:

Will-Pak Foods: soups: Black Bean, Navy Bean, Minestrone, Golden Pea, refried beans: Green Chile & Lime, quick cuisine: Black Beans and Rice "Santa Fe Fiesta", Lousiana Red Bean "Jambalaya", Risoto Style navy bean "Pasta Pesto".

Wilderness Dining:

drinks: instant tea latte, instant thai tea, 26% butterfat whole milk, dinners: soups: Cabin Cuisine broccoli and wild rice, gumbo, clam chowder, cream of broccoli, Mary Janes Kitchen creamy potato, african pea soup, curried lentil bisque, peasant tomato soup, meatless entrees: Backpacker's Pantry asian curried stir-fry, Campfood lasagna, Backpacker's Pantry lasagna - 4 servings, pesto pizza, Mary Jane's Farms organic wild forest mushroom couscous, organic sweet red bell pepper pasta, organic santa fe pasta, organic ginger sesame pasta, organic falafel, organic tabouli, meat entrees: Campfood chicken & dumplings, Natural High tequila chicken, chicken enchilada, honey mustard chicken, honey lime chicken, chicken and broccoli, mandarin orange chicken, Enertia slickrock beans.

Vegan Products:

Harvest Direct "chicken" strips, veggie ribs, "chicken" breast, Seitan quick mix, Primal strips, indian entrees, Fantastic Nature's Burger, Annie Chun's Udon Noodle Bowl, FF simmer soups, FF fast naturals 3-bean chili, veggie booty snack bag, butter & cheese sustitutes, ener-g egg replacer, organic gourmet pates, vegan gravy mixes, tropical food bars, pear all natural fruit bars.

Pilipino Mart:

sauces: tamarind seasoning, tamarind "sinagang" soup base, soup: miso soup base, cream of asparagus, juice: ginger w/calamansi, calamansi, kalamansi concentrate, drinks: malted ovaltine, nestle milo chocolate malt, nestle milo tonic food drink, nestle nido full cream milk powder, noodles: instant la paz batchoy, supreme bulalo, instant palabok, pancit canton w/calamansi, pancit canton - hot chili flavor, chili w/ kalamansi, snacks: sunflower crackers.

Tasty Bite:

Ready to Eat Indian Cuisine: Chicken Moglai, Chicken Roganjosh, Chicken Vindaloo, Bombay Potatos, Simla Potatos, Jodphur Lentils, Punjab Eggplant, Jaipur Vegetables, Agra Peas and Greens. Ready to Eat Thai Cuisine: Pad Thai Sauce & Noodles, Peanut Sauce & Noodles, Stir Fry Sauce & Noodles, Green Curry Vegetables & Noodles, Red Curry Vegetables & Noodles, Yellow Curry Vegetables & Noodles, Tom Yum Soup, Gang Pha Soup.

MTR:

Ready to Eat: Alu Mutter, Avial, Channa Masala, Dal Fry, Dal Makhani, Navratan Kurma, Paneer Butter Masala, Paneer Makhani, Bhindi Masala, Bisibele Bhath, Mixed Vegetable Curry, Peas and Mushroom, Navrathan Kurma, Veg Pulao, Sambar Rice, Tamarind Rice, Rajma Masala, RTE Alu Bhaji, RTE Andhra Vegetables, RTE Avial, RTE Bhindi Fry.

ADF Foods:

clasic ashoka Easi Pouch ready to eat curries: Pav Bhaji, Paneer Makhani, Punjabi Chole, Aloo Matar, Tadka Dal, Surti Undhiu, Patra Slices, Navratan Korma, Chapate Choley, Tamarind Rice.

The links to the stores are listed at Products: Specialized Food.