Backpacker Recipes: The Basic Meal - Part I

The following post is the first in a series I’d like to call “Foolproof recipes - Eat cheap and easy.”  If you are like me, you’ll probably relate to how difficult the daily dinner choice is while on your travels - a dinner that’s both delicious and inventive while remaining cheap and nutritious!  So here are two easy, foolproof and cheap recipes for you do use:

Spaghetti served with mushroom sauce

Ingredients:

Any supermarket spaghetti package
Cooking oil
8 mushrooms per person
2 cans tomato sauce

• Put Spaghetti in pot of boiling water, reduce heat to medium.
• Cut mushrooms into small pieces and cook in pan with oil on medium heat until cooked to your liking.
• When the Spaghetti is cooked to your liking, drain and place pot back on medium heat.
• Add the cans of tomatoes and cooked mushrooms.
• Mix everything together gently and keep on stirring for 2 minutes until thick and piping hot.

Serves 6.

Chicken stir fry served with rice

Ingredients:
Small bag of rice
2 chicken fillets
1 onion
2-3 mushrooms
1 red/ green pepper

• Use two and a half cups of water to every cup of rice – add salt as desired
• Once the water is boiling, add rice and stir immediately so it doesn’t stick.
• Lower the heat and stir regularly.
• Cook to taste.

• Add chopped onion to pan of oil
• Add fillets as onion softens, cook until cooked right through
• Season with whatever ‘herbs’ are available - salt, pepper, etc.
• Add mushrooms/ peppers/ any other vegetable you like until cooked to your liking.

Serves 2.

Can you recommend any other cheap and cheerful backpacker recipes that you have used?

Thumbnail image courtesy of Plasticwool’s photos on Flickr
Text image courtesy of Vox Efx’s photos on Flickr