how to make easy mac and cheese while backpacking

This recipe makes a batch of mac n’ cheese large enough for two people, or one really ravenous person. If you think you’ll miss it, add a couple dashes of turmeric to the cheese sauce mixture-but bear in mind, you’ll taste its slightly bitter undertones. Vermont cheddar cheese is white, so don’t expect the neon-orange color you may be used to. For an optional dose of flavor, order some powdered butter for your make-ahead pantry while you’re at it. To make the cheese sauce, you’ll need to have powdered whole milk (powdered skim milk just doesn’t make it creamy enough), and real Vermont cheddar cheese powder. The most complicated part of this dish is assembling your ingredients to begin with.

See my suggestions below the recipe for ways to jazz up your mac. It also makes a great base for improvisation. It’s a cinch to assemble and pack for the trail, and it’s quick to cook once you’re out there. So, what do we do when we want the cozy, comforting dish of mac and cheese while on the trail? When we want the simplest of dinners, but we want it to have ingredients we recognize? When we want that delicious, cozy treat, but we don’t want to pack a ton of items to make it? We make it ahead of time and carry it along, of course!īelow, you’ll find my recipe for a version of macaroni and cheese that falls somewhere between the two extremes of the spectrum, closer to the ease of blue-box side. Or how about mozzarella and ricotta with chunks of fresh tomato? Think four cheeses melted together with bacon, chili flakes, and caramelized onions. On the opposite end of the spectrum there’s pasta with an unctuous cream sauce and pockets of oozing melted cheese under a burnished top. The resulting dish is neon-orange, and of dubious nutritional value. On one end are those blue boxes containing a handful of elbow noodles and an accompanying “cheese” packet.

What better way to spend these glorious end-of-summer days than in the woods? And what better way to end them than with an evening of camping? On chill nights like these, I want a supper that’s warm and cheesy, quick and easy: macaroni and cheese.Īs far as I’m concerned, there’s a spectrum of macaroni and cheese.

It’s clear that autumn is just around the corner! Nights are becoming cool enough to wear a jacket, and the scent of wood smoke is apparent on the breeze. Where I live, in the Green Mountains of Vermont, the first yellow, orange, and russet leaves are beginning to appear scattered upon the ground.

How to make easy mac and cheese while backpacking