I have a trip coming up with 6 people. I have never done more than a 3 person trip, and I am in charge of almost everything including the meals. I'm wondering how some of you plan a 4 day 3 night trip for 6 or more people. Thanks in advance.

As far as my meal planning, we take between 4-8 guys on trips. We save the meal plans on google docs and adjust accordingly every trip. It makes it so much easier if you save it in a file, then next trip you have it. We eat Walleye at least once a day, cooked various ways. It all depends on your preference.

Look in the camping recipes forum here, lots of meals and ideas there. Also try the search button here at the top of the page for meal planning.

Start by asking about food allergies. Next ask about food that they absolutely hate and will not eat. With that info, plan your meals.

Do you want simple breakfasts like oatmeal and coffee? Or do you want cooked breakfasts like eggs or pancakes? On a stove or over the fire?

Suppers do you want one pot meals like spaghetti . Or multi course like meat and potatoes. Again, fire or stove?

For lunches and snacks, I like to supply a wide variety of open-and-eat foods and let everyone fend for themselves.

As already stated, I ask about food allergies and gluten issues first.
Then I form a menu off of last past trips. What worked what didn't. I then send out the menu for all to view and give feedback on.

Breakfast: instant oatmeal, grits, bagels, breakfast bars, coffee
* we like breakfast to be fast and only require heating water to make*

Lunch: if we catch fish then fish is for lunch, if not it's just snacks like gorp, jerky,
peanut butter sandwhich on bagel bread. Easy stuff

Dinner: We usually do a hearty dinner

example: Day 1 steaks/sweet potatoes/ green beans
Day 2 Chicken tortilla soup/ crackers/ cornbread
Day 3 Pre made and frozen, Okra Gumbo with crackers
Day 4 Wild rice soup/ green beans/ jello mold oven desert

if we catch fish any one of these days after day 1, then we eat fish and save the chicken tortilla soup for another day since it doesn't go bad. Sometimes we just add a fish or two to the nights meal plan and split it.

Everyone is responsible for their own personal snacks. You bring it/ you carry it.

Twice the people, just double what you usually take.

Plan the dinners with meals that are easy to cook for the group so that all can eat at the same time... think Polish sausage and mashed potatoes instead of pancakes.

Plan one meal of fish.

Breakfasts – various combinations of coffee, oatmeal, eggs and coffee
Lunches – various combinations of PB&J, sausage, cheese, snacks, and leftovers.

I usually take a box of pancake mix and a chunk of salami for breakfast.

Lunch is pb and j along with other snacks like granola bars.

Dinner is usually pretty plain. Fish, pesto pasta, soups, insta mashed potatos, grilled cheese. That kind of stuff.

I just bring enough for however many are going.

Lots of good ideas previous. Just a couple of thoughts:

1. More food may mean that you will need bigger pans and/or 2 stoves for cooking. More food in a pan may mean that you need to adjust cooking times and:
a. certainly will mean that you will need more fuel to cook the meal.

2. Some recipes can be doubled with no problems. Others cannot.

3. Getting all the food ready to eat for 6 people at the same time will be trickier.

You might consider something easier like a Walking Taco. Dehydrated ground beef, taco mix, small bags of Fritos, a couple of bags of shredded cheese and a plastic container of salsa.

Breakfast cookies are a staple of my food bag. - Search the web for "Camping Breakfast Cookies". There are lots of recipes for cookies or bars that make breakfast very easy. Heat hot water for drinks and break out the breakfast cookies. Easy clean up and you are on the water to travel or fish much faster. An easy alternative for these are Cliff Bars. I like the flavor of my own better than Cliff Bars but, if you don't want to do the baking, they work. I make them up to 2 weeks before the trip and drop them in the freezer until time to leave.

In the store there are bags of pre-made soups (Bear Creek is a local brand here.) . You boil 8 cups of water and add the soup mix and a few minutes later you have soup. Given the nature of the heat source in the BW, I would stay away from the thicker soups as they probably would scorch. My frustration with these is that they always come in bags of 8 servings. I have never had more than 4 people on a trip. But with 6 people, these would be economical. You may need to add meat to some, but others are stand alone.

Hope these ideas help.

HappyPaddle22: "I have a trip coming up with 6 people. I have never done more than a 3 person trip, and I am in charge of almost everything including the meals. I'm wondering how some of you plan a 4 day 3 night trip for 6 or more people. Thanks in advance.
"

Yes to all above. Especially in stove and pot considerations. I bring a lightweight 2-burner and a jetboil.
Each meal's components goes into a separate gallon ziplock bag that is labeled.
Hashbrowns sold in the cardboard cartons, along with shelf-stable bacon is a breakfast favorite. OvaEasy Eggs and bacon bits for stuffed hashbrowns.
Lunches are a ziplock bag with a wide variety of snacks, sausages, crackers, and goodies from Trader Joes.
+1 on the soups for backup if you don't catch fish, or for a meal when it is wet and rainy.
I'll attach a pic of one of our favorite dinner meals from LipSmackin' Backpackin' - Brower's Baco Spuds. If you are in charge of all the meals and planning - I hope they are chipping in $$ for food. If so I'd buy some freeze-dried veggies and protein to save yourself dehydrating time - freeze-dried components of the Baco Spuds make it fantastic - I skip the powdered milk and herbs and use Idahoan instant mash Loaded. North Bay Trading Co online is my favorite.
Have fun with it - you'll be a camp hero!

Thank you all very much for the responses and for sharing your ideas. It will help me tremendously and save me a few headaches. Especially since 4 of the people have never been in the BWCA and I want to make their trip a memorable one. Cooking is always my favorite thing in camp and your ideas will help make their trip more enjoyable.

The food links on this site are great. Also try Backpack Chef Glenn’s site.