i will be taking a fairly long trip this fall (about 14 days). i never eat much(volume) for dinners and oatmeal for breakfast every other morning. i feel im calorie starved at times. i do snack while traveling...luna bars, sausage sticks, and trail mix. thats about it.

is there a magic calorie bullet out there? my food packing space is very limited.

thanks.

Nuts. but they are not lightweight.

Packit gourmet smoothie. 420 calories per drink. Just add water. One of the gals on my trip has one every morning and loves them. They come in a couple different flavors. Compared to Carnation Instant breakfast drink which only has 120 calories.

Jump Start Fruit Smoothie

You might check out nutrition stores for similar.

Just a thought...

Those smoothies look good - I might have to try a couple to break the oatmeal monotony on longer trips.

Nuts may not seem light, but they have a lot of calories per ounce, plus they have fat, protein, and carbohydrate. Peanut butter also has quite a few. You can compare your options by figuring how many calories each provides per ounce.

Of course, fats have the most calories. That's what arctic explorers use to crank up the calories - oil and butter, and even cream.

Nuts. I dry-roast almonds in the oven and pack them in zip-lock snack bags. They aren't super-light, but as others have said, they are full of nutrition, fat, and also the fiber is a good thing. Brazil nuts are good to include, as they are high in selenium. Pistachios. Pecans. We love nuts, especially Spartan1.

I've found that for long hikes or days of work or whatever, there's nothing like bread (or crackers or hard tack) and cheese with a generous dose of butter.

I also believe in avoiding sugar, be it in trail mix, candy, energy bars or whatever, because of the "drop" you get a few hours later.

I left a reply on your other post, but somebody mentioned nuts here. My gorp always has plenty of cashews and peanuts. That has GOT to be a high calorie snack!

Hudson Bay Bread has all the calories anybody would need. I pack them separately in bags, and they make a great pick me up at lunchtime. With the variations found on this site, you can have many different flavors.
I had a new group with me this year, and they were a big hit. I pack them in a saltine container which crushes down as I use the contents.

Those smoothies look awesome and lightweight. Explore making them in a baggie for a snack. Forget the straw...mix with your knife (carefully), close up baggie, cut off corner with knife, and suck it out. Wipe knife off and go.

Also as others have said, nuts are great, though perhaps bulky. But they are a great, high-calorie, nutritious, pick-me-up snack.

quote

is there a magic calorie bullet out there?

google "3600 calories emergency mayday food bar"

I know that I had seen those 3600 calories bars somewhere and then today I got a catalog in the snail mail from Emergency Essential. Have never ordered anything from them. They have all kids of bulk dried, freeze dried food, water treatment, and storage systems. Geared more towards the survivalists.

They have them in different brands and at 1200, 2400, and 3600 calories. Says that they meet the US Coast Guard and SOLAS standards.
Energy Food Bars

And here I think of my trips to Quetico as a good opportunity to loose some pounds that I can't the rest of the year. 3600 calories is just about two days for me.

those 3600 cal bars that snipit linked is in 9 seperate bars, meant for a 3 day supply, 3 servings per day.

I am with Frenchy on the Hudson Bay Bread. It is a staple on all our trips. Add a smear of PB & J and you are good for a while.

Justin's nut butters. 2tblsp = 180 cal. Spread them on bread, crackers, hot cereal or eat them straight out of the packet. Come in small, serving packets.