Easy, High-Protein Meals for Camping or Hiking Trips

A well-balanced diet is, of course, essential in our daily lives—about as fundamental as you can get when it comes to staying healthy and active. When we escape to the woods, the mountains, the desert, the prairies, or the swamps—and everywhere else we love to get some fresh air into our lungs and some lovely wild scenery into our eyes, minds, and hearts—calibrating our food intake becomes all the more important.

Central to that intake is protein, a critical macronutrient that can be all too easy to overlook or undervalue when pounding carbs out on the trail and scarfing fatty treats at the campsite. In this article, we’ll serve up (count ‘em) 12 high-protein camping meals perfect for your next trip out there, whether car-camping or hoofing it deep into the backcountry.

Our List Criteria

In compiling these easy, high-protein camping meals, we’re considering a number of factors.

Nutrition

We’re prioritizing nutritional needs first and foremost. Anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of your daily caloric intake on a camping trip ought to be met by protein. Why? Well, protein is a heavy hitter when it comes to our everyday bodily functions. 

This macronutrient comes backboned by amino acids that produce metabolism-maintaining enzymes, helping regulate our energy production. Protein also helps maintain and repair our muscle tissue—too little protein, and it’ll start to break down—and powers the white blood cells that build out the invaluable ranks of our immune system.

Ease of Preparation

Camping meals, and especially backpacking meals, ought to be easy to whip up and not require excessive amounts of water, fuel, and time in order to do so. Ideally, you’re looking at a campsite course you can prepare with nothing more than a campfire or, even more efficiently and low-impact, boiling water.

Portability & Shelf Life

Depending on your camping setup, you may not be all that concerned about portability, but a lot of campers and backpackers gravitate toward the packable and the lightweight when it comes to provisions. So we’re favoring recipes that check those boxes as well—and which incorporate ingredients with a long shelf life, another plus when it comes to extended, primitive, or backcountry camping.

12 High-Protein Camping Meals & Snacks

Carbohydrates are the cornerstone of a camper's and backpacker's diet because they provide quick energy and are easy to digest. Proteins, however, cannot be stored in the body, and your need for them doesn't change much based on the type or intensity of your outdoor activities. Think of proteins as a daily essential best consumed at the campsite. That said, packing protein-rich trail snacks (as we’ll highlight) is also a great idea for on-the-trail eating.

Good sources of protein include the whole slew of animal-based versions, from beef jerky, summer sausage, and canned fish to hard cheeses and eggs, as well as such plant-based protein sources as nuts (and nut butters), seeds, and beans.

Here are a dozen good choices when it comes to high-protein meals for camping—from fuel-you-up breakfasts to hard-earned dinner feasts!

1. Mountain House Meals

Our freeze-dried meals here at Mountain House, which lead the industry when it comes to shelf life and dazzle campers with their top-tier flavor, include many protein-packed options. You’ll find protein content listed front and center on our pouches and cans. 

Some high-protein options include our creamy and taste bud-tantalizing Chicken & Mashed Potatoes as well as our energy-pumping Beef Enchilada Bowl, boasting some 32 grams of protein and checking every box when it comes to flavor and soul-nourishment. Our Buffalo-Style Chicken Mac & Cheese is another popular (and delicious) meal that contains 36 grams of protein per pouch. 

Supremely lightweight, supremely portable, and amazingly fast to prepare— just-add-water—Mountain House meals are your best friend at the campsite and the easiest way to bring a comforting meal to the great outdoors. 

2. Protein Bars & Powders

From energy bars to powder mixes, you aren’t hurting these days when it comes to choices for specially formulated protein power-ups. These foods make a great addition to your camping pack because they're convenient, lightweight, and offer a quick source of protein while you're on the move. Just make sure that you’re selecting protein bars and protein powders with minimal sugars and additives that are primarily based on natural ingredients.

3. Peanut Butter & Other Nut Butters

Nut butters, not least that crowd-pleasing superstar known as peanut butter, are a great source of protein, whether you’re downing them as a trailside snack or whipping them into breakfast or dinner dishes. 

Consider spreading your nut butter of choice onto a tortilla or slice of whole-grain bread for a balanced meal—and/or combine it with a fruit jam produced from such high-protein sources as cherries, blackberries, or apricots.

4. Foil Packet Meals With Ground Beef, Chicken, Salmon, etc.

Foil packets or pouches with chicken, tuna, salmon, ground beef, and other animal-based proteins are awesome choices for camping meal plans. Easily prepared ahead of time and cooked over a campfire or camp stove, they can be combined with a number of other foods including carb-rich pasta and rice. 

Mix ground beef, vegetables, and spices together and wrap the whole lot in foil to cook over coals. It doesn’t get much better!

5. Chicken Salad

Few campsite meals hit the spot quite like chicken salad, which you can pull together ahead of time. Combine with crackers as an easy-to-pack snack, or stuff into a sandwich, flatbread, or pita for a full-on meal. You can boost the protein quotient of your camp chicken salad by incorporating ingredients such as Greek yogurt or almonds.

Photo by Meditations on Freeimages.com

6. Hard Cheeses & Salami

For both trail snacks and ready-to-go accouterments at the camp kitchen, hard cheeses such as Parmesan and preserved meats such as salami provide a readymade protein punch. Besides the obvious serving on crackers, bread, or tortillas, you can grate cheese into your rice and pasta dishes and add salami to just about everything, not least eggy breakfast scrambles. Yum.

7. Quinoa & Chickpeas

Not everybody’s keen on (or able to eat) animal-based protein, needless to say. Along with those aforementioned nuts, nut butters, seeds, and beans, quinoa and chickpeas offer fabulously versatile plant-protein bases for any number of dishes. 

Throw pre-cooked quinoa together with canned chickpeas, olive oil, and whatever your go-to veggies, and you’ve got quite the healthy—and protein-packed—dinner around the campfire.

8. Greek Yogurt & Granola

Greek yogurt provides a fine protein source, and you can get all the more of a boost by mixing in granola and/or dried fruit. A classic breakfast choice that’s tasty, healthy, easy, and hard to top!

9. Jerky & Dried Meat

Beef jerky and other dehydrated meats are, it may go without saying, a truly classic form of camping protein. Lightweight and long-lasting, it’s a go-to trail snack for good reason.

10. Hummus & Veggies

Derived from chickpeas, hummus is another beloved source of protein (and deliciousness) and one of the all-time great marriages with camp-friendly vegetables such as peppers and carrots.

Photo by Corey Watson on Unsplash

11. Trail Mix With Nuts & Dried Fruit

You can blend essential macronutrients—not just protein but also carbs and fats—into a beautiful hodgepodge with a sensibly mixed-together trail mix, blending such ingredients as nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and chocolate. Steer clear of those prepackaged trail mixes that are excessively loaded with sugar, which, alas, are all too common on the market.

Instead go for a DIY trail mix that includes all your favorites and only ingredients you choose to add. 

12. Soup With Beans

From soybeans to white beans to lentils, beans are superstars when it comes to protein. They can easily make the centerpiece of a camp soup or the supporting act for one juiced up with meat and vegetables. 

Soups can be prepared ahead of time and heated up on the campfire. We all know soup gets better when it sits for a little while! 

Other High-Protein Foods to Consider Building Meals Around

From avocado spread on a tortilla to hard-boiled eggs or tofu added to a rice dish, you’ve got plenty of other options when it comes to protein power-ups in the camping larder.

When planning out your camping meal plan, you certainly want to account for dietary restrictions and preferences. You can get your necessary protein from the gluten-free, vegetarian, and dairy-free meals we offer here at Mountain House.

Take Mountain House on Your Next Adventure

For decades and decades, the team here at Mountain House has been formulating lip-smackingly good (and protein-rich) freeze-dried meals with an unbeatable shelf life and supreme applicability for the campground, the backcountry, and the emergency kit. Explore our collection of camping and backpacking foods today!