I just joined the site but have been viewing it on and off for awhile. I will be taking a trip in 2 weeks and this will be the first time I have been back in 7 years...we had kids.

Anyway, from the time I was 15 to 27 I made multiple trips per year to the BWCA. I will be taking my brother in law, and two 15 year olds on their very first trip to the BW and could use some help on planning the menu.

I will need to plan 3 dinners, 3 breakfasts, and 4 lunches. We plan to add fish to at least one meal. I am completely open to all of your suggestions. For gear we will cook over the fire and my Coleman. I have some ideas but would be grateful to heat all of yours.

Glad your going back. Here are some things that we do. None require refrigeration.

1. Bagels are great. You can put honey and peanut butter on them.
They work great for any meal and can be left out in the sun.
2. Lipton noodles. Many flavors to choose from
3. Stovetop stuffing. Just add water
4. Instant potatoes. same just add water
5. Wild rice.
6. Instant hot chocolate
7. Coffee singles
We always plan on fish for two meals per day. Listed are the sides that we have prepared. We always put the contents into food saver bags to minimumize space.

Good luck hope this helps.

We take Cache Lake fry breads, augratin potato's, single portions of Kraft macaroni and cheese, Rague and noodles, hamburger helper, and bdub pizza for dinners.
For lunch its tortilla's or pita with cheese, gorp, jerky,and power bars. Or if its cold, Lipton cup of soup to go with the tortilla's

Breakfast is fruit leather and oatmeal, bagels and peanut butter, cereal with nuts and fruit, and the dry milk.

Just about anything you cook at home, you can cook in the bwca. You don't need a cooler pack although some people take it. We have a vacuum sealer and eat fresh veggies, cheese, meat, and fruit all week. I experiment a month or 2 in advance with recipes from cookbooks and from this website. If we like it, then we cook it in the bwca. We like big dinners, light lunches and quick breakfast. Fish is always on the menu and I don't mind packing out the extra food if I get to eat fresh fish at least once. Bring Crisco and shore lunch for the fish.

Just a hint...check the "camping recipes" forum. Lots of good ideas in there.

The hardest thing for me when I started packing my own food was portion control. Try to figure out the right amount of food for each meal and you will have less mess to clean up and will make sure everyone is well fed.

Just try out some things at home and see where it takes you. You'll get the hang of it. Plan ahead and think things through.

Good luck. Do a search of the site and you will find just about everything you need.

Good ideas.

I'll just remind you that you have two 15-year-olds going and so take that into consideration.
1) Are they picky eaters? If so find out what they like or at least what they don't like. You don't want to have a huge pot of spaghetti that they won't eat and then have them hit the lunch menu cause they're hungry and then mess up your lunches for the next two days.
2) How big of eaters are they. I've seen it go both ways with 15 year-olds. Big eaters and little eaters, though the little eaters tend to be snackers ... which brings me to ...
3) Pack lots of snack type items - a lot! GORP, candy bars, granola bars, M&Ms, jelly beans, beef sticks, jerky, etc. Chips don't work well - crackers are better. Things like apples don't need refrigeration and are a treat out there. Carrots last well, too.

Plan on a fish dinner, but don't be dependent on it. Sometimes fish don't cooperate so make sure you have good side dishes that can be stretched into main dishes if need be. Some of the Lipton type rice dishes are good with some summer sausage cut up into it.

The Lipton rice or noodle dishes are good with foil pack chicken. I think that is a great meal and is one pot.

We're packing our food in 2 days to head up there on the 20th of July. We have one 5 year old, and a 15 year old along with us.
1.Instant pudding is great
2.crystal light (singles)
3.trail mix is wonderful to put in individual zip-lock bags we do 2 per person per day.
4.string cheese (individuals)
5.instant rice or boil in bag rice

our group is HUGE on the pre-cooked "chicken in a bag" stuff in the same section as tuna. Perfect to add in with rice or noodles and sauce of any kind. On our last trip we bought some instant cheesy enchilada stuff, (Helper maybe) and added two bags of the chicken, as well as some left over salsa and cheese from one of those Ortega Taco kits. Pretty sure that will make the menu every year from now on. In any case that chicken is the way to go for sure. Also, we fill up a pot of water, boil while we eat, take it off to cool, add an entire box of instant hot chocolate for the perfect desert.

Other than that, most of our stuff has been covered by others, basics, Make sure you don't count on fish for a meal, consider it a bonus just in case you run into bad weather, loss or damaged fishing gear or the always dreaded . . . skunk on the lake !!!

Sweet photo bumabu makes me want to pack and go right now.

In keeping with quick, no-cook lunches, does anyone have suggestions for beef sticks (summer sausage et al) that last better when opened? Or is there really any difference?

i have begun buying the single serving sized ones. more expensive that way but you can finish what you opened in one sitting. holiday gas stations...im sure they are other places as well.

"In keeping with quick, no-cook lunches, does anyone have suggestions for beef sticks (summer sausage et al) that last better when opened? Or is there really any difference?"

kanoes suggestion is a good one.

I make sure I buy the ones that are not refrigerated in the stores. I figure that even after it's opened it will last a couple days in a ziplock bag. Still, I use it up as soom as possible.

If you can find hard salami, the kind with the hard rind, those will last the longest.

Wow, Buma. That's a lot of cheese. You'll save some space by not having to worry about taking any TP.

I burned half of it too........