Missing one thing
 

I've been getting my b.o.b. / hiking backpack together for the past 6 months. I've compiled all of the essentials except for one thing. I don't have any food.

What kind of lightweight, high calorie, not terribly expensive, easy to acquire food would you suggest?

Jerky, granola, nuts, even hard candy for a quick fix. Be aware of expiration dates...

Get a few individual MRE's to put in there too...

Most walmart's have freeze dried stuff in the camping section. Power bars and millennium bars granola bars are a fair choice.

I mix instant oatmeal with peanut butter and Tang. no freeze, no spoil, no cook. good nutrition, enough bulk to keep you regular, easy to find, cheap. just mix and eat with a spoon, like cookie dough. also, mix tang and a BIT of powdered gatorade in drinking water, and take a good multivitamin/mineral tablet daily.

For high calorie and cheap, peanut butter is hard to beat. Also, get a bag of corn chips, slice a small hole in the bag and then step on the bag gently a few times. When you are done, you can probably get the whole bag of chips into a quart-size zip-loc and then eat them with a spoon. Instant stove top dressing is good and so are large bags of knock-off M&Ms. The cheese and peanut butter filled packs of square crackers are good and fairly inexpensive. A few of the crackers crumpled into some hot, instant Cup-O-Soup at the end of the day make a great snack before supper. Also, anything that has the Little Debby label. Ah, the memories.........

+1 oats, citrus, vitamins and proteins...all a growing body needs.

lots of fat in PB, and fats have 2x the calories per oz of protein or carbs.

All good suggestions. I'll have to start mixing up some concoctions and maybe create my own recipe. Thanks guys

GORP. No cooking, no utensils, and if the world does not end, a pretty good day to day snack.

^^^^^Agree^^^^^^