A major reason I love Paleo meals to go is because they remind me of some of my best memories from my childhood. One of the things I loved about camping with the Scouts or family while growing up was the food. We knew how to cook, and it’s hard to beat a great meal cooked over an open campfire!
Plenty of you out there know exactly what I’m talking about.
Then again if you really got into thru hiking, backcountry trekking, and long distance backpacking like I did you realized pretty quickly easy non-spoil calories trumped tasty food. I love crunchy peanut butter and Mounds bars, too, but there’s definitely a point where enough is enough and you want something real. And hot. And healthy.
Paleo meals to go offer some options for those of us on the trail & on the move. But how good are these portable Paleo meals? Are they really practical for hikers and backpackers? Which ones are the best (quick easy answer on that: Wild Zora by far)?
Read on to find out!
Table of Contents
Thru Hiker Q&A Video: She Loves Paleo Meals to Go
The full Q&A is pretty great, but we have the video set to go straight to the topic of this article. You may want to bookmark this video to come back another time for the rest.
Top Rated Paleo Meals to Go for Backpackers, Hikers, & Campers
There’s going to be a lot of discussion about how appropriate Paleo meals to go are for certain outdoor activities. In our eyes they’re great for camping, hiking, and can be a great supplement for backpacking. For people needing many thousands of calories extra a day from thru hiking or backpacking mountains, these are a comfort food supplement.
On our top list it was important to only have the really high quality combinations and that’s why you’ll see all but one entry is Wild Zora paleo meals. Needless to say: we’re big fans.
That said, there’s a lot to love about Paleo meals over the campfire (you don’t even need heavy duty cast iron Dutch Ovens) so read on and take a look yourself!
Wild Zora Cliffside Coconut Berry Portable Paleo Meals
These could actually hold several spots up top because there are actually multiple Wild Zora portable Paleo meals, the first two spots should suffice to show two of our favorites. And also how wildly different they are from one another.
Take a look below out our top picks out of the options out there and see which ones sound best to you. If you’re on the Paleo Diet don’t despair! There are plenty of great options for you to stay true while enjoying the great outdoors!
The coconut berry combination from Wild Zora is a paleo version of a deliciously stacked oatmeal breakfast. Featuring pecans, walnuts, strawberries, shredded coconut, and more. Free of milk, sugar, and gluten, the combination from this pouch is great. Just add some hot water, mix, and you have an amazing paleo meal that is great whether you’re at the camp site, taking a break to cook while hiking, and this offers a blend of nuts and fruit that really fills you up and gives you energy.
I’m iffy on oatmeal – I’ve just never been that big a fan – but this alternative is outstanding. Add in a two year shelf life, no added sugar, and there’s a real winner here. This definitely is the high end of the Paleo snacks that delivers a small amount of sweetness that will hit the spot.
Wild Zora Mountain Beef Stew Portable Paleo Meals
The Beef Stew Paleo meal is probably my favorite out of the Wild Zora options. When you’re on a long range trek there’s nothing that lifts the spirits like a delicious hot meal. While a single serving of stew won’t be enough calorie-wise to meet your needs on long range hikes, it’s a big spirit builder. This meal is also a great part of a larger meal with the conventional trail offerings like peanut butter.
These meals are packaged in short wide pouches, and have up to a two year shelf life. They are obviously Paleo friendly using only the best ingredients. The beef is organic and grass fed. That means it is only the highest quality and is going to taste great. The vegetables are all organic: carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, broccoli, mushrooms, and more! Add in a great mix of spices like parsley, garlic, and sea salt and this is a winning stew mix!
As a side note here: all their chicken dishes also use free range chicken in the meals, as well.
These are outstanding Paleo meals that really hit the spot when you need it.
Wild Zora Meat & Veggie Bars
Well here they are again. This isn’t exactly a meal, so it might be a bit of a cheat. Even if these aren’t technically Paleo meals to go, they’re a great supplement for Paleo diet followers. These snacks are protein rich, very nutritionally dense, and a lot of people prefer these meat and veggie bars over straight up lamb jerky.
Both sound pretty good, but these bars are a great snack that can supplement hikes or long walks. Unlike most bars these are completely grain free. That’s a definite plus.
Focusing on natural ingredients, this unique combination is really popular for a reason. They might not be a full out Paleo meal, but it’s a good supplement. A couple of these in between meals can create a huge energy boost. This is one place where Wild Zora has definitely hit a home run.
The brand is big on clean ingredients. They work with local farmers, focus on organic and free range, and that means confidence in things being done the right way. Dried fruits, meats, and spices combine to create the snack that so many people are huge fans of.
These are a great option – not a complete paleo meal. But a great paleo snack for hikers.
Trail Truffles Paleo Vegan Trail Snacks
There was bound to be at least one group to make a mark outside of Wild Zora. Once again these are less Paleo meals to go than a quality snack, but it is another option for those who are in the Paleo camp. This is a popular option because it definitely uses vegan ingredients that are vegan and keto friendly to imitate those desserts many dieters miss.
The ingredients and mixtures mean good protein, good snack food, and the feeling of a good dessert-like snack. These give energy, give a sense of
All flavors are paleo friendly (except Peanut Butter Cup) and have 3-4 grams of protein in each serving. Easy to carry along, easy to fit into your hike as a snack during periods of rest or break times, there’s a lot here to like. There’s no gluten, no refined sugar, no dairy, and none of the other ingredients you want to ignore. Can be a great little dessert to follow up one of the earlier trail Paleo meals we reviewed earlier in this article.
There is one clear exception: the peanut butter cup is NOT Paleo friendly…so skip that one if you’re solid on the diet plan. Otherwise enjoy the potential that this dessert like snacks can bring to the table!
Paleo Bars: Yay or Nay?
So there’s an obvious item we’ve left off the list and it’s not because we forgot about it. There’s a very good reason that you don’t see any Paleo bars on here. Frankly, we haven’t found any we like, and we haven’t found any with consistently high enough ratings to add to the list.
Quality matters way more to us than sales. If there isn’t a Paleo bar out there we feel is forth recommending then we won’t. This doesn’t mean there aren’t any good ones out there. Or that there aren’t some you won’t love. We just haven’t found any that meet our tastes or that we feel comfortable recommending.
If any of you have suggestions, please let us know down below!
As for packing up Paleo meals to go for a day, this is a viable option for day hikes or day excursions, and if that’s more what you’re interested in then take a look at this exceptional Paleo meal blog post.
Video Review of Wild Zora Meals to Go
Seems like these are great as a short term hiking/camping solution, or adding some serious comfort food taste/flavor if you’re doing some serious backpacking thru hiking and can only stand so much peanut butter and oatmeal.
In Conclusion
This feels like one of those areas where there are going to be more entries into the field of easy to make Paleo diet meals in the future. The diet is extremely popular, has some interesting science behind it, and many hikers love these meals. Whether they’re practical for true thru hikes versus excursions of a week or less is still up for debate, but they are outstanding meal options for short and medium range hikers.
We’ve never shied away from outdoor food related topics, like our previous article on solar powered camping cookers shows, and that’s part of the reason we loved this topic for a blog post.
For now these are some of the best paleo meal options on the market for hikers, backpackers, and campers. While we hope to see others form up over time, as well as good meals based on other diet plans, for the moment if you’re big on Paleo these are the best options we can recommend to you.
