I really don't care the type of food. Just looking for things that would be easy to carry. The amount of room my character has is about the average size of a backpack. He has a blanket, a couple knives, and a couple other small things. I am kind of creating an alternate world. I am not going to use "real food" but I am looking for ideas to base my creations off of. Any help would be great, thanks.
things in reseal-able containers/packets. Maybe he would also forage along the way for berries and fruits? I'm guessing he would already know how to harvest drinking water from various plants or maybe he knows how to collect rainwater/riverwater and filter it through a certain type of moss plant to remove any impurities ...
I'm assuming a fantasy, rather than a modern-day adventurer who can visit an outdoor supply shop before heading off. What you're looking for is high nutritional content, balanced against bulk and weight and perishability. Anything dried is a good bet. Crackers as opposed to bread, for example. They're lighter in weight AND bulk, but contain more or less the same food value as bread. Food can either be dried to the state where it can still be eaten as is (think raisins) or dried to the extent that it needs soaking and/or cooking, like barley or salt cod. This food will be easy enough to carry, but will take a while to prepare—and might be a negative factor if the adventurer is in a hurry or unable to make fires because they don't want to be seen, etc. Also anything that's calorific would be helpful. Hard cheese. Nuts and seeds. Meat can be dried and carried. (Think jerky or hard sausage.) The American Indians made pemmican, which was a mixture of dried fruits, nuts, fat, etc, especially for carrying on journeys. You could look up 'recipes' for that. Anything sugary for energy would also be good. Of course the best 'food' any adventurer can carry is a knowledge of how to forage the terrain they'll be traveling over. A knowledge of how to catch fish (or the fantasy equivalent), hunt small game, dig edible roots, pick berries and other seasonal foods ...this may make the difference between comfortable survival and near-starvation. Obviously seasons and weather will impact on this kind of thing, so you'll need to figure in ways for the person to eat if they're traveling through 4 feet of snow in subzero temperatures. And so forth... @cutecat22 's point about the water is really important, too. Water has to be available and drinkable.
That all depends on what is available. If they are 'modern' they can use dehydrated food stuffs. If it's fantasy, then preserved meats and beans would be a staple, as well as supplies to be prepared in a fire. Possibly even rice or flour. Although you don't want 'real' foods. So anything that has the moisture removed is usually the most practical... as long as water is available.
Look up Pemmican. Jerky and Hardtack might also be options. Maybe something like powdered Kale could be mixed with water for vitamins.
Granola bars, trail mix, dried meat, cashews and walnuts. If this is going to be fantasy, you'll need something more exotic like leg of yak because, for some odd reason, everyone in fantasy eats weird food.
The guidelines should be low volume, high calorie, long-keeping, not fragile. Also, if he might run into food on the way, his stash might include things to help prepare it--like salt. If he won't find any food at all on the way, then a human would probably need something with vitamin C, against scurvy. Dried fruit, cheese, chocolate if solid chocolate exists yet, dried meat, nuts, are the first things that come to mind for me.
