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BOULDER, Colo. -

University of Colorado graduate Sarah Welton scored points for her alma mater and camping enthusiasts everywhere when her Web site for ready-to-pack campfire meals â PackitGourmet.com â earned an Editor's Choice Award in the April issue of Backpacker magazine.

"This is one of the most prestigious awards in the outdoor industry," Welton said Thursday. "I would have never started this company had I not gone to CU."

Welton graduated from CU's Leeds School of Business in 2007 with an MBA. Last July, she launched her site â giving Boulder-based Backpacker less than a year to discover her Austintacious Tortilla Soup.

"It is delicious," the magazine's writers raved. "The soup is the perfect appetizer for hungry troops, a satisfying belly warmer in cold weather and substantial enough to pass for dinner when only a light meal is needed."

Growing up with an outdoorsy family, the Austin, Texas-based Welton said the Web site was a natural offshoot of their non-stop quest to pack the biggest home-cooked tastes into the smallest, most camper-friendly packages.

"My mom has always prepared the food, and it's always been amazing," Welton said. "But for camping, she was constantly looking for quality freeze-dried and dehydrated ingredients â and she wanted a place where she could go to buy them all in one stop."

Thus, out of necessity, Packit Gourmet was born.

The site features plenty of pictures, instructions and additional information, and is split into three main categories: General Grocery, where campers can search for backpack-friendly ingredients ranging from powdered maple syrup and white wine to freeze-dried chicken and pre-cooked beans; Trail Meals, where the aforementioned groceries are pre-selected and packaged as full recipes such as Pasta Puttanesca and Bangers & Mash; and Gear and Supplies, which offers a small selection of cooking and dining utensils that are ideal for the trail.

"The biggest challenge is learning the properties of the dehydrated and freeze-dried food," said Debbie Mullins, Welton's mother and the culinary expert behind Packit's recipes. "Often the taste remains, but the work is in finding the right amount of liquid to put back into the ingredients."

With nearly 50 full meals, entrées, drinks and side items to choose from â including vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options â campers can keep revisiting the site to explore its variety, or create their own concoctions from the ingredients in the grocery store.

And since all of Packit's products are created by backpacking enthusiasts, customers can rely on every meal to be lightweight, durable and quick-and-easy to prepare.

"Sarah understands the needs of hikers and campers and has developed a product line that tastes really good," said Frank Moyes, an instructor at the Leeds School of Business.

Moyes advised Welton as she developed the idea for Packit Gourmet in his three-part entrepreneurship course, from the original concept to conducting market research to applying for a trademark and designing the logo.

"Every few years I get a student who has identified an opportunity in a market that she understands and is passionate about â this was Sarah," Moyes said. "Sarah has worked very hard on the venture and I am not surprised about her success."