Recently we went on our families longest camping trip to-date: 5 nights. Besides the normal parental worries of how to keep the kids busy for that long & what all we were going to do, I was worried about food. Specifically how NOT to eat garbage out of cans, jars, bags, & boxes for 5 days. To be honest, we eat so fresh & healthy at home 99% of the time that our bodies are simply not used to that much processed food, so if we had eaten junk foods for the entire trip, we all would have been sick.
I spent a lot of time before we left thinking about what I could bring that was fresh, (mostly) local & in-season, & could be stored without refrigeration. My initial plan was to not even bring a cooler & just cool down our beer & watermelon in the river next to our camp site, but we did end up bringing it & buying bags of ice for safety reasons. We couldn't leave our food that needed to stay cool in the car as it'd get hot & spoil when we were out & about, & we couldn't leave it at the camp site in the cool of the shade as there are bears in the area &, well, that's just not the brightest idea. But still nearly everything I chose would be fine for several days without refrigeration, as long as it were kept cool.
I'm pretty finicky about certain things in my kitchen, so, for example, I brought one cast-iron skillet because those stupid aluminum pans that fold in on themselves & nest along with a cup, lid, etc, & a handle that swings out & is supposed to be secured with a nut but always seems to come loose when the pan is hot & full & you're trying to move it - those things drive me up the freaking wall... ;) So I brought one cast-iron skillet & a wooden cooking utensil & a wide spatula. I also brought my good knives because it can get quite frustrating trying to chop lots of veggies with a cheap, dull camping knife when you're used to beautiful, sharp stainless steel ones. And we brought one bread knife & our good salt & pepper grinders as well. I did forget a few things, though, that will make it easier for next year: a cheese grater, a large cutting board (trying to cut a 12" zucchini on a 6" cutting board is quite comical), & a splash guard for the cast iron skillet as we got splattered on a few times.
So here's what we did for healthy meals while we were car camping for 5 nights in August:
Snacks:
- grapes (good for the first day, maybe overnight as long as it's cool at night where you are)
- apples (great with cheese or with peanut butter & raisins)
- oranges
- bananas
- peaches
- personal-sized watermelons
Snack-sized baggies of:
- raw, organic cashews
- raw, organic almonds
- organic raisins
- homemade chex mix
- organic peanut butter puffs cereal
- pretzels
- organic O's cereal
- organic bunnies
Other ideas for snacks (which we didn't do this year but good ideas just the same!):
- snack sized baggies of trail mix (if you do chocolate, just keep them cool unless you like them melty & messy!)
- homemade granola bars
- muffins (would last for a few days, at least, as long as the muffins aren't too moist & you can keep them relatively cool)
Lunches:
- peanut butter & honey sandwiches
- cheese, tomato, onion, & smashed avocado sandwiches (I would eat a cheese-less version of this, cucumber slices would be great on this too)
- grilled cheese (if we'd been hanging around the campsite one day during lunch, we may have made this, but we were out during lunch every day, so we packed the above two sandwiches with us)
Dinners:
Dinner #1: Soft taco night:
flour wraps
cucumber
tomatoes
purple/red onions
sweet peppers
jalapeños (for the grown-ups)
rice & black beans (brought dry, cooked on our camping stove)
cheese, cut into cubes (shredded would have gotten clumped)
I chopped up all of the veggies, arranged on plates in the center of the table, & we each made our own.
Above: most of the fixings for our soft taco night
Above: My soft taco before wrapping it up & enjoying it along with a cup of sun tea.
Dinner #2: Grilled wrap with sautéed veggies night:
flour wraps
Sautéed veggies in olive oil:
zucchini
yellow summer squash
purple/red onions
sweet peppers
jalapeños (for the grown-ups)
Wrapped sautéed veggies in a flour wrap & grilled on my cast-iron pan.
Dinner #3: "Meat" & Potatoes night:
This was too yummy for me to get a picture, I just wanted to eat it. ;)
Zucchini burgers (zucchini, sliced, marinated for several hours in baggies with olive oil, balsamic, & fresh chopped garlic), served on organic buns, avocado as a condiment (instead of mayo, mustard, etc), with slices of onions & tomatoes.
Smashed garlic potatoes (peeled & boiled, smashed with freshly chopped garlic).
Grilled corn on the cob (silks removed, re-wrapped in husks, soaked in water for at least an hour, wrapped in aluminum foil & grilled until cooked).
Dinner #4: Fajitas night:
flour wraps
chopped cucumber
rice & black beans (brought dry & cooked on our camping stove)
smashed avocado
I sautéed all of the following separately & arranged everything on their own plate in the center of the table & we each made our own fajita:
yellow summer squash
purple/red onion
jalapeños
tomatoes
sweet peppers
Above: My make-your-own fajita with rice & beans & smashed avocado prior to wrapping & enjoying. Yummy...
For the 5th night, we actually went out for pizza (a tradition for the last few years now). However, here are some more yummy dinner ideas:
Shish-kabob night:
I didn't end up making this, although I'd planned on it instead of fajitas, because we only had a propane cookstove & our fire pit did not have a grate to cook on, so I wouldn't have been able to cook the kabobs in anything other than the skillet, & that wasn't the cooking method & taste I was going for. Next time I'll bring a grate for the fire pit, because I'd love to try these over a wood fire. ;)
Cut veggies into 1-1.5" cubes & marinate in large baggie in olive oil, balsamic, & freshly chopped garlic, skewer, & grill.
Veggie suggestions:
onions (yellow, red/purple, or sweet vidalia)
sweet peppers
zucchini
yellow summer squash
Eggplant (or Portabella Mushroom) burger night:
This was another meal I wanted to do while camping, however my husband is not the biggest eggplant fan, so I opted for a zucchini burger night instead. ;)
Grill slices of sweet pepper in olive oil with freshly chopped garlic & set aside.
Marinate 1/2" thick eggplant slices in olive oil & vinegar, grill, serve on organic bun with smashed avocado for a condiment, & slices of onion & tomato & pieces of the grilled sweet pepper.
If you're doing portabella mushrooms, I'd have these be a "first night meal" as I am not sure how well portabellas keep outside of the refrigerator.
Eggplant parmesan night:
This could be labor-intensive for camping but still doable, especially if you're nuts about food like me & don't mind taking the extra time for something special. :)
Dice tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers, & chop garlic, add a dash of olive oil, cook in a skillet, covered, over low heat until you have sauce (remember, it's camping, all food tastes better when eaten al fresco & it doesn't have to be perfect ;) ).
Slice eggplant to 1/4" thick or less.
Dip in flour, then raw scrambled eggs, then breadcrumbs, & cook on a skillet with olive oil.
Serve with sauce & (optional) parmesan. YUM!
If you wanted to, you could do pasta although that's not really camping food, IMO, but griddle toast with roasted garlic on the side or fire-roasted garlic bread would MAKE this meal...
Nacho, Casadilla, Mexican Pizza or Mexican Deep-Dish-Pizza Pie night:
Chop up your favorite veggies, plop on top of tortilla chips or a flour tortilla, top with cheese (optional), & cook over low heat.
For the Mexican deep-dish pizza pie, stack a *flour tortilla, rice & beans, veggies, cheese (optional), repeat from * & finish when you have the depth you want - you might want to bring a cast iron or terra cotta dutch oven for this or a round baking pan to assemble & cook it in.
Dinner side dish ideas:
- Baked potato (wrapped in aluminum foil & set on coals, turning occasionally, until cooked through)
- Roasted garlic (cut tops off of a head of garlic, set in aluminum foil "bowl", add a dash of olive oil, close up top of "bowl", grill on hot coals until cooked)
- Griddle toasted bread (get a fabulous loaf of local, organic bread, place in skillet with a drizzle of olive oil, & toast). This would be perfect with roasted garlic cloves spread on top like butter. :)
Breakfast:
I had a blast with breakfast. Essentially I took whatever leftovers we had from the night before, mixed them with eggs, cooked them on the skillet with olive oil, & served them in a flour wrap or with a griddle-toasted bagel or slice of bread & VOILA! Breakfast. Yummy.
Leftover Sautéed Veggies & Eggs with Griddle Toast & Grilled Bagels:
Mixed leftover sautéed veggies (zucchini, yellow summer squash, purple/red onions, sweet peppers, jalapeños [for the grown-ups]) with eggs, cooked on the griddle with olive oil & served on griddle toast. The kids had grilled bagels. Yum!
Leftover Taco Night Veggies & Eggs with Griddle Toast:
I diced garlic & more jalapeños, adding the leftovers from the prior night's taco night: cucumber, tomatoes, purple/red onions, sweet peppers, jalapeños (for the grown-ups), & rice & black beans, & sautéed them all in olive oil, adding eggs, serving on griddle toast & adding cheese to my husband's. The kids had griddle toast.
Leftover "Meat" & Smashed Garlic Potatoes & Veggie Pancakes:
This might have been my favorite breakfast just because of how wacky it felt to mix so many different things together & have it come out as yummy as it did, although to be honest, the breakfasts were ALL great.
Mix together left over: smashed garlic potatoes, chop up zucchini burgers, chop slices of tomato & onion, cut the corn off of leftover corn on the cob (we had two), add eggs (I added two), mix thoroughly & cook on a skillet like pancakes in olive oil. I served mine on griddle-toasted bagels & the kids had griddle bagels too. Cheese optional!
Above: My Left-over "Meat" & Potatoes Pancake on a griddle toasted bagel. YUM!
Leftover Fajitas Veggies & Eggs
Mix together fajita leftovers & sauté on skillet in olive oil: chopped cucumber, rice & black beans, yellow summer squash, purple/red onion, jalapeños, tomatoes, & sweet peppers, add eggs & cook until eggs are cooked through. Serve on a flour wrap, griddle-toasted bread or bagel. YUMMY!
Breakfast #5:
Since we'd gone out for pizza the night before we left, I didn't have leftovers with which to make eggs on the 5th morning, & besides I'd run out of eggs & didn't want to have to buy supermarket eggs or try finding local, free-range ones, however, if I had eggs, I would have done a simple egg wrap with sautéed peppers & onions & put cheese on my hubby's wrap.
Here are some other breakfast ideas:
- Scrambled eggs or fried eggs served with griddle-toasted bread, bagels, or a wrap.
- Pancakes. I actually meant to mix together dry ingredients before we left to make pancakes while we were there but I didn't!
- Potato pancakes with white potatoes and/or sweet potatoes. I usually add tons of grated veggies (zucchini, eggplant, yellow summer squash, onions, garlic, carrots, chopped hot peppers, etc) to mine so that they're more veggie than just potato so I don't end up in a carb-coma first thing in the morning. ;) I grate everything & mix it, adding eggs & sometimes a little bit of flour until they're a good "potato pancake" consistency & cook in a skillet with olive oil until cooked through, flipping half way. These would be insane with smashed avocado on top instead of apple sauce or ketchup... Mmmm...
I saved the best for last... Dessert!!
So I only did dessert on one night because as it was, we were eating WAY more than we normally eat. During a regular week day, it's normal for me to have a veggie juice for breakfast & lunch, have an afternoon snack, & a light dinner. The kids usually have toast in the mornings (unless it's a weekend), a sandwich for lunch, & whatever I make for dinner, & they snack throughout the day too - sometimes skipping lunch all-together in lieu of snacks. And the hubby sometimes has an egg wrap or two for breakfast or juice if I've made it early enough, sometimes eats out with a vendor for lunch or takes left-overs from home or has a "lunch & learn" at work where food is brought in, & for dinner, well, that varies greatly too. But long story short, because I didn't have any normal housework, laundry, cleaning, errands, etc, to do, I had so much more time to cook so every meal we ate was quite large! (I didn't bring my juicer with me as it is quite large, although I missed it desperately! Those store-bought juices are not the same, they're too sweet for my liking!)
Anyway here is my one dessert I made all trip, but I think we may have to do this more often than just camping! It was scrumptious...
Peanut Butter, Banana, & Honey Roll-Up Surprise!
On white flour wrap spread peanut butter, drizzle with honey, top with banana slices & sprinkled with (dairy-free for me) chocolate chips. Roll up. Wrap in aluminum foil. Cook over an open flame until the wrap is warm & the chocolate chips are melty. Cut in half. Serve warm & enjoy!
Above: one flour tortilla ready to be wrapped up, wrapped in aluminum, & cooked until melty & gooey & yummy...
That's it! Those are my camping snack, breakfast, lunch, dinner, & dessert ideas so you too can eat fresh while you're camping! I hope you enjoyed reading! If there's anything that sounds particularly yummy I'd love to know what your favorite is. Please let me know if you have any ideas to add in the comments, I've LOVE to hear them! :)
Thanks! And Happy Cooking & Camping! ;)
