Camping Food

QueenOSpades

Hello!

Any good recipes/ ideas for healthy camping food for two people?

Other then steak, corn or baked potatoes, hahah.

Anjisan63

I'd like to know some good camping meal ideas too.

Specifically, I'm a man in my 50's who was about 100 pounds overweight (lost about 60 so far with another 40 to go).

Because of my age, I decided to pick up backpacking, hiking, and camping as my physical activity. My ultimate goal is to go on a 2 week section hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) through Oregon next June 2016. This will be a two week hike, and I'm a little reluctant to take just dehyrdrated camp foods with me.

What can I take to prepare that has (A) high calories [hiking 15 miles a day]; (B) can be freshly prepared; and (C) doesn't take up too much room or weigh too much?

Sounds like a tough one to answer. Anyone know? Thanks.

whee1234

Protein bars, beef jerky or other dried meat packets of tuna (the pouches are lighter than canned), protein powder to mix with water (maybe?), cashews, peanuts or other nuts, raisins, dried apples or other dried fruit.

I've also seen olives in pouches which would be easy to carry.

If you have a Trader Joe's, they sell things like dehydrated broccoli and snap peas. Seaweed is yummy and light too, but not calorie dense.

Those are a few things that popped into my head. I don't know about recipes.

kimw91

Not sure about camping food on a 2 week hike, but as for 'general camping food' assuming you have something along the lines of a bbq and a shop available: skewered chicken with grilled asparagus and Greek salad; baked beans (white beans, tomato sauce, oregano, feta cheese) with grilled prawns and salad; tuna steak with grilled zucchini/bell pepper/onion; chili; jacket (sweet) potato; couscous; gnocchi.

MelanieBinnall

Hi,

We are life-long campers and foodies. We usually have:
Mexican night - chili, quesadillas, nachos.
Italian night - pasta & meatballs, lasagna, or alfredo with salad and garlic bread
Grill night - burgers, kabobs, ham pork or chicken with grilled veggies and potatoes in the fire
Dutch Oven night - pot pie, mac and cheese, chicken dish

Not much help with the dry foods for the kike - sorry. We only day hike.

We pack fruit and a homemade trail mix or homemade granola bar.

Hope this helps!

caddir

Corned beef hash is great, boston baked beans, chilli veg curries. we serve most of them with wraps or stuff. We also do barbecues of veg kebabs.

We also buy the ' look what we found' pouches - they are very good and fairly low fat.

AmyJoShanks

Google "omelette in a bag" - they are awesome.

AmyJoShanks

we also do tuna wraps with mustard instead of mayo - they last much better on long hikes (due to not having to stay cold like mayo)

bioklutz

One of my favorite campfire foods is banana boats. You can put whatever you want in it. Maybe just a few pieces of dark chocolate to keep the calories lower. You pull the peel down but don't remove it from the banana. Cut a wedge of the banana out. Add tasty things where the wedge has been cut out. Pull the peel back up and wrap it in aluminum foil. Put it by some hot coals and let it cook. Maybe 5-15 minutes.

dargytaylor

whenever we go camping, I always have my food pre-prepped (as much as I can) for example: Peppers / Onions / Mushrooms all pre-sliced and put into freezer/storage bags. My meat I marinate ahead of time, put in the freezer at home, and put in the cooler for an "ice pack" and then it thaws and you'll have your meat for dinner! Eggs, you can pre-whip and put into a water bottle ~ sautee some veggies, throw in your eggs and voila! a nice veggie egg scramble Pinterest has tons of ideas!

Queenmunchy

Cold salads (tabbouleh, potato, caprese, etc), pre-formed burgers (I add finely chopped vegetables into the lean meat to add moisture and cut calories), eggs, beans, lots of veggies with dips.

michaelafoor916

kimw91 wrote: »

Not sure about camping food on a 2 week hike, but as for 'general camping food' assuming you have something along the lines of a bbq and a shop available: skewered chicken with grilled asparagus and Greek salad; baked beans (white beans, tomato sauce, oregano, feta cheese) with grilled prawns and salad; tuna steak with grilled zucchini/bell pepper/onion; chili; jacket (sweet) potato; couscous; gnocchi.

I never eat this good when I'm camping lmao it's normally lunchmeat sandwiches, burgers, brats, shredded chicken (if we go to a camp site with electric), chips. I'm sure you could find healthy alternatives or versions of those things though. oh and breakfast food over an open flame...mmm soooooo good!

Queenmunchy

My friends and I laugh because our camping trips are usually champagne and lobster. Not typical of my camping growing up!

LooseyGoosey12

We often do Hobo meals. Take a meat/protein, toss in a ton of veggies add seasonings or sauce, wrap it in aluminum foil, and bury it in the hot coals of your campfire. Add cheese, if you want, as soon as you open it. Yummmm and the combinations of ingredients are plentiful. PLUS you don't have to mind a campstove or a grill.

Lourdesong

I did a lot of camping growing up, but the kind of "camping" where we went in decked out motor homes to camping sites that had shower/bath facilities, BBQ pits and water access in every slot, and I recall some sites we visited even had concession stands.

We'd usually roast hotdogs over the firepit or otherwise have some kind of BBQ for dinner, during the day have salads and fresh fruit (watermelon I strongly associate with camping food), and of course, s'mores.

If I went now I'd probably do the same thing, just swap regular hot dogs for turkey dogs, ground turkey for hamburger, etc.

Michele Obama tweeted what she asserts is a healthy s'more recipe, but I'd go traditional.

QueenOSpades

Thanks for the good ideas everyone

cwolfman13

QueenOSpades wrote: »

Hello!

Any good recipes/ ideas for healthy camping food for two people?

Other then steak, corn or baked potatoes, hahah.

I really don't eat much differently camping than I do at home. Breakfast is usually eggs, potatoes, canadian bacon; lunch is usually a sandwich and some fruit or a side of cucumber salad; dinner is usually some kind of protein on the grill with veg and a starch or grain. I bring along plenty of fruit as well.

When I'm camping I do treat myself to some potato chips and the like as I don't usually eat that kind of stuff at home...I also drink more beer than usual and will often allow myself a soda or two. I'm usually on my feet most of the day when I'm camping...either fishing or hiking or chasing the boys around or moving these piece of camping equipment from here to there, etc...I really don't worry about it too much.

debubbie

Check out Backpacker magazine's website for ideas for camping foods for two and for long hikes.

Galonamission81

Anjisan63 wrote: »

I'd like to know some good camping meal ideas too.

Specifically, I'm a man in my 50's who was about 100 pounds overweight (lost about 60 so far with another 40 to go).

Because of my age, I decided to pick up backpacking, hiking, and camping as my physical activity. My ultimate goal is to go on a 2 week section hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) through Oregon next June 2016. This will be a two week hike, and I'm a little reluctant to take just dehyrdrated camp foods with me.

What can I take to prepare that has (A) high calories [hiking 15 miles a day]; (B) can be freshly prepared; and (C) doesn't take up too much room or weigh too much?

Sounds like a tough one to answer. Anyone know? Thanks.

I am absolutely of no help here, but I think that's an awesome idea. I juuuust finished reading Cheryl Strayed's book, Wild last night about her hiking the PCT. She mostly seemed to eat the dehydrated meals, lots of oats/granola and milk substitute.

dklibert

I haven't camped in a long while, but I am totally into foil packets on the grill right now. I just made jambalaya on the grill it is resting right now. I will post pics later. Here is a link to some I made a while back.

soupspiceeverythingnice.blogspot.com/2015/07/creole-catfish-foil-packet.html

dklibert

soupspiceeverythingnice.blogspot.com/2015/07/jambalaya-grill-packets.html

Pinnacle_IAO

When camping, I enjoy cooking over an open fire, so that's usually lean meats and veggies. Be creative; have fun!

970Mikaela1

And beer.