Does anyone have any easy healthy recipes for outdoor days, like river floats and camping trips?

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Starla_trotter
Starla_trotter Posts: 2 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone. I was really good last week and then fell right off my diet plan over the weekend because I went camping and saw the eclipse, which was, by the way, AMAZING. I find it really hard to eat healthy on these trips because burgers and dogs are so easy to cook while camping and I just need some better options. Does anyone else who loves the outdoors have some great ideas I could use? I'm pretty active on these trips but my diet sucks. I felt awful when I got back and would just love to fix this before my upcoming float trip. Usually my boyfriend grabs a bucket of fried chicken to eat about halfway through the float when we all get out and have a picnic. It's delicious but hard on the waistline and I always feel so heavy and sluggish afterward, which is no fun in a bathing suit. I need help!

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  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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    I generally stick with burgers and hot dogs then add some sort of portable vegetable as a side (carrots is easy and crunchy like chips). Sandwiches or wraps work good too.
  • jasperann
    jasperann Posts: 136 Member
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    We are camping now actually. I know the feeling of all the heavy food... but one of the things we do is marinate chicken or pork before our trip and freeze it. Then as it thaws in the cooler it is getting lots of flavor. We usually eat it with raw veggies, corn on the cob, sweet/baked potatoes. They are the few meals my kids request each time we camp. We've tried the chicken and potatoes in the foil wrap too, but we burned it...
  • Alidecker
    Alidecker Posts: 1,262 Member
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    I was floating last weekend, we don't do so well with healthier options either. Our main meal during the float trip was grilled pork tenderloin and fruit this time. The pork tenderloin is good cold, so that has been our meal for the last few years.
  • boulank
    boulank Posts: 51 Member
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    We were camping this last weekend too. I had burger but just ate the patty wrapped in lettuce with a side salad.
  • kellyjellybellyjelly
    kellyjellybellyjelly Posts: 9,480 Member
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    What about making mountain pies?

    http://www.pieiron.com/recipes.htm
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
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    eggs are kind of my go to...fried or scrambled if you have a cook fire...hard boiled or deviled if you are needing a cold meal...and I love love love salads and veggies too
  • shampbj
    shampbj Posts: 33 Member
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    If you are grilling, one thing we always do is pre-marinate chicken (like a simple citrus or Mediterranean-type marinade) and freeze it before the camping trip. It keeps well in the cooler and on day 2 you can just pull it out, thaw and grill.
  • vxCricketxv
    vxCricketxv Posts: 27 Member
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    I love to get the big portobello mushrooms marinated in place of a burger on top of a 100 calorie english muffin, loaded with other veggies.
  • Starla_trotter
    Starla_trotter Posts: 2 Member
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    Never heard of mountain pies. Genius. And I think I would like to marinate and freeze some pork chops next time for camping. Thanks for all the great suggestions!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    When I'm camping, I don't just eat a bunch of junk food, but I also don't go out of my way to be ultra healthy...I don't require myself to be "on" all of the time.

    I eat typical camping food...grill burgers, brats, etc...I usually have some kind of veggie kabob side and some baked beans or something...camping is one of the only times I actually eat brats so I just enjoy that.

    I also usually make a big thing of chili or stew of some kind...usually for the first night because I don't really feel like cooking after I've set up camp and whatnot.

    Lunches are usually sandwiches and potato chips...it's also one of the only times I indulge in potato chips so I just enjoy every minute of it.

    Breakfast is typically scrambled eggs, hash browns, and breakfast sausage.

    We usually have a couple varieties of chips and bagged popcorn for snacking as well as trail mix and fruit.

    Beer starts flowing usually around 3PM. I always have a coffee stout before I start packing up camp on departure day.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    You can have a hamburger or hot dog, but limit your portion size. Consider going without the bun, or only 1/2 a bun, it saves a lot of calories & bulk. Maybe take some protein bars with you, yogurt, fresh veggies, if you can, so you have something else to fill up on.
  • kelly_stevens81
    kelly_stevens81 Posts: 79 Member
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    foil packs. put meat and veg with seasoning in foil an seal. put a few holes in the top and set on a rock (or on a grill plate if your lucky) near the fire, rotate every couple minutes for even cooking.
  • need2belean
    need2belean Posts: 353 Member
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    I just went floating this weekend and brought Mini crunchers (the mini cucumbers from aldi) and the mini sweet peppers from aldi for the float trip. You can make mini deli sandwiches which are great. Grapes and watermelon too.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 9,089 Member
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    If camping, and you have access to a dutch oven, we used to love making dutch oven chicken. Stoke a good fire in the morning (you're cold anyway), build up a good batch of coals. Shove the dutch oven directly into the coals, surrounding it as much as possible. Into the oven throw in pieces of chicken (with or without bones, doesn't matter), several potatoes cut into quarters, one whole onion (minus the peel), some carrots and any other veggies you want to include. Pour a couple cans of 7-Up, Sprite or some other lemon-lime soda over everything, seal and forget for several hours. The acids in the soda will soften up everything inside the dutch oven, not into mush but into uber-tender bites.

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