Vegan camping food ideas? Camping with a toddler too...

Not sure how long you're going for or how much actual cooking you're looking to do (instead of 'heat and eat'). Nut butters and crackers or pita (takes less room than bread), instant hot cereal, vegetarian soup or chili in a can is good, I love noodles so I usually take ramen packets. I'm convinced anything wrapped in tinfoil and cooked over fire outdoors tastes fantastic and it's easy to prep.

If you're taking an ice chest, making a batch of seitan to take along is a good option (lots of protein and not messy). Olives, if you like them, don't need to be kept cold. Think about making pancake mix, you can put all the dry stuff in one plastic bag and bring small containers of the liquid parts. Prep tofu or tempeh scramble in a bag and throw it in a pan when you get there.

I think the big thing is preparation and planning so you don't wind up in the woods (literally) with random ingredients that don't go together or that you don't want to eat. I did that a couple of times before I figured out what the problem was.

Happy camping.

We just got home last night from camping with our 5 and 7 year old daughters. We joked that people who camp with babies and toddlers deserve some sort of badge of honor. It is HARD work! We were amazed this year at how easy camping has become. Camping with a toddler can be done and a great time can be had, but I guess my suggestion would be to throw trying to time naps & bedtimes right out the window. The first night was always the worst for us, we were exhausted from travel/setup, and they were anxious about this new environment we were putting them to sleep in. HOWEVER, by the next day, it wasn't terribly hard to get them to sleep at nap time (unless it was unbearably hot), and equally easier to get them to sleep at night. I think it's the activity and the fresh air - sleeping was the easy part. Good luck!

As for food - I'm not vegan, but two of our favorite dishes this weekend that I really just brought to be on the healthier side but are vegan as far as I remember are broccoli slaw and texas caviar. Both recipes came off of Pinterest. The broccoli slaw was especially awesome - I finally finished it off for dinner tonight and I've pretty much been eating it regularly since Thursday. I'll be making it for our next trip out in two weeks!

I just went camping too and I did chili one night topped with avocado and organic chips and the other night (we only went for a weekend) I did corn tortillas on the cast iron pan to heat them up and filled them with beans, avocado, tomato, and cilantro and some sea salt. Yum! I did find vegan marshmallows at whole foods (still filled with nasty corn syrup though, bah! Dandies) just to have a smore at night with the kids with some dark chocolate (no dairy in it.) All super easy to pack/make...

I just went camping too and I did chili one night topped with avocado and organic chips and the other night (we only went for a weekend) I did corn tortillas on the cast iron pan to heat them up and filled them with beans, avocado, tomato, and cilantro and some sea salt. Yum! I did find vegan marshmallows at whole foods (still filled with nasty corn syrup though, bah! Dandies) just to have a smore at night with the kids with some dark chocolate (no dairy in it.) All super easy to pack/make...

Just an aside, but corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup aren't the same thing. Because of how marshmallows are made corn syrup is probably unavoidable, at least in vegan ones. I think Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows are a thousand times better than Dandies because they taste so much fresher so if I wanted to make some s'mores for a camping treat, that would be my personal choice. They do, however, also have corn syrup if you're avoiding corn. Um. And sugar. But I can't imagine the universe in which marshmallows would be low sugar since they're pretty much sugar + flavoring + a little something extra to stiffen the goo so they're not exactly a food one would be eating if avoiding sugar.

I don't know what your set up is going to be like. I've kind of compiled a list for camping with the idea that we'd be doing a bit of hiking and my husband and I would be carrying everything we needed so we have been figuring things out based on weight. Because of this I like things like dehydrated veggie chips, hummus or refried beans to which you can just add hot water, quinoa or amaranth with homemade seasoning packet, roasted chickpeas or beans, nuts, tofu jerky, quick cooking oats, trail mix, etc.

Oh and if you premake these burgers you will be in Vegan heaven!!! We served them at our BBQ and the meat eaters even loved them. Note they are baked, but I'm sure you could reheat them on the BBQ. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2011/10/colleens-chickpea-burgers-with-tahini-sauce.html

I just went camping too and I did chili one night topped with avocado and organic chips and the other night (we only went for a weekend) I did corn tortillas on the cast iron pan to heat them up and filled them with beans, avocado, tomato, and cilantro and some sea salt. Yum! I did find vegan marshmallows at whole foods (still filled with nasty corn syrup though, bah! Dandies) just to have a smore at night with the kids with some dark chocolate (no dairy in it.) All super easy to pack/make...

Just an aside, but corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup aren't the same thing. Because of how marshmallows are made corn syrup is probably unavoidable, at least in vegan ones. I think Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows are a thousand times better than Dandies because they taste so much fresher so if I wanted to make some s'mores for a camping treat, that would be my personal choice. They do, however, also have corn syrup if you're avoiding corn. Um. And sugar. But I can't imagine the universe in which marshmallows would be low sugar since they're pretty much sugar + flavoring + a little something extra to stiffen the goo so they're not exactly a food one would be eating if avoiding sugar.

I don't know what your set up is going to be like. I've kind of compiled a list for camping with the idea that we'd be doing a bit of hiking and my husband and I would be carrying everything we needed so we have been figuring things out based on weight. Because of this I like things like dehydrated veggie chips, hummus or refried beans to which you can just add hot water, quinoa or amaranth with homemade seasoning packet, roasted chickpeas or beans, nuts, tofu jerky, quick cooking oats, trail mix, etc.

I try not to eat any GMO foods or give my kids any GMO food, hence my distaste for corn syrup. Anything corn or soy that is not organic, GMO. Boo! But I guess once a year won't kill us. Next year I am making my own, I found a couple online recipes.