How to eat healthy camping?

[haleyscomet]

My DP and I spend quite a bit of time camping with friends. Whilst we often have a 'bush' roast, we generally only have a limited supply of fresh fruit and veges. A typcial breakfast camping would be eggs and bacon on bread cooked over the fire or camping gas stove. I have since brought my own cereal and longlife milk but lunches / snacks and dinner still seems to be an issue.

Any advice or tips?

[Maruschke]

Last time I went camping, we made a vegetable casserole a few days before hand and froze it in those plastic lunch box sized containers. We were only gone for a long weekend, and by the time we were ready for dinner they just needed a little reheating over the fire. It was great to not eat junk all weekend! We also bought lots of nuts with us, and snacked on fruit while driving to and from the camp spot (6 hour drive each way).

HTH .

[haleyscomet]

Yeah we tend to do the same though we have never made a casserole before hand so will definately have to try that! We are actually going camping tonight (once DP gets home from fishing) for a couple of days.

[DaintreeDream]

- Boiled Eggs (rather than fried) can also have this in a sandwich for lunch
- Tuna - as above can have this alone or in a sandwich for lunch
- My Fav - Baked Potato with Pinapple, cheese, beetroot just need small tins of them.
- Vegie burgers (Good source for vegies, can pre-make some and freeze instead of Hamburgers - cook on a grill instead of the plate - might need your imagination for this!)
- Granola Bars/Trail Bars
- Mixed Nuts/Trail Mix
- Cheese Sticks (They are supposed be refrigerated, but they last a day or two in a shaded pack just fine)
- 2 minute noodles (the ones in a cup, just add boiled water and eat!)

Good Luck, I will add if I think of anything else.

Deanne.

[haleyscomet]

Deanne you are an absolute legend! Thanks for that, its so simple yet I cant believe I never thought of it myself! Thanks for the ideas, I have all of that stuff here too . I never even thought of boiling the eggs, thanks for that, it makes me wonder about poaching eggs camping too .

Thanks again!!!

[Snacks]

Salad stuff should last a couple of days out of the fridge if you keep in a water-tight container.
What about soup?
Dried fruit? Fresh fruit - I love oranges when camping.
Omelette? (If you've gota frypan and a stove the world is your oyster )
If you go camping a lot, promise yourself that one day you'll treat yourselves to a fridge! You'll never look back
Have fun!

[Ginger]

baked beans!!!

[haleyscomet]

Yeah we do go camping a lot. Whilst we do take fruit and veges with us, we have found they tend to go off after a few days. We generally go camping for 4-5days sometimes longer. We tend to find camping for a cpl of days we are fine with stuff its when its 3 days or more we struggle. Well I do, he doesnt because to him when you are camping eat healthy isnt a priority LOL. I am trying to slowly change his ways haha

As for the fridge, we have one but its one of those ones that is only active whilst it is in the car. Its a pretty small one too, we are thinking though of getting a much larger one as a christmas present to ourselves. We are tired of having to do the 'ice' runs to local townships only to find most of the ice melts when we get back to base camp LOL! In most places we do camp we are not able to even do that since we camp in the Cathedral Mountains (Eildon is easy as are many of the areas around there since there are some townships within an hour or so drive away).

Thanks again!

[haleyscomet]

Rainforest - I hear you on the baked beans, they are awesome but not so awesome for our tent at least for my husbands stomach hahaha. Its a lovely way to wake up in the middle of the night hehe

[Snacks]

Ah, think of all the money you will save in ice and veges that have gone off! It is certainly a worthwhile investment
When we've gone desert camping and are stuck for fridge space we often use dehydrated veges. They are not too bad, as long as you mix them with stuff, LOL. And I prefer them to the tinned ones.
Do you take a stove? You could make a mean pasta and sauce or fried rice and mix in your tinned and/or dehydrated veg into that...
ETA: Don't know if you're pregnant or not, but IME if you take enough rum and coke or vodka & tonic you don't care too much about food and how good/bad it tastes.

[DaintreeDream]

No worries. They are just a few of the things I shove in a bag for myself when we go camping. I like to snack eat when we do.

Boiled eggs is my favorite thing at the moment, I boil 4 chuck them in the fridge still in the shell and can grab one on the run when DD has be on the go

Hope you have a great weekend. It is lovely weather for camping, wish I was going, we usually go towards Jamieson way camping, I love it.

Deanne.

[haleyscomet]

ETA: Don't know if you're pregnant or not, but IME if you take enough rum and coke or vodka & tonic you don't care too much about food and how good/bad it tastes.

HAHA yeah we tend to take veges with us, cook a bush roast (they are the BEST roasts you will ever have) and cook using cast iron pots / pans and use a bush stove. We havent had any probs cooking or eating things, its just that I am TRYING (note the word trying lol) to be healthy. We tend to eat roasts, (fish if we catch any) and veges (as long as they dont go off), lunch tends to be the issue and snacks throughout the day. We tend to eat waaaaaay too much meat and my DP says its a MUST when camping lol.

I think we best invest in a bigger fridge to take the things we want but you girls have given us a ton of ideas . Like I said before if its only a cpl days we are right its the 4 or more days we struggle, well I do, DP is more than happy with potatoes and steak in the fire lol

[haleyscomet]

Deanne - OMG we go to Jaimeson too!!! We didnt go there this weekend, we usually go up there if we are out for about 4-5days (those are the runs to town I was referring to actually!)

This weekend was awesome (apart from it being 28C at midnight still! We ended up going to Talarook

[TheBear]

We pre-prepare and then vacuum pack veg and meat before we go camping, it lasts much longer that way and can be cooked in the vac bag if need be. This is great for late night arrivals at camp sites where you can chuck dinner in a pot of boiling water whilst you set up tents and the rest of the gear.
We have a 60 liter fridge that lives in the back of the car, which has a second battery to run the fridge all the time - you can get portable battery packs that allow you to offload the fridge and keep it running for a day or so which will give you a bit more flexibility.
We poach eggs for brekkie...in fact I've been known to knock up an eggs benedict including the muffins for a campsite breakfast...works really well, if not great for the diet.

For lunch we'll usually make sandwiches from left over meat, and fresh salad from the fridge although I'll sometimes turn leftover rice or pasta into a salad for lunch too.

[haleyscomet]

Thanks for that tip! I had never thought of vacuum bagging some of the food