When it’s time to go grocery shopping for a camping trip, my husband, Mark, is the one in charge because, as he puts it, “I’m the best at buying lots of snacks!” And it’s true, I’m not known for my junk food shopping abilities. I’m more of a healthy camping meals kind of gal.
And while I do like to indulge in things like potato chips (Black Pepper Kettle Chips – yum!!) and beer while sitting around the campfire, it’s also important to me to try to balance that out with some healthy camping meals.
Plus, camping season coincides perfectly with the gardening season, which means if you’re a gardener then you likely had to go out to harvest a bunch of veggies before you left on your trip. Why not bring them with you and incorporate them into your fireside meals instead of leaving them home to languish in the fridge?
I thought I’d share a breakfast, lunch, and dinner from a recent camping trip that highlights garden fresh fruits and veggies to keep you healthy while traveling, and still leaves plenty of room for indulging in your favorite vacation junk food between meals!
Healthy Camping Meals for Veggie Lovers
Breakfast – Oatmeal with Front Yard Fruit
You know how when you’re camping there are things you eat that taste great in the moment, but you would never whip up for a meal at home? (I’m looking at you Mac n’ Cheese with refried beans and salsa…) This is my relationship with oatmeal – yummy camping breakfast, but rarely a morning choice outside the campsite.
So, I usually need a little extra enticement to happily wake up to a bowl of oatmeal while camping. This is where the oatmeal toppings come in – they can make or break a bowl!
If you’re a gardener who grows fruit in your yard, oatmeal is the perfect reason to bring some of the harvest along.
Before we left for our trip we spent 30 minutes harvesting serviceberries and cherries to throw in the cooler. You can also make a trip to the farmers market and pick up a quart of strawberries or other seasonal fruit.
To make the oatmeal we boil water on our campstove and mixed in whole oats with some salt. While that’s cooking we slice up the fruit and dig out the brown sugar, almond butter, and raisins.
When the oats were ready we each created our Front Yard Fruit bowl to our own liking. (See Mark eating his in the photo at the top of this post.)
Other topping options could include local maple syrup or honey, and other nuts like almonds or walnuts.
Lunch – Veggie Hummus Wraps
A few winters ago my sister joined Mark and I on a trip to New Zealand for two weeks. About half way through the trip she exclaimed, “I can’t eat another hummus wrap!”
My husband and I looked at each other with confused looks. Who gets sick of hummus wraps?
Veggie hummus wraps are our go to travel food, and camping trips are no exception. They’re so versatile – you can eat them in the car, on a plane, in a train…or on a 12 mile hike, which is exactly what we did on this day.
And, you can use whatever veggies are in season to mix in, and eat alongside, your wraps. Mark makes our hummus (he uses a mash up recipe he’s developed over the years) and we often mix it with homemade garlic scape pesto from the garden.
The toppings we chose for this trip included olives, quick pickled radishes, and the last of our spring arugula.
Since we were going on a long hike along Lake Superior we also brought carrots, potato chips, and peas we picked from our garden before we left.
If it’s later in the gardening season we would include peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, or other warm weather vegetables instead of these spring picks.
Here’s me on our lunch stop about five miles into our hike. The view was amazing!
Dinner – Asian Inspired Peanut Noodles
On of the things we’ve learned over many years of camping is that we like to do as much meal prep as possible before we leave. This allows us to relax more while we’re on vacation and not feel like we’re cooking as much as we do at home. Which is a lot!
The key to this recipe is to make the peanut sauce before you leave on your trip. Mark used the Peanut Sesame Dressing from this recipe by one of my favorite food bloggers, Cookie and Kate, and stored it in a wide mouth mason jar in the cooler. Sometimes I like to use almond butter in place of the peanut butter.
We bought some Udon noodles and tofu at the store, but you could use your favorite pasta, and meat or fish of your choice. We rounded it out with veggies from our garden: black radishes, Japanese turnips, snow peas, and kale. These can change with the seasonal harvest as well.
Add the vegetables at the end of cooking the noodles to soften them a bit.
First, I sauteed the cubed tofu in olive oil in a small cast iron pan until it was brown. While that was happening I chopped up the veggies so they were ready to go.
Then, I brought a pot of water to boil on the campstove and put the noodles in to cook. Near the end of their cooking time I added the turnips and radishes, then the peas, then the kale right at the end so they were all slightly cooked by the time the pasta was finished.
I then drained the pot, mixed in the peanut sauce, and we sat down by the fire to eat our healthy camping meal!
All three of these healthy camping meal ideas start with a simple base – oatmeal, hummus wraps, or peanut noodles – and allow you to build upon them with whatever fruits or vegetables you have coming out of your garden or your local farmers market.
Blueberries, raspberries, or sliced peaches would each be perfect for the oatmeal. Fresh summer vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, or peppers make a tasty addition to hummus wraps. And green beans, zucchini, and eggplant could take the place of the spring vegetables in the peanut noodle dish.
The amazing view from our campsite over Lake Superior.
It can be challenging to eat healthy while on vacation, but making the extra effort to include as many fruits and vegetables into your meals as possible can make those times when you do eat French fries and ice cream for dinner feel more like a deserved vacation treat!
What are your favorite travel meals? Share with us in the comments.
Want more garden fresh recipe ideas?
How to Make a Massaged Kale Salad
Flavorful Fall Recipes From the Garden
SHARE IT ON PINTEREST
Comments
Combining camping with gardening. Two of my favorite activities. Excellent blog article 🙂
Thanks, Mike! Two of my favorite things as well. Thanks for stopping by.