Need Healthy Camping Food Ideas

Bags of frozen fruit will thaw and stay cold for a great fruit salad, Popcorn and pretzels are lower in fat than chips. A watermelon is a great crowd pleaser, I also like to bring unsweetened applesauce and have cinnamon, brown sugar and artificial sweeteners for people to add as they wish.

Red peppers travel well. You can cut them into strips for eating raw or saute them and put them in burritos with refried beans and cheese. (Easy to make and eat.) Go easy on the cheese (and no sour cream) and you should be good to go.

- Can you prep everything beforehand and put in containers or plastic baggies? Slice up cucumbers and other veggies and make a dip and put it in a tupperwear container.

- Those eggs in a container (eggwhites?)

- Hard boiled eggs

- Trail Mix

- String cheese

- Google "healthy camping recipes" - there are tons!

- Just say no to rice krispies, but yes to caramel corn. In other words, just because the food there is awful doesn't mean you have to eat it, nor does it mean you have to deprive yourself. Moderation!

OK, I've heard of this but never have tried it. It is omelettes in a ziplock that you put all your ingredients in and then put in a pot of boiled water and it cooks the eggs! Everyone can customize their ziplocks!

Chili - with lots of beans! We always make a few days before then freeze in gallon bags. It helps keep cold till the day you warm up. We use a huge pot and warm over the fire. We are always succesful with it!

Have fun!

ETA - Carrie Yes it works. This is how we do it when we camp. Just make sure your baggie is sealed shut and good!

Asparagus with a little olive oil, salt & pepper, wrapped in foil and put into the embers. Has converted more than one non-veggie eater! Actually many veggies are wonderful that way. I did marinated portobello mushrooms over the fire. Lots of good suggestions about pre-chopping peppers and other good-traveling veggies, also bags of baby spinach - and then you can put them in eggs in the AM.

One thing someone taught me about camping - if you can take a lame version of something, the gourmet version travels just as well. So, no reason to take american cheese - take asiago, or a nice gouda! My friends and I eat better camping than we do at home! Just pre-prep, put produce into containers, and watch for things that bruise easily (peaches are not a good idea, oranges travel very well). In fact, carrot and celery stix and oranges taste AMAZING after a day of outdoor activity. Better than you'd ever believe.

What about egg beaters or just the whites for your breakfast? Turkey bacon vs regular bacon? Skewers with chicken and loads of veg for dinner?

Instead of salad, what about fruit? Fruit holds up well before it's cut. You can make snacks of apples and pears while they snack on Swedish fish.

You might also limit what goes along. Bring the fish, but only one small bag. Get baked vs fried chips. Etc.

Grapes, apples, less ripe pears, peaches, and other whole firm fruits travel well. If you want "healthy" syrup, mash up some strawberries with a bit of sugar (it's a natural preservative). Tomatoes will travel well too if you are careful with them. Other than that, my suggestion is to quietly avoid all the extra's (soda, rice krispy treats, etc) and practice good portion control. If someone asks why you are not partaking, just say you don't feel like it at the moment.

We camp a lot. We have to worry a lot about things staying cold here in TExas. A few things. Block ice keeps things colder for longer. Fill a few 2 liter bottles with water and freeze them. Add these to your cooler. It will help keep things colder longer. As an added bonus, you'll have cold water on your last day of camping to drink. Most things can be chopped and prepared ahead of time. I like to double ziplock bag things to keep water from leaking into them. (The outside bags can often be reused. Make and freeze ahead of time. Chilis and soups can often be prepared and frozen. Then when it's time to eat you are really just warming something up.

IF it's communal meals, is there any chance of compromise? Whole wheat pancakes and turkey bacon? Egg whites instead of the whole egg? Biscuit with preserves instead of gravy?

Some other meal ideas-

Fajitas. You can place chicken breasts in a ziplock bag with the marinade. THe veggies can be chopped and ready to go before you leave. Grill it up and put it all in a tortilla.

Grilled chicken sandwiches or wraps on whole wheat

Fruit is a great breakfast. You can also prepackage a healthy cold cereal. If you can get hot water, oatmeal is a great breakfast too.

White chili

Kabobs

Quesadillas are easy to make in a skillet. We make one here with chicken, zucchini and corn. The insides can be prepared before you go and then heat it up in the tortilla on site.

Salads can be made ahead of time. They may wilt a little, but it'll be fine. Make sure to cut the lettuce with a plastic lettuce knife. Metal reacts with salad and it will brown faster.

Bean and rice burritos. Just make the fillings ahead of time and assemble at camp. WE have found the snack packs of guacamole to be perfect for camping. They are smaller, so you don't have a huge open container to keep up with all weekend.

Grilled corn on the cob.

Grilled fish. A little lemon and dill. Yum.

Hobo dinners. We make ours with carrots, potatoes and ground beef, but those ingredients can easily be changed for other ideas

Grilled pineapple or peaches and baked apples are a great dessert option.

HTH! Have fun!

If you want a healthy sweet snack. I've got some for you for you!! Take a banana, and lay it on it's side. Make a little slit in the skin. (Like a strip, you can pull pack, but leave it attached at one end. Put a few pieces of dark chocolate under the skin and put the skin over it. (Chocolate does great in a cooler.) Set it over the grill, but not where the flames can hit it...more like on the corner of the grill. Let it melt. Eat it with a spoon, it's delicious!! Take a peach or tangerine, cut it in half, and take the pit out. Pit a marshmallow in the part the pit was in, sprinkle cinnamon and brown sugar over it, wrap in foil, place on grill, or over a grate on the campfire.

I love camping. I'm so jealous!

If the food is just for you, fruit is always good. They come in their own packaging and most don't have to be cold. If you have access to a grill then try these fruits grilled - plantains, peaches, apples, pears, and nectarines (off the top of my head). They are all awesome as a side dish with meat.

Sticks of celery and carrots always keep well for me even on camping trips.

Trail mix is good - nuts (almonds work best for me) & dried fruit (no sugar added), yogurt covered raisins, and small pretzels make for a good portable snack.

I'd bring watermelon, canteloupes, honey dew, mangoes, oranges, tangerines, apples. All of those travel well and can be just kept cool and not cold.

I'd make chili like another posted said and either freeze it or bring the ingredients. When I make chicken chili, the only must-be-cold item is the chicken. All of the other ingredients can be transported warm (camping temperature). I do mine in a crock pot at home, but I have used a dutch oven on campouts with the boy scouts. (I was a scout master.) You can go to a BSA (Boy Scouts of America) office and buy a scout camp out cook book for lots of campout cookery ideas.

If your fellow campers are junk food addicts, your only hope is to bring your own healthy stuff.

Good luck to you and yours.