Healthy Camping Food Ideas

Katie Wells Avatar

Reading Time: 5 minutes

This post contains affiliate links.

Read my affiliate policy.

healthy camping food
Wellness Mama » Blog » Travel » Healthy Camping Food Ideas

We’re big camping fans in our family. While camping has some impressive health benefits, it’s also a lot of fun and a great bonding experience. Planning healthy camping food for our camping and backpacking trips is one of the necessities of any camping trip. Here are some easy camping meals for your next trip.

Healthy Camping Meals for the Whole Family

Summer adventures are a favorite highlight for our family. All year long, we plan road trips, visits to family and friends’, cultural experience trips, and, one of our favorites, camping. Camping takes a lot of planning, especially when you’re with kids. Even more so when camping with a baby or really little ones (not so easy!).

While planning out healthy food while traveling is second nature for me, planning for healthy camping foods is more of a learning curve. Fortunately, many of our family’s favorites can be prepared ahead of time to make food prep out in the wild much simpler.

Supplies for Camping Recipes

Our family doesn’t do “glamping”, aka a comfy RV with all the amenities. You’re much more likely to find us miles into the woods, each carrying our own backpack with all the supplies. Even if you’re not that kind of camper, there are a few cooking necessities you’ll need for your next camping trip.

Cooler

For shorter camping trips or backpacking adventures on foot you might not want to lug a cooler and ice around. Since there’s no refrigeration in the wild though, it can be helpful sometimes for storing cold drinks, meats, and other refrigerated items.

Cast Iron Skillet and Oven

A cast iron dutch oven for camping is similar to the one in my kitchen but without the enamel coating. Almost anything you can bake in the oven or cook on a stovetop at home can be made in one of these dutch ovens.

Of course, you’ll find a cast iron skillet in my kitchen, but it does double duty on the campsite. These are great for camping breakfast foods like cheesy scrambled eggs with bell pepper and cilantro. Then pull it out for dinner and make some black bean and beef burritos with corn tortillas.

Cast Iron Cookers

These handy two-sided cookers are often used for sandwiches and french toast, but you can also cook healthy s’mores in them or veggies like zucchini and sweet potatoes. They’re not totally necessary, but can be nice to have on hand sometimes.

Grill Grate

This goes over the top of a campfire so you can set a pot or pan on it. You can also cook healthy recipes, like meat and veggies directly on the grate like you would any other grill. This granite grill has a lifetime warranty.

Stainless Steel Pot

This is a lighter-weight option for camp foods and is good when you’re making something that doesn’t work as well in cast iron. You can use them for soup or to hardboil eggs. These stainless steel pots are nickel free.

Foil Packets

These are a really popular option because you can wrap something in foil and set it in the coals or ashes to cook. While I don’t recommend aluminum foil (since it leaches metal into foods), there are a few options here. Sometimes I’ll wrap food in parchment paper first, then wrap that in aluminum. While it does make for easy clean up, almost anything that you can put in foil will also work in a cast iron skillet or dutch oven (my preference).

Camp Stove

Another item that’s not really a necessity, but some people like them. While I prefer cooking over an open campfire, sometimes a camping stove can be helpful. If you won’t have access to firewood or are camping in an area with a burn ban (due to unsafe conditions), then a camp stove is your best option. Keep in mind that you’ll need to haul enough propane tanks with you to cook with if using a camp stove.

Utensils

As much as some of us like eating with our fingers, utensils are a nice commodity to have on hand. We use these for serving, stirring, and eating the food. Here are some options:

  • Wooden or large metal spoons
  • Metal ladle
  • Spoons, forks, and knives (I like these 3 in 1 utensils)
  • Tongs
  • Metal skewers for kebabs

Healthy Camping Foods

Our family has been known to cook a rabbit we caught on the trail or steam some fish from the nearby lake. Although we do a lot of survival type camping meals, prepping food ahead of time is also helpful. So we can have a side dish of quinoa with chickpeas and a drizzle of olive oil with our fresh caught fish.

Here are some ideas for a food packing list on a family camping trip!

Snacks

Meal Ideas with Healthy Camping Foods

Some of these recipes work best if there’s a little prep work before hand. I don’t really want to tote a whole pantry full of baking ingredients with me to a campsite. However, it’s easy enough to whip up a batch of cookies, muffins, or granola bars before we leave on a trip. And recipes that call for a baking sheet work just as well in a cast iron skillet or dutch oven.

Breakfast

Lunch/Dinner Recipes

Most of these recipes are written for a stove top or oven, but they can easily be converted to campfire food. Simply use your pot, cast iron skillet, or grill grate as needed.

Dessert

While I’m not a huge sweets fan, sometimes it’s nice to end the day with a little (healthy!) treat.

There are so many delicious, healthy camping food ideas out there, that it’s hard to narrow it down for a camping trip! Hopefully, this list gives you some new meals to try on your next adventure.

What are your go-to camping foods? Anything else you would add to this list?

Sources

Become a VIP member!

Get access to my VIP newsletter with health tips, special deals, my free ebook on Seven Small Easy Habits and so much more!

Easy Habits ebook on ipad

Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

2 responses to “Healthy Camping Food Ideas”

  1. Jem Avatar

    I’m trying to find the least toxic tent for my family. Many are made with vinyl, polyester, etc. even the canvas tents have a vinyl floor. What tent is your family using? Thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *