Monday, July 30, 2012

Summer Cooking – Healthy Camping Recipes


Camping trips are a great way for the family to spend time together relaxing in beautiful places. When you’re camping, you don’t want to pack everything but the kitchen sink in order to have a nutritious meal. It’s more important to enjoy yourself rather than spending all of your time preparing and cleaning up after each meal.

You don’t have to stick with potato chips and hot dogs to keep it easy – the best camping food is quick and healthy. If you’re taking an RV that makes cooking a whole lot easier but you can get creative even if your tent camping. Remember to pack a camp stove and lighter or make sure campfires are permitted where you’re going.

Provide easy-to-snack-on fruits and veggies like baby carrots, celery sticks, snap pea pods, grapes, bananas, oranges, and apples. Pair them with protein rich food like nut butters (peanut, almond, cashew) and cheese. Muffins provide good nutrition, while also being a quick treat. You can find recipes online with oatmeal, fruit, and nuts, rather than just a sugar-filled cake.

If you’re backpacking, the lighter the load the better. This is a great opportunity to trade out the older MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) from your emergency kits. They make quick meals and it gives you a chance to update your emergency kit. Make sure you have new ones to place immediately into your emergency kit.

Check out these simple ideas for nutritious meals using one pot and one pan.

Breakfast: Heat water in the pot for hot drinks like coffee, tea and cocoa. Then use the leftover water for instant oatmeal for breakfast. Serve in large paper cups so clean up is a breeze. Smashed banana, raisins, and chopped nuts are a welcome addition to hot cereal.

Lunch: Sandwiches for lunch are quick and easy. A loaf of bread, sliced meat and cheese, small bottle of sandwich spread, lettuce and tomato won’t take up too much room.

Dinner: Cook pasta in your pot. Drain and cover with a can of sauce and some frozen, pre-cooked meatballs until heated. (Cans are safer to pack than glass jars.) You can stir fry veggies in the pan with a splash of olive oil or butter, garlic salt and pepper.

Get creative and make whole dinners like thick stews in your pan. Spray pan with cooking spray. Cook ground meat first. Slice vegetables to similar sizes. Denser vegetable like carrots and potatoes should be slightly thinner slices than quick cooking veggies like summer squash, sweet peppers or mushrooms. Add to pan. Pour on a can of favorite marinara sauce and cook until veggies are tender. Season it with salt and pepper.

There’s just something about camping that makes simple foods taste so good. It reminds us that we are happier when our lives aren’t so complicated. If you live in the Silicon Valley, Simplify’s team of professionals know how to help you simplify day-to-day chores so you can enjoy an uncomplicated life all year long. Contact us for a complimentary consultation.

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