Going Camping

[Kiki]

My family and I are going camping and I dont know what king of food to bring does anybody have any kind of suggestions. The comments would be really helpful I dont want to starve for 3 or 4 days while everybody else eats delishouse food.

[Ursa Major]

How about potatoes wrapped in tin foil to be baked in the ashes of the campfire? gluten-free bread to toast over the fire, gluten-free hot dogs, bacon and eggs for breakfast, or pancakes with jam or maple syrup, gluten-free pasta, take along some gluten-free cookies, fruit..........there are so many options!

If you have a jerky gun you could make your own jerky as well to take (I need to buy one, I keep forgetting ). I'm sure others have other suggestions. You definitely shouldn't have to starve, there is no good reason for that. You just need to plan well, that's all.

[gfp]

My family and I are going camping and I dont know what king of food to bring does anybody have any kind of suggestions. The comments would be really helpful I dont want to starve for 3 or 4 days while everybody else eats delishouse food.

It depends where you are camping.... I just dragged a stove around italy and didn't use it once.

Lots of salads and stuff, fresh fish (when by the coast) etc. etc.

[tarnalberry]

You can take almost anything with you - what kind of camping are you doing? (What will you have available for cooking?) If I go backpacking, I take jerky, dried fruits, nuts, and crackers, for the most part. On my last car camping trip, I took fresh fruit/veggies, sausage, chicken, and my grill.

(BTW, no jerky gun for beef jerky! just slice the meat thinly! really, it'll give you *way* better jerky.)

[Ursa Major]

You can take almost anything with you - what kind of camping are you doing? (What will you have available for cooking?) If I go backpacking, I take jerky, dried fruits, nuts, and crackers, for the most part. On my last car camping trip, I took fresh fruit/veggies, sausage, chicken, and my grill.

(BTW, no jerky gun for beef jerky! just slice the meat thinly! really, it'll give you *way* better jerky.)

Tiffany, could you please clarify exactly how you make that beef jerky? I want to try it, but really don't know how to do it!

[kabowman]

When we go camping, we do a combination - until a couple of years ago, I didn't even use a stove, just cooked over the fire.

But, if you are taking a stove, then the sky is the limit, if not, not too big a deal. Eggs, bacon, sausage, veggies, potatoes, hamburgers, meatballs (the kids actual favorite while camping), quick chili, steak, chicken, etc. we even do mac and cheese for the kids sometimes, in their own separate pot (we even have designated camping cookware!!!)

If you are cooking over a fire, and if you have time, for breakfast make you some sausage biscuits up in advance, wrap them in foil and freeze - these can be reheated over the fire in no time, for everyone. You can also do this with fried potatoes which are a nice addition to camping breakfast with eggs, sausage, etc.

Lunches can often be cold - I take frozen, cut up, pre-prepared/cooked at home chicken, and make myself chicken salad and chebe breads.

Dinners, any meat you can throw into foil with veggies and potatoes and cooked for about an hour, is great. Another thing we do (and still do, I just don't eat it because of the BBQ sauce) is put a bunch of chicken breasts in foil packet with a bottle of BBQ sauce and cook it for an hour. In another foil packet, we do potatoes with onions with my BBQ salt and olive oil and cook that for an hour - I always have some bags or plastic to save some to use for my breakfast - the kids eat cereal.

If you are hiking/walking in and can't take the cooler, then I don't know, haven't done that in about 15+ years and now not sure what I could actually eat.

We don't go camping to cook - however, due to my issues, cooking seems to take about 1-2 hours for dinner so we keep the rest of the meals light and easy. We all play cards, games, read and work on the campfire while cooking/eating.

[lonewolf]

We love camping and I do it gluten-free (except for sandwich bread for everyone else) for the whole family.

Breakfasts: Sausage, scrambled eggs, toast (even gluten-free bread tastes good toasted on a griddle on the fire with lots of butter), turkey bacon, fried potatoes, pancakes, cereal, applesauce

Lunches: Sandwiches (I wrap the deli meat in lettuce leaves), almond butter on rice cakes, tortilla chips and bean dip, chips, fruit, vegie sticks

Dinners: Hamburgers (wrap in lettuce or on toasted gluten-free bread), hotdogs, beans, chips, lentil soup (get it dehydrated from the the health food store), "camper stew"- precooked gr. turkey (or beef), onions, carrots, dehydrated potatoes, seasonings all cooked in a pot over the fire, tacos or taco salad, foil dinners-meat, carrots and potatoes cooked in foil packets

Snacks: Nuts, trail mix, Envirokidz cereal bars, chips, fruit, carrot sticks, homemade cookies, s'mores made on chocolate chip cookies (no need for graham crackers), jerkey, dried fruit

The possibilities are almost endless.

[angel-jd1]

Here is a thread from a few weeks ago on camping. You might want to check it out.

Open Original Shared Link

-Jessica

[Kiki]

People keep saying sausage what kind is good. This is the first time were going camping and its terrific that our first time is me being gluten free. The suggestions are amazing so0o what sausages are good and how do you keep everything cold were going for like 3 or 4 days so0o is that stuff going to be okay for that many days in a cooler? Im afraid of things going bad. So you think everything will be okay?

[kabowman]

I actually keep my own cooler for my ice for my drinks but keep most of my food in a shared cooler - 3 kids plus hubby grubbing through my ice is not something I need to worry about.

We buy lots and lots of ice and usually camp for a week or two at a time plus the occasional weekend. Buy ice in the morning and buy more in the evening but we usually (family of 5, often with a few friends along) have 3 or 4 coolers - new system, one small one for condiments, one for food that always stays at the campsight, one for drinks for everyone else, and my small/medium cooler with my drinks and my ice only. Nobody goes in but me. OK, I am a little paranoid.

Actually, I buy ground pork and make my own sausage, add my fixin's and let sit at least 12-24 hours. Then, I cook it all up and freeze it so I can use it each morning. But, I am sure there are commercial ones that you can get, maybe someone else can let you know.

Hope you have fun - I love to camp and it we always have fun, even when we have gone and it rained 7 days out of 10 one time. Once, a tornado went near the campsite but we didn't lose any trees (while hubby was off and it was just me and my boys) and our tents and stuff was fine, if a lot windblown.

I won't camp in the COLD!!!! Ever.

[tarnalberry]

Tiffany, could you please clarify exactly how you make that beef jerky? I want to try it, but really don't know how to do it!

My recipe is on my long recipe post, but the basic gist is as follows:

Buy a london broil, and put it in the freezer for a few hours. Whip up the marinade while that's getting cool and firm. Take it out and slice it into thin strip (about a 1/4" thick), then put the strips in a pan (or ziplock) with the marinade completely covering it. After letting it marinade (stir once or twice) for 24-72 hours, put in the oven on low (~200F) for 4-6 hours.

That's it.

Jerky guns require you to masticate the beef and give you a horrible consistency that isn't like real jerky. I can't stress how much I dislike them.

[lonewolf]

People keep saying sausage what kind is good. This is the first time were going camping and its terrific that our first time is me being gluten free. The suggestions are amazing so0o what sausages are good and how do you keep everything cold were going for like 3 or 4 days so0o is that stuff going to be okay for that many days in a cooler? Im afraid of things going bad. So you think everything will be okay?

I buy Isernio's Chicken breakfast sausage. I freeze ALL my meat and put it into the cooler, with ice, frozen. I even cook hamburgers ahead and freeze them, then just need to reheat them on the grill. I've never had a problem with anything spoiling. We usually go for 5 days and 4 nights. By the last night I do play it safe and we eat lentil soup that comes dehydrated. We've done longer trips in the past and taken more dehydrated food, but if you're close to somewhere with ice you can keep buying more and replenishing your cooler.

[kabowman]

My hubby tried a jerky gun, he just had to have it, and they didn't like the outcome either and it wasn't any cheaper since you need to buy the expensive hamburger to use it so there it sits, in the pantry - next to something of mine that I just had to have but really haven't use it yet either

[Ursa Major]

My recipe is on my long recipe post, but the basic gist is as follows:

Buy a london broil, and put it in the freezer for a few hours. Whip up the marinade while that's getting cool and firm. Take it out and slice it into thin strip (about a 1/4" thick), then put the strips in a pan (or ziplock) with the marinade completely covering it. After letting it marinade (stir once or twice) for 24-72 hours, put in the oven on low (~200F) for 4-6 hours.

That's it.

Jerky guns require you to masticate the beef and give you a horrible consistency that isn't like real jerky. I can't stress how much I dislike them.

Thanks, Tiffany. But I have no idea what you mean with a 'london broil'. And what kind of marinade do you use?

[tarnalberry]

Thanks, Tiffany. But I have no idea what you mean with a 'london broil'. And what kind of marinade do you use?

london broil is, colloquially, a cut of beef. technically (I didn't know this until today!), it's a method of cooking, but in all the stores I've been in, it's used to label a cut of beef. it's also (more properly) known as top round. (Open Original Shared Link) you could use other cuts of meat, and I've seen recipes call for brisket or flank steak, and I've been curious to try it with a tri tip roast, but you lose about 2/3 of the weight in raw beef when you dry it (hence the cost of jerky), so top round is often suggested since it's inexpensive and has a good amount of fat (necessary).

the marinade recipe is in the post with all my recipes, I believe. search around a little bit, I'm not sure where it is, but it's a combination of soy sauce, and spices. I can't read your sig in the "enter reply" mode, but I vaguely recall you may be intolerant of soy, and if that's the case, you may want to do some additional research - you may be able to create some variety of brine you can use instead. the salt component is very important to the preservation process, but the soy is not.

btw, you can have the butcher at your grocery store cut the meat very thin on their slicer (not the deli, the butcher) as well, though they may charge a small fee for it. it may still be worth it, as it is the hardest, and most inconsistent, part of making jerky.

[gfp]

I buy Isernio's Chicken breakfast sausage. I freeze ALL my meat and put it into the cooler, with ice, frozen. I even cook hamburgers ahead and freeze them, then just need to reheat them on the grill. I've never had a problem with anything spoiling. We usually go for 5 days and 4 nights. By the last night I do play it safe and we eat lentil soup that comes dehydrated. We've done longer trips in the past and taken more dehydrated food, but if you're close to somewhere with ice you can keep buying more and replenishing your cooler.

The other 'secret' with coolers is don't leave them open any longer than necassary. OK, its not a 'secret' as such but I think in general the importance is often overlooked and we keep wanting to check-up which just accelerates this. If you avoid opening the bag to check it lasts much longer... if you are worried then you can stick a small thermometer in the bag. When you open the cooler make as little disturbance as possible ... try and arrange the stuff in the order you want it and just if possible unzip a little and stick your hand in to retreive.

The second tip is the larger the ice-block the longer it will last. A 1kg block of ice will last much longer then 1kg of ice cubes. Usually a mix of the two is best with like a 1l coke bottle full of ice and packed ice around ...

Thirdly make sure everything is deep frozen to start off including the coolers themselves. Preferably left overnight in the freezer packed and with the lid seperate.

Use a flexible freezer bag... inside a hard cooler... put the big ice bottle and the stuff for the last days inside this at the bottom.

Remember keeping the stuff cool is the aim, it doesn't need to stay frozen till the last day.