This was my 3rd time camping on SCD and finally I managed to do it without getting stressed about food. I used to rely on pre-hardboiled eggs, Larabars, nut muffins, yogurt, plain meatballs, and burgers. I found the nut muffins were not appetizing when it was hot and gross outside. I also found burgers to be a pain because everyone wants to toast buns on the grill (that’s a little too much cross-contamination for my comfort) and it requires bringing too many jars of condiments. Our first camping trip when we did hamburgers, half our cooler was just bottles and jars. Meatballs are fine but again, not terribly appetizing.
I decided to come up with a plan that included simple breakfasts cooked in the cast iron pan on a stove burner that a friend brought, lunches that didn’t require cooking, and dinners on the grill. A few days ahead of time I made lots of kefir and yogurt. The day before, I pre-marinated some chicken and steaks (pictured above right). Then the day we left, I cut up some lettuce and veggies for a salad and made dressing separately in a jar. I bought sausages and bacon from local farmer. This wasn’t exactly ‘roughing it’ camping with all the cookware and gourmet food we had.
Breakfasts: we fried some bacon in the cast iron pan first, then fried eggs in the bacon grease. I had yogurt with blueberries and honey to round out my breakfast. Hong had his oatmeal with blueberries and drank some kefir. Yogurt, kefir, eggs, and bacon all keep very easily in a cooler without having to worry if it gets too warm.
Lunches: sausages that were already cooked but we grilled quickly, salad including lettuce, tomato, cucumber, snow peas, mushrooms, green onion, garlic stuffed olives, raw cheddar cheese, homemade salad dressing (olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, dijon mustard, salt & pepper)
Dinner 1: Marinated chicken drumsticks (tons of garlic, paprika, salt and pepper), grilled zucchini and carrots drizzled with olive oil and sea salt (above)
Dinner 2: Marinated steaks (red wine vinegar, drizzle honey, garlic, salt, pepper), mushrooms and onions sauteed in butter, roasted red peppers (above), fire baked sweet potato (below, not SCD-legal but I do ok with them on occasion)
Snacks: we were pretty full from the meals, but we also had plenty of snacks including grilled pineapple, cherries, plums, apples, nut mix, strawberry fruit roll ups, more yogurt, blueberries, cheddar cheese
So some things I’ll remember from this trip are to just bring basic meats that can be eaten on their own. Round out the meals with veggies that roast easily or can be eaten as salad. Cut up salad veggies before leaving and make some homemade salad dressing. Add some bacon, eggs, yogurt and fruit and it’s a pretty simple cooler full of SCD legal food.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
Thank you for your menu planning idea, it’s exactly what I was looking for. I have three different beef stocks made and frozen waiting for me to do something with them. They were incredibly gelatinous and healthy looking and now I can see how they’ll be put to use. I had a quick question. What is the breakfast you like to have every day?
Kat, I am with you. Just a little prep before the camping trip…simple meats and veggies that can be grilled, and we had a fabulous camping trip as well. I like the marinated chicken idea, will do that next time around. I almost had TOO little to do come cooking time on our last camping trip. We were waiting for coals to warm up and I found myself wandering the campsite wondering what to do. The days of chips and hot dogs are a thing of the past (although I have to figure out how to get rid of the s’mores craving….I seem to have a desire to cook something over the fire with sticks, need to work on that).
Oh boy, I just had a buns on the grill incident the other day. Your spread looks fantastic, but I think I’d have a hard time carrying all of that in a backpack, especially the pan!
@Tonia My breakfast is eggs, yogurt, berries, and sometimes bacon. For eggs I either do hardboiled mashed with mayonnaise, omelet with veggies, or fried eggs.
@Erin Lol, we cooked some extras like the mushrooms with onion, or helped our friends with dishes and things. Cooking something on sticks would be fun. I’ll have to think up something for next time. I’m assuming chestnuts would be great. I never like s’mores, but love marshmallows roasted to just the right golden crispiness.
@Butterpoweredbike That is certainly not a camping menu for backpacking :). Have you done dehydrated meals warmed up in one pot? I managed to dehydrate spaghetti sauce with ground beef in it. Was great warmed up, and really nice after a long day. Some dehydrated zucchini slices would make for good noodles too.
Boy have I been in the dark! I didn’t realize until today that you’ve moved your blog. It looks beautiful by the way! I’m keeping my blogger for now (but I’m getting pretty annoyed about all the spam I’ve been getting lately)
Oh man! You make camping look really easy! I haven’t gone in a long time because of the food situation. When I think back to the camping days it was always hotdogs, canned corn, and smores! So now I don’t feel so afraid. ahhahaha
@fernpixel I think I moved it while you were away. Blogger was ok until I blogged about China. Wow spam galore. Then I wanted to add pages and realized there was a limit of 10. Decided switching was going to happen and the earlier the better.
Camping on SCD can be scary. Especially when everyone suggests beef jerky, trail mix and dehydrated stuff. I don’t do as well on those things. It’s certainly a fun weekend trip to go on. I hope you try to sometime 🙂
Meals look great! Camping still scares me (haven’t gone in a couple years…since my daughter was born). But hoping to someday again. I like your idea…the simpler the better. Those condiments do take up a lot of space! 🙂
That all looks so delicious! I went camping for the 4th for the first time in years. We cooked some steaks and chicken over a fire which were awesome. We went into town and ate a couple of times too. I also brought 3 larabars and ate those since the other 4 people I were with are not even near primal.
I can’t wait to go camping with link minded people! It looks like tons of fun!
Hi Kat, just found your blog. I’m going backpacking with my SCD husband and am looking for recipe ideas. How did you dehydrate spaghetti sauce? Do you have a dehydrator? If yes, which one do you like best?
@Leslie I have the Excalibur dehydrator and love it. I just made a really thick spaghetti sauce (let it simmer a long time on the stove until thick) with all the vegetables cut up really small, and lean ground beef that I made sure wasn’t in clumps. I spooned about 2 cups onto a fruit leather sheet on a tray in the dehydrator. I set it to almost the warmest setting (150F or so) and left it overnight. In the morning it was almost done but I left it until it was a bit drier. Then you can break up the sheet of dehydrated sauce and put it in a baggie.
Too much oil/fat in the sauce will cause it to go bad quicker, so try using lean ground beef and don’t add oil to the sauce.
You might want to bring Pemmican as well. It’s probably the best SCD backpacking food since it’s very light and keeps at any temperature. You can also break off pieces of Pemmican to add to reconstituting soups, stews, sauce etc. You can easily make your own (http://www.breadandmoney.com/docs/pemmican2006.html), but can also buy it online.
In the US check out: http://www.grasslandbeef.com/Categories.bok?category=Grassland+Beef:Beef+Pemmican
In Canada check out: http://canawa.com/
My husband will go camping to France next summer with my two sons, and your article is exactly what they need. I mean of course then can eat some canned food, but your recipes look so easy and delicious that I will certainly show your article to my husband tonight. I didn’t know that the grilled pineapple could be eaten LOL. Thanks!