The Camping Celiac

Happy Tuesday, everyone! We had a fantastic long weekend this past weekend, taking our tent trailer out for the first time this year. LOVED IT! It rained, was cooler, but we had a great, relaxing weekend. This is our 5th year of camping, and I tell you, it gets so much easier as the kids get older. Our daughter was 4 when we started camping, and her brother was 1 1/2. They are now 8 & 5, and it’s so much fun to have them help, and watch them entertain each other. So, for those with little kids, keep at it, it gets easier each year. We no longer pack: diapers, play pen, stroller, bike trailer, etc, and we wonder how we ever fit all that in the van in the first place!

Anyway, while we were there, and I was starting to get lunch ready, I thought…I should document what I eat when camping, to give others on a gluten-free diet an idea of things that they can pack and take with them. We do have a small fridge in the camper, as well as a portable electric cooler. No freezer, and limited space, but we’re never left hungry. So, I hope you don’t mind, I’ll be sharing what we eat when we do a camping weekend, and maybe you guys can chip in with some ideas for me as well. 🙂

Day 1

Supper: Pasta salad, made with spiral corn pasta, eggs, tomato, cucumber, cheddar cheese, and a simple Miracle Whip, milk, salt, pepper, onion powder and dill dressing. Made and mixed ahead, and stored in a large zipper seal bag, they store easier in the fridges, as you don’t have to worry about containers fitting nicely. Plus, they can be thrown out when empty.

Night Snack: Chocolate Chip “S’mores”. I baked a batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies before we left, and we used 2 of them and sandwiched 2 roasted marshmallows between them. YUM!

Day 2

Breakfast:
Pancakes with cottage cheese and syrup. Cut up banana and some cheese curds. I mix up the dry ingredients in a resealable bag, take along 1 dozen eggs and use 2 eggs for this breakfast, and have the buttermilk (or milk & lemon juice) measured out in a mason jar.

Lunch:

Pizza made on the grill. I baked up a batch of Gluten Free Sandwich Wraps before leaving, cut it into 4, and didn’t store in the fridge, just in the dry goods bin. Brought a tin of pizza sauce and some shredded cheese. Plain cheese pizza. Medium heat on the grill, placed on foil, and in a few minutes everything was warm & ready to eat. We also had Popcorn Twists.

Supper:

For supper we had leftover pastas salad and BBQ beef ring. The beef ring is made locally, by a small company, and they make it gluten-free just for those of us on a gluten-free diet. Wish they’d make their in-store hot dogs gluten-free too.

Night Snack: None

Day 3

Breakfast:

I had boiled some baby potatoes, and let them cool before packaging them in another resealable bag. This way, at the campsite, I only needed to cut & brown the potatoes, instead of cooking from raw. So, we used the last 10 eggs from our dozen, made scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, cheese curds and bananas for breakfast. That’ll get you through your morning hike!

Hiking Snack: Granola Bars

Lunch:

We roasted all-beef hot dogs (I ate mine without a bun), popcorn twists, and a small seedless watermelon. Love taking the small watermelons along, because my family can usually eat one in 2 meals, and they don’t need refrigeration before being cut, so it doesn’t take up fridge space. By the time we eat ours, there is usually some freed up space in the fridges already.

Supper: 

We had a light supper today, as no one was really hungry. Fresh pineapple (again, love it, because it doesn’t take up fridge space, but is so good!), cheese curds and gluten free muffins. I can’t give you the muffin recipe yet, as it is a recipe that I tested for a friend for her upcoming Gluten-Free Cookbook. (yeah! And yes, they were GOOD!)

Night Snack:

Banana Boats! Everyone LOVED these. I made them on the BBQ, as our fire was just getting started, and was flames and not coals. I stuffed them with cut up chocolate bars and marshmallows, and they were delicious!

Day 4

Breakfast:

Cold cereal day. This is pack-out day, so we keep things quick & simple. I had gluten-free cereal, yogurt & coffee. Enough to get started for the day.

Hiking Snack: Granola Bars, everyone had the GF bars that I made, and liked them. Woohoo!

Lunch: I didn’t get a pic, but we just had peanut butter, honey and banana sandwiches, and finished off a few other leftovers, before finishing our site clean up.

I saw this dirty van at the trail head of one of the hikes we did…I thought it was so cool, I had to get a picture. Now, if someone would draw this on my dirty back window instead of “Wash Me”, I’d be pretty pleased.