Fussy Eaters on the Move!

One thing Laura always has to do before leaving on a trip, is to work out what food to take. 

She usually finds it best to rough out the number of meals required plus snacks.  In reality, we don't find ourselves sitting down to three meals a day when we're camping, especially if we're doing a lot of driving and moving on to the next place after one night.  

So it usually pans out that breakfast is a cup of tea or coffee or juice and brunch is sandwiches in the car. Followed by something light in the afternoon, like noodles or cheese & fruit supplemented by some nuts or a muesli bar and then a "proper" meal around the campfire at night.  

What is most important though is to have water on hand at all times for everybody.  Nobody likes warm water (except the dogs, who honestly don't seem to care!), so we freeze small bottles of water in the van fridge overnight, and then use them as ice bricks in an Esky in the car.  If we are staying at a Caravan Park that has a camp kitchen, we will freeze lots of bottles of water in their fridge freezer overnight and stack the Esky in the morning! 

When you're on the road for a week or more, t's not easy to bring lots of fresh food, especially in the summer and you don't want to overfill the van fridge, or it won't work properly.  So we tend to substitute a lot of canned or bottled veggies and fruits.  Hard fruit and veg like onions, potatoes, apples and pears travel OK out of the fridge as long as they are protected from bumps and bruises.

We have found that a lot of "normal" household recipes can be recreated on the move and since one of us is an especially fussy eater (not mentioning any names...), it's best if we don't stray too far from what we know!

It's also here that I should note that cooking over the campfire, whilst desirable, is not always practical; and can be illegal, especially if you're travelling in fire-prone areas during a total fire ban!  So we often end up using the gas cooker either inside the van or on a table outside it.

Here are some of our ideas for easy, healthy food that even fussy eaters will gobble up!

Camping Nachos - Tinned Stagg chilli & tinned veg warmed up & served over corn chips & grated cheese

Spag Bol - Tinned mince, & tinned tomatoes & veg warmed up & served with spaghetti & dried parmesan 

Macaroni cheese (fussy eater favourite!) - frozen meal warmed up in a saucepan!

Hotdogs - tinned hotdogs boiled in a saucepan, served in a bun with cheese, fried onions & sauces

Burgers - Fresh mince combined with eggs, flattened & fried; served in a bun with lettuce, cheese & beetroot

Chicken Tacos - Canned chopped chicken with tinned sweetcorn & salsa, served in taco shells sprayed with oil and warmed gently for a few minutes in a saucepan with a lid

Curry & Rice: Tinned curry with rice & served with ready to eat pappadums

Chicken stirfry: Tinned chicken stirfried in a sachet of sauce, served with 2 minute noodles & ready to eat prawn crackers

Snags, beans and mash (either made from real spuds or Deb!)

Camping pizza - ready made pizza base sprayed with oil and cooked on one side in the frypay for a few minutes before turning over and then covering with your choice of toppings, put the lid on (or cover with foil) and cook for 10 minutes

Camping Shepherds pie - Tinned mince, tinned peas & mash

Breakfasts and Brunches:

Pancakes - dried mix with water, served with lemon, butter and sugar + maple syrup

Bacon & scrambled eggs

Ham & Cheese sandwiches, fried in a pan
Tinned tuna & corn in wraps

Snacks

Nuttella & crackers

Apples & pears

Chips or rice crackers

Pot Noodles

Fruit cups

Jelly cups

Mousse cups

Nuts

Trail mix

Muesli bars