What to eat at camp? Food to take to camp

In our comprehensive guide, we have listed the characteristics, nutritional values and types of foods that should be taken to the camp.

Elif Aksüt
Elif Aksüt 2022-09-29
What to eat at camp? Food to take to camp

While embracing freedom, the camping plans, where we will get rid of the tiring routines of the metropolis with a fury, adorn everyone's dreams. Especially with a return to nature, which we appreciate today, the value of camping begins to be understood. When we say “camping”, we mean a routine in which difficulties are overcome, silence is rested on the outskirts of nature and our body is renewed with clean oxygen. When going on a camping holiday that you have dreamed of throughout the year, it is necessary to make every preparation completely so that it is worth the long wait. While preparing for the camp, essential equipment such as tent, mat, light source, clothes and food are the indispensable parts of the bag.

We want our energy to stay high all the time while we camp. Therefore, we bring foods rich in values ​​with us to keep our energy high. However, when we do not act on food, we may find ourselves carrying a very heavy backpack and then returning many dishes. One of the conditions that we should pay attention to the food we take with us when we go to the camp is public transportation. When you go to popular camping routes, you can find many foods that will significantly satisfy your daily hunger needs. Moreover, even when there is no restaurant or kitchen in private facilities, you can target the nearest market or grocery store. However, in a camping experience where you set off by public transport, every material you put in your bag must be complete due to the distance from the center and the seclusion of the region.

what-to-eat-at-camp
What to eat at camp

As Campalow, “What to eat in a tent camp?” or “What do campers eat?” We have prepared a comprehensive list of camping foods for you that we are looking for answers to the questions named. In our aforementioned guide, we have targeted adventurous souls who will use public transport or make summer and winter camps far from their living centers, as well as those who will go camping by private vehicle. Before you set off for the camp, you can take a look at our guide to feel very comfortable about eating and prepare a complete bag.

What to Consider When Choosing Camp Foods?

Before you set off for an adventurous camping experience in the lap of nature, there are many details that you need to pay attention to in order to spend the process in the most comfortable way. If you pay attention to the aforementioned details, you can take a step on a camping holiday that will not be forgotten throughout the year and whose path will be observed in the new season. When it comes to the equipment to be put in the bag when going camping, one of the most important issues is camping food. The food we take to the camp can give a lot of energy depending on its nutritional value and different weather conditions, and it can cause a bad feeling if it is consumed at the wrong time. For this reason, when choosing camping foods, every detail of which requires special attention, first of all, seasonal criteria and nutritional values ​​of the foods should be considered.

Season

season
Season

Seasonal features are one of the most important things you should pay attention to in terms of equipment supply and shopping while going camping. For example, if you prefer a hot summer season to go camping, you can include the cooler in the bag. Likewise, if you prefer the winter season for camping, you can see the air as a natural cooler and keep a heat source in your bag. The seasonal changes in question become an important criterion in meals as well as in every camping equipment. When choosing the foods to be taken to the camp, it is necessary to prepare a separate plan for the summer and winter seasons.

  • Summer Camp: When heading to a summer camp, you should be prepared for scorching heat and steep sun rays. In this case, the food you take with you for the camp must also be of a criterion that will not spoil very quickly. You can take a cooler with you in order not to encounter such problems as deterioration. For the period when you can't bring a cooler and you camp far away from the living areas, you can take foods with shorter digestion time and light foods. While going to the summer camp, you can take foods such as banana, carrot, quince and apple with you for foods that will not tire your digestive system and will keep you full for a long time while quenching your hunger during the day. In addition, we recommend that you have a water source with you at the summer camp where you will spend a lot of energy.
  • Winter Camp: While you are camping in a sunny area, you should choose foods that will ease your digestion, and you need to pay extra attention during the winter camp. In winter camp, you are a little luckier in terms of equipment than in the summer season. You can encounter a natural cooler in nature. Therefore, it becomes possible to consume foods that need to be kept cold without spoiling. In order to stay warm during the winter camp, you can choose foods that are high in protein and calories, and you can add those that take longer to digest to the list. At this point, you can choose products with high nutritional value such as fish, chicken, bread, meatballs, meat, cheese and eggs. While drinking water in the winter camp, you should consume it slowly in order not to tire the liver too much. Overworking the liver can cause the urge to sleep. At the same time, in very cold weather, you should not consume excessive salt in meals and should not drink milk.

Nutritional Values

nutritional-values
Nutritional Values

When going on a secluded camping holiday, you don't always need to consume the necessary nutrients. Of course, at some moments, you can make small getaways from delicious food. However, this is not what we mean when we say nutritional values. When choosing food for an adventurous camping experience where you will set off with a backpack, you should be careful to choose products that are quite light and nutritious. For example, when you crave a snack in the evening, you can take chocolate with you instead of chips or biscuits for a product that will meet the deficiency. Since chocolate has a high nutritional value and a light load, it will more than meet your request.

When you take your camping food and set off, you should pay attention to carrying less and self-loading. In this direction, when you put a food with low nutritional value in your bag, it will take up more space and can be returned without being consumed during the camping period. This may cause you to carry unnecessary loads during both the departure and the return. Therefore, you can check the nutritional values ​​to decide the necessity of the food you will put in your bag while going camping. After learning the nutritional values ​​of foods, you can make your load very comfortable by placing a planned backpack. In order to place your backpack in the most correct way while going to the camp, you can take a look at the guide called "Camping Bag Tricks", which we discussed earlier on our blog page.

Camp Type

camp-type
Camp Type

Before you set off for a camp that you have dreamed of for a long time, you need to decide on the details of your holiday and choose equipment accordingly. At this point, the types of camping are separated from each other as trekking, short-term or survival. For detailed information about camp types, “What are the camp types?” You can evaluate our article.

  • Hiking Camp: Accommodation is not the main purpose in camp types where trekking is the theme. The aim of the camping in question is to see the different miracles of nature with the naked eye and to take up photography in order to immortalize the valuable points. In trekking camps, tents are usually set up in various areas to relax. Therefore, the most valuable equipment on the way to the trekking camp is a backpack. Basic necessities are placed in the backpack, which are light enough not to tire during the nature walk. While balancing the amount of energy we will spend while choosing food for the trekking camp, it is necessary to choose foods that will positively affect our psychology. For this, you can have snack foods such as chocolate, nutritious cereals and nuts with high nutritional value. In addition, you can choose durable canned products to avoid dealing with food details during the walk.
  • Short-Term Camping: Unlike trekking, the purpose of short-term camping is accommodation instead of travel. For this reason, short-term camps can be made on a free camping route as well as in paid private facilities. While doing your short-term camp at a paid facility, you can meet many food needs from private businesses such as markets, grocery stores and restaurants in the surrounding area. In addition, if you are setting up your tent in a free and secluded spot for short-term camping, you should pay extra attention to the food you take. While camping at a point away from the living areas where there are no facilities, you can put foods such as tarhana, eggs or pasta that will calm your hunger for a long time during the day. Foods such as tarhana and pasta help you stay full for a long time thanks to the flour, milk and egg content. You can obtain these products in canned or ready-made form from the markets.
  • Survival Camp: When making a survival camp in nature, you have to meet your food and derivative needs from nature itself. However, you should remember that you must have extensive experience in order to go to the survival camp. Before going to the survival camp, you should get a detailed knowledge of the wilderness survival guide. You can consume foods such as dandelion, lamb's ear, watercress, rosehip, blackberry and strawberry raw in nature. However, we recommend that you avoid eating plants with mushrooms, glossy leaves and milky sap in nature.

What are the characteristics of the foods to be brought to the camp?

nutritional-properties
Nutritional Properties

While you are on your way to a camp that will make your dreams come true, the nutritional values ​​of the food you take with you should be important to you. Otherwise, by taking too much food with you, you will both increase the load you carry and cause an unbalanced diet. This situation brings with it low energy, unhappiness and sleepiness. The foods you take with you for the camp should meet your carbohydrate, protein and energy needs in a balanced way in terms of values. In this way, you can have a happy psychology by preserving your energy during the camp period. You can evaluate the food you will take to the camp in different categories as easily transportable, non-perishable, satisfying and as a bonus.

  • Easy-to-Carry Foods: Having less load to carry in your backpack will make the journey more comfortable in both summer and winter camps. At the same time, easily transportable foods will not take up too much space in the bag, allowing you to fit more items in the bag at the same time. Therefore, you can choose packaged foods or canned products to carry your backpack comfortably and take hearty foods with you. Packaged and canned products do not take up much space and are less likely to spoil. In this way, it offers a comfortable and durable camping meal for you.
  • Products that Will Not Perish Immediately: Even if it is winter when you go camping, some foods spoil quickly and start to produce bacteria on them. It may be inconvenient to prefer foods such as chicken and meat, especially in the summer heat. Considering the possibility of the weather being cold or hot, you can take with you vacuumed and canned foods that will not spoil easily. In addition to canned and vacuum-packed products, you can add non-perishable foods such as potatoes, legumes and nuts to your bag when you go camping.
nutritional-properties-1
Nutritional Properties-1
  • Hearty Foods: The best decision you will make when going on a camping trip will be to take light and satisfying foods with you. Foods that are light in size and high in nutrients will satisfy your hunger in a short time during the day and do not cause any difficulty during transportation. You can take potatoes, eggs, yoghurt, dried legumes, chocolate, nuts and oatmeal with you as a satisfying team when you go to the camp.
  • Bonus: You need to pay attention to the amount of food you take in order not to carry food on the way back to the camp. However, in this case, there may be a process where you will apply an exception. Even though everything goes as you want during the camp, when you come back, you may encounter negative weather conditions, health problems or roadworks. In this case, you need to bring spare food with you in order not to go hungry during the extra day you stay. Therefore, you can take a few canned products with you so that they do not take up much space and be prepared for adverse conditions.

What Foods Are Taken to the Camp?

In a camping experience where you need to be less picky about food, there are some products that you should definitely take with you to both have a balanced diet and meet the daily energy dose. If you preserve the products in question correctly, you will not only have a balanced diet during the camp, but you can also prepare yourself a delicious meal.

Chocolate

chocolate
Chocolate

Indispensable for all of us, chocolate is a high energy source. It has a size of 70 grams, that is, there are approximately 370 calories in a package of chocolate. Moreover, the cocoa in chocolate meets the nutritional values ​​you need during the day to a large extent, thanks to its rich mineral and antioxidant source content. You can consume chocolate during critical periods when you feel that the energy is low by keeping it with you, especially in the camps where you will go for a long walk. Nuts such as almonds, pistachios or walnuts in chocolate also create an energy source for you. For this reason, when purchasing chocolate, you can choose the types that contain nuts.

Oatmeal

oatmeal
Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a product that most people do not like to taste, but that meets the majority of your daily nutritional needs. You can easily consume oatmeal, which is very rich in fiber and calories, with extra nutrients such as milk, fruit, water, sugar, honey and yogurt. It also takes a very short time to prepare oatmeal, which you can consume at every meal of the day. Therefore, you can both save space and include a rich food in your meal by taking oatmeal with you. Oatmeal contains 66.27 grams of carbohydrates, 16.89 grams of protein, 6.9 grams of fat, 10.6 grams of fiber in 100 grams of Oatmeal. Therefore, we can say that oatmeal will meet most of your calcium, protein and fiber needs throughout the day.

Tarhana

tarhana
Tarhana

One of the foods known as a source of healing thanks to its miracles from past to present is tarhana. Tarhana soup, which is obtained from products such as yogurt, yeast, tomato, pepper, onion and mint, relieves your hunger in a short time and helps you stay full for a long time thanks to its high nutritional values. At the same time, tarhana is easily digested and strengthens the immune system and eliminates the possibility of getting sick during the camp. Tarhana is also very easy to carry. You can safely bring tarhana, which you will consume as soup in the camp, in a sealed bag.

Pasta

pasta
Pasta

When it comes to a hearty meal that you can prepare in a short time at the camp, pasta takes its place at the top of the list. Values ​​such as milk, flour and oil in pasta help you feel full for a long time after consuming it. In addition, you can prepare the pasta in a very short time in a boiled water. As an alternative to pasta, you can include noodles rich in eggs, milk and flour. Thanks to the highly nutritious pasta and noodles, you can have a high energy while getting the majority of your daily nutritional needs.

Old Cheddar

old-cheddar
Old Cheddar

If you can't have breakfast without cheese and olives, you can include old Cheddar cheese in your camping bag. The old cheese, which is very useful in terms of nutrition, has a very high durability at room temperature. Thus, you can safely consume the old cheddar for every breakfast during your camp. As a usage suggestion, you can vacuum the product in the market by calculating the amount of cheese you will consume during your stay at the camp. In this way, the durability of the old cheese will increase. If you want cheese as well as cheddar for your breakfast, you can choose goat cheese, which can last for 2-3 days without spoiling. However, we can still recommend aged cheddar instead of cheese for a healthier choice.

Potatoes and Onions

potatoes
Potatoes

There are also potatoes and onions in the category of products that do not spoil even when they are not in a cold environment. Since these products make other meals more delicious, they should definitely be with you at pleasant meals. You can also produce a long-term satiety by consuming boiled potatoes during the day.

Corn

corn
Corn

Corn helps to facilitate digestion thanks to its fiber-rich content. Moreover, you can buy canned corn, which maintains its durability for a long time, and consume it safely during the day. If you want to include it in different meals, you can also use canned corn in meals.

Spice

spice
Spice

“No food without spice!” If you are one of those who say, you should definitely put your favorite spices in the camping bag. At this point, we can suggest you to take the spices you like to the food rather than a suggestion. In addition to the spices you have taken on the list, you should definitely make your meals with salt in order to regain the salt lost by the body while walking and expending energy.

Eggs

eggs
Eggs

If you do not feel satiated without eating eggs for breakfast in the first light of the day, you can choose a little luxury and take eggs with you. However, you should be careful about the possibility of breaking the eggs here. You can purchase plastic storage equipment to safely store eggs in a bag against breakage. Thanks to its high nutritional value, the egg you take to the camp fills your balanced diet during the day. Eggs also help you stay full for a long time.

Canned Food

canned-food
Canned Food

One of the most reliable food equipment for camping time adventurers is canned food. Canned foods that have undergone the necessary vacuuming process will not deteriorate quickly and are also very easy to transport. Moreover, even if you do not consume canned foods, you can use the oil in it during cooking or you can prefer the canned food as a cooking tool. We recommend consuming canned tuna, beans, wrap, eggplant or red kidney beans for a delicious meal during your camping holiday.

Tuna Fish

tuna-fish
Tuna Fish

Tuna is one of the foods that can meet the daily nutritional value of the body. A medium can of tuna contains 42 grams of protein, 12 grams of fat, 44 grams of calcium, vitamin A, vitamin C and iron. Therefore, we can say that by including tuna in your meals, you can meet the daily nutritional supplement intensively.

Nuts

nuts
Nuts

Nuts with a very high energy rate help to energize by eliminating your satiety at any time of the day during the camping period. Therefore, you can consume energy-rich nuts such as hazelnuts, pistachios, pistachios and cashews at any time of the day to satisfy your hunger.

Fruits

fruits
Fruits

A period of walking in the camp can cause a decrease in the amount of potassium in the body. Fruit varieties are at the forefront of nutritious foods that will increase potassium in the body. Fruits such as bananas, apples and oranges allow the body to take the potassium source it has lost in a very short time. It also provides sugar supplement while meeting the amount of energy needed by the body.

Daily Menu Suggestion at the Camp

daily-menu
Daily Menu

Breakfast

  • 2 slices of cheese
  • 4 olives
  • Tea or coffee
  • Orange, apple or banana
  • One egg
  • Two slices of bread or pita

Lunch

  • Canned tarhana soup
  • Canned tuna salad
  • Nuts or chocolate

Snacks

  • Fruit or oatmeal
  • Nuts
  • Chocolate

Dinner

  • Canned tarhana soup
  • Noodles
  • Canned beans or kidney beans
  • Juice

As Campalow, we have come to the end of the article titled “Food Guide to Take to the Camp”. Throughout the article, we have mentioned the things to be considered while choosing the foods to be taken to the camp, the nutritional properties, the foods to be taken and the daily menu recommendation. If you like our detailed guide, you can check the "Campalow Blog" page where we have comprehensive guides for camping. Before determining the food you will take, you can list various routes suitable for camping by using our search engine called “Find a Camping Place” to decide on the camping site. If you have reached the end of the guide, you can share your comments and experiences with us. Bon appetit for delicious and light meals that you will prepare for yourself in the camping experience you have dreamed of!


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