camping and backpacking!!??
 

We have few camping a backpack weekends coming up. Family fun for sure , but planning is a little trickier. Ideas suggestions ? one of the camping trips will be the weekend my dh is running his first 50 mile ultra. Must plan for carb loading and SB in one cooler. Can it be done? and my blender oh my blender what will we do without the blender? Seriously though low cooking sb for the weekend? I can't imagine a way to stay on plan back packing, but I need to minimize the impact. Ideas?

I too am going camping soon and was trying to think of some SB food to bring. So far I've thought of those packets of oatmeal that you just mix with boiling water, bananas, nuts, protein powder...but for backpacking you have a more difficult task ahead of you. I'm interested to read suggestions too.

I camp a lot so I think about this a lot. We had a thread that was stickied a while ago (I think it is titled something like "Planning to Go Off Plan") that mentioned many things good if you have a cooler, which would work for car-camping.

For backpacking, yes, much more of a challenge. Here's what is on my list:

• Plain quick-cooking oats (sometimes you can find plain instant but it is harder, though I think even Target brand might have one)
• coffee (I use instant when I backpack)/tea
• *small* container of lowfat milk or plain soymilk, in an aseptic container. I would even bring little restaurant containers of half and half for coffee or oatmeal
• Non-sugar sweetener as desired
• Nuts
• Apples travel well
• Dried hummus mix and refried bean mix (found this in a natural foods store)
• WW pita bread packs well. Maybe also those sandwich thins that are out there now, but I stick with pita which is 100% whole wheat.
• Ryvita cracker are SBD-approved (at least the ones I have); Plain Triscuits
• Natural peanut butter, packed as you need (well-packed I might add; it is very oily when it leaks)
• Single-servings of olives (I bought a bunch of tiny cans when I saw them)
• Cans or pouches of tuna/salmon
• Packets of mustard/mayo/etc
• Pre-cooked aseptic brown rice
• WW pasta - whatever is the fastest cooking size
• Some of the natural Mac & Cheeses seem to be SBD-safe (I am thinking of Annie's) - the "sauce" part at least since the whole wheat pasta version is harder to find. I often bring a pouch of the dried sauce, which really doesn't need any additional ingredients except some moisture, combine it with ww pasta or brown rice, and add tuna and some veggies if I have any. Delicious camp fare!
• Laughing Cow cheese travels pretty well, too especially still in its box. That could work for a creamy sauce for pasta/rice, too.
• Baby bel cheese will keep for more than a day at room temp if you are not going to be in a super-hot climate.
• Same for a bar of dark chocolate
• Same for carrots if you can keep them cool, also a bell pepper if you don't cut it before you leave
• If you are not going too crazy far on your hike, you could bring 6 eggs in a plastic camping carrier. They would have to be kept cool, but are OK for a day at room-ish temperature. This is probably not worth it, though, for the weight and mess/clean-up.

If you have the room and can spare the weight, you could also bring one small, lunchbox sized soft cooler with one soft freezer pack to keep a couple of things at least cool.

I eat really simply when I camp. Some people might have more interesting ideas. My backpacking menus are very veggie-light. I will look forward to ideas to boost veggies. Maybe there is something in the realm of freeze-dried food?

I think the dry goods sections of a natural foods store would be a great place to find stuff that would pack well and cook quickly and still be pretty much on plan.

Made it through pretty OP. I brought coleslaw, some grilled mixed veggies and roasted green beans to round things out. We ate 2 lbs of sugar snaps as well. I will admit to both red wine and chocolate while somores were happening;)

Invest in a battery operated blender...seriously, the best camping investment I've made recently. Margaritas and smoothies :)

margaritas and smoothies are two of my most favorite drink groups :D

Of course they have battery operated ones, I'll have to look into it. Dh and I have been playing out a funny scenario where he goes looking for an outlet for a post run smoothie after his ultra and accidentally unplugs the race clock......... It's been slaying us for weeks........

Multi-day trailhiking staples:
tuna and salmon packets
turkey jerkey
almonds
zucchini brownies
green beans
string cheese

there exists a handcranked blender. I own one. You need a table or counter to attach it to. It is mounted on a <c> bracket. Smoothies and exercise! For car camping and canoeing we pack bags of coleslaw, peppers, carrots, etc.

We also bring things like frozen chlli or stews for the first day or two. Will slowly defrost in a soft sided cooler

thinking you can stay on plan at an ultra running event is CRAZY. I thought there would be vegetables, crazy right?

I just found individual packets of all natural Hummus dip, made by "Wild Garden". I use it on veggies at home, if you were packing a cooler you could bring cut up veggies to dip it in I guess. I like that it is pre-packed and doesn't need to be refrigerated until you open it, but it is small enough to eat in one sitting.