Easy & Healthy Meal Ideas for Your Camping Trip

Here is a list of our families favourite healthy meal ideas to make cooking quick & easy on your next camping trip!

Okay, so we all know that the last thing you want to think about on a family camping trip is cooking a meal! With days filled with outdoor activities, little routine and busy kids cooking can feel like a time consuming task. Making healthy meals, while you are camping, need to be quick and easy so you can spend more time enjoying your trip!

But what types of meals are good for camping when you have limited storage space for ingredients? Our suggestion is to focus on finding premixed seasonings and sauces that can be used as the flavour base for each of your meals.

Our Camping Ideas Meals are:

Easy: These camping meals are very easy, with little space needed to store ingredients. We like our meals to take around 20 minutes to cook, with very little skill needed.

Healthy: We like to eat healthy, even when we are camping. Our camping meals always include a mixture of grains, protein and vegetables. While we do occasionally use premade sauces, we like to make sure to add a lot of vegetables to our meal.

What is Needed: In order to cook these meals you will need a cook top, saucepan and a fry pan. A cutting board and knife is also needed to prepare the food.

Save Money: Part of the reason to cook your own meals is to save money on eating out. This is especially important if you are travelling as a family! These meals are made with ingredients that are easy to find and are relatively inexpensive.

Adaptable: Most of these meals are very adaptable to different diets and taste preferences. You can easily alter them to what you have on hand making them the perfect option for any family!

What to Know About These Camping Meals Ideas

These camping meals are extremely adaptable for every taste preference. You can easily make them to suit your dietary needs as well as change up the taste for a unique meal every time! It also means that if you have a picky eater, you can easily adapt the meal to suit your child.

While not every option will suit every meal, use these options as a guide for creating a unique meal to suit your families taste and needs.

Choose a Flavour:

We simply travel with a selection of our favourite flavours in premixed seasonings and sauces since we don’t often have much room for food storage. For us, this is the simplest way to be prepared for cooking meals while camping.

Here are the types of sauces and seasonings that are best for each flavour:

Mexican: Chipotle, salsa, tex-mex seasoning

Asian: Soy sauce, satay, sweet n sour, mie goreng spice mix, curry

Mediterranean: Balsamic, moroccan seasoning

Italian: Any pasta sauce, pesto

Indian: Curry sauce, curry powder

Choose Your Vegetables:

It is super easy to change up your vegetable choices but here are some that suit each of the above flavours:

Mexican: Capsicum, carrot, corn, red onion, tomatoes, zucchini avocado.

Asian: Broccoli, onion, capsicum, carrot, spinach

Mediterranean: Tomato, red onion, cucumber, olives

Italian: Tomato, zucchini, onion, carrot

Indian: Carrot, onion, broccoli, beans

Choose Your Protein:

You can either make these bowls with proteins such as chicken, beef or fish. If you are looking for a vegetarian option, try using beans, tofu or chickpeas!

Camping Meal Idea One: Rice Bowl

Rice bowls are one of our favourite meals to make whether we are camping or at home! You can fill them with grains, vegetable and protein to make them healthy and hearty.

You can pick and choose your ingredients depending on what you feel like and what is available. It is super easy to change up the flavor meaning its totally different, no matter how often you make it.

Get creative and use ingredients you sourced yourself. Catch fresh fish from the ocean or head to a local farm for fresh produce!

Serve your rice bowl with some grated cheese, natural greek yoghurt, salsa or herbs for some added flavour. We love that this meal is packed full of healthy ingredients and that it is so easy to change up. You can make it to serve cold or hot depending on what you choose!

Tip: You can simply swap out rice for an alternative grain to make a completely new meal. Try using quinoa or couscous for a different taste.

Camping Meal Idea Two: Stir Fry

Stir-frys are a great camping meal, as you can basically add whatever you want in there. With a similar idea to making a rice bowl, simply choose your vegetable and your protein.

We like to buy pre-made sauces for our stir-frys when we are camping. Some of our favourite flavours are sweet n sour, satay, and mie goreng.

To keep things simply, simply serve as a mix of vegetables and protein. Serve with rice or noodles to make it a more delicious meal!

Camping Meal Idea Three: Pasta

Pasta is a very easy camping meal to make for your family. You can serve it hot for dinner and cold the next day for lunch! Buy a pre-made sauce and cook yourself spaghetti bolognaise for dinner!

You can easily choose whatever type of pasta you prefer and add the vegetables and protein to suit.

Camping Meal Idea Four: Wraps

Wraps are one of our favourite camping meals and are always a hit with kids! You can make all kinds of wraps including salad, chicken, fish and bacon and egg wraps. Use soft wraps, tacos or kebab bread for a different style each time.

Simply cook up your protein, if using, add fresh vegetables and your favourite sauce. They are very quick and easy to make, and can be served for lunch the next day!

Camping Meal Idea Five: Snags (Sausages)

I have saved this meal for last, because in my opinion it isn’t exactly healthy. But sausages make for an extremely easy meal that your kids will enjoy! Cooking snags on a camping trip is a classic Aussie camping meal for many families.

They can easily be cooked on a stovetop, BBQ or over the fire. All you need to have with them is some bread, a little tomato sauce and a side salad to get your vegetable intake.

We always find that we have leftover sausages. These are great to have cold the next day, or to add to a curry flavoured rice bowl. Simply use a curry recipe base, mix in some vegetable, sausages and serve with rice!

Tips for Camping Meal Times

Go Fishing for Dinner

Here in Australia most of our camping trips are along the coastline or rivers. Catching fresh fish is not only a great way to experience the area, but you can also use them for your dinner! We love to add fresh fish to our wraps for ‘fish taco’ or in our rice bowls.

Find a Unique Spot to Enjoy your Meal while Camping

After cooking your easy camping meal, you should find a unique spot to enjoy it! Camping is a great opportunity for your family to enjoy the outdoors. Being in nature there are so many stunning places to eat your dinner!

We love to find a place to eat under the trees, have dinner on the beach, or walk up to a beautiful viewpoint for our meals.

Tips for Cooking your Camping Meal

If you don’t have your own cook top or BBQ to take on your camping trip, finding the right place to stay is important. Find campground with a camper’s kitchen that you can use to cook your meals.

Overall

Overall, cooking on your camping trip does not have to be hard. By choosing meals that you can easily change up you will have a unique dinner every night, without having to take to many ingredients. Simply centre your meal around the camping lifestyle and enjoy both your dinner and the outdoors.

Looking for more information on camping? Read our Tips for Camping with a Baby post here!