Camping with Celiac and Food Allergies

We will help you tackle how to eat safely and well when camping. You can camp with food allergies and celiac and do it well. My husband is the one that encouraged me to write a post about food allergy/celiac eating and camping. This came as he ate the meal that you see above. He thought it was AMAZING!! I’m so glad he thought it was amazing as it really was simple. My goal when we go camping is to eat as normally as we can while also eating some “junk food” that we don’t normally eat. Half the fun of camping or vacation of any kind is being able to eat safe food we don’t normally eat.

To make all of our food dreams come true on vacation, it has taken my husband's creative mind to make it happen. Our trailer has a small gas stove that fits two medium sized pans, barely. I can cook this way, it just takes much longer than it takes me at home. When on vacation, I try to do my best to not be in the “kitchen” as much as possible. My husband came up with this contraption that is a DC converter to AC. We run this off of our car battery while camping to use our microwave and toaster oven. How cool is that?! I know that kind of defeats the purpose of “off grid” camping, but so be it. At home my toaster and microwave get a whole lot of use so it makes our life in the woods so much easier for meals.  You certainly don't need this, but it's nice if you want it.

Here is a list of the meals that we ate for the three days and two nights that we were out. I have listed for you what I made on site and what I brought along. It is possible to eat really well without a whole lot of time in the “kitchen” while camping.

Day 1

Lunch- My family had Rustic Scoop™ pizza in the woods the first day! 🙂 I made it for dinner the night before and brought the leftovers for lunch. I popped them all in the toaster with tin parchment paper to heat each piece up. That made for some very happy campers. You could also heat up the pizza in a skillet. We also had potato chips, fruit, and carrot sticks.

Dinner- Hot dogs roasted over the fire for the girls while my husband and I both had hamburgers. We use our Rustic Scoop™ buns for the hamburgers and hotdogs that I had in the freezer. My husband always RAVES about my hamburger buns! We also had rice noodles that I made on site (these could be made ahead), and roasted broccoli.

Dessert- S’mores every night over the fire of course. I made the marshmallows and Rustic Scoop™ graham crackers at home. The marshmallows and graham crackers both freeze really well so I make large batches of both. We also are known to use our chocolate chip cookies for s’mores! Since they are frozen, I have them ready when I need them.

Day 2

Breakfast- Rustic Scoop™ Pancakes which I made at home and brought frozen, sausage, and eggs. I also had a Rustic Scoop™ blueberry muffin that I made at home and brought frozen.

Lunch-Sandwiches with Rustic Scoop™ sandwich bread toasted that I made at home, lunchmeat, lettuce, mustard, home made mayonnaise made at home, potato chips, fruit, and carrot sticks. 

Dinner- This night was a smorgasborg. My youngest had a fire roasted hotdog, my husband and oldest daughter had chicken which I put spices on from our trailer. I have about 7 spices that live in a tupperware in my trailer so I’m always prepared. My middle daughter and I had hamburgers with Rustic Scoop™ buns I brought from home. I had left over rice in our refrigerator at home and decided to bring it for one of our dinners. This turned out to be brilliant. I was able to make a simple fried rice very quickly since the rice was already made. The whole family was so happy about the fried rice which I put carrots and onions in. I also had a can of green beans. This picture is at the top of the post.

Dessert- S’mores over the fire again. 

Day 3

Breakfast- The girls were hungry early on this morning and couldn’t wait until the pancakes were done so they crumbled up homemade granola bars and added rice milk to have “cereal”. They all loved it. It’s important to get creative sometimes. This morning, I made Rustic Scoop™ Pancakes IN the mix bag as I only had 7 frozen pancakes. Using the mix was quick as I just had to add milk, olive oil, and egg whites (replacer options on our product page). Just be sure to add your ingredients into the bag slowly and mix in between as the bag gets full.  They were done pretty quickly. We warmed up the pure maple syrup in the microwave because no one likes cold syrup! I also made eggs, sausage, and warmed up a blueberry muffin as well.

Lunch- Sandwiches with Rustic Scoop™ bread toasted that I made at home, lunchmeat, lettuce, mustard, home made mayonnaise made at home, potato chips, fruit, and I ate plantain chips made in the toaster oven.

Snacks
– Homemade Granola bars (2 different kinds)
– fruit leather from
– GF/DF Cheese Crackers
– Homemade GF beef jerky
– Dried fruit

Going camping can be a lot of work, but I have learned that it is worth it. My family loves camping and some of our favorite memories are made when we do. The one thing I have learned that has greatly helped me with food when we are camping is to prepare ahead of time. I have a list of our typical food on an excel spreadsheet so I can look at it the week before to know what I need to prepare before we go. This has saved my sanity and made for happy eaters while we are out. The day before we head out, I put all of the meat we will have while gone and put it in zip lock bags with marinade, then pop it back in the freezer. When we head out the day of camping I put the frozen and marinated meat into the cooler. This helps keep everything else cold and also allows our meat to marinade for a good long time. Every morning while camping, I put out of one the meat zip locks to thaw for the day. By dinner the meat is ready to BBQ. Having my freezer stocked with all of our staples like tortillas, buns, graham crackers, bread, english muffins, and pancakes, greatly helps to save me a ton of time as well. We have learned in our 13 years of being fully free from that bulk baking saves us so much time and money. I hope that you find this post helpful and encouraging that you can go camping even with food allergies. Having all of our safe foods makes camping doable. If you need to be close to a hospital in case of a reaction, be sure to find a campsite just outside of town. Here in Utah, there are literally camp grounds just up the road. There is one about 10 minutes from our house. If you really love camping but you don’t feel comfortable going far away, see if you have camping close to home. It’s still fun to get away and feel like you are on vacation right in your own town if need be.  If you have questions, let us know, we are happy to help.  Please share with others that would find this helpful.  You can live your best and most delicious free from life, no matter where you choose to go!