If you want to stay energized on your camping trip, you will need more than a few bags of chips.
Whether you consider yourself a great cook or not, you can have delicious meals in the great outdoors. Keep camping simple with a little planning and meal prep before the trip.
Save space and maintain food safety and quality with the right packing techniques. Use these essential tips for packing food for a camping trip.
Plan Meals for Each Day
Planning your meals before the start of the trip will make cooking that much easier. You can have healthy meals that energize you for hiking and other activities, and snacks and desserts that taste great. It’s best to know what you will eat each day to avoid food waste and have variety in your diet.
Prep Ingredients at Home
Even if you’re making some of the easiest foods to take on a camping trip, prep work will save you time and hassle. Consider how long ingredients will last after you alter them. For example, eggs are fragile and tricky to transport. If you decide to crack them ahead of time, keep them refrigerated and remember it’s best to eat them within two days.
Don’t Overpack
Another tip for packing food for a camping trip is to bring ingredients in the sizes and amounts you need. Packing correctly will make camping more manageable and fun, and it’s an essential skill if you want to become a more outdoorsy person.
Take ingredients out of their original packaging and put them into resealable bags to save space. Use small containers for condiments or small individual portions of sauces and spices. Saving space will make transportation and setting up camp easier.
Pack Accordingly
Keep snacks for the road in a separate container. Then, pack the rest of your ingredients based on when you’ll need to use them at camp. Place the food you need later in the trip at the bottom of the container. The food you need on the first day of the trip should be at the top.
Keep Food Cold
When packing food that must remain cold, chill your cooler with bags of ice before the trip. Once you’re ready to pack, replace the loose ice with chilled, reusable ice packs. Place the food that needs to stay the coldest at the bottom of the cooler, and pack the cooler full of food and ice packs. Open the cooler as little as possible at camp and keep it out of the sun to retain the cold as long as possible.