Campsite Cooking

Since Brandon and I are about to spend four whole days camping, practicing yoga, hiking and listening to great music, I thought I'd give you a few tips on prepping for a long camping/music festival weekend. I'm doing this totally out of love and bringing useful info to my readers...and because I already made several spreadsheets about what we're going to bring, what we're going to eat, etc. etc. etc.

What can I say? I love my lists.

Floydfest, here we come!

TIP #1: Assess the camping sitch.
Not all camping is created equal. Sometimes you can just drive up and camp, sometimes you have to hike 20 miles before you set up shop. Sometimes you're in the middle of a field, sometimes you're in the middle of a forest. Hopefully, you won't be in the middle of a river. Regardless, it's helpful to know what it's going to be like before you pack. In our case, we are not going to be able to park near our campsite, but there is a shuttle that will bring us from the parking to the camping and then to the venue. We're still going to have to haul a bunch of gear.

TIP #2: Can you build a fire?
This is not a theoretical question. I'm not only asking "Are you allowed to build a campfire?" but "Do you know HOW to build a campfire?" Both are important questions to ask yourself before you leave for a camping trip. For Floydfest, we are not allowed to have any open flames and, even though I deflect to Brandon when it comes to fire starting, that's kind of a bummer...but I get it. We're going to be camping in the midst of thousands of other people.

TIP #3: Plan some meals!
When you're backpacking, you generally want to pack food that takes up the least amount of space and needs minimal preparation. When you're drive-up camping you can usually bring a more substantial smattering of foodstuffs. For drive then hike camping, it obviously depends on the distance you have to travel with all of your food. We are packing a roll-y cooler so we can just drag it, because we'll be camping in a field or at the edge of the woods. This is what we're planning to eat:

So, basically wraps and sandwiches. Though, I'm not gonna lie, we pretty much eat like kings and queens when we're camping. 

breakfast wrap = love

This is what's on our packing list (as far as food goes):

• salsa
• nut butter
• jelly
• peaches
• apples
• granola
• honey
• tamale pie filling
• bread
• wraps (approx 10)
• GORP
• pre-made overnight oats (dry-ingredients)
• tomato sauce
• cheese
• hummus
• chips

I know that looks pretty extensive, but we've got plenty of room in the cooler and some stellar ice packs (thanks, Ben & Jerry's!) that last for a ridiculously long time. I also love the idea of pre-making overnight oats with all the dry ingredients and just adding water (since we're definitely not bringing milk) when we're ready. We can even heat them for some real oatmeal if we choose to!

One last thing...GORP = Good Ol' Raisins and Peanuts. Probably the easiest, most portable and most tasty camping snack. Plus you've got proteins, fats and carbohydrates all in one little handful. I sometimes like to embellish my GORP with chocolate chips for a little bit of sweet.

What is your number one camping food? Any favorite camping gear that I should know about??

Peace+Love,