Summer is for pitching tents, sunbathing, and roasting marshmallows beneath the starlight. Summer is for hiking, cliff jumping, and pulling on sweaters that have the musty scent of last night’s campfire.
I don’t know about all of you, but it seems to me as if camping is one of the most popular summer activities. With charred burgers, hot dogs, and gooey s’mores, camping can be so delicious but at the same time, not always so great for your health. To eating 5 s’mores with no remorse and gobbling up foods fresh off the grill, I have some ideas on how we can all camp, have fun, and still be health conscious.
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1. Bring fresh and canned vegetables to cook with
With vegetables you can make anything and still not miss out on vital nutrients. We made “fajitas”, refried beans, roasted corn, cooked tomatoes with onions, and heated up some tortillas. SO DELICIOUS! Seriously, best outdoor meal of my life by far.
You can cook using a portable backpacking stove and a cast iron skillet over a fire. We used Primus LiTech Cooking Set
2. Bring an easy and healthy breakfast to make
Pack a jar of quick oats mixed with chia seeds and dried raisins/cranberries to cook in the morning. Top the oatmeal with some fresh fruit. Again, to cook the oats we used Primus LiTech Cooking Set
Surprisingly, for cooking two days worth of breakfast, boiling water for coffee twice, and cooking two dishes for dinner over this stove, we only used one Jetboil fuel canister
3. Campfire Roasted Corn (BEST SNACK IDEA EVER)
4. Camp Nearby interesting places to explore
We camped at Hungry Gulch Campgrounds in the Sequoia National Forest right next to Lake Isabella. You can usually make reservations for campgrounds here. I’d suggest making reservations for any campground you’re planning to visit since most of these places become pretty packed over the summer.
Nearby us were some hot springs that were unfortunately covered with river water due to the tremendous amount of rainfall we’ve had this year in California. Mark and Maria’s feet definitely took some time to acclimate to the freezing water.
We couldn’t swim here because the current would have swept us away, but we still monkeyed around on trees and ate our lunches (maybe not the smartest thing to do come to think of it).
These hot springs would have been much nicer if people who visited picked up their trash. That box and the majority of everything in it did not belong to us. All we had were stringed cheese, bread with hummus, and corn for lunch so yeah…we packed up everyone else’s trash on our hike back.
Back at Lake Isabella we swam, sunbathed, and settled down in a quiet spot on a warm rock to read. The Warrior Heir is the reason why I got sunburnt (read for so long I forgot to reapply sunscreen!)
Of course, all along the Sequoia National Forest is a long meandering river and some beautiful places to stop and have picnics.
Every corner sends you to a different part of the river. Some parts are more violent than others and you need to be careful about not slipping in.
You could also have some fun on the rocks!
Or enjoy the view in a different part of the river
We love camping, as I’m sure some of you do too! We just also love the aspects of balancing health with the fun foods. I had about 2-3 s’mores a night while out in the forest, and instead of using milk chocolate, I used dark chocolate to somewhat lower the sugar content. There are so many little things that we can do in order to make sure we don’t completely forsake our health when having fun camping.
You can subscribe to receive free recipes from the summer camping menu (all of the food listed above and a little more).
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this post and please do let me know in the comments below what your favorite camping foods are! Stay happy and healthy, y’all!
/Also, this post does contain some affiliate links from Amazon in which I earn a small commission from each of your purchases. Prices are as seen on Amazon and I only link to products that I’m passionate about and believe will help you. Thank you for your support!/
great pics!! I want to do his one day.
Thanks! You definitely should 🙂
Looks like you guys had a great little vacation! We’re big fans of the camping tortillas / fajitas, too! We’re big “one pot” people when we camp, so another one we really like to make is a simple pasta with fresh (or canned) tomatoes, a handful of herbs and a big squeeze of lemon. Often we have some leftover wine that makes its way into the pasta, too 😉
And, really, you can never go wrong with campfire s’mores. We burn off all that energy during the day, so I figure we’re completely entitled to good chocolate and marshmallows!
Pasta sounds like such a good idea for camping! I will have to try that next time. And yes, campfire s’mores tastes so good at the end of the day, especially after a long day of hiking or gallivanting around in nature!