Fill your chuck box with camp foods that provide maximum nutritional value per ounce and store safely in a wide range of temperatures, especially if you will be primitive or ultralight camping. Whole, fresh or dried foods and an array of spices allow you to create healthy meals and snacks while minimizing potential waste from packaging or spoilage. Make and serve these recipes throughout the year before you camp so you can adjust the ingredients and spices to suit your family's palates.
Proteins
Move beyond hot dogs and hamburgers to include fresh fish, dried tofu, lentils, soy milk powder and tempeh. Tempeh, a fermented soybean product, provides 30 grams of protein per cup. Tempeh also supplies 25 percent of your daily iron requirement. Using vegan protein sources instead of meat and eggs alone, you also fulfill other nutritional needs while holding total calories, fats and cholesterol to acceptable levels. "Only one calorie out of every ten we take in needs to come from protein," states The Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, in "Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids," published by National Academy Press in 2002.
Saute' dried, sliced tofu with onions and garlic with a splash of extra-virgin olive oil until browned. Add red and green pepper strips and whole, sun-dried tomatoes. Stir in1 tsp. cumin, 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes and 1 tsp. dried cilantro. Serve on warm corn tortillas, with homemade salsa.
Dip fresh fish in cornmeal mixed with ground tempeh. Flash-fry each side in hot oil, and place it on a foil-covered grill for 3 minutes. Sprinkle with lemon, lime or orange juice and ground ginger. Turn the fish by pulling the foil up and over the fillets and flipping it, keeping the fish inside. Grill for 2 more minutes before serving.
Soak lentils overnight in a Dutch oven. Add 1 oz. sliced, pickled ginger, 1 tsp. ground red pepper, 1 tsp. turmeric and 1/2 tsp. ground clove. Peel and mince 6 garlic cloves. Toss them in the pot 2 minutes before serving. Serve with warm injera, lemon wedges and coffee.
Fruits and Vegetables
Raisins, prunes, dried cranberries, banana chips and stone fruit slices provide quick energy while keeping weight to a minimum, making them ideal for a primitive or ultralight backpacking camping trip. Whole, unpeeled fresh fruits and vegetables do not need refrigeration if they will be used within two days. Keep them in an ice chest until used otherwise.
Mix equal amounts of each dried fruit with granola. Stir into a skillet with 1 cup peanut butter and 1/2 cup honey until well-coated. Spread onto cookie sheets greased with a coating of cooking spray, and allow to dry for two or three days. Divide into plastic, zipper-style bags.
Slice apples and bananas into a large metal bowl in a bed of ice. Mix in red and green grapes, whole blueberries and melon chunks. Pour a can of room-temperature orange juice concentrate over everything, and stir until all fruit is coated.
Arrange celery sticks, red and green bell pepper slices, cucumber chunks, tomato wedges and carrot sticks on a platter around a pint bowl of plain yogurt mixed with 1/2 cup fresh, chopped green onion, 1 cup chopped cilantro, 1 tsp. ground black pepper and 1 tbsp. cumin. Place the platter on a bed of ice.
Grains
Bring teff, which is an Ethiopian grain used to make the bubbly, crepe-like injera that serves as bread, tablecloth, plate and fork at many Ethiopian meals, allowing you to leave those items at home. Teff provides 82 percent of your daily iron, 35 percent of your daily calcium and 51 percent of the protein you need, as well as magnesium, copper, zinc and phosphorus.
Pour teff grains into a coffee grinder on the espresso setting, and grind them into flour. Mix 1/2 cup teff with 1.5 cup whole-wheat flour, 1 cup water and 1 tsp. salt. Add 1 cup water and allow to sit in a warm place until the mixture bubbles. Preheat a shallow, flat-bottomed skillet. Add 2 tbsp. peanut oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Pour 1 cup batter into the pan, and swirl until the the batter covers the entire bottom. When the surface of the injera is covered with bubbles, flip it and allow to cook for another minute or two before serving it on a 24-inch woven platter along with lentil stew and other Ethiopian dishes.
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