Newbie: help with camping

[mamajane]

Hello, I am only a month into eating 80% raw, and am gearing up to go 100% raw this week.

In looking at my family's schedule for the summer, we have three camping trips with family members / family reunions wherein I will not be in control of the meal plans. For example, the first camp trip coming up my in laws have divided the meals among several families so we end up only being in charge of one meal. For 4 days of camping, this is supposed to make life easier for everyone.

So clearly I need to take my own meals for the week. The camp sites have no electricity, but we can pack in coolers of course, packed with dry ice so they last the whole time.
I've been mostly doing the green smoothie thing since I despise a lot of veggies and am allergic to bananas so this has helped me get my raw nutrients without the gag reflex. I won't be able to use a blender up there.

I just feel so overwhelmed, but feel so sick on SAD food, I don't want to go back, even for four days. Any suggestions?

Thank you!
Jane

[drraw]

I would just substitute raw food for raw dehydrated food: raisins, kale chips, dehydrated bread, dehydrated apples, etc.

Also take some guide books on foraging. I always find chick peas, miner's lettuce, fennel, etc. when I'm out in nature.

--drraw

[walnutty]

Raw bars! There's tons of recipes out there!

Here's a few:

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/sprouted-buckwheat-bites.html

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/brazilian-cherob-energy-snacks.html

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/cacao-chip-coconut-bars.html

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/coconut-blueberry-lemon-bars.html

[Cruditas]

I went camping about 3 months into my raw journey and felt like you. It won't be as bad as you think:) Like Walnutty said, take some raw bars. A couple of watermelons and cantalope's that have not be cut. Lots of cut veggies and dried fruit and nut mix. Avacado's are my favorite thing to take anywhere. If you have any nut butter it is always good on some cut up apple. Good luck. Let us know when you get back if you came up with something inventive:cheer:

[delmar]

Also take some guide books on foraging. I always find chick peas, miner's lettuce, fennel, etc. when I'm out in nature.

--drrawThis!!!!!

Also, thistles, grass, clover dandelions and mustard garlic are easy to identify. Do you have a manual wheatgrass juicer?

[Living Food]

Foraging is good, especially if you have a manual juicer. It's also very easy to bring legumes and seeds and sprout them, as they take up very little room and are quite filling. As long as you have a source of water to rinse them it will work fine.


chick peas

Are you sure you don't mean chickweed? I sure wish I could find wild chickpeas...

[drraw]

Are you sure you don't mean [I]chickweed[I]? I sure wish I could find wild chickpeas...

Yes, you caught my typo...

--drraw

[delmar]

This could turn out to be a great raw food adventure!

[lynch]

I agreed with you... Good luck there.

[georgetheman]

One of my favorite things to make while traveling/camping is a sort of chia pudding. Bring a mason jar or two and soak the seeds in water or some liquid. Add a sweetner like honey or fresh fruit/dried, stevia,etc..I like to add cacao beans/powder, nut butters, nuts,seeds, herbs, superwhatevers, etc.. Then you wait 5-15 minutes to see where you're at with the consistency and taste, and adjust as necessary
Also eating wild food is great!

[mamajane]

Oh thank you, these are all great ideas! I'm really excited about the raw bars. I watched the edible wild plants series by Sergio Bu... oh I can never spell it, Victoria's son, of ggreen smoothie fame? Anyway, I discovered *all* the weeds in my garden are totally edible. So I've started putting them in smoothies and my salads. I'm not sure if the same weeds will grow at higher elevation so I'll have to get a book or purchase an app or something to help me in the mountains.

I'm still super nervous... maybe even moreso about needing to explain and answer questions. I'm shy & unconfrontational and hate being the odd man out. But I'm so tired of eating whatever is served 'just to be nice' and then feeling like crap later.

Do y'all think raw coconut milk would keep in a cooler for 4 days?

[mamajane]

One of my favorite things to make while traveling/camping is a sort of chia pudding. Bring a mason jar or two and soak the seeds in water or some liquid. Add a sweetner like honey or fresh fruit/dried, stevia,etc..I like to add cacao beans/powder, nut butters, nuts,seeds, herbs, superwhatevers, etc.. Then you wait 5-15 minutes to see where you're at with the consistency and taste, and adjust as necessary
Also eating wild food is great!

Okay, so I'm pretty new to chia. I bought an organic bag last week and tried sprinkling a tablespoon in with my smoothies. I did this two days in a row and became really um... backed up in the digestion department. After 4 or 5 days I was finally able to go... ugh. Don't want to do that again! Sorry. Anyway, I read that you can get backed up if you don't consume enough water with these babies. I was surprised since I drink a ton already. But anyway, my question is if you've soaked the seeds in water prior to consuming, I would assume the back up risk wouldn't be as high? Or should I still make sure to drink a lot if I make chia pudding?

[SunshineMN]

I'd freeze the coconut milk. You can always take it out and leave it sit for a small amount of time to thaw before using.

[walnutty]

Okay, so I'm pretty new to chia. I bought an organic bag last week and tried sprinkling a tablespoon in with my smoothies. I did this two days in a row and became really um... backed up in the digestion department. After 4 or 5 days I was finally able to go... ugh. Don't want to do that again! Sorry. Anyway, I read that you can get backed up if you don't consume enough water with these babies. I was surprised since I drink a ton already. But anyway, my question is if you've soaked the seeds in water prior to consuming, I would assume the back up risk wouldn't be as high? Or should I still make sure to drink a lot if I make chia pudding?


Chia has never backed me up and I love vanilla chia pudding! I do soak the chia in a water, agave, vanilla mix before consuming it.

[GoodCat]

I just went on a 5 day camping trip with my family and 3 other families. This is what I had...

I took watermelon, pineapple, bananas, oranges, and apples. I also took cucumber, baby carrots,tomatoes, avocados, red onion, broccoli, and cauliflower, and some olive oil and seasonings. I also made some raw brownies as snacks throughout the day. I basically ate bananas for breakfast (or other fruit if I wanted), then I ate sliced tomato, onion, and avocado with a little olive oil and sea salt for lunch.. I cut up the watermelon as a snack for everyone. I also made guacamoli and dipped in the broccoli, cauliflower, and baby carrots as a lunch. For my dinners, I would make a cucumber salad or I brought a regular salad and added in some hemp seeds. With the fruit and brownies as snacks, I never felt hungry and was very satisfied.

I hope you enjoy your camping trips. I too have 2 more this summer and I'll do the same thing as before :)

Cathy

[mamajane]

Thanks so much! I will definitely soak the chia seeds before I try them again. And I think I've got enough small containers to freeze coconut milk in small single servings...

Thanks Cathy, I'm allergic to bananas -- argh, which eliminates the easiest breakfast ever, but I love the other tips.

Here goes nothing!

[georgetheman]

Interesting about the chia, they help me a lot to get things moving. At work i'm almost always drinking water with some chia seeds floating in there :)

Have fun

[mamajane]

I'm really prone to backing up. On a SAD diet I only went once or twice a week (!!) I take psyllium husk to help with that, though it seems to be regular-ing out on raw foods. So maybe psyllium + unsoaked chia was just a little too much? I'll definitely try again.

[SunshineMN]

I wouldn't consume much unsoaked chia myself. I prefer to mix in a tbsp or two into a cup or two of iced tea or lemon water and stir thoroughly every few minutes for half an hour before drinking/chewing. For drinking you may want to use less seeds or more water to get the consistency you like. For pudding use more seeds. I highly suggest leaving the seeds soak for at least 15-30 minutes before consuming. If you don't stir well every once in a while it'll have clumpy globs.

[MysticTree]

We live in a little caravan - insides ripped out so we use this as a bedroom and store clothes only. We have no electricity. Raw was very tricky until we rigged up a sort of kitchen - work top really - so I recommend you have food prep space. We have been here 3 months now but raw again for only 4 weeks. We have shops nearby so that helps enormously and we sprout lots of seeds and have set up a small veg patch.

[mamajane]

Thanks Sunshine, really good advice. Followed it today without any ill effects so far.

Mystic Tree, I'm a seasoned camper and have a great little kitchen set up, I'm sure that'll be a great help. I just won't be preparing tinfoil dinners and hot dogs this year, ha ha!

[MysticTree]

Mystic Tree, I'm a seasoned camper and have a great little kitchen set up, I'm sure that'll be a great help. I just won't be preparing tinfoil dinners and hot dogs this year, ha ha!

Do post pictures if you can of your raw camping adventures.

[mamajane]

Raw bars! There's tons of recipes out there!

Here's a few:

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/sprouted-buckwheat-bites.html

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/brazilian-cherob-energy-snacks.html

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/cacao-chip-coconut-bars.html

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/coconut-blueberry-lemon-bars.html

Just wanted to thank you walnutty! I made these two:

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipe...gy-snacks.html

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipe...emon-bars.html

And they are delicious!

[mamajane]

I sure will! I'll be the one munching on wild purslane while my extended family has beef stew :)

[cara4art]

Other folks have good suggestions here! But I'll add, take along some collard leaves and some stuff to put in 'em for wraps, like a spread, salad greens, pre-shredded veggies. Crackers, granola and cookies/energy bars made in the dehydrator are good too. Raw nut butter, plenty of fruit of course, avocados. Make up a couple of green smoothies the night before and freeze them. Then, while travelling, they'll thaw and you'll have green smoothies for a day or so. If one is car-camping this all is a lot easier than if one is backpacking because with the latter, one really does have to keep tabs on just how much one wants to carry on one's back for just how far. Enjoy the trip, and let's see pix of what lovely spot you were in and food you ate!:D

[mamajane]

Hello all! My camera battery was dying on the way up the mountain but I thought I had my charger and could charge it with an adapter in the car, but I left it home. I am so sad, because our spot was so beautiful. Here's what we did:

I spent a few days prior making the foodstuffs, my husband decided to do it with me, as he's been feeling so good on green smoothies. This made me feel a lot less nervous! I made four different kinds of delicious raw bars, froze them, and had them cut and placed between wax paper in a couple of tupperware-type containers.

I made 4 days worth of green smoothies and some raw, blended soups for some savory dinner type items. We brought raw nuts, avocados, apples, carrots, and bananas (he can eat them, but I can't). I placed the green smoothies and soups into mason jars with lids, and wrote on the top with marker what each contained. We got dry ice in a cooler, lined the bottom with brown paper sacks and placed the jars inside, and the raw bar containers on top. Another cooler had regular ice and contained our fruits and veggies. I didn't think about raw nut butters! But one of my sisters in law had a jar raw almond butter she'd made in her new blender so we were able to spread that on apples and things.

There was something at each meal we could eat - so even if everyone was feasting on tacos with beef, we could use the lettuce and tomatoes and make kind of a wrap with some avocado and spices. People brought different kinds of fruit so there were strawberries or grapes to munch on, watermelon, or cantaloupe. Everyone was so curious about what in the world we were doing so we let everyone try our raw bars and taste our smoothies.

For my little kitchen area, this is what I do:

I have a camp table with a cheery table cloth on it, two red dishbasins, eco-friendly camp dish soap that won't harm the environment, wash cloths, and dish towels, a sponge or two. We put up a water proof shade tent over everything so we're shaded and protected if it rains (which it did!). I keep the coolers and the other packing boxes under the table to keep the food cool. I bring reusable camp dishes and forks/spoons/cups etc. that I have a little sack for. So we had something to pour our soups into. I did heat the soups up over a low temperature, just to thaw some of the ice chunks from the dry ice and bring them up to a warmer temperature, but no cooking. The smoothies were frozen on the bottoms too, but we'd drink the tops and let them sit while we chatted in the mornings until the bottoms had thawed in the sunshine and drink those as well. We used big quart jars so we had plenty.

Everyone loved the raw bars and wants the recipes!

We're going camping again in a couple of weeks and now I won't be nervous at all -- we can do this! It's totally possible and fun, too. Hurrah!

[delmar]

I read somewhere that camping together is the number one predictor of a close family. Something about dealing with the little adversities and overcoming group boredom. No doubt challenge of your raw lifestyle will add to the memories for those around you and create interest in eating healthier for others in your clan.

[MysticTree]

That sounds wonderful. The ice and dry ice sounds terrifically sensible.

[SunshineMN]

I'm glad you had such a good time and still got to stay raw! Maybe more of your family will become interested if you keep it up. :)

[mamajane]

Oh I forgot to mention foraging!

I had familiarized with stuff I can find in my own yard like chickweed, wild alfalfa, purslane, dandelion, salsify etc. But in the higher elevation I didn't find too much I recognized. We found:

Agoseris (we call it mountain dandelion), arrowhead, purslane, clover, mariposa lily (though the bulbs were too small still, we're barely out of spring weather here), narrow plantain (really bitter and tough, bleck!), wild strawberries (we could eat the leaves, but no berries yet), wild raspberry (blossoms but no berries yet), and wild fennel.

We didn't do much more than have fun identifying and nibbling, since other food was plentiful, but I really enjoy foraging!

Thanks for all the help everyone :)

[mamajane]

What a great quote! We love camping, it is so much fun, and there is nothing quite as bonding as a campfire. :)


I read somewhere that camping together is the number one predictor of a close family. Something about dealing with the little adversities and overcoming group boredom. No doubt challenge of your raw lifestyle will add to the memories for those around you and create interest in eating healthier for others in your clan.

[delmar]

We didn't do much more than have fun identifying and nibbling, since other food was plentiful, but I really enjoy foraging!

Thanks for all the help everyone :)There is no doubt I will have my manual juicer along next time I go!

[mamajane]

What kind do you have delmar?

[delmar]

I just got the cheapest one I could find because that is the way I operate. Check out this thread...
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?68734-considering-not-cleaning-my-juicer-every-time

I am not unhappy with my purchase, but you might be. Mine is sturdy as hack and does a good job juicing but the outlet is hard to clear when you run the tough stuff through it that I juice.