When planning for an upcoming family camping trip, you’ll want to think about the recipes you can make ahead of time to help you feed your family on the go. Today we’re going to share with you 25 healthy camping food recipes that your whole family will love eating on your next trip.
Healthy Camping Food Ideas for Your Next Family Trip
1. Sausage And Veggie Foil Packet Dinner
The Home Intent shares this delicious dinner recipe which is the perfect healthy camping food option after a busy day out and about exploring. It’s quick and easy to prepare, and your whole family will enjoy it. The dish is still packed with flavor and nutrients, so you’ll feel happy knowing you are offering your family a substantial meal without having to waste hours of your vacation cooking. Using foil is a good way to save on washing up after the meal, which is something any parent will appreciate on their next camping trip.
2. Camping Chicken Quesadillas
These make-ahead quesadillas from Eating Well are the perfect campfire dinner for the whole family. You’ll want to assemble the meal at home and then wrap it in foil, then once you get to your campsite, you’ll just throw the quesadillas onto the campfire for a quick and easy meal. This is a great example of planning ahead for your camping trip, and you’ll find this to be the ideal option for busy family vacations. Of course, you can customize the dish to meet your needs and dietary requirements, so you can appeal to everyone in your family.
3. Camping Sweet Potato Bowls
Setting your family up for a busy day of exploring is critical on your next trip. You’ll no doubt spend a long day outdoors exploring and will want to ensure your kids and teens don’t get hungry after a few hours. These camping sweet potato bowls from Healthy Motivated Life don’t contain any eggs and are packed with healthy ingredients your whole family will love. You can prep the bacon and the yams before you leave for your camping trip. Then you’ll add the fresh ingredients on top and add any toppings your family would particularly like before serving.
4. Camping Breakfast Burrito
If your family enjoys burritos, they’ll love waking up to this camping breakfast burrito each morning from Homemade Heather. It’s the perfect dish to feed a party of any size, and you’ll find that teens and kids will be jumping out of bed in the morning when they smell you cooking this dish. The dish is packed with rich and nutritious ingredients, such as ground Italian sausage, onion, peppers, garlic, eggs, and cheese. When you are looking for healthy camping food ideas, focus on breakfast, as it’s the most important meal of the day and can really make or break your camping experience.
5. Peanut Butter Overnight Oats
You won’t always have to cook a hot breakfast when you are camping to offer your family healthy camping food. Minimalist Baker shows us how to make these peanut butter overnight oats, which can be prepped ahead of time to save time on your trip. Before your trip, we know how challenging it can be to find time to cook, so you’ll love that this dish only needs five ingredients and five minutes of preparation time. The dish is vegan, gluten-free, and naturally sweetened, so it’s a healthy option to start your day each day.
6. Vegan Pancake Mix
From my bowl shares a wonderful vegan pancake mix that will ensure you all enjoy a hearty and filling meal to start the day. If you are catering for vegans when you are traveling, we know how hard it can be to find fun recipes that everyone will enjoy. From My Bowl shares this pancake recipe that’s designed with camping in mind. You don’t need to waste money on a store-bought mix and can instead enjoy homemade fluffy, vegan, and gluten-free pancakes while you are camping.
7. Southwest Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
The Endless Meal offers us these grilled southwest stuffed sweet potatoes, which are packed with the delicious taste of BBQ hummus. They are a healthy camping food option for kids and grown-ups, and they are hearty enough to enjoy a few times during your trip. The great news is that the recipe is healthy and vegan, so you’ll be able to cater to your whole family. It contains flavors such as black beans, corn, cilantro, lime, and tomatoes, and you can enjoy the hearty inside of the sweet potato as well. It’s a quick and easy way to cater to your whole family this summer, and your kids won’t even realize the dish they are eating is so healthy.
8. Marinated Vegetable Salad
During the hot summer months, the last thing you sometimes want to eat when you are camping is something hot. This marinated vegetable salad from Nutrition in the Kitch is packed with healthy vegetables and is ideal for a light lunch on a hot day. It’s another good option for catering to dietary requirements, and you can make it using the Foodsaver Quick Marinator. It’s gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, and packed with flavor, so your whole family will enjoy it during your next trip.
9. Campfire Ranch Popcorn
No good camping trip is complete without snacks, and this campfire ranch popcorn will be ideal for a night around the campfire. If you love the crunchy texture of popcorn, you’ll enjoy taking it to the next level with this ranch seasoning on top. It has a lightly smoked flavor that gives plain popcorn more taste, yet it’s so easy to make popcorn during your trip. You’ll just need popcorn kernels and some butter to get started, and your whole family will appreciate this crowd-pleasing snack from Health Starts in the Kitchen.
10. Easy Vegetarian Lentil Soup
During a colder night on a camping trip, soup is one of the best meals to quickly reheat on your campfire. This vegetarian-friendly lentil soup recipe is great for everyone to enjoy and is surprisingly hearty. Easy Real Food gives us this simple recipe that’s so much better for you than relying on cans of soup from the store. The dish is packed with protein and fiber and will be enjoyed by vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike for a healthy camping food option.
11. Homemade Granola
If you just want a quick and easy breakfast, go for a bowl of homemade granola. You can prepare this dish from Love + Lemons ahead of time, and then just add some yogurt or milk when you are ready to serve it. Granola offers a simple yet filling breakfast dish that your whole family will enjoy. If you are heading out on a long day of exploring, it’s a quick and easy option that will get your family out for the day really quickly.
12. Campfire Apple Pie Packet
Dessert doesn’t need to be forgotten just because you are camping, thanks to this campfire apple pie packet from UNL Food. The great news is that it’s a healthy camping food option for dessert, as it uses fresh apples in the recipe. The dish only uses healthy and simple ingredients, including apple, raisins, brown sugar, and a sprinkle of cinnamon for extra flavor. It only takes a few minutes to cook this dish, and then you’ll have a healthy and delicious dessert for your whole family to enjoy.
13. Jerk Chicken Kebabs
When you fancy something a little more sophisticated for your campsite dinner, you’ll enjoy these jerk chicken kebabs from The Modern Proper. You will also enjoy following this recipe during your next summer BBQ, and they can be customized to fit your tastes and preferences. As well as the spicy jerk chicken, you can brighten up the dish with peppers and pineapple for a colorful yet healthy camping food dinner. Serve your kebabs with salad or a simple side of rice or pasta for a full dinner after a busy day out in nature.
14. Blueberry Muffin Bites
On a long day of hiking or exploring, you’ll need a delicious mid-morning snack to refuel you before you continue your journey. These blueberry muffin bites from Feasting On Fruit will do just the trick, and they are small enough to carry around in your backpack for the day. You’ll start by making dried blueberries in the oven, which you can do ahead of your trip. Then you’ll continue with the rest of the recipe to create small bites of blueberry muffins that are packed with flavor even though they are just the size of a golf ball.
15. Vegan Cookie Sandwiches
Lazy Cat Kitchen shows us how to make these vegan cookie sandwiches, which offer a slightly healthier snack than regular packaged cookies for your camping trip. They are another good option for a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack and are also gluten-free. The filling contains vegan dark chocolate, coconut milk, and maple syrup. If you are cooking these just for adults to eat, you can also add a small amount of amaretto liqueur, which will make them even more of a treat for after dinner time around the campfire.
16. Apple Cranberry Granola Bars
Hiking requires you to stock up on energy bars before your trip, but sometimes the store-bought options have some very questionable ingredients. 50 Campfires offers us a recipe for apple cranberry granola bars, which is perfect for your healthy camping food snacks. You’ll appreciate these protein-rich bars that everyone in your family will enjoy. They are ideal for when you are feeling a bit exhausted during a long day of hiking and exploring the area around your campsite.
17. Mango Overnight Oats
If your family are huge fans of overnight oats, why not try out a new recipe for your upcoming camping trip? These mango overnight oats put a twist on your usual breakfast dishes, and Recipes From A Pantry shows how quick and easy they can be to make. The great thing about this dish is that it’s naturally gluten-free and vegan, so it can cater to almost everyone in your family. They take just two minutes to make, and then you’ll store them in the fridge overnight or until you head out on your trip. The combination of flavors will please even the pickiest of eaters, who will love having these overnight oats to look forward to in the morning.
18. Hummus Mashed Chickpea and Avocado Sandwiches
Some of the best healthy camping food ideas involve no cooking, and these hummus mashed chickpea sandwiches are a great example of this. The Roasted Root shares this plant-based lunch idea, which combines hummus spread, avocado, mixed greens, red onion, and tomato. Each bite is bursting with flavor, and you’ll be surprised how quick and easy they are to throw together. Even the pickiest of kids and teens will enjoy this lunch, and it’s the perfect pick me up after running around and exploring all morning.
19. Healthy Greek Yogurt Fruit Salad
If you’ve got a long journey ahead on the way to your camping trip, make sure you pack healthy camping food snacks for the journey. This healthy Greek yogurt fruit salad is ideal for kids of all ages, and you’ll find that it’s a light and refreshing dessert after your lunch or dinner. No cooking whatsoever is required for this meal from Fit Meal Ideas, and it’s a good low-fat option for everyone to enjoy. Use dairy-free yogurt or sugar-free yogurt to fit your preferences and to create a dish that everyone at your travel party can eat.
20. Raspberry Salsa
One of the worst parts of cooking during a camping trip is how long some meals take to prepare. If you are cooking a big dinner, make sure you provide your kids and teens with snacks while you are cooking. This raspberry salsa from Fit Meal Ideas would be great with a big bag of chips, and your kids will stop complaining about being hungry in no time at all. It’s a great twist on the typical tomato salsa you would usually serve, and you’ll find that it goes down a treat with everyone in your family.
21. Chickpea Salad
Profusion Curry offers us this delightful veggie chickpea salad that makes for a great plant-based lunch. It has a great selection of flavors and textures and makes for a hearty and healthy camping food option. You don’t need anything too fancy for your next camping trip, and this salad will be quick and easy to prepare ahead of time on the morning of your next vacation.
22. Blueberry Banana Pancakes
It can sometimes be hard to sneak fruits into your camping meals, but these blueberry banana pancakes make it easy. Fresh Off The Grid gives us these delicious pancakes, which will be one of the highlights of your family vacation. Many kids and teens look back on their past camping trips and remember breakfast in front of the campfire, and a batch of pancakes is quick and easy to make in the morning. Make sure you perfect your cooking technique to avoid burning your pancakes in the morning.
23. Pineapple Chicken Lettuce Skewer Wraps
This three-ingredient dish can be prepped ahead of time and then cooked when you arrive at the camp at night. Instead of using typical wraps, you’ll use lettuce again to make this a lighter and healthier meal that your whole family will still enjoy. The pineapple adds a touch of sweetness to the dish and makes for a fun addition for kids and teens. You can add a variety of different garnishes to make the dish from Brit + Co more interesting, and everyone will enjoy putting together their wraps to fit their tastes at dinner time.
24. Cold Soaked Pasta Salad
While many kids don’t enjoy typical salad dishes, they can often be convinced to eat a pasta salad lunch. This recipe can be rehydrated when you are camping, but you’ll save time by preparing it at home. It’s packed with protein, vegetables, and flavor, and it will be a crowd-pleaser for the whole family. Check out Fresh Off The Grid for the full instructions and more information about making this healthy camping food lunch.
25. Mexican Street Corn
Ahead of Thyme shows us how to make this Mexican street corn recipe which is a delicious corn-on-the-cob meal that’s loaded with cheesy sauce. You’ll also use lime and cilantro, which will help to take this creamy and cheesy dish to the next level. There’s a little spice in this dish, but you can fully customize it to meet your family’s needs. It’s a popular side dish in Mexico, but you’ll find that it’s adequate to enjoy as a main meal during your camping trip. Add a salad or bread on the side, and you’ll have a full meal that everyone will be begging for seconds of.
There are so many wonderful healthy camping food options for your next trip. By following these ideas and prepping as much food as you can ahead of time, you’ll find camping and cooking to be so much more enjoyable on your next vacation.