So you have proven them all wrong – your camping trips and adventures didn’t end when kids entered your life. Not only do you still get out, your kids enjoy it as much as you do. But getting children to eat healthy foods is always a challenge for parents, especially while camping when they’re out of their normal routines. While in the backcountry active parents are often left wondering what to feed their kids to ensure they are getting the energy they need and are laying the foundation for a lifetime of outdoor enjoyment and healthy eating.
As with anything in Kidland, the only way to ensure a long-term connection with wilderness and to encourage healthy eating is to make it fun. Bad weather, cranky youngsters or parents, and leaky tents can make an outing difficult, but poor camp food that no one eats can outright ruin the entire trip.
Roll up your sleeves, unleash your creative spirit, and start your kids’ lifetime of wilderness appreciation the right way, with good food. Here are a few ideas—a day’s worth of recipes— that will help you and your kids have more fun and eat better in the campground or backcountry. Bon appetit!
BREAKFAST: SUPER GRUEL
Porridge. Oatmeal. Gruel. Slop. Sludge. All these lacklustre names have been slapped onto this classic trail breakfast. Like most of my generation, I had econo-mizer parents who fed their offspring nothing but boiled oats for breakfast, every day. As a result, I grew to despise porridge with a passion normally reserved for rival soccer teams in Latin countries. That is, until I discovered Super Gruel. This recipe serves four hungry campers.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups instant or regular oatmeal (1/2 to 3/4 cup dry oatmeal per person)
- 3 tablespoons butter
- Chopped dried or fresh fruit; mango, peach, apple, banana, or even raisins will do
- Magical flavours such as a pinch of cinnamon, a wee dusting of nutmeg, a splash of vanilla, and, for the adventurous, a dash of ground cardamom
- Decorations or disguises such as almond eyes, chocolate chip freckles, cookie noses, licorice hair, brown sugar beards, blueberry dimples
Directions:
- Boil roughly twice as much water by volume as you have oats. Add dried fruit first and let boil for several minutes to re-hydrate.
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Add oats and simmer until soft. Stir in butter and magical flavours.
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When cooked to your preference, remove from heat and either decorate the entire pot or individual bowls with various fruits, nuts, and cookies. Serve with milk or unwhipped whipping cream.
LUNCH: MUD BURRITOS
In the backcountry, lunching usually starts right after breakfast and continues to dinner, especially for little ones with the metabolisms and attention spans of hummingbirds. When you’ve hidden the last of the jelly bellies along the trail and the last animal cracker lays beaten in a mushy pulp on the bottom of the canoe, it is time for a real lunch of Mud Burritos.
Ingredients:
- 1 whole wheat burrito shell or wrap per person
- 1 jar Nutella or other chocolate-hazelnut spread
- 1 jar of nut butter such as almond or cashew butter
- 1 handful of fresh or dried fruit of your choice such as banana, apple or pear
Directions:
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Pretend you’re a family of beavers making their winter home. Smear layers of mud (hazelnut-chocolate and nut butters) on the burrito shell and lay a line of fresh or dried fruit down the middle.
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Roll it up like a big burrito and eat whole or slice into bite-sized swirls.
DINNER: PARENTAL POLENTA
- 3/4 cups polenta, a fine ground corn meal, per person
- 1 veggie bouillon cube, or use chicken or beef for carniphiles
- 1 small pile grated cheese of your child’s preference. I prefer Asiago but most younger kids will prefer mozzarella or cheddar
- Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 bag or small can tomato sauce of your preference; the bags of sauce found next to the fresh pasta at the grocery store work well for this
Directions:
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Boil twice as much water as you have polenta. Once boiling, stir in polenta and bouillon cube.
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Continue stirring to avoid burning the polenta, especially if you are cooking on a backcountry stove that doesn’t simmer.
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As the polenta begins to thicken, stir in butter and remove from heat. Cover the polenta with an inch or so of grated cheese.
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Heat the tomato sauce and pour over the cheese layer. Cover this with a thin sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
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Cover the pot and let sit for 3–5 minutes to melt the cheese layers. Serve by digging deep to the bottom to ensure that everyone gets polenta, sauce, and both cheese layers.
DESSERT: ORANGE CAKES
Like most of the cool things I’ve learned in life, I learned this one from a kid. This backcountry dessert is inspiring in its simplicity.
Ingredients:
- 1 large fresh orange per person
- 1 package instant lemon or chocolate cake mix—check the box before leaving town to see if you need milk or eggs for the cake mix
- 1 roll tin foil, enough to wrap the oranges
- 1 campfire with lots of hot coals
Directions:
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Carefully slice the very top off the oranges making a hole just big enough to allow you to scoop out the orange juice and pulp with a spoon, which makes a healthy appetizer for this dessert. You should have empty orange skins with orange skin lids like miniature uncarved jack-o’-lanterns.
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Mix the cake mix as per directions on the package.
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Fill the orange skin pots with the batter. Put the orange skin tops on and wrap them in tin foil with the shiny side in.
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Carefully place them in hot coals. Allow them to bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
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Allow to cool then carefully unwrap the oranges. Open and enjoy your freshly baked orange cakes.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.
