Camping Food Without Compromise

"This isn't camping food!" my veteran camper husband said shaking his head as he helped me pack the coolers. In went all that I needed to make my camping trip a healthy and delicious time. Not his idea of camping food, but certainly mine and anyone else who is eating sugar free, and mimicking those newly revived paleolithic and caveman behaviors.

Who says that just because you go on a trip and are on vacation that your healthy lifestyle has to stay at home to the detriment of your weight and waistline? This is not even mentioning your emotional state when you get back on the scale and find you have gained 2 pounds. This may have happened to me in the past, but not this time. I went well prepared!

I am back from my week long camping trip and I am happy to report that I did not gain an ounce despite the s'mores that were consumed by others and the chips and other seemingly necessary "Camping food" consumed all around me. Come what may I was able to easily say, "No thank you" because I was focused on what MY body needs, what MY goals were and to be quite honest, I really wasn't tempted nor did I feel deprived in any way. The freedom of being sucessfully free of the addiction of sugar was so comforting and comfortable that I did not desire one last fling with sugar. I have been there, done that, and really, the morning after is not fun, pretty or in anyway romantic. It is ugly, full of tears, guilt and frustration. There was no way I was going back to that and nothing waved in front of me was going to entice me to go back.

Now don't misunderstand me. It really wasn't about what others were doing, this was about me choosing the best for ME! As a recovering sugar addict, I had accepted the fact that I can't eat like everyone else, and if I do, there are consequences. I am okay with that.

I took along a living Boston lettuce, roots and all and it lived in the trailer with me all week and I had salads with freshly picked and washed leaves from my gracious lettuce, you can't get fresher than that. The taste was awesome! I also took a pot of organic fresh Basil with me and it sat on the picnic table and added the freshly picked leaves to my chopped heirloom tomato and cucumber salad. Delicious! My taste buds were thanking me.

For breakfast most days I cooked Quinoa porridge using Quinoa flakes, dried apricots, cashews and cinnamon or carob and topped it with sliced banana. I used unsweetened almond milk and loved this warm, delicious and filling breakfast. I also added chia seeds and pumpkin seeds to the porridge for added nutrients, crunch and texture.

Who says you can't eat healthy while camping?
One evening I chopped up a mango, chopped up some fresh ginger root, added some cashews and some "Chunky Chat Masala" and that was my dinner on a warm evening.

Chunky Chat Masala consists of:
White Salt, Dry Mango, Black Salt, Cumin, Musk melon, Black pepper, pomegranate seeds, coriander, mint leaves, dry ginger, nutmeg, chilli, caraway, Bishop's weeks, cloves and  ASAFOETIDA - What is it? Never heard of it before, but it is also known as "Devil's Dung"...glad they did not use that name on the ingredient list on the box! I read that it is sometimes used to keep wild animals away as well as for medicinal purposes. That would be okay with me, since we were camping in a campsite which has been known to be visited by large black bears! Since it was the last ingredient on the list, it really was not consumed in a large amount anyway so I guess as a bear repellant it would not have been that effective, but I did get a giggle out of it. If you could like to purchase this mix of spices, here is a link you can follow. CLICK HERE.

All I can say is that the Mango salad was satisfying, fragrant and spicy!

Delicious!