Campfire Cooking: How to Eat Well in the Great Outdoors

Cooking outdoors is part of the camping experience, and the rules are slightly different to those at play when you have a whole kitchen at your disposal. In order to cook when camping, the food needs to be easy and needs to be good – after all, it has to sustain you while you live in a tent! But where does your wellbeing come into it? Can camping-ready recipes also cater to your nutrition wellness? Here are a few time-tested camping recipes with easy preparation and delicious results:

 

1. Oatmeal: When you’re camping, you need something to fill your tummy and energize your morning, and this simple hot breakfast will do exactly that. To keep things simple, you need to add four packets instant single serving oatmeal, in whatever flavour you want, to hot water. When you’ve got the right consistency, stir and add in sliced almonds, peanuts, walnuts and/or pecans. Then top it off with dried fruit of your choosing (cranberries, strawberries, apples, blueberries, raisins etc.) and a teaspoon of flax seed – everything you need to conquer your day!

 

2. Omelette in a can: This breakfast recipe will change your life, my friend. Start with a can of sausage – you can choose what you like but Vienna sausage works well. Drain the juices from the can and crack and egg over the sausages (if you prefer, you may want to scramble the egg separately and then add it to the can). Chop up two teaspoons of onion and add to the can and place the container on a rack slightly above the coals. You need to watch the cooking process carefully as the food will cook very fast on the hot fire. When the egg looks cooked, you can eat straight out of the can – genius!

 

3. Tinfoil Medley: As you may be able to discern from the name, to make this dinner you just amalgamate anything you can throw into a tinfoil. The possibilities are almost without end but here’s an example to get you started: chop up two potatoes, two carrots about a ¼ cup of broccoli into one-inch pieces. Divide the mixture into four piles and then place each pile in the centre of four pieces of tinfoil. Take a pound of meat or poultry of your choice – it can be canned if that’s easier but fresh is always best – and divide the meat into four portions. The thinner the meat is, the faster it will cook.

 

Once you’ve sliced your meat, place it on each of your potato piles and season with sauce or spices of your own choosing. Fold up the sides of the tin foil so that it’s sealed tight with the juices locked in, and then place each tin pouch directly on coals for about 15 minutes. Flip the pouches over and leave for another 10 minutes, or until the meat is completely cooked and the potatoes and carrots are soft. Remember to open the foil with a tong so you don’t burn your fingers! If that doesn’t do it for you, or you don’t have those ingredients, try the same technique with mushrooms, onions and chopped bacon.

 

4. Chilli: If you’re backpacking it, this meal is great for saving space and lasting for ages. Pour a can of chilli, ¼ of a cup of diced onions and one can of corn into a pot and place on the fire. Depending on how hot the fire is, you may want to elevate your pot on a rack or hang on a rotisserie-like pole. All you need to do is sit back and wait until all the ingredients are bubbling, and then you simply remove from the heat and eat.

Categories: Camping, cook, meat, nbsp, Omelette in a Can, tinfoil, Tinfoil Medley

Health Benefits of Camping and Leading an Outdoorsy Life

Any camping enthusiast will tell you that nothing truly compares to the satisfying feeling of spending time in the great outdoors. Waking up on a crisp morning to fresh air and the chirps of songbirds are the kind of thing we outdoorsy types live for. But did you know that an array of studies have suggested that camping can reduce stress, help you sleep, cure depression and bolster your immune system? Whilst we don’t imagine doctors will start prescribing “camping” as a cure for major ailments, let’s have a look at why camping folk are likely to be healthier than their city-based brethren.

 

You’ll Have a Better Night’s Sleep

Scientists from the University of Colorado have discovered that the widespread availability of electrical lighting since the 1930’s has altered our internal body clocks in a way that evolution never accommodated for.

 

The scientists first measured a group of volunteers’ exposure to both natural and man-made light as they went about their daily lives. They also recorded their melatonin levels (the hormone in our body which causes sleepiness). Naturally, melatonin should be most highly concentrated before we go to sleep and be much less so when we awaken.

 

The volunteers’ melatonin levels, however, were still high several hours after waking up, highlighting that these volunteers were off their natural rhythm.

 

However, when the scientists took the subjects on a camping trip with no electric lighting (but a campfire for warmth at night), they discovered that their sleep cycles synchronised with the setting and rising of the sun. Although the subjects on average slept around the same length of time as they usually did, they went to sleep around two hours earlier. But, more importantly, their levels of melatonin were much lower in the morning than they had been before and the volunteers reported feeling better rested than they did in their day-to-day lives.

 

Getting out into the wilderness and back to your natural sleep pattern can be more restful than any beach holiday.

 

It’ll Enhance Your Immune System

“Shinrin-yoku” is a traditional Japanese practice of taking long walks in the forest to bolster wellness. Loosely translated as “forest-bathing”, it has (until recently) been considered an anecdotal remedy that most likely is purely psychological in effect. However, studies by the Nippon Medical School have attempted to add some real science to the folklore.

 

Since 2005, research teams have been working on field studies showing the effects of forest bathing trips on human immune function, namely their effect on the levels of natural killer cells (NK) and lymphocytes that prevent infection and illness. High levels of NK cells have even been shown to reduce the risk of cancer.

 

12 adult Japanese males were taken on a three day and two night trip to Japanese forest parks and their blood and urine were both tested for NK activity twice during the trip (on days two and three) and then on days seven and 20 after the trip had ended. The same samples were taken before the trip on a normal working day, so as to set a control measurement.

 

The results were remarkable, indicating that NK activity and the numbers of NK cells, were significantly higher in the forest bathing samples, compared to those taken on normal working days. Furthermore, increased NK activity lasted for more than a month after the trip ended, suggesting that a once a month “shinrin-yoku” could enable individuals to maintain a high level of NK activity.

 

 

It Can Improve Your Mental Wellbeing

Dr William Bird, Natural England’s strategic health advisor, recently stated that getting out and about while on a touring holiday can help to lower levels of depression. The link between fresh air, exercise and depression has already been well-covered, and just half an hour of exercise a day can improve mood and stave off depressing thoughts.

 

This does not mean that outdoor activities merely aid those who have been diagnosed with depression. For instance, in a recent survey from iExplore, 75% of respondents said that “keeping physically busy while away [on holiday] helped take their minds off what was happening at home or in work”.

 

So why, exactly, is this the case? Interestingly, the scientists from the University of Colorado mentioned above also noted that whilst camping their volunteers received around 400% more exposure to sunlight than they would in their daily lives.

 

Vitamin D, which is created by the skin in response to contact with direct sunlight, has been shown to combat low moods and depression. Although little is still properly understood about depression, the combination of sunlight and exercise that is a main part of hiking and camping trips can potentially provide some relief for those suffering from these mood disorders.

 

So, next time your camping enthusiast friend goes on about how great camping makes you feel, he’s not being smug, he’s just well-rested, healthy and packed with vitamin D.

 

 

Author Bio:

Jamie Waddell is a medical and pharmaceuticals writer and camping enthusiast writing on behalf of Sunbourne, a campsites and caravans holiday specialist based in Wales. Whether you’re interested in camping or not, he’d like to see more people enjoying the great outdoors.

Categories: Better Night’s Sleep, Camping, camping enthusiast, daily lives, forest bathing, Health Benefits, lives nbsp, melatonin levels, nbsp nbsp, nk activity, nk cells, shinrin yoku