Lazy Camping Food From Aldi, For When You Have No Energy or Money

Aldi is my absolute favorite grocery store, especially for cheap and lazy camping food. It’s easy to put together shelf stable meals that are actually pretty healthy and require almost no prep work. As an added bonus, Aldi also has decent outdoors equipment in the “Aldi Finds” aisle, but we will save that for a different post. For this post I will be assuming you have a camp stove, such as a jet boil, available. 

Lazy Camping Food #1: Favorite Cheese, Fruit, and Crackers

No cooking necessary, yet somehow super luxurious. I like to get a wheel of Cammebert or Brie, which I slice up and eat cold with strawberries, peaches or apples, and a sleeve of crackers. It's perfect for a mid hike meal or snack. It's the ultimate lazy food, but also kind of feels luxurious. Plus, rich cheeses are a great food for when you are are on longer, active trips. This is because cheese contains calorie-dense fats. 

Camembert cheese, 7 oz: $4.19

Strawberries, 1 lb: $2.19

Crackers, 7 oz: $2.55 (larger packs available for a few cents more)

Meal Servings: 2-3 

Lazy Camping Food #2: Spinach Ravioli and Pesto

Only 2 ingredients! Aldi has packaged, shelf stable ravioli that works great for camping without a cooler. It's not as good as frozen ravioli, since the inside falls out sometimes with the shelf stable variety, and the filling has a distinct rehydrated texture. However, it still tastes glorious after a day of outdoor activities. Just cook it over your jet boil for five minutes, drain, and smother it in pesto.

Jar of pesto, 6.7 oz: $2.55

Aldi shelf stable ravioli, 8.8 oz: $2.05

Meal Servings: 2, with extra pesto

Lazy Camping Food #2: Salad kits in a bag, plus protein

We love using these as a quick weeknight dinner in my household! Aldi has a nice variety of salad kits, which always come with greens, dressing, and some crunchy bits. If you add a pre-cooked protein, that's a full meal. Great options at Aldi include canned chicken, bacon bits or strips, or pre-cooked sausages (displayed near the hot dogs and deli meat). For vegetarian and pescatarian options, try imitation crab, beans or tofu. Remember to bring a can opener if you need it.

Aldi Pesto Caesar salad kit: $3.29

Canned Chicken, 12.5 oz: $3.49

Meal Servings: 3

Lazy Camping Food #4: Hummus and Carrots

If you think campaign food has to be carb heavy, think again. Aldi veggies can be especially affordable. Baby carrots and regular carrots in particular are always fresh and available. Plus, Aldi has a pretty wide selection of hummuses to pick from. Long carrots are especially hardy if you will be on a short trip without a cooler. If you aren't a fan of carrots, you could opt for cucumber, snack sized sweet peppers, or celery. Best of all - no cooking! 

Baby carrots, 16 oz: $1.35

Hummus, 10 oz: $2.75

Meal Servings: 1-2, with extra carrots

Lazy Camping Food #5: Couscous and mixed veggies

Aldi has some excellent pantry, off-the-beaten-path convenience foods perfect for your camping stash. In fact, that could become its own camping post one day. One of my favorite items in this category is Aldi's small boxes of couscous. They come in a few great flavors, such as parmesan or roasted garlic. This itty bitty pasta cooks soooo fast. (I haven even heard of people getting successful results from cold soaking couscous.) Combine this with a can or frozen bag of mixed veggies and you have a pretty healthy (and cheap!) meal. You could even try it with onion soup mix or combined with tomato soup, or even chili. 

Couscous,10 oz: $2.19

Frozen mixed veggies,12 oz: $0.99

Meal Servings: 2