Hungry for Adventurez

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 (...

If you hate cleaning dishes on vacation, you aren’t the only one. Plus,  ice is a hassle you don’t really need to bother with. These four recipes are far better than the typical ramen or plain instant backpacking foods, and pack a surprising amount of fruit and vegetables. These one pot camping meals (no refrigeration required!) are perfect for your next overnight adventure. One Pot Greek Pasta Salad Dinner for travel on day one of camping I usually make a big batch of this, or something similar, ahead of time to eat on Friday night after we drive to the campsite. It's very filling and the feta and veggies hold up well for a few hours on the road. I don’t do exact measurements when I’m cooking, so feel free to adjust ratios how you like them. If you would like to exclude the cheese, follow food safety for longer journeys, try adding in sun dried tomatoes and black olives for flavor and richness.  Ingredients: Broccoli florets Pasta shells, elbow macaroni, or bowtie pasta Crum...

  Cooking is one of the most important systems that a camper needs to choose when starting out. In this blog, I go over the pros and cons of cooking via camp stove, electric kettle, campfire, and bringing food that needs no cooking at all. These are all from my own experience. Keep in mind that your experiences might be different from mine. Also keep in mind that you might need more than one solution in your rig. If you want to look at how cooking fits into the larger picture of your car camping rig, read this blog post .  Gas Camp Stove These come in several forms. You can get cute little ones that fit in a pocket when disconnected from the fuel canister, which are also perfect for backpacking. You can also get two burner stoves that fold up like a suitcase.  Pros: They heat up very quickly, and don’t require much futzing to get going. They will continue to work in the rain and elements. They come in a variety of sizes to meet your needs. You can take them off the grid ...

Have you ever had hiker trash pad thai? It's not actually pad thai in any traditional sense of the word, but rather a sort of peanut and noodle concoction designed for ultra-easy preparation while camping and backpacking. It usually consists of noodles that can be quickly cooked with a jet-boil or pocket rocket, plus soy sauce, peanut butter powder, and also optionally seasonings, dried vegetables, peanuts, and fish or meat from a pouch. It is probably the most common recipe I see for backpacking and minimalist camping , probably because it packs a good amount of carbs and protein without a lot of weight. The term “ hiker trash ” refers to backpacking, especially to those trekking over a long enough time that they temporarily lose touch with which mannerisms are appropriate for normal life, and which are appropriate only for the trail. I decided to test the best ways to make hiker trash pad thai. I experimented with cooking methods, noodle type, and pouched fish to see how each com...

I wish my kitchen was this clean and photogenic   If you have ambitions of further-flung travel, then saving money is probably a big deal for you. Plane tickets are not cheap! Even budgetarian travel styles, like backpacking and road trips, can be expensive due to a longer period of travel. Thus, if travel is a high priority, you probably are also looking at what expenses you can eliminate in your day to day life.  I live a pretty frugal life. One of the main places I have learned to cut costs is at the grocery store. Sometimes, however,  I spend what I could be saving at restaurants or on fast food. This is especially true if I’m extra tired or busy. The magic bullet to this problem is keeping easy, portable, and appetizing home-cooked food on hand in case of an emergency.  Enter stage right: homemade frozen burritos. Make them in a bulk batch once a month, roll them individually in tin foil, freeze, and voila! I guarantee your cravings for take out will decrea...