Camp Cooking 101

One of my favorite parts of summer is the 10-day kayak trek I do through the San Juan Islands with my husband and about a dozen Boy Scouts. That’s 30 meals to plan, shop for, pack into kayaks, cook in the wild and clean up after! Having done this for more than 20 years, I have it down to a science.

Not only are our meals tasty, they’re also low in sodium and quick to prepare, allowing us to spend more time looking for whales, peering into tide pools, playing cards and sleeping on the beach. Here are some tips I’ve learned from summers spent feeding hungry people in the wild.

• Try recipes at home first — a couple times if you can. You’ll get a feel for how they should look, and you can practice cutting down on utensils, bowls and ingredients while you’re at home, not in the wild.
• Plan fast, easy meals for days you have a quick getaway schedule. Save more complicated, time-consuming meals for days when you have more time.
• Do as much food preparation at home as you can. Your goal is to enjoy the wilderness, not to do dishes.
• Look for quick-cooking convenience foods at your local grocery store. Just remember you want healthy convenience foods. Check the sodium content before you toss an item into your cart.
• Check out Asian and Mexican markets for easy, flavorful ingredients. Some of my favorites are powdered tofu, polenta in a tube, Mediterranean couscous, pesto in a tube, tomato sauce in a tube and boil-in-a-bag brown rice.
• Look for foods that are well proportioned. Aim for a sodium-to-calorie ratio of one-to-one or lower. A 90-calorie can of soup that has 900 milligrams of sodium is not well proportioned, whereas a bag of quick-cooking brown rice without added salt has no sodium and only 70 calories per half cup.
• Include foods that are different textures. When the whole meal is mushy, no one is enthusiastic about eating it.
• Try vegetarian meals so you don’t have to worry about refrigeration. Some fruits and veggies that can go several days without refrigeration include: zucchini, summer squash, green peppers, carrots, cabbage, parsnips, bunch spinach, onions, cauliflower, artichokes, apples, oranges and fresh herbs like parsley, mint and sage.
• Check out “food tubes” for camping. Fill them with hard-to-manage foods like jelly, peanut butter, cream cheese, honey and butter. During your trip, simply take off the lid and squeeze. You don’t even need a knife!
• Make your own dry mixes in advance. Make pancake and biscuit mix using low-sodium baking powder. Use the Master Mix recipe below to make dried pancake mix, biscuit mix, or, if you’re taking a Dutch oven, plan desserts like peach cobbler with canned peaches. Yum!
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Master Mix

This makes enough for several recipes. Use for biscuits, pancakes or cobbler.

10 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

2/3 cup nonfat dry milk

1/3 cup low-sodium baking powder

4 tablespoons sugar

2 cups shortening, which does not need refrigeration

Sift together dry ingredients with a whisk for two minutes to mix thoroughly. Cut in shortening with a pastry cutter until mixture looks like coarse cornmeal. Store in a tightly covered container at room temperature. Master Mix can be used in any recipe calling for biscuit mix, just use water instead of milk.

Salt-Free and Easy Low-Sodium Master Mix Biscuits

1 cup mix

¼ cup water

Add water all at once, stir 25 stokes, knead 15 times, roll out to about ½ inch.

Salt Free and Easy Low-Sodium Pancakes

1 cup mix

½ cup water

1 egg

Combine water and beaten egg, stir into the mix until blended (add more water for a thinner

pancake). Makes about 6 pancakes.

Salt Free and Easy Low-Sodium Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

1 cup Master Mix

¼ cup plus one tablespoon water

2 tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

2 large cans peaches

¼ cup dry tapioca

1 teaspoon pie spice blend

Mix up dry ingredients ahead and pack in a zip-close bag. In camp, add water and squeeze until well mixed in bag. Add a bit more water if needed.  Drain one can of peaches, put both cans of fruit and one can of juice into Dutch oven. Add tapioca and spice blend. Clip 1-inch hole in corner of bag and squeeze out about 6-8 clumps of dough onto peaches. Put lid on Dutch oven.  Place it over glowing, ashy charcoal fire. Put coals on top and on the bottom: for a 14-inch oven, use 19 on top and 12 beneath.  Add or subtract briquettes if your Dutch oven is larger or smaller in diameter. Bake about 30 minutes. Cobbler is done when fruit is bubbly and top golden brown.

Recipe feeds 6-8. Try this at home first to get a good idea of serving size, then adjust it based on your group’s appetite.

Calories: 256, carbohydrates: 40 g, protein: 5, sodium: 66 mg

[Contributor Katy G. Wilkens recently retired as registered dietitian and department head at Northwest Kidney Centers. The National Kidney Foundation Council on Renal Nutrition has honored her with its highest awards for excellence in education and for significant contributions in renal nutrition. She has also been awarded the Medal of Excellence in kidney nutrition from the American Association of Kidney Patients.]

Eating Well, Living Well classes

Studies show that working with a registered dietitian can delay kidney failure and postpone dialysis for longer than two years. FREE nutrition classes taught by Katy’s former team of registered dietitians are available at convenient times and locations around Puget Sound.

Eating Well, Living Well classes teach people how to eat healthier to slow the progress of kidney disease and postpone dialysis. Learn more at www.nwkidney.org/classes.