What I Never Go Camping Without

Carissa is an accredited and practicing clinical nutritionist with a background in hospitality. Her time spent working in restaurants has taught her that 'that you don’t have to be chef to have an incredible appreciation for food and how to cook and prepare it'. If Carissa isn't pottering around the house, cooking or gardening, you'll find her camping on the beach with a rod and beer in hand. To help you prepare for your next outdoor adventure, Carissa has shared her must-have products and tips to take the stress out of food planning.

Food + Camping. My two absolute favourite things, and as it turns out - I am not alone. It’s nostalgic how these two past times are ingrained into my very being.

For me, camping is all about just getting out into nature and switching off. I love it. Whether it’s with a crew of people I love, or just me, my fella and Bug - it’s something that I always look so forward to doing.

Planning a camping trip is also so fun for me. I think it’s the ‘type A’ personality -but I get SO bloody excited the minute we have locked in an adventure. Our camp equipment and what we take we have pretty down pat these days - it’s just a matter of how long we are going for that determines what we take. The meal planning however is something that I take very seriously ha!. I either take full control OR I share this very important responsibility with the other foodie type A freaks that I camp with. The way we see it, life is too short to eat bad food {and drink bad booze, hence the cocktail bar that also comes with us} and camping is where we all really shine.

Camp meals for me need to be flavour packed, nourishing, hearty and bloody tasty. So here are my top things that I never go camping with out that ensure that no matter what we get up to - food is always on point.

1. My Cast Iron Camp Ovens. I have two, a 9qt and a 12 qt. These little beauty’s are SO versatile. You can cook stews, curries, roasts and veggies in them. Think…. ‘slow-cooker’ - if you can use a slow cooker, you can use a camp oven.

2. My Jaffle Iron. Because anything that is left over in a camp oven can be easily whacked into a jaffle with bread {gluten free for me of cause LOL} and cheese the next day. Jaffle irons are also THE BEST toasted sanga makers out - ham and cheese ; egg and bacon - you name it , it’ll be fab once you get that smoke infused flavour from the burnt crusts mixing in with whatever else you’ve packed inside.

3. My Cast Iron Frypans / skillets. I have 3 of these babies. Which one/s I bring depends on what I plan to cook. I have two with flat bases in different sizes {great for bacon and eggs} and one with a grill base - bloody perfect if you want to cook a steak.

4. My Camp Kitchen Basic’s. This is a box that never really gets unpacked, just topped up. She sits in our camping room and I just add more of what I need each time we hit the road. Even though I create a menu before I go camping - is gets stuck to very loosely, so you want to make sure that no matter what creative juices start flowing after a few bevvy’s , you’ve got the basics to back you up. For me these are: Liquid Stocks , Olive oil, salt and pepper , tinned tomatoes , tinned lentils / pulses , balsamic {the good stuff} ; red wine, coconut milk , curry paste, curry powder. I assure with those basics, you can do nearly anything. It should be mentioned that I’m sure a lot of you have dried herbs ect - not me. All my herbs, garlic, chilli ect are all fresh when I camp ; my veggies are fresh and our meat is good quality and cryovac’d — basically it’s home style cooking with a stunning view.

5. A few frozen meals. Whhhhaaattt? Hear me out. I’m not talking Mccains frozen food here, I’m talking home-made, pre-made meals. It’s such a good idea to pre-make a stew or casserole and freeze it. Why? Because sometimes you can’t be bothered, sometimes you get there late, sometimes you don’t get your fire started early enough for good coals, sometimes it rains and sometimes the designated ‘chef’ gets a bit socially excited and the beers get the better of him - for all of these very good reasons - having something you can defrost and just heat up is a champ of an idea.

Blog and images by Carissa Anne Nutrition.