Homemade Snacks to Bring Camping

If you know me at all, you know that my packing for a trip always involves food. Even if I’m going to a gorgeous hotel in Italy where I’ll be eating my weight in pasta, I still bring some snacks for the travel there. This is because A.) I get hungry a lot, B.) I’m not happy when I’m hangry, C.) You never know when you’ll be stuck somewhere with zero even remotely healthy food choices, and D.) I like to snack and have a paranoia about starving to death. Sounds a bit dramatic, but I think this relates back to my mom and grandma always pushing offering food to everyone, making way too much food for meals and always having snacks on-hand.

So you can imagine my thought process when packing for our camping trip to Catalina Island. I was all:

“What are we going to eat the whole time?”

“What if we run out of food?”

We were bringing just the basic camping gear with no fancy pans or pots to make food in, so I really needed to come up with a couple of ideas of things to bring that didn’t need to be refrigerated, would hold up well for days, and would keep myself and my hungry man alive and well. Another big factor was the fact that we were backpacking and hiking a lot, so we couldn’t have a ton of food or anything too heavy.

Besides a gazillion protein and granola bars, here are the homemade snacks I prepped and brought with us:

Granola – Since we were backpacking and needed to use the least amount of space as possible, I was trying to think of energy dense foods. My cinnamon raisin flaxseed granola is certainly that, as the recipe packs oats, raisins, nutrient packed flaxseeds and walnuts, and a whole batch fits into one container. We snacked on it for breakfast, as well as when we were playing cards in the tent before going to sleep.

Hummus – While this only would last the first couple of days of a camping trip, hummus was a great addition to my camping trip meal lineup. It provides you with servings of veggies, and a batch easily fits into a small container. I brought pretzels and carrot sticks as dippers.

I follow this recipe for plain old hummus (<– throwback post!), then I mix in different add-ins like roasted red pepper or garlic, depending on what I have around.

Apple Chips – Yes, thinly slicing 4 large apples take a couple of minutes, but these might have been our favorite snack. Think about it: When you’re sweaty and hiking for a long period of time, it’s better to have food that you can easily grab a handful of, and that won’t feel like it’s drying your mouth out (hello protein bars!). Apple chips are perfect for that, plus they’re sweet so they can double as dessert.

To make them, I spread thinly sliced apples on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, sprinkle a mix of cinnamon & brown sugar on top, then bake in the oven at 250 degrees for 30 minutes. I then flip the slices all over, sprinkle more of the cinnamon/sugar mixture, and bake until brown and crispy.

PB Graham Cracker Sandwiches – While I’m not sure that these qualify as being a “homemade” snack, peanut butter graham cracker sandwiches are a childhood favorite that resurfaced into my life for this trip, and have made several appearances since then. In fact, while flying out to Jersey for the trip I’m currently on, I made a couple of these to enjoy on the plane ride. Unlike regular sandwiches, which tend to get soggy and icky, graham crack sammies hold up really well. Plus, it takes about 30 seconds to spread some peanut butter in between two graham crackers and wrap it with some foil.

Trail Mix – This is another great grab-and-go option if you just want a handful of something to keep you going. You can do all sorts of combinations, but here’s the trail mix recipe I made for this trip:

• 2 cups Rice Chex cereal
• 1/2 cup natural almonds
• 1/2 cup cashew pieces
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup chopped dried peaches
• 1/2 cup banana chips

Tell me… When was the last time you went camping? And if you’ve never been, is camping something you’d ever want to try?