What food comes to mind when you’re packing snacks for a camping trip? Do you automatically reach for easy options like chips, cookies, and other treats? Eating healthy while camping is easier than you think! Eating wholesome, nutrient-rich food on your trip will nourish your body and give you more energy to explore the great outdoors.

There’s more to camping snack than just trail mix. While trail mix is great for a quick energy burst, you should incorporate more fresh fruits, veggies, and protein to avoid crashing quickly. Luckily, it is possible to avoid nutritional pitfalls in the great outdoors with some common-sense strategies.

Plan It Out

Most people don’t just wake up and decide to jump on an airplane to go on vacation. It requires careful planning. Camping is no different! It is important to write out a menu for each and every meal you’ll be eating – including snack time! Be sure to take into account the number of campers, their personal appetites and their food preferences. You’ll also need to take into consideration the type of camping you’ll be doing. If you’re front-country camping (the type where you can drive your vehicle right into your campsite), then you’ll have the opportunity to bring a cooler or two with you. If you are back-country camping, there are still a lot of healthy options for eating, it just requires some more planning and careful packing.

Storage Hacks

Think about the produce section at your favorite grocery store. Where are the items you’re bringing located? Following this thought process can help you pack your cooler. Items from the refrigerated case (like cucumbers and peppers) need to be kept cold. On the contrary, items that are not refrigerated (like tomatoes) can be kept at room temperature.

Don’t store room temperature veggies in plastic bags or airtight containers. All of our snacking tomatoes, like our Sangria® Medley Tomatoes, Juno® Bites Red Grape Tomatoes and Cloud 9® Bite-Sized Fruity Tomatoes, come in convenient packaging that allows airflow.

Make sure that your snacking tomatoes are kept out of direct sunlight and extreme heat. This will help them last longer and taste better until you’re ready to eat them.

When storing snacking cucumbers (like our Uno Bites™ Nano Cucumbers, Poco Bites® Cocktail CucumbersMini Cucumbers) and peppers (like our Aurora Bites Mini Sweet Peppers) make sure that they are not in the coldest part of the cooler or RV fridge. You definitely do not want them to freeze! Frozen cucumbers and peppers will turn to mush when thawed and they won’t taste as good either.

You want to make sure that your fresh veggies are not only kept at the right temperature for freshness, but also in the right packaging. Our entire snacking line comes in resealable containers or bags for convenient portability! Keeping our veggies in their original packaging will ensure that they stay fresher longer during your trip.

Encouraging Healthy Eating While Camping

The best way to ensure that your kids are onboard with healthy eating during your family camping trip is to get them involved in the planning process. Give them a choice of which fresh veggies they would like to bring along. Sometimes offering a dip, like hummus or ranch, or a nut/seed butter to pair up with these snacks can help make it a more enjoyable experience for them. Some dips and nut/seed butters can also provide additional beneficial nutrients too!

Being active outdoors and being in the fresh air tends to make everyone’s appetite even bigger! Keeping fresh fruits and veggies on hand and offering them up as a snack when the choruses of “I’m hungry” ring through the campsite makes it more likely that they will be eaten. It’s common knowledge that hunger is the best sauce for any healthy snacks!
Pure Flavor® makes healthy snacking so much easier! We have a complete line of snack sized veggies that are available year-round with tastes to suit everyone. Packed with energizing vitamins and minerals, all of our snacks are Non-GMO Project Verified and sustainably grown in a controlled greenhouse environment. We even offer snack sized veggies that are USDA certified organic too!

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