Camp Like a Caveman?

When we are not Cricket Camping, we follow a Paleo Diet, AKA, the Caveman diet.  We generally just call it breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  We feed our family high quality meats, seafood, vegetables, and fruits - and that’s about it. We say that we shop around the edge of the grocery store: produce department to protein aisles, and then we get out of there. We know that it’s not the plan for everyone, but it works for us.       ​

We have family and friends who think we are starving or depriving our kids. We have those in our life that still think a childhood without soda, slushies, and cookies means that the kids are missing out on their childhood We respectfully disagree. We see a dramatic improvement in behavior, classroom performance, and overall happiness with our kids when they eat real food and drink only water. We try to set a high standard at home, but enable the kids to make their own decisions when they are away from us. They typically make choices different than we would like, but they are beginning to make progress in learning from their decisions based on how they feel the next day--which is usually with a stomach ache or lots of crying because of sugar.

This is our mission when we are at home, but what about when we are Cricket Camping? Why should it be different? Before we go any further, we should share a disclaimer: We allow the kids to each have a sweet treat on ‘S’ days, Saturday and Sunday.  We try to pick treats that are closer to the Paleo diet than not, but sometimes we let them have regular ol' s’mores .  There, it’s out, we aren’t perfect. Now we can move forward with that detail in the open.

Road trips, vacations, and now camping trips have long been an excuse to eat off plan. “We’ll just grab something quick on the way.” But it doesn’t have to be that way. If we want to go Cricket Camping more frequently, we have to prepare better. Just like at home, a little advanced planning can keep us out of the drive-thru window. 

Our plan to do this starts with a little research, homework, and advanced meal preparation.

When we camped near the Grand Canyon and Sedona, we knew lunches would be a challenge. We survived by making bags of hiking snacks; beef jerky, nuts, dried fruits, and Larabars. We did eat out most nights, but we prepared by researching our dining options. We arrived in Arizona with enough options that we wouldn’t have to scramble to find someplace when we had a car full of ‘hangery’ campers.

In Charleston, we ate out – a lot. We started our days with BulletProof Coffee at the campground, but that was the only campground cooking we did for the entire week. We knew we would be busy exploring all day and wouldn’t want to head back early to cook. Again, we researched and arrived with a list of places we knew would have real food dining options. We had success with burgers (without buns for us) at places like Sesame Burgers and Poe’s Tavern. Since we were on the coast, we sought out seafood at Pearlz Oyster Bar, Rita’s Seaside Grill , and The Oyster House for good choices of raw, steamed, and grilled seafood. We also have good luck with BBQ joints like Melvins, where we could track down a good brisket and a decent selection of vegetables.

We recently discovered Fireside Provisions www.firesideprovisions.com, on a recent podcast by RV Family Travel Atlas, which we plan to try this upcoming weekend. We were able to select two breakfasts, four snacks, and two dinners for the four of us. With a coupon code from the RV Family Travel Atlas review, we were able to order meals for the entire weekend to be delivered to our doorstep for $96. We will share our thoughts on this meal in a future post.  

As we start to plan our summer camping trips, we are also considering how we will eat. With our Engel Cooler  installed in our Cricket Trailer, we think that preparing real food meals at home and packing them for the week will become easier and more desirable. What better way than firing up the grill to prepare meals that were planned and prepared before we hit the road? No scrambling to find a grocery store nearby, nor counting on the camp store to have a good choice…

​Unless, of course, we run out of s’mores.  ​​