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My oldest daughter is graduating from college next month. She went to school in Oregon so we’ll be driving back there for graduation. After the graduation we’ll be taking a bit of a camping vacation. I’ve been sharing some of our plans especially as far as the menu planning aspect goes.
Our trip is divided up into 5 different segments. Segment 1 is the Car Trip part. We’ll be driving ‘straight through’ from Wyoming to Oregon. It will take 18+ hours for that little road trip. You can read about our menu plans for Segment 1 here. Segment 2 I call Visiting Family and the Graduation. That is exactly as it sounds 🙂 We are taking food along to prepare at our families homes. There are so many of us that I hate to overwhelm them. Read about Segment 2 here.
This post will be about Segment 3: Camping at the Beach. I am very much looking forward to this fun and relaxing part of the trip.
We’ll be staying at one of the Oregon State Parks. The campground is about a mile from the beach and on a lake. We’ll get there on Sunday and that day just happens to be part of the Oregon free fishing weekend. While I’m not planning for it, our menu that night or the next morning might include trout. If the fishing is good, one or both of the girls might go ahead and get a fishing license for the time we are in Oregon. The youth license is very reasonably priced and Kiki especially enjoys fishing. Lulu likes it okay.
We’ll be staying in a Yurt (maybe this one?) at our campground. I’m really pleased with the Yurt option with the weather on the Oregon coast still being a little iffy this time of year. The yurts have beds in them but we need to bring bedding (sleeping bags) they also have electricity so it’s not really ‘camping’ but we’re calling it camping anyway. My menu plan does take advantage of the electricity a little bit.
We’ll be right down the road from this light house and plan to make a trip over to see it. Even though I lived in Oregon for 20 years, I have never actually been as far south on the coast as we’ll be for this trip. We’ll be in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Of course, with our campground a bit away from the beach we won’t actually be staying in one of the Dune areas. Pretty close though.
I suspect our activities while at this campground will be fairly low key. We plan on the fishing (on Sunday at least) and the visit to the lighthouse. I suspect we’ll go to the beach often taking kites and beach toys along. There are hiking trails that start at the campground and more at a nearby park. If the weather is good there is swimming in the lake. And I plan on taking a book or two.
Now on to the menu plan for this segment. Here is what I’m thinking:
In the last Road Trip post (Segment 2) we leave for the beach after staying with my folks and having breakfast there. I plan to prep a few things while at my parent’s house. I’ll make Sunday’s lunch plus some parts of Monday’s lunch and also have some lentil sprouts started. We’ll restock food supplies in my parents town. If all goes as planned we’ll be well prepared food wise for this part.
Sunday Picnic Lunch: We hope to leave early enough to get to the campground before lunch time. But just in case, we’ll plan for a picnic lunch that we can stop and eat on the road if we desire to. If we don’t stop for a picnic, lunch will already be prepared and we can spent that time doing fun stuff. I’m thinking of making
Tuna Rolls (a
kimbap style food) and
Kefir parfaits or clabber parfait (if there is any clabber cheese left).
Sunday Camping Supper: This will be
standard barbecue fare. Hamburgers, beef dogs and all of the trimmings (including lacto-fermented sauerkraut) plus baked beans. I ordered
Kitchen Stewardship’s Camping Book and she talked about putting a can of baked beans in the fire to cook. All the times I’ve camped, that is not something I’ve done. This time we’re going to try that. I decided I’m okay with commercial canned baked beans that night. And we’ll be following up this meal with
S’mores. I’m not even trying to figure out a way to make them ‘healthier’. I do hope that I can find sprouted wheat buns for the burgers and dogs. We are having a Natural Grocers store go into my town and if it is opened before our trip I suspect they’ll have sprouted buns. If not, I’ll limit my bun consumption since regular bread seems to not like me any more. Edited to add: I completely forgot about sourdough English muffins as a hamburger bun alternative. I think that I’ll make some of those to take along (because you know my food prep to-do-list before we leave isn’t nearly long enough- but the beauty of English muffins is I can freeze them so they can be made early on in my prep. Yippee!!) and we can add them to our snack selection and I’ll have them for my burger. How did I remember English muffins as a bun? Take a look at this
great (short) video from GNOWFGLINS.
Monday Camping Breakfast: Muffins (store bought), yogurt (store bought) and fruit. My family is excited about the muffins. We’ll be shopping at a chain that we are very familiar with. They make these giant really bad for you muffins that my children and husband miss.
Monday Camping Lunch:
Smoked Salmon and Rice Salad, sourdough tortillas (hopefully there will be some leftover from the tacos we had on Friday night)
Monday Camping Supper:
Individual Camp Fire Pizza. This is an idea I found on the internet (can’t remember where). I’ll use my sourdough starter for this. Monday morning I’ll mix up some
Bucket Bread which only takes a couple of minutes. At dinner time, I’ll make that into flat bread which will be the crust. I’ll bring along precooked and frozen toppings (I mentioned tucking these in the freezer in Segment 2 while we’re visiting). The pizzas will cook covered on a fire pit or camp stove in my cast iron skillet. I tried it at home on my gas stove top and the results were excellent. For the toppings, I’ll keep it pretty simple with ground beef chunks, sauteed peppers, sauteed onions, sauteed mushrooms (these will be cooked at home and frozen), pineapple chunks (can), olives (can) and shredded cheese.
Tuesday Camping Breakfast: Oatmeal Pancakes, fried eggs, fruit
Tuesday Camping Lunch:
Quinoa Salad I tested this salad at home leaving out the chicken (because I won’t have access to pastured chicken that has been properly processed and I can’t bring myself to buy commercially processed chicken even if it is organic) but adding avocado. It was very good. Plus this is the kind of salad that I can put pretty much any veggie that looks good in. I think we’ll also have
Kefir or Yogurt Parfaits
Tuesday Camping Supper: Meatloaf on a Stick (from the book Roughing It Easy by Dian Thomas), fried potatoes, rustic sourdough biscuits (from the bucket bread I made on Monday. I’ll keep it in the cooler and it should be great for a couple of days)
Wednesday Pack up and Go Breakfast: We leave this campground to start our Long Trip Home. I’m planning for a quickish breakfast. Leftover sourdough biscuits (I’ll make plenty Tuesday night) with peanut butter and all fruit spread, yogurt (store bought) and fruit
In addition to the regular meals, I’m thinking of snacks too. Fruits and Veggies are easy snacks. Plus my waffle iron will be going along- that combined with my sourdough starter I can have a yummy ‘bread’ item in minutes that we can top with nut butter. I plan on taking crispy nuts along too but don’t know how long those will last. I’d like to have a few other snack options if anyone has any suggestions. Things that I could make ahead (with a long shelf life), prepare at camp with my limited equipment or purchase ready made at a regular grocery store would be great.
I’ve been thinking about taking dairy kefir grains along. Kefir is so easy to make that I think doing it on the road/camping would work okay. Has anyone tried that? We are taking real milk along with us but if we run low on that ‘store’ milk can be used to kefir and puts back some of the missing enzymes that are killed in that whole pasteurization fiasco. I might acclimate a portion of my grains to store milk before we go just in case…
I will have some ‘prep’ to do at this camp ground. I’ll have to remember to rinse my lentils a few times a day so they’ll sprout and not spoil. Plus I plan to start some wheat and garbanzo sprouts for later in the week while we are at this camp ground. I’ll also make our picnic lunch for Wednesday plus start some more bucket bread while still at camp and we’ll go to a town down the road to restock on a few groceries. Plus I’ll need to remember to put things on to soak at the proper times (like the oatmeal pancakes). It really won’t be any different than at home but I’ll need to make sure I stay organized so things happen when they should. Even with those things, my actual ‘kitchen’ time will be minimal.
Okay so that’s my plan for this part of the trip. What do you think? Suggestions? Other feedback?
We’ll be staying at one of the Oregon State Parks. The campground is about a mile from the beach and on a lake. We’ll get there on Sunday and that day just happens to be part of the Oregon free fishing weekend. While I’m not planning for it, our menu that night or the next morning might include trout. If the fishing is good, one or both of the girls might go ahead and get a fishing license for the time we are in Oregon. The youth license is very reasonably priced and Kiki especially enjoys fishing. Lulu likes it okay.
We’ll be staying in a Yurt (maybe this one?) at our campground. I’m really pleased with the Yurt option with the weather on the Oregon coast still being a little iffy this time of year. The yurts have beds in them but we need to bring bedding (sleeping bags) they also have electricity so it’s not really ‘camping’ but we’re calling it camping anyway. My menu plan does take advantage of the electricity a little bit.
We’ll be right down the road from this light house and plan to make a trip over to see it. Even though I lived in Oregon for 20 years, I have never actually been as far south on the coast as we’ll be for this trip. We’ll be in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Of course, with our campground a bit away from the beach we won’t actually be staying in one of the Dune areas. Pretty close though.
>You will have so much fun! I recognize where all of the pictures are~we have many of them from our numerous trips down there. My oldest daughter lives there and we take advantage of camping in the beautiful parks. If the trout aren't biting, the bass may be…we've been pleasantly surprise~and they make a lovely breakfast too! 🙂
>Kim,
I've only cooked bass once with not very good results. How do you cook it?
I can't believe that all those years in Oregon and I have to move to Wyoming to get down to the Dune area! I'm looking forward to finally visiting there.
I live on the Oregon coast, I hope you had a good trip. It is so relaxing to camp out for a couple days.
Your details about what to eat had me thinking. I see you use a sourdough starter. I have not had one for years, but this was a great idea and is so versitile. It was interesting to see how you handled the food.