Bivvy Camping For Beginners, Part 4: Easy Bivvy Camping Food
Bivvy Camping For Beginners, Part 4: Easy Bivvy Camping Food
Index To The Series
- Part 1. How To Get A Good Night’s Sleep
- Part 2. How To Find The Perfect Bivvy Spot
- Part 3. How To Keep Safe On A Bivvy Camp
- Part 4. Easy Bivvy Camping Food
Camping Food For A Beginner’s Night Out
Camping food doesn’t have to be complicated and for one night under the stars it’s easy to keep it simple, fun, filling and comforting!
You don’t need to worry about the balance of nutrients or the vast amount of calories your body needs on a multi-day trip. In fact, camping food for a one night bivvy adventure can be as easy as preparing a few meals at home ready to heat up at camp.
How Many Meals Do You Need To Prepare?
This obviously depends on a few variables, but it’s really not rocket science! Two meals will be the minimum you’ll need to carry with you: dinner for the evening plus breakfast for the following morning. However if you’re planning to start a walk earlier in the day you might need to carry lunch for the walk in and also the walk home the following day. But, however many meals you pack you’ll also need plenty of snacks, especially on harder terrain where you might use more calories.
What Are You Going To Cook On?
Regular campers are bound to have a stove to cook on, whether it’s gas, spirit or gel based fuel. The biggest consideration is weight of course: you don’t want to carry anything you don’t have to, but it doesn’t have to be titanium either. Groups might be able to share the weight between each other and solo hikers can cut down on the amount of fuel needed. As well as a stove you’ll need a pot with a lid, a mug and cutlery (a spork is ideal).
I use a spirit based (meths) Mini Trangia stove for one (in the photo above), which is lightweight aluminium and packs inside the pot with a lid that doubles as a frying pan. There’s also a small pot handle that fits inside. The Trangia is cheap to run and pretty bombproof, but it’s not the fastest boil-time out there, and it’s probably not the safest, especially in prolonged spells of dry weather. It all comes down to personal preference in the end, but if you’re out for your first bivvy you don’t need to buy a stove specifically for the purpose. And, if you don’t have a stove you can always borrow one or buy a cheap one to try out first.
The No-Cook Alternative
You don’t have to cook at all if you don’t want to, and you’ll certainly save weight that way. You might also save cash if you’d have to buy a cooking stove just for your trip!
Camping food should be tasty and filling, but it doesn’t have to be hot: you can still have a hot meal without a stove if you plan it right!
You can take a meal in a food flask, which often will often keep hot for 4 hours or so, or perhaps you could take a flask of coffee to warm you up in the evening.
Keep Your Camping Food Lightweight
Dried food is much lighter than fresh food, but for a one night bivvy fresh food is definitely on the menu
Whether you decide on a fresh or dried meal though, try and plan a quick cook ‘one pot’ meal, because it saves on weight, time, fuel – and cleaning up!
Here are a few ideas:
Dry Food
- Prepacked dried meals for outdoor cooking – just add boiling water. These are available from outdoor stores and they’re convenient, but not cheap
- Prepacked dried supermarket meals that just need boiling water. These include things like pot noodles, spiced couscous, etc and work out much cheaper than those available from outdoor stores
- Quick cook rice, couscous, noodles, etc that you can add flavouring or sauces to
- Dried breakfast cereals. You can add powdered milk to cereals like muesli and porridge before you head out on your adventure, so you don’t need to carry fresh milk. But you can also buy prepared porridge if you find that easier. It’s usually sold as microwave porridge, but I generally find it easy enough to cook on a camping stove (just do it slowly!)
- Powdered hot chocolate or tea bags are great pick-me-ups
- Dried snacks could include dried fruit and nuts, rice cakes or crispbreads
Fresh Food Ideas
- Fresh pasta is brilliant because it cooks in a couple of minutes
- Home made sauces are great to add to dried food – for example, a curry sauce for rice or couscous
- Some cheeses tastes better when they’re warm and make great toppings for main meals, or to make a sandwich for lunch. You can take along pre-grated or sliced cheese for simplicity
- Fresh fruit and veg always tastes good! Try and take fruit that doesn’t bruise easily, or pack it in a sandwich box
- Wraps and pitta breads are great for making lunch for your second day because they’re less easily ‘squashed’ than bread or bread rolls
- A small bottle of fresh juice or milk is tasty addition to breakfast
- And for fresh snacks consider slices of cake, flapjack or, as mentioned above, a piece of fruit
My Favourite Camping Food For An Overnight Bivvy
Breakfast
For a simple bivvy breakfast I love muesli with added powdered milk (or a little fresh milk, if the weather’s not too warm) and a small bottle of fresh juice, plus a piece of fruit. In fact, pretty much what’s in the photo below!
Lunch
Simple crispbreads with cheese and apple are my favourite: nothing fancy here!
Dinner
I’m vegetarian and one of my favourite meals is a bean mix that I make before I leave and warm through on my stove. I’ve even taken it in a food flask before now, without a stove. My friend gave me the bean recipe and I made up the rest, so it’s a recipe with no name!
It’s a simple tortilla wrap filled with a bean sauce (very loosely based on Boston Baked Beans) and topped with fried haloumi cheese.
And it really hits the spot after a good walk!
My Favourite Bivvy Camping Recipe
Makes enough to fill a couple of wraps.
Ingredients
- Can of chopped tomatoes
- Can of white beans (haricot, cannellini, butter beans – any beans you prefer really!)
- 2 tablespoons of tomato puree
- 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of brown sugar (or to taste)
- 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon of English mustard
- 1 small red onion chopped
- 1 clove of garlic crushed
- Oil for frying (I use olive oil)
- Herbs for flavouring (I like dry basil or a bay leaf)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Wholemeal wrap
- A few thick slices haloumi per wrap
(fry it at camp, not before you leave. However if you’re taking the beans in a food flask, dry-fry the haloumi slices and add them to the flask whilst they’re still hot. That way the cheese stays soft and warm inside.)
Method
Use a medium heat and a heavy bottomed saucepan:
- Fry the onion and garlic in the oil until soft
- Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato puree, stir
- Add the sugar, herbs and mustard and stir for a few minutes until it reduces to a thick sauce
- Drain the beans and add to the sauce stirring in well
- Season to taste
Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Pack into a suitable container ready to go into your rucksack.
When you’re at your bivvi camp and ready to eat, dry fry your haloumi slices until they’re golden brown on both sides (it barely takes a minute), then set aside for a few minutes while you gently heat up the bean sauce.
To Serve
Pile a few dollops of bean sauce onto a wrap and top with a couple of slices of haloumi, fold up the wrap and tuck in!
Sausages!
How about adding some sliced sausages to the mix? I haven’t tried this yet, but it occurs to me that it would be a good way for meat-eaters to add some meat to their meal. Vegetarians could use a Quorn sausage to add more protein. Not sure how either of these options would taste with the haloumi though! If you try it out, let us know how it goes below!
Snacks
What can I say, I love snacks! I tend to eat little and often when I’m hiking so I’m always on the look out for new ideas. Old favourites include homemade brownies or a healthy bag of mixed fruit and nuts (which I can add to my morning cereal too). Dr Karg’s seedy crispbreads also go down very well – and the cheese flavoured ones don’t need any topping. Bonus!
Storing Camping Food In Your Rucksack
We all find our own way of storing camping food, but there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Keep your snacks handy, ideally in side pockets so you don’t have to take your rucksack off for a munch!
- It’s sensible to pack fresh food in a small sandwich box to stop it getting damaged or bruised in your sack
- Pack your food at the top of your rucksack so that it doesn’t get crushed
- Store perishable food inside your rucksack where it will be cooler (consider taking a small freezer block in hot summers)
- Make sure your food packages don’t get wet (use dry bags, reusable plastic bags or a rain cover for your rucksack)
Read More: The Ultimate Guide To Wild Camping
Where Are You Headed?
The Beginners Guide To Bivvy Camping brought you inspiration, tips and advice to help you plan your first ever bivvy adventure, so where are you going to go?!
I really hope you enjoyed the series and are getting ready to head out, but if there’s anything I’ve missed and you’d like it covered just leave a comment below – I read them all!
Most of all I’d love to know how you get on, so tell us your story in the comments – and if you’re an old hand, don’t be shy: share your tips too!
Thanks for reading.
Happy hiking
Stephie x
Check Out The Rest Of The Series Bivvy Camping For Beginners
- Part 1. How To Get A Good Night’s Sleep
- Part 2. How To Find The Perfect Bivvy Spot
- Part 3. How To Keep Safe On A Bivvy Camp
- Part 4. Easy Bivvy Camping Food
One Last Thing!
If you’ve enjoyed the series I’d be over the moon if you give it a like, share it with your social accounts and/or pin it to your Pinterest boards – because getting out for your first bivvy is a great adventure and a massive confidence builder, and who doesn’t want to feel that! S xx
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