French River series: food adventures
Believe it or not, I do have friends of the non-camping/non-outdoorsy variety. Last week I was chatting with a friend of this variety as he reminisced about a short canoe trip he had been on a few years ago. He said to me “It seems like all we did was paddle, prepare food, eat, prepare to sleep and sleep.” I laughed at this idea. There is SO MUCH MORE that we do when on out a trip… isn’t there?
Last weekend I was lucky enough to head to the French River with an amazing group of adults from Connected in Motion. As a head guide on the trip, one of my major jobs was food prep (both pre-trip and during the trip). Now that I’ve returned home and can reminisce about my own outdoor adventure, I must say, my non-camping friend may just have been on to something. A large portion of my time during the trip was spent prepping food, cooking food, eating food or, well, just thinking about food!
A bit of background information… Connected in Motion uses outdoor adventure as a forum for experiential diabetes education for adults living with Type 1 diabetes. Traveling with Type 1 diabetes means extra care and thought must go into food preparation, especially in terms of the food sensitivities that occasionally come hand in hand with Type 1 diabetes (particularly Celiac Disease).
Despite the stress involved with we sorted the menu, figuring out what food contained gluten, soy and dairy (umm, practically everything camp-friendly, I learned), packaged these foods and cooking equipment separately and sorted the food by meal, seeing everything fall into place during meal times on the trip made it all worth it! I now have a whole new respect for anyone who takes on camping and other outdoor adventures with dietary sensitivities! You all rock!
Here are a few samples from our menu:
Friday Night Dinner: Fireside Fajitas (including rice tortillas for our gluten, soy and dairy allergies)
Saturday Breakfast: Oatmeal Bar (including dried fruit, chocolate chips, brown sugar and freshly picked blueberries–yes people with diabetes can eat ‘that’–and gluten free oats)
Saturday Dessert: Reflector Oven Cinnamon Buns and Gluten/Soy/Dairy Free Scrambled Brownies (see the photo attached… delicious! And, again, yes, we can eat ‘that’)
Sunday Lunch: Quinoa Salad Wraps
Anyone else out there traveled with dietary sensitivities? Have any camp food options to share? For more photos from the trip, CLICK HERE.
