Wheat-free camping meals

[veryblearyeyed]

I’m camping with two adults and four children for six days. Normally we just do super easy meals—spaghetti and a jar of sauce, loaf of cheesy bread with hummus, etc.

But! I have been avoiding wheat for a few weeks now and have realized that it is an issue for me. I don’t want to spend any holiday on the toilet, least of all a camping trip.

I need ideas for wheatless but very easy meals please. Breakfasts will be ok as the other mum likes to cook in the morning so that will all be bacon and eggs etc. No eggy bread for me though

Those flavoured rice sachets with tuna on top is a classic camping meal - for hiking we would always bring tuna sachets but tins if weight and the rubbish space isn’t a problem. Or chorizo /salami are savoury meats that keep a few days without refrigeration (you buy a whole one not slices)
We would often have a frozen solid casserole the first night - would defrost slowly during the day as we t shelled there, and could boil potatoes to go with it.

If it’s more campsite camping there will be a bbq so lots of options of meat and veggies and you can bbq sliced potatoes or serve bread and you skip it (you might have to do a few things like that to keep the peace for everyone until you get used to the diet)

I recommend tortilla wraps - these are quick to do and you can use iceberg little gem leaves for your wrap or buy corn wraps. I recommend perusing the "free from" aisles at the supermarket - it's more expensive, but allows you to have "standard" meals with everyone else.

Other options are:
stir-fry with rice noodles instead of wheat noodles.
Baked potatoes
Frittata's
Cheat's curry with rice (I chop up a load of beg beforehand and chuck them in with a sauce, chickpeas and lentils).

Sausages and Smash. Or if you don’t want to use instant mash, prepare your potatoes in advance by chopping them really small.
Tinned curry or tinned chilli and rice
Biryani www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-biryani
Risotto www.gooutdoors.co.uk/camping-recipes/chicken-chorizo-risotto
My hack is to use these www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/Product/sainsburys-mini-crispy-potatoes-700g If you bring them in your cool box with you they should be mostly defrosted by the time it comes to cooking on the first night Just throw these in the pan and fry off until crispy! Serve with stew realfood.tesco.com/recipes/chorizo-butter-bean-and-spinach-stew.html

You can empty the pouches of microwave rice in a pan and heat with a splash of water.

Sainsbury’s sometimes sell those soft Staffordshire Oatcakes. Not sure if they have wheat in them. They are great with bacon and egg.

Stir fry with rice noodles.

There are some quite posh instant potato alternatives to Smash.

Gluten free pasta is very nice and I think noone would even notice if you just did it for everyone. I like a lot of gluten free crackers which you could have with your houmous while the others have bread but buy some to taste before you go.

I second doing gluten free pasta for all. That is what we do at home and the kids don't notice.

We just tend to have gf pasta for everyone when camping. We fry wraps with filling for a sort of cannelloni, gf cooked first with gf wrap. A one pot rice or potato meal maybe?

Thanks for all the great ideas. Can’t believe instant mash didn’t even occur to me!

I’ll get some GF pasta to test before we go. I’ve only tried chickpea pasta so far and the children definitely won’t eat that! It’s such early days that I’m still getting used to it myself.

Very glad I realised this week the effect wheat would have, rather than just sodding off the diet for the camping week and being stuck on the toilet!

@veryblearyeyed I'm gluten free

Look what we found chilli pouches are nice as a camping/ caravan meal with pouch rice/ baked spud. Tesco free from chicken and mushroom noodle pots are also great.

Best pasta I've found is Asda free from fusilli for general use. I use the penne for pasta bakes and spaghetti for meatballs. Tescos is nice but asdas is better (and cheaper!)

Tesco has amazing wraps Tesco from range. £2 for 4

The ideahoan packet potatoes are really tasty too. o had the roasted garlic.

Bread I find a pain as it doesn't hold up to much. I find the befree pitta and shar ciabatta hold up to the most bashing about.

Yes bread is the downfall with gf provision still. Toasted tiger bread is OK, but I think Marie Antoinette had the right idea as the cakes are much nicer! I always think something naturally moist (brownie) is often OK gluten free or naturally hard (crackers) stuff in between is rarely satisfying. I like these crackers which are in most supermarkets.

I think gf bread is ok if it's toasted or fried as eggy bread 🙂. Pancakes can be made with gf flour and taste no different. I also think gf pasta is nice - although it's been a long time since I ate regular pasta. Sachets of precooked rice with tinned curry, popadaums and mango chutney are nice. Or classic BBQ burgers/sausages (do check they are gf) with potato salad.

Some brilliant ideas, thank you! I hadn’t even thought to check sausages for gluten. Will definitely try GF eggy bread! Interesting about the GF things being ok for very hard/dry or very moist but not in between. I’m quite excited now!

Chilli and rice
Fajitas (with GF wraps) - I pre-slice the onions, peppers and meat before we go, so I just have to fry it up with the seasoning)
Bolognaise with GF pasta

For the chilli/bol, I take it frozen, so it acts as an ice pack for the first day. WOuld always eat it on day 2 at the latest though.

BBQ at least one day for sure

Takeaway fish and chips? (Batter is out for you, unless they have GF, but there's bound to be something you can have)

I’m just back from camping and my favourite meal was a uncle bens Caribbean rice pouch, tin of vegetable curry as a side, cooked chicken mixed through the rice.
Cook your chicken or any meat. Throw in the rice. Give a good heat through for about 3 to 4 minutes when piping hot serve with the vegetable curry. Took 10 mins start to finish and was yummy 😋

Staffordshire Oatcakes usually contain wheat, so check the packet before you buy.