It’s been forever since I’ve posted, but life has been crazy! I think May-Aug and then Nov-Feb are the busiest around here. It’s just hard to find the time, energy, and motivation to post sometimes.
But… I have had this post in mind for months now and need to post it before we’re completely out of camping/campfire season (granted, here in Utah you can’t have open fires at have the campgrounds anyway this year. So sad).
I’ve heard of a lot of people struggling to figure out what gluten free food they can do for camping. I actually think camping food is some of the easiest to do gluten free. Just take a look at this list made by Six Sisters Stuff. It’s not a gluten free list, yet a lot of them are naturally gluten free. And the ones that aren’t can easily be made gluten free with a few specialty ingredients.
Tin foil dinners are a favorite of mine. Super versatile (as you can see from the list by Six Sisters Stuff above) and super delicious! I love them so much that I make them in my oven at home.
Brazilian Haystacks are another really easy meal that would work great for camping. Just heat the chili and layer all of the toppings.
You can also buy specialty gluten free items like gluten free sandwich bread and hotdog buns, or you can do what I do: eat lettuce wraps and hotdogs without a bun. Cheaper and still really good (plus, if you’re concerned with calories, not eating any bread saves you a ton!). Stews and soups are also great ideas. It’s even easier if you cook them beforehand and just reheat over the fire.
Seriously. There are so many options for gluten free lunches and dinners while camping. (If you’re interested in more, let me know.) I think the harder thing to figure out is desserts. When you think of camping desserts what comes to mind?
For me, it’s s’mores and dutch oven cobblers/cakes. Well, guess what? Those are super easy to turn gluten free too! Here’s how:
Gluten Free S’mores
They do sell gluten free graham crackers, so you can just go that way if you want (I have tried these Kinnikinnick ones and they were pretty good), but there are other options too. You can, of course, make some gluten free chocolate chip cookies (or another kind) and use those, but again… I’m cheap. And somewhat lazy. So I prefer not to bother with things like that. Instead I like to create my own gourmet s’mores without any grain products at all.
I have more pictures of these things, but can not find them anywhere on my computer. Darn! You’ll have to settle for my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup S’more. 
See? It’s as easy as that!
How can you be sad when you’ve got a delicious dessert like that to eat?
Another favorite of mine is a piece of plain milk chocolate, a roasted marshmallow, and a few strawberry slices. YUM! I actually add strawberries to most of my “gluten free gourmet s’mores.” They make them a little less rich… and then I can eat more 
.
So, basically what you do for gluten free gourmet s’mores is you buy a bunch of your favorite candy bars, marshmallows (you can even buy different flavors of these… most marshmallows are gluten free, but be sure to check), some fruit, maybe some caramels or caramel syrup, and anything else that sounds good to you. Then you can sandwich your marshmallows in between candy bars, or go ahead and set it on top. They’re messy and delicious! Just like regular s’mores (though even tastier, in my opinion). Plus, all of your non-gluten free camping buddies will love the extra gourmet options they’ll have for their s’mores. Seriously, try it. (I’m just now realizing that I haven’t tried any sort of Butterfinger s’more yet… I need to get on that.)
Now that s’mores are taken care of, let’s move onto dutch oven cobbler…
Easy Gluten Free Dutch Oven Cobbler
My sister makes the gluten-filled version of this a lot and when I visited her in May she figured out how to make it gluten free. Here’s all you have to do:
Line the dutch oven with foil and spray it with cooking spray (we almost forgot to do the cooking spray, which is why there are some berries at the bottom already).
Add the fruit of your choice. We chose this berry medley and I HIGHLY recommend it! (I have the cutest nieces and nephews.)
Next add a box of gluten free cake mix. We used Betty Crocker. Other brands will probably work, but this is what we went with. Pour it evenly over the berries.
Then add 1/4 cup butter to the top. We simply used a spoon to get chunks off and put them evenly on top of the cake mix.
Last comes a can of soda pop. This is the kind we chose and it was delicious! I also like that it’s made with cane sugar. You can always use sprite or something too. This kiwi strawberry flavor worked really well with the mixed berries though.
Pour it right over the top of the other layers. Then, DON’T MX. Just leave it how it is.
Put the lid on and cook it in the fire. And apparently, there’s a trick to how many coals you put on it depending on what temperature you need to cook it at. I don’t know what that is, but I do count 16 coals on top of the dutch oven… so put 16 coals on it. Unless you know better than me when it comes to dutch oven cooking. Then just do it how you think it should be done.
Now, this did take awhile to cook. Longer than it usually takes when my sister does regular cobbler. We kept checking it to see if it was done. If it looks like the above picture, it’s not done .
But if it looks like this picture above, then it is. I think it took about 45 minutes.
It was getting dark by that point, so the pictures are not good quality at all, and no, that is not cheese melted on the top of the cobbler. It’s how the browned top looks in the picture.
Such sad pictures, but trust me when I say this was DELICIOUS! And so easy! Only 4 ingredients (berries, cake mix, butter, and soda)! Let me know if you give this a try.
Easy Gluten Free Dutch Oven Cobbler
Layer each of these:
-
Pie filling on the bottom
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1 box of gluten free cake mix
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1/4 cup butter sliced on top
-
A can of pop
No need to mix, just cook
Also, keep in mind that there are lots of other fun gluten free camping desserts out there to try. For example:
Roasted Strawberries in Marshmallow Fluff
Campfire Banana Splits
You can add anything to these babies!
Apples by the Fire
(Add nuts, caramel, or anything else you want. Reminds me of apple pie. There are lots of recipes out there. Here’s a healthy version with no sugar.)
Or just bring some pre-made treats like Rice Krispie treats (using specially marked Gluten Free Rice Krispies), Fruity or Cocoa Pebble treats, Muddy Buddies or other Chex mix recipe, or anything else you love to munch on.
What’s your favorite camping recipe?
Do you have any tips for gluten free camping you’d like to share?
