I know that most people plan their camping meals, first and foremost, for convenience and ease of preparation.  Prepackaged, heat and serve foods require less time to prepare, and less mess to clean up, thereby freeing you up to enjoy the camping fun.  There’s nothing wrong with that approach to camp meals, unless you’re cooking for someone who has food allergies that make those prepackaged foods dangerous.

Having a food allergy like alpha-gal syndrome means that the safest way for me to eat is to cook from scratch whenever possible.  This way I have control over everything that goes into my food.  When I cook from scratch I don’t have to worry about animal derived food additives or those mysterious “natural flavorings” that can trigger an allergic reaction.   

Luckily, I enjoy cooking!  So, spending time at the campground preparing meals and desserts is fun for me.  Even so, there are things that I do to bring in at least a little convenience.  First, I plan ahead.  A lot!  Using a meal planner that I created, I map out the meals that I plan to make for each day of the camping trip and the ingredients needed for each meal.  I take inventory of the ingredients that I have on hand, and generate a grocery list of items that I need to buy. Here’s a link to the meal planner. 

For this camping trip I decided to make chocolate fudge brownies.  I adapted the fudge brownies recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook to make it alpha-gal safe.  If you’re not sensitive to animal products, just use the original recipe!  

To make baking brownies at the campsite as convenient as possible, I pre-measured the ingredients at home and put them in labeled Zip-loc bags along with a copy of the recipe.  So, when it was time to bake, I could just mix and go!

Our RV doesn’t have an oven.  I use a Coleman Camp Oven over a propane camp stove for baking.  It is compact, lightweight, and it works well, although if there’s much wind it can be tricky to maintain an even temperature.  I’ve added a small baking stone to the bottom of mine to help keep steady heat going as I bake. This recipe is great for baking at home in your kitchen oven as well!

The original recipe is from the old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  Here is my alpha-gal safe adaptation.

Fudge Brownies Recipe

Ingredients:

½ cup (one stick) Country Crock olive oil plant butter

2 squares (2 ounces) unsweetened baking chocolate

1 cup sugar (I use beet sugar)

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup all-purpose flour (not enriched)

Instructions:

Spray or grease an 8×8 baking pan.  In a double boiler, or in the microwave, melt the plant butter and the chocolate together just until melted and combined.  Remove from heat and stir in the sugar.  Add the eggs and the vanilla and stir until combined (don’t overmix).  Stir in the flour until combined.  Spread the batter into your prepared pan and bake at 350^◦ f for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting.

If you make this recipe, please let me know in the comments! Use your creativity to make this recipe your own with your favorite additions and share your ideas here or on my Susan By A Thread Facebook page!

You can watch me make this recipe at camp in this YouTube video short