Serves: 5

As a kid hunting and fishing with my dad and uncles it seemed like camp cooking consisted mostly of fried foods. i.e. fried taters, fried steak, fried fish, etc. Breakfast started the day with the bacon grease being saved to fry the remaining meals. No one really knew or thought such food, which tasted so good, might cause health problems.

I’m not sure when the first “light” or “lite” foods hit the grocery stores, but now you’d be hard pressed to find any one food category which doesn’t have a “lite” side. It seems advertising wars are fought between various brands with the victors claiming to be the “lightest” or “litest”! Like a steak cooked for me in a Wyoming truck stop years ago, I find current advertising of light foods to be a little "overdone"!

Cooking "light", whether at home or camp, shouldn’t be such a big deal. The two primary culprits in these "light wars" are fat and sodium, with refined sugars and highly processed foods coming in third and fourth. Of the four, I find reducing salt to be the easiest. I either eliminate it altogether or reduce it by half. Most folks find it no problem to salt to their own taste. The processed foods, aka "convenience foods", have their place as emergency rations, but whether in camp or at home, all one has to do to save one’s body and pocket book is cook the old fashioned way with fresh ingredients. Sure, it

may take more time, but in the long run it’s probably worth it, not to mention the satisfaction of cooking a "scratch meal"!

The fat and sugars are just as easily reduced. With one exception, I’ve eliminated animal fats from all my cooking. My pie crust recipe calls for lard, so as a treat I continue to use it. I tried vegetable fats, but they just weren’t flaky enough. I started cooking “lite” by using olive oil almost exclusively. In and of itself, the current research seems to agree, it’s as good for you as any fat can be. To further lighten a recipe just reduce the amount of fat. For instance, if a recipe calls for 1/2 cup salad oil I use 1/3 cup instead. I’ve yet to see such a reduction turn any recipe into an unpalatable dish.

Refined sugars are no different. Reduce what is called for by 1/3 or 1/4 and you’ll detect little difference in most cases. When possible in my recipes I’ll substitute brown sugar or honey.

As you look through and try the recipes in this cookbook you’ll notice very little butter or other saturated fats used.

A little common sense and experimentation will make "lite" cooking easy. So easy in fact, I’m sure you’ll never suffer the embarrassment of someone sending their food back to the kitchen because it doesn’t have enough fat.

A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Camp Cooking with Dutch Ovens

More Recipes from the Cee Dub's Dutch Oven and Other Camp Cookin' Cookbook:
_A Pinch Of This And A Dash Of That
_Basic Camp Kitchen Lists
_Basic Camp Supply List
_Basic Chuck Box List
_Basic Dutch Oven Equipment List
_Basic Kitchen Equipment & Utensil List
_Budgets For Camp Cooks
_Buying A Dutch Oven
_Cleaning And Storing DO's
_Cooking "Lite"
_Cooking Techniques
_Cooking for VIPs
_DO's Need Love Too!
_DO: Cast Iron vs Aluminum
_DO: Do's And Don'ts & Tips
_DO: Dutch Oven Care
_DO: Selecting And Buying A Dutch
_DO: Selection And Care
_Decking Your Dutch Ovens
_Dutch Oven & Cast Iron Cookery
_Dutch Oven Equipment
_Garbage DO's And DON'T's
_Gettin' Started
_Is It Done Yet?
_Planning Your Menu
_Table of Dutches
_Words of Wisdom I
_Words of Wisdom II
__Last Word