“Mom, can I have a Pop Tart?” was the request from my youngest daughter from across the RV early one morning. We were camping five or six years ago, and it was a phrase I was familiar with.

There are just some staples we always packed in our RV during the summer. Pop Tarts used to be one of them.

I was not really okay with my family’s “breakfast of champions,” but it was one of the things I think my little girl most looked forward to about camping. Not liking bugs, smoke, or, let’s just say it, nature in general, she loved that she could have Pop Tarts for breakfast.

About five years ago I decided to revamp my family’s camp diet. The reality was I was still the grocery shopper and cook, camping or not. I could pack anything I wanted—my family would eat it if they were hungry enough.

Gone were the hot dogs, bratwurst, pancakes/eggs/bacon breakfasts—we didn’t eat breakfast like that at home, after all. In came healthy sandwiches, grilled lean chicken, fresh fruit and salad and high fiber cereals.

But nothing I did could convince my family that a healthy sandwich was better than a charcoal encrusted, grilled hotdog. Especially when we were at car shows and the hot dogs were part of the fare provided by the hosting car club along with the little bag of chips and cookies.

When I pulled somewhat warm, squished sandwiches from our picnic bag, they rejected my offer and made a beeline for the grill instead. Really, who could blame them? I did sit there and eat my sandwich because at the time I was trying to diet and I had the calories counted and already entered into my food diary. I successfully ignored them munching down on their chips and hot dogs.

It was obviously a lost cause, so I decided not to make the same mistake again. There was, however, some retribution in knowing there weren’t any Pop Tarts in the RV.

The following year I decided to relax the rules, let them eat their hot dogs and whatever other food was provided during car shows. When we were camping dinners remained fresh fruit and salad, grilled chicken—an overall healthier fare. There were still no pop tarts, we would have scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and fresh fruit for breakfast.

But I don’t care who you are, turkey bacon is no substitute for real bacon. So although the turkey bacon was not part of our subsequent breakfasts, I kept it all pretty healthy.

The following year, my husband went rogue and bought a box of Pop Tarts for the camper. They were gone before we left the house, so in some ways I still won.

Our camping trips changed as our kids’ got older and their schedules changed. They became mostly car shows with rare pure camping trips in between.

I started packing more convenient food somewhat in protest of having to cook as much on vacation as I did at home. I discovered precooked bacon I only had to heat up, although expensive, it’s worth it.

This year, I don’t know if I just got tired or what, but my resolve to eat healthier camp food was practically non-existent. However, I did not have Pop Tarts on the list.

I went back to the store the morning we were leaving to pick up chocolate chip cookies I had promised to bring and found myself grabbing a few other convenient snacks for the road.

As I was quickly going up and down the aisles, I got a text, “Mom, can I have a pop tart?”

Sigh, it was from my husband.

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. She is apparently still serving Pop Tarts while camping. You can read her column every week on covingtonreporter.com under the Lifestyles section. You can also read more of her writing and her daily blog on her website livingwithgleigh.com or like Living with Gleigh on Facebook.