If you're like me, you spend a good amount of time planning for a camping trip. And most of the planning centers around the food we'll eat. I don't like most pre-packaged food, so I try not to rely on it when camping - even though it would make things much easier. It's not all about healthfulness - I mean we have our camping junk food staples...plenty of them. But, I like to eat things that taste and resemble food. So the trick is to find easy ways to eat really well while camping. Enough with the foil packets. I don't want undercooked potatoes with my chicken breast steamed on top. Sorry. I don't find that to be much easier, anyway. So, my goal with camping food is for it to be tasty, easy to prepare and easy to clean up after.
Dinner -
The best tip for dinner than I can give you is to buy meat, marinate it, and freeze it. It will slowly thaw in the cooler, while the meat marinates and will be ready to grill over the campfire. Or just buy a steak and season with salt and pepper before you throw it on the grill. You'll save yourself a lot of time and energy when it comes to dishes. You can adapt almost any grill recipe for this. Here are some that I like to use camping:Cumin Ancho Chicken - This will work great for tacos or nachos around the campfire.
Cilantro Thai Grilled Chicken - serve with a veggie and rice or potatoes.
BBQ Chicken Kebabs - kids love these. I usually have the meat cut, marinated and frozen and then skewer them at camp, but I think I'll try freezing them on the skewers next time.
Tri-tip - rub thawed tri-tip with salt, pepper and herbes du provence and grill.
This last trip we used the pre-marinated Bool Kogi from Trader Joe's. It thawed nicely and because it is cut thin cooked pretty quickly
Another idea is skillet dinners - especially on a long trip. I love my campfire, but cooking over the grill can take a while and sometimes it's just nice to pop out something of a one-skillet dinner. Try this 15-minute Lasagne
Side Dishes -
I am ok with grilling veggies in packets. We often steam vegetables at home, so a little steamed broccoli is just fine. I would chop and prep the veggies at home first or consider using frozen peas or corn. I also like to bring a hearty salad that is ok a little wilty - something made with cabbage is a good start.
Roasted Broccoli Toss 1 head broccoli florets, 2 sliced garlic
cloves, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, and salt
on a sheet of foil. Arrange in a single layer and form a packet. Grill
over medium-high heat, 10 minutes.
Salt-Roasted Potatoes Combine 2 cups kosher salt and 2 sprigs
chopped rosemary on a sheet of foil. Bury 1 1/2 pounds baby potatoes in
the salt mixture and form a packet. Grill over medium heat, covered, 45
minutes. (I like to roast these at home and just heat them up on the grill - make extra so you can cook them up with an onion to make home-fries the next morning)
Salads - Buy a bagged mix or make your own with separate dressing packets. Or choose a hearty salad like bean and corn, kale or broccoli slaw that will keep for a few days without getting soggy.
Breakfast -
It was a tradition for both my husband's family and mine to get the small boxes of junk cereal when we went camping. So, the tradition has lived on. My kids really never eat a hot breakfast while camping. Between junk cereal and those gawd-awful "wax" donuts they're never hungry. I'm sure your judging me right now, but it's how we camp. They can have junk food they don't normally get when we're at home. I often try to do something cooked anyway. It's best to keep it simple. Eggs, breakfast sausage (both frozen beforehand), bacon...they're not too hard.Oatmeal is good and easy to transport - you can bring old fashioned with the fixins or instant.
I often do french toast - making the egg mixture in a tupperware that will fit the bread for dipping and then freezing it, but this is certainly not easy.
Breakfast Burritos - fill a large tortilla with scrambled eggs, chopped and cooked bacon, cheese, green onion. Wrap in foil and freeze. They can be heated over the campfire (there are lots of recipes for different variations on pinterest)
Home-fries - heat oil in skillet and saute a sliced onion until softened. Add sliced or chopped cooked potatoes and fry until crispy and browned.
Bacon Corn Hash - I happened to make this recipe the week before we left on our last trip and there was so much leftover I froze it and brought it with us for a simple breakfast. I think it would be really easy to do this camping - especially if you have everything prepped ahead of time.
Coffee -
This deserves it's own section because I know there are various thoughts on this. We usually use the old fashioned enameled percolator and, really, there's nothing wrong with it. I grind the coffee on the coarse setting and ziplock it so we have plenty for the trip. This last time I brought coffee concentrate, but my husband commented that he likes having a hot cup of coffee in the morning when camping. Some people bring a french press as an alternative. You're most likely going to get your best cup of coffee that way, but I worry about it breaking. Last year I added this collapsable silicone filter cone to our camping coffee routine. It doesn't take up much space, but only 1 cup of coffee at a time.Lunch -
Truthfully, this is the hardest meal for me camping. I feel like everything requires lots of other items and I always loathe the thought of it. Sandwiches - lettuce, cheese, mayo, mustard, etc. Hot dogs - buns, ketchup, mustard, onions, etc. The ideal meal here is simple and portable - because maybe you want to go on an outing or spend all day at the beach. I'm still working on an ideal meal here, but I'll sure as heck tell you it's not the shells and cheese we made last time! Sigh. One tip I have, however, is to consolidate everything needed for sandwiches together, say into one large tupperware or ziplock bag, so that when it's time to make them you don't have to sort through the cooler to find what you need.Dessert -
Well, I am a bit of a sweet tooth, so I'll give this it's own title. S'mores are a given, but you can switch it up by using a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup or a Dark Chocolate Caramel and Black Sea Salt Bar instead of Hershey's. I usually try to have some milk chocolate and dark chocolate for the crowd. Another one I enjoy is a cut up banana with chocolate and marshmallows wrapped in foil and cooked in the fire. Yum.Equipment -
A major pet peeve of mine is water leeking into foods when the ice in the cooler melts. I suppose I could drain the water off, but I feel like it helps keep everything submerged cold. I wanted to buy one of these guys, but my husband was skeptical. This last trip we had too much for our cooler, so I brought along our picnic cooler that has a removable plastic bin. When things started getting a little wet I put all the things like sandwich meat and marshmallows in the bin and floated it on top. It was perfect.I keep a set of stacking drawers for my "kitchen." While camping I keep a list of the items I need to replace. When we return I replace them along with clean dish towels, etc. This is what I keep in the drawers:
Measuring Cups
Scissors
Spatula
Pasta Spoon
Ladle
Wooden Spoons
Serving Spoon
Slotted Spoon
Various Knives
Whisk
Silverware
Can Opener
Trash Bags
Vegetable Oil
Plastic wrap
Alluminum Foil
ziplock bags (quart size)
Dish soap
sponges
oven mits
dish towels
wash rags
bowls
plates
cups
lighters/matches
hand sanitizer
hand soap
Paper towels
napkins
In a separate container I keep all my pots and pans, a non-stick double-burner griddle, cutting boards (the thin plastic kind), two tubs for washing dishes, citronella candle, and percolator.
