Camping... meals?

[cb4409]

We're going camping in a few weeks and i dont want to overpack on food. Any rec's for easy meals? We're going Fri-Sun, so we need 2 breakfasts, 2 dinners, and 1 lunch + snacks/drinks.

[iluvmytxrgr]

For breakfast, we usually do breakfast burritos one morning. I use two eggs per person, peppers, sausage and mushrooms. put them in a tortilla with some cheese and hot sauce. So good and easy. We also do muffins or danish for breakfast.
For lunches, I pack a container or lunch meat, chicken salad or tuna salad. I also pack fruit, chips, beef jerky, pretzels and such for snacks.
For dinner, we will do foil packets and throw them on the edge on the fire. We will do things like chicken, peppers, mushrooms, and other veggies in the foil. We've also done streak strips with mushrooms and pepper. We pack the meat in the marinade in zip bags or containers in the cooler.

[monkeygirl18]

We're actually going camping this weekend.

We keep it simple as we don't feel like being bothered with cooking.

Breakfast: cereal (neither one of us are big breakfast people)

Lunch: good ol' PB&J and doritos (or other chips)

Dinners: Hot dogs (nothing like a hot dog over the campfire) and baked beans (I make them at home in the crock then transfer them to a plastic container to take)
Steak,corn on the cob and baked beans

Snacks: We aren't to much into snacks but we've done the smores thing (to messy). Uaually, I just buy a cake at the grocery store,cut it to proper serving size and put into plastic containers. Occasionally we will bring pretzels or some sort of snack bars.

[cb4409]

Great ideas, thank you!
How do you cook/heat things up? we have one of those grates that goes over the campfire, should i just bring a cast iron skillet? we tried a little camping stove last time but it broke.

[FrozenSunshine]

If you don't replace the grill - breakfast for us would be donuts or granola bars, etc.
Lunch we always do sandwiches or hotdogs with chips and dips
We do baked potatoes and corn in the camp fire. You can do foil packet dinners to do the protein.

[mbcdefg]

We bring along a big Tupperware of chopped potatoes that can be eaten with both breakfast and dinner. before we leave home we chop the potatoes, boil them a little while, then add seasonings and chopped peppers and onions. The first time we made potatoes at camp it took FoREVER and they were still raw, so now we boil them at home first and then just put them in a pan at camp to crisp up.

Ditto for corn on the cob - we boil it at home, then wrap it up in foil with a pat of butter and salt & pepper inside and put it in our cooler. At camp we just throw it into the fire until it's hot.

Breakfast is usually scrambled eggs, bacon or breakfast sausage, and the potatoes. Or the jar of Bisquick where you just add water, shake, and pour it into the pan for quick pancakes.

Lunch is usually hot dogs and maybe a can of baked beans. Or we'll drive away from camp and explore and we'll find a little local place to eat lunch. (None of the campsites where we go are remote. we never have to drive more than 15 minutes to get to a town.)

For dinner, we marinate chicken or steak in something and keep it in a Ziplock, then cook it in an old pan over the fire when we get to camp. Plus the potatoes and corn I mentioned earlier. We've made kebobs at home a few times with meat and vegetables.

We do a lot of prepwork at home so that we don't need to bring along things like cutting boards or knives, and so we're not stuck with food scraps that need to be thrown away.

You can also chop potatoes, put them in a foil packet along with some oil and a packet of Lipton onion soup mix, and throw it into the fire.

S'mores for dessert, of course. We usually bring along a snack like chips, too.

I also pack a couple of sandwiches. Useful for if you can't get a fire going, especially in the rain or if you get to the campsite too late and it's too dark.

We bring along a whole bunch of dishrags and paper towels to clean up, and extra Tupperwares and Ziplocks to store leftover food back in our cooler. Aluminum foil is always useful. Don't forget a spatula, tongs, skewers, a knife, eating utensils, potholders/dish rags, plates, cups, napkins/paper towels. A bucket to get water and rinse stuff off is useful.

We usually cook with old junky frying pans and pots that we have at home and never use.

[miss1180]

for breakfast- usually take some granola bars, muffins, fruit, maybe cereal if you feel like taking milk (as a kid camping, i used to love those individual cereal boxes where you can use the box as a bowl. and there is "milk" called Parmalat that doesn't need to be refridgerated.)
you can also make pancakes in a cast iron skillet over the fire.

Lunches- sandwhiches. tuna salad kept in the cooler, lunch meat kept in the cooler, or cans of "bad" stuff LOL like chef boyardee or dinty moore beef stew or campbells soup

Dinner- we do foil packs, too. just throw some veggies and meat in thick foil, wrap it up and put it at the edge of the fire. pasta with jarred sauce is also a good one because you don't have to worry about keeping that refridgerated. if you have the grate for over the fire, you can do pretty much anything you would put on a grill- hot dogs, burgers, steak, etc.
have fun!!

[cb4409]

Love these ideas, thanks everyone!

[monkeygirl18]

For the hot dogs we have skewers, the steak gets done on the grill over the camp fire, I have an old pot to boil the corn in and to heat up the baked beans I use a cast iron skillet. As for utensils I have tongs, a long handled turner, steak knives and the rest (forks,spoons,knives & cups) is all cheap dollar store plastic & disposable. for coffee I have a metal coffee pot that goes over the fire ( we just heat water in it), coffee mugs ( the insulated ones with lids) and instant coffee ( not my fav but it works for a weekend).

[winterbride1220]

pinterest.com/pin/141300507029406091/

the best camping meal plan I've seen. She gives some recipes and practical advice. Have fun!! I'm so jealous!!

[iluvmytxrgr]

Jul 19, 2012 14:35:40 GMT -5 cb4409 said:

Great ideas, thank you!
How do you cook/heat things up? we have one of those grates that goes over the campfire, should i just bring a cast iron skillet? we tried a little camping stove last time but it broke.

We have box we use every camping trip that has a skillet, a pot and a coffee pot. We also have tongs, a spatula, knives, forks and spoons.

[basilosaurus]

How do you camp with fresh eggs? How do you hike in with a cooler? I'm so confused by this thread.

I basically subsist on cups of noodles. They're super light weight, cheap (not like the freeze dried meals) and all I need to do is boil water to add to it. Granola bars or dried fruit for snacks in between.

[Nonny]

Jul 20, 2012 19:27:35 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

How do you camp with fresh eggs? How do you hike in with a cooler? I'm so confused by this thread.

I basically subsist on cups of noodles. They're super light weight, cheap (not like the freeze dried meals) and all I need to do is boil water to add to it. Granola bars or dried fruit for snacks in between.

Camping can be a lot of different things. For me it never involves hiking anywhere. Usually in involves being at a state park with flush toilets and showers, plus my parents' giant RV. When I am "roughing it" I'm still at a camp ground, possibly pit toilets and no showers, but my car is at my spot with me and I have a cooler (or two or five, depending on how many people have come along).

You aren't going for very long, but I like to suggest to people that they have multiple coolers. One as a "deep chill" that in only opened at meal times, and one for drinks that you know you'll be in and out of all the time. It keeps your perishables colder better, and that's good if you are like me and want to prevent food poisoning.

[hz80408]

For camping we bring a mini-weber we use with charchoal. We bring a cooler for our must-keep cold items and then also a large tupperwear to hold any other food, and supplies (don't forget trash bags, matches, lighter, lighter fluid, newspaper, oven mitt, tongs, etc).

Breakfast: bacon and eggs. To cook breakfast I usually go to the dollar store and buy the aluminum foil rectangular pans. Put bacon in one, cook with lid on grill. Once cooked, take the entire pan of the grill with the tongs and using the oven mitt, fold in half to hold in the heat while you cook your eggs. Eggs-for camping I buy the egg substitute in the carton, and just pour that on (pre-greased, we bring sprayable olive oil with) AL foil pan and scamble. When we're done, we toss the AL foil pans.

Lunch - hot dogs

Dinner- brats, chicken or steak; baked potatoes or corn on the cob, etc.

Dessert - smores.

For snacks we do nuts, crackers, granola bars, chips, etc

[GilliC]

Jul 20, 2012 19:27:35 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

How do you camp with fresh eggs?

I did a weekend trek once with a friend who brought fresh eggs. As long as they're from a reputable source, eggs don't actually have to be refrigerated. So he just wrapped them carefully and put them in a hard-sided container in his pack. It was only a two-day hike, so the space wasn't critical. I have to say that the scrambled eggs the next morning were a great treat to start the day!

You can actually do quite a bit if it's a shorter trek, especially when you have a group to share the load. With a two-day trek, refrigeration is less of a concern, especially if you plan ahead. We've done spaghetti, where everyone made a sauce to share and froze it ahead of time. It thawed on the hike in, so we could have meat-based sauces once we'd reached and pitched camp. And again, large packs on a shorter trip meant that one of my friends actually brought along an actual colander! I have photos of him using it on the edge our backcountry middle-of-nowhere campsite. Fun stuff!

On longer trips, though, we tend to just go for turmat. (Why is there no English word for freeze-dried boil-and-eat meals? Or do I just not know it?)

[lahoagie]

When we go backpacking we will do Santa Fe refried beans and tortillas. Just add boiling water to the bean package, mush around for five minutes and they are good to go! We also bring little shots of tequila to sip on.

For car camping, we will do spaghetti with no sauce and Parmesan cheese or make the beans but have some cheese to put on them.

I refuse to spend my vacation cooking or doing dishes, so everything is super easy. Breakfast is usually just granola bars and lunch is peanut butter sandwiches and chips. Plus fruit if it isn't too hot.

[definitelyO]

We don't backpack in but we do car camp at primitive natural forest sites (fire ring, but no bathrooms, no numbered sites, no other people)

I make a lot of stuff at home.

Breakfast: I make breakfast burritos at home - wrap in foil and then just pull out and heat in the coals.
breakfast sandwiches - I make up sausage patties at home and then at the camp site (you can do this over the fire on a grate or on a coleman stove) - scramble eggs, heat up the sausage and put on english muffin with cheese
we will also do cold breakfast like cereal, muffins, etc....
I pack the milk boxes for DS

lunch - usually cold cuts or grilled cheese

dinners - spaghetti with grilled sausage (easy to boil water and noodles over the fire) and then heat up sauce (I move it to a ziploc container vs. jar and freeze and keep it in the cooler).

Quesadillas - wrap the filled tortillas in foil and put on the fire grate.

any grilled meat and then put veggies in a foil pouch with butter and seasonings

those are our go-tos.

[fakejew]

Jul 20, 2012 19:27:35 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

How do you camp with fresh eggs? How do you hike in with a cooler? I'm so confused by this thread.

Camping does not necessarily = backpacking.

[basilosaurus]

Jul 23, 2012 11:06:21 GMT -5 GilliC said:

On longer trips, though, we tend to just go for turmat. (Why is there no English word for freeze-dried boil-and-eat meals? Or do I just not know it?)

I know there are a ton of freeze dried meals you can buy from camping supply stores. I just call them freeze dried meals. Didn't know there was another term.

I guess I've never met someone who called it "camping" if they weren't hiking in. Camping and backpacking are synonymous in my world.

So, no, eggs aren't going to last. I get they don't have to be refrigerated, but they are fragile. At best, people will qualify with *car* camping to indicate they're doing something outside of normal. Car camping still means you have just a tent and a car, so it's not like you're cooking elaborate meals or have coolers.

What else do people mean by camping? An RV? Something else I haven't conceived of?

[monkeygirl18]

Jul 24, 2012 3:28:20 GMT -5 fakejew said:

Jul 20, 2012 19:27:35 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

How do you camp with fresh eggs? How do you hike in with a cooler? I'm so confused by this thread.

Camping does not necessarily = backpacking.

This.

We just went camping this weekend. My idea of camping means our suburban is packed full.

We have a big tent (6 person and it's just the 2 of us), a canopy (10x10) a large tarp that covers most of our site (we only bring that if we know we are in for rain),a queen size air mattress that's double high,sheets,blankets (or sleeping bag if is cooler weather),coolers,clothes,toiletries,lantern,flash light,cook wear (1 pot,1 cast iron fry pan,spatula,tongs,coffe pot,plastic wear,plastic bowls and plates,pot holders),camp chairs i even have a potty and several other items. I have everything organized in 8 different plastic bins. Usually takes us about 15 min to load and/or unload the suburban thanks to my organization.

Dh calls this 5 star camping

[hz80408]

We interpret camping as loading up the car; driving to campsite/statepark/etc; setting up tent, cooking food over fire, hiking/canoeing/swimming during day.

Drive home when done.

[iluvmytxrgr]

I live on the coast and our camping usually has nothing to do with hiking. We load up a boat and head out to an uninhabited barrier island. Eggs and other cold items keep well in our cooler.
We have taken backpacking trips where we hike in and set up camp. We usually only take prepackaged foods and fruit when we do that. We both have large bladder camel backs for water. We have four kids, so those trips don't happen often.

[lahoagie]

Jul 24, 2012 4:24:23 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

I guess I've never met someone who called it "camping" if they weren't hiking in. Camping and backpacking are synonymous in my world.

Mine too, but I mostly do car camping because I am a wimp To be fair, real camping in southern california blows because you usually need to carry in all of your water and if you plan to do more than one night, that is a lot of water.

But to stay on topic, people you need to try the Santa Fe beans. They are really good camping/car camping food.

[Deleted]

We camp and the only 'hiking' we do is around the campsite!
For breakfast, I usually bring fruit, muffins, yoghurt, etc. Lunch is often sandwiches or hot dogs and I bring salad.
Dinner is something in a foil packet or sausage, salad, etc.

[FrozenSunshine]

We interpret camping as loading up the truck and heading 2 hours out of town to our family property. There is a shack, no running water, and an outhouse. Some people sleep in the shack, others bring tents. We load up the cars with lots of food and booze. We fish off the bank of the river and have huge bonfires.

We reemerge from the woods days later

[Nonny]

Jul 24, 2012 5:23:04 GMT -5 monkeygirl18 said:

We have a big tent (6 person and it's just the 2 of us), a canopy (10x10) a large tarp that covers most of our site (we only bring that if we know we are in for rain),a queen size air mattress that's double high,sheets,blankets (or sleeping bag if is cooler weather),coolers,clothes,toiletries,lantern,flash light,cook wear (1 pot,1 cast iron fry pan,spatula,tongs,coffe pot,plastic wear,plastic bowls and plates,pot holders),camp chairs i even have a potty and several other items. I have everything organized in 8 different plastic bins. Usually takes us about 15 min to load and/or unload the suburban thanks to my organization.

Dh calls this 5 star camping

LOL! I have to laugh at this being 5 star camping, but only because of how I grew up camping in an RV. I'd give your setup maybe 3.5 stars.

My parents just got a new 5th wheel after their last one developed too many issues (they spend about 6 months of the year at different start parks). I just saw it for the first time a few weeks go and that thing has a frickin' ceiling fan, A/C, and a flat panel TV with DVD player, and a full size queen bed. It's swanky, but even it is only probably 4 start camping compared to some of the giant buses some people have.

But really, the important thing is that you must cook something on a long fork/stick over a wood campfire.

[fakejew]

Jul 24, 2012 4:24:23 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Jul 23, 2012 11:06:21 GMT -5 GilliC said:

On longer trips, though, we tend to just go for turmat. (Why is there no English word for freeze-dried boil-and-eat meals? Or do I just not know it?)

I know there are a ton of freeze dried meals you can buy from camping supply stores. I just call them freeze dried meals. Didn't know there was another term.

I guess I've never met someone who called it "camping" if they weren't hiking in. Camping and backpacking are synonymous in my world.

So, no, eggs aren't going to last. I get they don't have to be refrigerated, but they are fragile. At best, people will qualify with *car* camping to indicate they're doing something outside of normal. Car camping still means you have just a tent and a car, so it's not like you're cooking elaborate meals or have coolers.

What else do people mean by camping? An RV? Something else I haven't conceived of?

What do you call staying at a camp ground, sleeping in a tent and cooking meals over a campfire if not camping? Normal is relative. And since when can't most cars fit a tent AND a cooler?

There are lots of different kinds of camping. Usually it just means staying at a camp site of some sort. Here this should help:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camping

[GilliC]

Jul 25, 2012 2:42:23 GMT -5 fakejew said:

What do you call staying at a camp ground, sleeping in a tent and cooking meals over a campfire if not camping?

My XH would have called this "tenting."
Do not look at the Wikipedia site for "Tenting." It was clearly not written by Indians! Haha!

Jul 25, 2012 2:42:23 GMT -5 fakejew said:

And since when can't most cars fit a tent AND a cooler?

We rented a Suzuki Swift for a cabin trip a few weekends ago. With four passengers, the only way you could have put a full-size cooler in that car would be between the passengers in the backseat or on someone's lap.