Author Topic: Camping food?  (Read 1663 times)

Scotland2016

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Camping food?
« on: October 06, 2020, 11:49:58 AM »
Hello! We are going "glamping" soon. Everything is provided, but we will need to bring and prepare our food. I've never gone camping before, so I need some SIMPLE suggestions. We will have a fire pit and gas grill.

I did google this, but the suggestions seemed more complicated that I expected.

bbqbonelesswing

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2020, 12:36:33 PM »
What exactly do you mean by "glamping"? Will you have a cooler, car, cabin- somewhere to store the food?

To keep it simple, I like making food that isn't too exotic (even picky eaters will be happy) and doesn't require much cleanup or any utensils. Please, minimize the plastic plates, utensils, and other disposables to keep the area clean and free of litter. Everyone will appreciate it.

Hot dogs or sausage are an easy crowd pleaser. Skewer with stick, hold over fire, done! Just add buns and condiments.

Kebabs are good too. Prep by cutting up peppers, onions, and meat the night before. Skewer and throw on the grill for a few minutes.

Need snacks? Fruit is easy- apples, peaches, grapes, watermelon, you name it.

Cast iron and tin foil can be some of your best friends if you have a fire pit or grill. Wrap a potato in foil and stick it in the fire- that's about as easy as it gets. I'm also a big fan of grilling fish over the fire. Lay out a filet in a foil boat with butter, salt, pepper, paprika, and a little lemon juice.

Have fun!

tygertygertyger

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2020, 01:31:16 PM »
We typically do burgers (I bring a veggie burger for myself) and fixings. We might have a simple pasta dish another night (pasta made over gas grill). Breakfast is pancakes on the gas grill or instant oatmeal packets, plus fruit. That's as simple as we get. If I want fancy, I might make something and bring a serving with to eat if it'll last in the cooler.

I bring tea bags and instant cocoa packets for mornings too. 

JLee

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2020, 01:45:29 PM »
Cast iron pan + whatever you can cook in it works in/on fire.  We went camping last weekend and had potatoes/onions/bacon hash, sausages, skirt steak, etc.  Going again next weekend too and will probably have similar food...plus eggs, maybe crepes/pancakes, etc. Burgers, salads, really you can cook whatever you want.

I also have a propane camp stove, so I can basically cook anything I can at home that doesn't require an oven.

GuitarStv

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2020, 01:46:05 PM »
On camping trips typically my dad would pack 3/4 lb of dehydrated mashed potatoes per day per person and fishing tackle for additional food if people were still hungry.  I also would lose about 15 lbs a week while camping.

We've never done any 'glamping' before though.  More like portaging into the bush for four days and then trying to get back home before dying.


:P

PMG

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2020, 01:47:08 PM »
We do a lot of camping and our MO is easy, and not much that needs refrigeration.  We want to be out enjoying the woods or relaxing, not fussing with cooking and clean up.  Breakfast is instant oatmeal and fruit or grits with veggies. We keep lots of tea and coffee, lemonade mix those sorts of things, but we just pack water. No cooler full of other beverages to lug around. For dinner the first evening we usually do sausages over the fire, most recently with apples and extra sharp cheddar. yum! Often we pack a salad for the first evening. We try to eat up the fragile food in the first 24 hours. The second day we do some version of quick cooking rice or potatoes with a can of chicken along with whatever fresh veggies or fruits we have around. Definitely need to have s'mores some time.  Potatoes in foil are lovely.  An apple roasted in foil is delicious. We sometimes do foil wrapped packs of fresh ground meat of some kind with chopped potatoes and vegetables, wrap that all in a couple cabbage leaves, and then in two layers of tin foil and let that cook in the coals. delicious! Hummus wraps can be lovely and complex with no need for cooking.

For me it is hard, and so time consuming to cook over a fire. Pancakes, eggs, anything in a skillet over a fire? disaster!  It's so hard to keep heat even, it takes time to build a fire and build bed of hot coals... too much bother for me, though some people seem to enjoy it and be good at it. I'm not very experienced with a gas grill.

Is there a quick easy way to make coffee or boil water!? That's always my first question.  I gotta know I can have a hot beverage when I wake up outside on a cool morning. Beyond that, the simpler the better.

JLee

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2020, 01:54:22 PM »
We do a lot of camping and our MO is easy, and not much that needs refrigeration.  We want to be out enjoying the woods or relaxing, not fussing with cooking and clean up.  Breakfast is instant oatmeal and fruit or grits with veggies. We keep lots of tea and coffee, lemonade mix those sorts of things, but we just pack water. No cooler full of other beverages to lug around. For dinner the first evening we usually do sausages over the fire, most recently with apples and extra sharp cheddar. yum! Often we pack a salad for the first evening. We try to eat up the fragile food in the first 24 hours. The second day we do some version of quick cooking rice or potatoes with a can of chicken along with whatever fresh veggies or fruits we have around. Definitely need to have s'mores some time.  Potatoes in foil are lovely.  An apple roasted in foil is delicious. We sometimes do foil wrapped packs of fresh ground meat of some kind with chopped potatoes and vegetables, wrap that all in a couple cabbage leaves, and then in two layers of tin foil and let that cook in the coals. delicious! Hummus wraps can be lovely and complex with no need for cooking.

For me it is hard, and so time consuming to cook over a fire. Pancakes, eggs, anything in a skillet over a fire? disaster!  It's so hard to keep heat even, it takes time to build a fire and build bed of hot coals... too much bother for me, though some people seem to enjoy it and be good at it. I'm not very experienced with a gas grill.

Is there a quick easy way to make coffee or boil water!? That's always my first question.  I gotta know I can have a hot beverage when I wake up outside on a cool morning. Beyond that, the simpler the better.

Well I am stealing some of your food ideas for next weekend :)

I really like having a propane stove around - it makes hot water so easy...cooking, cleanup, hot beverages, etc. Well worth the space it takes to pack, IMO.

erutio

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2020, 01:58:47 PM »
Glamping means different things for different people.  Will you be in a cabin, camper/trailer, or tent?  Will you have refrigeration vs cooler?
Some easy foods:

Steak:  Freeze before leaving.  Easy to cook on a grill, lots of protein and fat.  If you have coolers, keep them in the cooler and they should be thawed and ready to cook at the end of Day 2.  If you have refrigeration, then you would need to thaw it accordingly.

Potatoes:  Previous poster mention wrapping in foil and putting them in the fire.  My tip would be to put them in some coals on the side, away from the direct flame.  Otherwise you get dried up potatoes.  Other tip is to put the potatoes in early, they take like 30-40 minutes.  Last tip is you can cut the potatoes in half and stuff onions or garlic in them, and them wrap them back up. 

Bacon:  Also freezes well and easy to pack in.

Corn:  Another easy crowd pleaser.  Methods I've done are wrapped in foil, cooked directly in husk (this methods kind of steams them), or on a skewer.  The most simple would be to clean at home and wrap in foil. 

Pineapple:  Not particularly easy, since they aren't simple to pack in, and will need to be cut while out, but my kids love grilled pineapple. 

Other random tips:  Many people seem to like eggs for breakfast while camping.  For me, eggs are a pain to pack in, cook, clean up, carry out.  So maybe not simple for your case.

KYFIRE

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2020, 02:39:26 PM »
Some good suggestions already listed that I'm going to have to borrow.   Of course really depends on what you're going to have available (stove, cooler, cooking utensils, etc) which will make any suggestions all over the place.

Our go to for our camping adventures (mainly car camping on vacations):

Pasta - Always easy.  We bring some kind of noodle or spiral, after cooking and draining, add in a jar of pesto, some sliced olives, veggies, and cheese.  Not fancy but tasty but easy and low clean up.

Grilled Cheese & Soup

Instant oatmeal / yogurt / skyre

Don't underestimate freeze dried meals.  Kinda expensive, high in salt, but after a long day of hiking they can taste amazing (Mountain House granola cereal is also good for morning).

Most important though, Coffee!

Car camping fly away - Starbucks Via packets or in Iceland we found coffee pods
Car camping US - French press with home ground coffee
[Don't get the pitch forks!] Camper camping - Pour over


NV Teacher

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2020, 02:41:16 PM »
Go simple on the food.  Make it easy to take, cook, and clean up.  Nobody comes for the food, as long as it's decent it's good enough.  Anything that you can precook and freeze makes it easier and hopefully cuts down on the ice you need in the coolers.

One trick I picked up from a friend is to crack the eggs and put them in a jar with a tight lid for scrambled eggs.  She had a large family (11 kids) so she used a clean half gallon juice bottle with a wider lid.  The jar held two dozen eggs.  No need to buy fancy egg carriers and no worry about eggs cracking and making a mess in the cooler.  I thought it was brilliant.

AMandM

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2020, 10:56:23 PM »
It also depends on how long you're staying. Some things keep better than others.

Very easy:
Tinned meals (stew, chili, pork & beans) heated over the fire.
Hot dogs or pre-cooked sausages heated on sticks over the fire or on the grill.
Pasta and a jar of sauce is easy if you have a stove, not so easy on a grill or fire ring.
Very easy sides: tinned veg (pierce the tin and you can heat it directly in the coals), bag of salad from the grocery store, raw cut up veggies and dip, fruit, rolls.

Almost as easy:
Steak, chops, hamburgers, chicken pieces are easy to cook on the grill or on a grate over the fire, but bringing them requires a bit more care since they are raw and can spoil.  We usually season/marinade in advance, shape the burgers, and freeze. They do double duty as ice in the cooler.
Sliced zucchini, bell peppers, tinned pineapple rings, peaches cut in half can all be grilled easily with delicious results. If you can make a foil tray or packet you can cook smaller things on the grill: shrimp, mushrooms, broccoli.

Sometimes the cooking is part of the fun. At least once every trip we have a big camping breakfast: build a fire, cook bacon, cook eggs and  pancakes in the bacon grease. It takes most of the morning.

You do want a way to heat water efficiently. Mornings and evenings can be chilly compared to when you live indoors, so hot drinks will be welcome.

OtherJen

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #11 on: October 07, 2020, 06:03:46 AM »
A propane stove (e.g., Coleman stove) helps a ton. One of those, a saucepan, and a skillet, and you can boil water for coffee/tea/instant oatmeal, heat up canned food, and fry up bacon and eggs.

We usually only cook breakfast once or twice (I keep eggs in the cooler in a little hard-plastic case from a camping supply store) and eat yogurt with granola for the other breakfasts. For lunches, I pack bread and sandwich fixings, chips, and fruit and veg that can easily go in the cooler or doesn’t need refrigeration (usually a bag of baby carrots, pre-sliced cucumber, apples, oranges).

For dinners, we plan a simple protein (marinated chicken pieces, burger patties, sausages) to go on the grill, some form of tuber (potato, sweet potato) that can be wrapped in foil and put in the fire (or on the grill) to roast, and grilled or raw veg. A lot of veggies are great as kabobs or grilled in foil packets and can be prepped ahead of time (e.g., mushrooms, onions+peppers, summer squash).

Scotland2016

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #12 on: October 07, 2020, 10:19:32 AM »
Thank you, all! I appreciate all the wonderful suggestions. We are staying at a cute, family-owned camp ground of Conestoga wagons. We will have beds, a tiny fridge, and coffee maker. We plan to bring our cooler. Food will be cooked on fire pit or gas grill. I brought up the glamping part basically to indicate what novices we are. :) Thanks again!

GreenToTheCore

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #13 on: October 08, 2020, 10:35:56 AM »
Just in case this comes in handy for the future, here's a quick and easy lunch option:
- Flour tortilla
- Tuna (can or packet, packets are handy for backpacking and come in flavors)
- Wax covered cheese (like Baby Bell brand, doesn't need to be refrigerated)
- Bell pepper (we do half a pepper per person so we don't have leftovers, whole peppers keep well)
- Mayonnaise, mustard, relish (the little packets from the deli counter or a fast food place don't need to be refrigerated and are in single portions already)

Cut the cheese and pepper, smoosh the tuna and condiments, wrap it all in a tortilla. Easy to eat while on the go and you don't even need silverware to eat it.

Hope you have a great trip!

Fishindude

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #14 on: October 08, 2020, 11:13:08 AM »
The best food for camping is stuff that doesn't require a lot of devices, dishes, pots & pans, utensils, etc.
Single skillet meals, a big pot of soup of stew, something as simple as brats or hotdogs cooked on a stick, foil wrapped meals, etc.

LWYRUP

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #15 on: October 08, 2020, 11:19:47 AM »
The best food for camping is stuff that doesn't require a lot of devices, dishes, pots & pans, utensils, etc.
Single skillet meals, a big pot of soup of stew, something as simple as brats or hotdogs cooked on a stick, foil wrapped meals, etc.

Agreed!  This is what I do:

I buy cans of chili, sausages and peppers.  I cook the sausages, then throw in the chili, then throw in cut up peppers.  One pot.  Desert is a chocolate bar and whisky.  Sides can be as simple as like an apple, or you can bring potatoes and corn and cook them in tin foil right in the fire. 

In the morning, my ritual is a can of chicken and dumpling soup and some tea.  Not typical breakfast food, but it's often chilly and so it's nice to have something hot.

I'll usually throw some granola bars in the bag too just for random calories / snack.

None of the above need to be refrigerated (get precooked sausage) so it's dead simple. 

CNM

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Re: Camping food?
« Reply #16 on: October 08, 2020, 11:43:09 AM »
When we go camping, we typically do more of a backpacking thing.  So no fire pit, no grill, no refrigerator. We will bring one of those small camp stoves for hot tea and cocoa.
Anyway, because of this set up, we usually bring food that is already made and ready to be eaten cold.  Sandwiches for dinner, salami, cheese, canned oysters, bread, and fresh non-easily squished fruit (apples, oranges) for lunch, tortillas with peanut butter and honey for breakfast, peanuts, chocolate, cookies etc. as snacks.  All ready to eat with minimal prep and minimal dirty dishes.