CAMPING Food

2

Replies

  • islandnutshel
    islandnutshel Posts: 1,143 Member
    Brilliant ideas. Looks like I need to add good quality tinfoil to my rapidly expanding grocery list. Love the one dish meals ideas, and I want to do most of my cooking ahead of time. I must admit, I am not going to be too restrictive with my calories. I will make sure to get lots of activity in.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Love me some camping....

    For winter camping, we generally make chili and a couple of other soups/stews to fend off the cold. For the most part, my stews and what not come in well under 500 calories per serving. If you're going to be doing a lot of hiking and what not, make sure to bring some nutrient and calorie dense snacks along as well...some good homemade trail mix or just nuts, etc.

    Otherwise, I make pretty much the same stuff I would make at home...lots of meats on the grill and your typical sides. I'm not a big hot dog guy, but I do enjoy brats. Doing a pot roast in a dutch oven over the fire or hot coals is always awesome and good cold weather comfort food, but lots of tending. I usually eat a bit more when I'm camping because I do a lot of hiking and moving around when I'm out there so I need to eat a lot, even at a deficit.

    Oh...and don't forget the cocoa.
  • Hbazzell
    Hbazzell Posts: 899 Member
    I always make spaghetti bunt since the carbs are high that may be ill advised in your plan. Bring suqsh like veggies that dont need to be kept cold and then you can grill them!
  • j75j75
    j75j75 Posts: 854 Member
    sausages, bacon, grilled ciabatta bread with butter, garlic and a slice of cheese (any kind), eggs, popcorn
  • zumbarock
    zumbarock Posts: 86 Member
    I always liked having omelets in a bag. Just boil some water. Crack a couple of eggs, or just the whites into a ziplock baggie with all of the ingredients you want, shake it up and zip it up. Then boil until done. Great for clean up too, just throw it away!!

    Love camping and hiking, hope that you have fun :)
  • I love camping but I live in Montana so I guess its just natural that I love the outdoors or I wouldn't live here. I like to take ears of corn with the husks still on (If you can find them this time of year I don't know) wrap them in damp paper towels and then aluminum foil and take them with you. Then cook them on the coals. Just rotate 1/3 every 20 minutes and you will have some delicious roasted corn. Also as some others have mentioned you can take a variety of veggies and put them in aluminum foil with some seasoning and I add a little butter and seal it up and then just throw that on the goals as well. I also prepare these before I leave the house. I just cook those until the rest of everything else is done cooking and then pull those off and they are delicious. I typically just throw in small red potatoes quartered and full length carrots and they are great. You can also precook potatoes and then just bring them along wrapped in foil to reheat on the heat. I imagine you could likely buy a bag of frozen veggies, any kind and just throw them into the foil and the water from being frozen would act like a steamer. Just add some seasoning though. Another good thing to cook on the camping stove or on a fire is from the freezer section of the grocery store. They have those skillet creations that you just have to add a few eggs to. You can bring the eggs along in the cooler, as well as the skillet creations keep in the cooler for a couple days if packed well in ice. I will say I haven't paid attention to the nutrition value on those since I lost 60 pounds so I don't know what it is plus when I am camping I do a lot of hiking so I don't really care. You might want to double check depending on what your activity level will be on your trip. Another camp stove favorite is corn beef hash. The can kind. Just need a can opener. Again, I eat that on a high activity day. As a side note, a trick I learned for cooking with pans on the fire. If you rub your pans down with dish detergent on the bottom and let it dry before you cook with them on a camp fire, they will easily wash off the soot and grim from cooking on the fire. This will save you a lot of time and save your pan post fire cooking. So I tend to do this at home before ever going camping. Just a thin layer will do. Then when camping if being out there several days I put a new layer on after washing them so that they can dry for the day with it on there while I am out doing whatever activity for the day. I would rather make my clean up time fast so I can go have fun sooner than later. In regards to marshmallows if you do those. I have dipped those in Bailey's Irish Cream Before. Been awhile since I did it but it gives them a nice color and a little extra taste. I also heard this past Halloween that you can buy peeps instead of regular marshmallows and they supposedly make much better s'mores. I haven't tried it though.
  • islandnutshel
    islandnutshel Posts: 1,143 Member
    Marshmellows dipped in Bailey's WOW, will try that one.
  • ClearNotCloudyMind
    ClearNotCloudyMind Posts: 238 Member
    Stew (any kind) Freeze it before you go and it acts as an ice pack for the first day keeping your milk cold. Eat with bread (if you want to restore carbs after a hike it's necessary!) and a spoon from bowls. Easy, quick and super-comforting!
  • marinegirl92
    marinegirl92 Posts: 184 Member
    I always liked having omelets in a bag. Just boil some water. Crack a couple of eggs, or just the whites into a ziplock baggie with all of the ingredients you want, shake it up and zip it up. Then boil until done. Great for clean up too, just throw it away!!

    Love camping and hiking, hope that you have fun :)

    We added this omelet in a bag just last year. Everyone eats together and has exactly what they want. Make sure it's FREEZER QT sized bags. Boil in water 5 - 10 minutes depending on how many are in there! Great idea!
  • RobinC37
    RobinC37 Posts: 242 Member
    I also make camper dinners wrap ground turkey, potatoes, onions, bell peppers and carrots in foil and top with cheese! Bake in the coals until its thoroughly cooked! You can also do dessert ones with apples, raisins, nuts, a little butter and cinnamon and brown sugar!
  • ki4yxo
    ki4yxo Posts: 709 Member
    I like to premake kabobs, and grill them.
  • samantha1242
    samantha1242 Posts: 816 Member
    Oh hey we live on the same island :)

    Soups, stews, chili, strifrys, pastas, etc all frozen in bags. Quick and easy. If you have a small Coleman BBQ then hotdogs (with a fire too), Mac and cheese, spaghetti.. Anything really. Ive cooked gourmet meals in the bush of the Yukon with nothing but a fire and a frying pan and a couple of utensils.

    Bacon necessary.

    :)
  • Yaxomoxay
    Yaxomoxay Posts: 25 Member
    I've never understood camping. Work all year to support yourself and then take a week off to pretend to be homeless?????

    Was like you. Went to camping, changed idea, now I love it.
  • Yaxomoxay
    Yaxomoxay Posts: 25 Member
    I always liked having omelets in a bag. Just boil some water. Crack a couple of eggs, or just the whites into a ziplock baggie with all of the ingredients you want, shake it up and zip it up. Then boil until done. Great for clean up too, just throw it away!!

    Love camping and hiking, hope that you have fun :)

    We added this omelet in a bag just last year. Everyone eats together and has exactly what they want. Make sure it's FREEZER QT sized bags. Boil in water 5 - 10 minutes depending on how many are in there! Great idea!

    The bag doesn't melt?
  • knittnponder
    knittnponder Posts: 1,953 Member
    We dehydrate leftovers and my son takes them backpacking on his Scout trips. He boils water and adds the dried food to it, covers and lets it sit about 15-20 minutes. He gets a variety of food, doesn't have to eat something that will make him sick (we're gluten free) and it's light weight for packing in. He carries a water filter so he can have a clean water source and it's lighter than packing in water.
  • OkieTink
    OkieTink Posts: 285 Member
    Frito pies to go!

    Cook your chili ahead of time, reheat at the campground. Open a small (grab size) bag of frito's, spoon meat into the bag, add cheese, onions...whatever you want. Throw your "bowl" away when done. It's a favorite @ our campsite.
  • If you grill/BBQ the meat then that's about as healthy as the meat is gonna get. Just don't slather it in marinade!
    You can take salad veggies and the meat with you in a 12v fridge (that's a *compressor* powered fridge, not cheap plugin coolbox) or in a high end 5 day cooler with loads of ice. Just don't keep opening the lid. Open it once per day and transfer the stuff you want to a day cooler and take the extra ice out of that to put in the big cooler to try and reduce the amount of air in that cooler (air space is the enemy of keeping the stuff cold for days). You can also take regular veggies with you that way.
    Add a gas or petrol powered 2 burner stove and you can make most things as you would at home.

    I went around Europe the last 2 summers with that setup, but only one 3 day cooler and bought food every 2 days but I needed to buy 1-2KG of ice every day to replace the ice that melted every 24hrs in the 40degC heat. In the cold you should be ok.

    And if you're gonna be walking etc and be generally active on this trip you can afford, and will need to, eat a little more than normal anyway.
  • melduf
    melduf Posts: 468 Member
    I do what I call a "camping pizza". You need tortillas and whatever you like on a pizz. You heat the meat in a separate pan. Then you put the tortillas in a large pan, add the sauce, meat, vedgies and cheese. Let the tortillas get crispy. It's less messy if you fold it in 2. Enjoy!
  • Okapi42
    Okapi42 Posts: 495 Member
    Wait, why is everyone talking about food that doesn't need to be cooled on a winter camping trip? And even if it's a summer trip - since you say you have running water nearby, put everything in a mesh bag (in well-sealed containers) and dump it in the river, weighted down with a rock. That's what we always did.

    To me, the ultimate camping food is poffertjes, those tiny round Dutch buckwheat pancakes, with butter and powdered sugar. My father always made them when we were hiking, impractical as that was.

    It would've been his birthday today... :(
  • AlongCame_Molly
    AlongCame_Molly Posts: 2,835 Member
    Tin foil dinners!

    Wrap up just about anything (my dad always did hamburger patties, onions and potato wedges, and my favorite is a chicken breast, green peppers, onion and a slice of pepper jack cheese) into little tin foil packages and roast then in the coals. Amazing.

    -OR-

    Porkies!

    Cubed pork, a can of cream of chicken soup, a can of cream of mushroom soup, croutons, salt and pepper and a little water. Mix in a dutch oven and pile coals under and on top of the lid. Cook until the pork is done. The result is a disgusting-looking gray mass of gooey, bready, porky awesomeness. Aughh! I need some now....
  • sprintto50
    sprintto50 Posts: 410 Member
    For breakfast I combine instant oats, some skim milk powder, a bit of brown sugar and whatever dried fruit and nuts you desire. I package it into individual servings so all you have to do is dump it into a bowl, add boiling water and stir. Delicious, light to carry, and holds you forever!

    When we have to portage to camp, I like Bistro Express Rice mixed with some kind of meat. They don't have to be microwaved. Heat in a pot with a bit of water added.
  • MinMin97
    MinMin97 Posts: 2,674 Member
    LOVE camping! LOVE the food!
    Dinners:
    Meats marinating in ziplocs, ready to roast.
    Premade garlic bread, cut up in ziplocs.
    Diced up veggies ready to saute and enjoy with the meat and bread.
    Bulb of garlic and a garlic press
    Lemons
    Salt and pepper
    S'mores fixings for dessert
    Lunches:
    Some sandwich fixings for quick lunches:lunchmeats/PBJ/Cheeses
    Avocado
    Fresh fruit
    Chips
    Salsa
    Fun candies such as MM's
    Fun Cookies
    A couple of Big Waters with spigots for table top
    Breakfasts:
    Hot chocolate, Hot tea, Hot Coffee
    Pre-cook your bacon and bring it in ziplocs (this is helpful if you have small children to simplify breakfast)
    Pancake mix and syrup
    Eggs!!
    Shredded cheese
    blueberries/strawberries
    Instant oatmeal
    Milk!
  • Linda916
    Linda916 Posts: 124 Member
    have you ever used the foil pouches to make individual meal packets? and meat and vegs on a skewer are good too!
  • LifeChanged2000
    LifeChanged2000 Posts: 176 Member
    I cook a ton in tin foil when I camp.
    Potatoes with butter and herbs
    Chicken and vegetables of choice
    Smores
    Oatmeal or grits
    Tri Tip
    Steaks
    Pork Chops
  • Sarge516
    Sarge516 Posts: 256 Member
    Oatmeal
    Freeze dried meals like mountain house, backpackers pantry

    Not much of the freeze dried stuff is good 4 u, but you'll need the calories to keep warm and active.
  • dehydrated brown rice and veggies.. and jerky... hiker/backpacker staples. I have a dehydrator at home so making these is easy. Or you can get instant brown rice and buy dehydrated veggies and jerky.
  • Topher1978
    Topher1978 Posts: 975 Member
    Fresh fish if there is fishing there. Nuts, fruit... I have to have pancakes when I am camping!!
  • islandnutshel
    islandnutshel Posts: 1,143 Member
    there is lots of great fishing there, thanks for reminding me. I will bring the seafood seasoning. Lemons..... tin foil....
    Lots of great idea's thanks.
  • MsLilly200
    MsLilly200 Posts: 192 Member
    You could bring fruit?
    No cooking required and most fruit keeps pretty well as long as you don't cut it up and stuff.
    Carrots can be eaten raw, or boiled, or grilled or whatever, and they keep well. All you need is a peeler, or a knife I guess.

    Sorry I'm not helping all that much, I've never been camping for real, like in the woods or whatever.
  • elis_mama
    elis_mama Posts: 308 Member
    I've never understood camping. Work all year to support yourself and then take a week off to pretend to be homeless?????

    Some people, like myself, feel the most at home and free when they are in the wilderness. There is nothing more comforting to me than an open fire and a great view of the valley. No technology, no work.

    And if you get good gear, it's more comfortable and fun than I can even begin to describe. We bring wine & beer and eat like kings. It's what I long for.

    ^^^^^^^This!!!! I feel so comfortable and at home while camping. I HATE the rat race!

    As far as food....healthy versions (turkey?) of chili, sloppy joes and tacos. You can also make any kind of hot sandwiches, tacos, pizzas, breakfasts, etc with the hobo pie maker pie irons. And, don't forget your popcorn popper for over the fire!!!