Tinned ‘meals’ are SO expensive..

[Bubbless31]

So what on earth do you take camping?!

We have a campervan and go away for 10 days with 6 of us in the summer. We try to avoid shops as much as possible, to just enjoy the break, so historically we have made dinner from tins e.g.

Curry meal
Tinned curry x4
Pouch rice x4
Poppadoms
Naan
Mango chutney

Creamy chicken
Creamy chicken tin x4
Packet rice x4
Mushroom tin x2
Chicken stock cube

Spag Bol
Pasta 100g per person
mushrooms x1
carrots x1
Mince tin x2
Chopped tomatoes x2
Garlic granules

BUT THE MEAT TINS ARE SO SO EXPENSIVE. It’s stupid as they aren’t even that nice.

So what’s the alternative? Because I really feel like I’m missing something…

I think tinned tuna and tinned salmon can be good. You could use tuna for the Bolognese? I actually prefer that to mince.
Make salmon fishcakes with some parboiled frozen potatoes from home?
Instant ramen noodles or the dreaded pot noodle?
If you froze a curry or stew from home you could eat it the night you arrive?
You can get pouches of lentil daal which could be heated easily?
Baked beans and spaghetti hoops, with the little sausages in. The sausage one is quite expensive now though.
Also dried meat like kabanos or salami sticks for snacking.

If you have a pressure cooker you could try canning your own. Ok maybe not the creamy chicken (don't use dairy) but you could definitely look for suitable recipes and try them in advance on the children.

Tinned meals? Jesus wept. Are there no shops or pubs where you csmp?

RTFT. The OP says it's impractical to move the van and it's a long way from the shops. Plus regular pub meals for 6 are going to be ££££s.

OP it sounds like some frozen home made food for the beginning of the week in a good cool box might help, reducing the need for canned food. Have you also shopped around for the tins and stock up if you see offers? Or see if Costco have anything cheaper?

Will they eat things like eggs, pasta and jar sauce, perhaps with chorizo? A chilli with lots of beans and less meat?

You could also look at solar panels as a way of keeping the battery topped up to run the coolbox.

See also

People who live lives different from yours.

People with no real cooking facilities. People with no refrigeration available. People who like a hot lunch and have a microwave but no fridge.

Other types of people do exist!

@Bubbless31 just saw this at the bottom of this page… www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5280543-surprisingly-good-things-in-tins

Could one of the adults take a bike ? They could cycle to the shops for fresh veg / salad , meats etc .You could take turns to do it .

I don’t camp but I’d do this .

What sort of thing do you usually eat? That might help people come up with ideas.
I can’t see that much will be too much cheaper than £2 for a tin of curry though.

It does seem like a lot of food, is that the right amount?

Can you get a solar electric hook up to run a cool box?

It might be good for you to invest in a solar panel and a LiFePo4 power bank. Bluetti is one of the more well known names but there are others coming in the market.

As the children get older, they will get hungrier so creating a decent camping kitchen might pay. You could run a slow cooker, there are loads of 12v pie heaters etc which could all have their role.

Yes I’d much rather go to a shop every couple of days then eat any of that.

My aunt has a tin of chilli/curry etc every day. She has dementia and some other health conditions and it’s the only way she can manage a hot meal, which she prefers. There are many reasons people eat differently to you.

There are 4 children and 2 adults so it doesn’t seem like a huge amount of food.

as pp’s have said cook before and freeze, thaws upon travel and heat up
or
hot dogs and buns
burgers and buns
bacon and sausages with bread
steamed rice with packet of ready cooked chicken and buy a curry sauce or tomato based sauce on a jar

we would only use tin dinners occasionally as we don’t mind a quick grab out of a local shop and sometimes find nice new things to try as a treat, and we always eat out a few times especially if there has been good low cost campervan pitches in the area - in your case if do that the last few nights

but would use

tinned beans and tinned veggies for a curry ( 1 tin Chickpeas , then tins carrors , peas, coconut milk ( 2 people)

or add a tin tomatoes instead of the coconut milk and switch to other beans for a chilli

we would always have a few onions and peppers and garlic rolling round the back of the van also - they would last probably 5 days without a fridge unless you are somewhere very hot so they can go in anything

our other tinned alternative would be tuna pasta salad - so tin Tuna , sweetcorn and whatever else you have in tins or riling round the van with pasta and you can make a dressing with oil and vingegar that doesn’t need chilling

fir the first day or two halomi keeps fine in a cool box so that would be halomi burgers ( gherkins , mushrooms also last about 5 days not in the fridge )

Baked potatoes? You can wrap them in tinfoil and throw them in the fire. It's great fun.

And take tinned tuna, beans, and cheese to go on top?

How does a campsite keep going when there are no shops nearby?

Why stay on one that doesn't have a nice selection of decent shops nearby within walking distance when you have a big unmoveable van?

There is a book called Campervan Cookery Book. That would probably be useful.

We eat lovely fresh food camping - a piece of meat eg. Lamb, pork or beef steak done on the CADAC with a tin of pulses mixed with salad veg, or a pasta or potato salad. We all muck in for the food prep, so it's quite a big feature of the holiday.
I think my family would push me off a cliff if I suggested tinned curries instead.
We also always have a sausage or bacon butty for breakfast, either at the campsite or down at a secluded beach if there's one nearby.

I’m aware that these things have increased hugely in price as I buy them for the food bank.
Rather than you going to the supermarket, can you get a food delivery to the field? Who owns the field? Are you able to hook something up to their house even if there are no facilities in the field itself? Or see if they can arrange a lift to the shops if there are no taxis so you don’t have to take the van? When I lived rurally, one of the retired men in the next door village was always happy to give someone a lift on the understanding you offered him some money which, after a lot of song & dance about it being nothing, he’d always accept

Those packet rices are two servings, so you’d only need one packet between two.

Cool boxes can be so good. Several ice packs inside. I’ve even put a cool bag inside with an ice pack inside with a frozen item, depending how warm takes ages to defrost.
Stuff would stay cold for a few days and you could use tins for the 3rd day. Or hot dogs or tinned tuna.

Surely it depends what else they’re eating over the course of a day, activity levels etc? It’s an approximate service size.

Make a couple of sauces (family favourites of spaghetti Bol, chilli, curry etc) and freeze those in dinner sized portions.

Before you go, cool down the cool box a day ahead (use regular ice or spare ice blocks). When packing to go, fill as normal but use your frozen meals as additional ice blocks. And once arrived, keep the cool box closed as much as possible and in as cool a spot as possible with a blanket or large towel over it for extra insulation. You are trying to keep the heat out and cold in, in this instance.

I would even take a second cool option - another cooler or a reasonable supermarket chill bag etc, if possible, to use for the things you are in and out of the cool box for - milk, butter, cheese, fruit etc. That you will use today or that don’t need to be kept so cold. Transfer the daily needs there from the proper cool box in the morning, and also take out the planned sauce for tonight to keep that bag fairly cold and to let the sauce thaw.

You should get at least days 2 & 3 of frozen sauces (maybe even day 4), and can bring the sauce for day 1 in the daily bag either chilled or frozen. Especially if you freeze them as a single block per night rather than by individual portions - it will take longer for them to thaw.

Bacon lardons or chorizo lardons could be handy meat options that last longer.

A useful website/podcast to browse (American but started about living on a boat with little or no refrigeration so lots of good ideas for off grid storage/cooling) is The Boat Galley.