I need easy but special meal ideas.

[EarlofShrewsbury]

I'm going glamping next weekend to a luxury Shepherds hut.

It's off grid but has a little fridge, a 2 ring gas hob and a gas bbq. I'll be taking an additional electric cool box and power pack.

The weather is currently suggesting it's going to 30 degrees plus.

I'm really struggling for meal ideas. Needs to be easy to store and transport, but something that feels a bit special and a treat.

Help!

Salmon and rice is easy and quick

Not sure it’s special but easy and tasty, a chicken chorizo jambalaya, or maybe paella.

Take some big prawns, fry in garlic and chilli oil and have with salad & crusty bread? Quick and easy and nice in the heat. Or pan fry salmon fillets and serve with potato salad and asparagus?

Chargrilled Mediterranean veg. Cheese. Salad. Bread.

Lots and lots of smoked salmon in vacuum packs, a lemon, and some fancy salad pots from Waitrose or M&S.

Nice gazpacho (Alvalle or Brinidsa)

Nicely seasoned chicken in the BBQ with some fresh salad.

Take meringues, berries, cream, raspberry compote or sauce. Make Eton mess.

Rice and dried pasta are easy to store without a fridge and can be made 'fancy' easily.

Fresh fish of some kind done on the BBQ with a vegi rice made on the hob. You can get a bag of frozen mixed veg that will defrost on the way there but that isn't a problem.

Vegi rice

Choice of veg, fresh, tinned or frozen
a tin of cocoanut milk
Seasoning and spices of choice
Rice and boiling water

Just heat and simmer until the water is absorbed.

For the fish, Cornish sardines or salmon or sea bass. You can wrap in foil with herbs and seasoning.

Starter could be charcuterie (Parma ham, salami, braseola etc), olives, sun-dried tomatoes etc on a platter. Or hummus and breadsticks/carrot sticks.

Lemon garlic and herb chicken (I’d do boneless thighs for BBQ), with roasted Mediterranean veggies (do in smallish dice ins tin foil tray on bbq) and boiled baby potatoes.

Steak with mushrooms (either button ones in a tin foil parcels with butter, salt and pepper; or portobello ones done on bbq possibly with some blue cheese sitting on the gills), and either boiled baby potatoes, creamy mash or diced up and seasoned and fried chunks.

chocolate cake batter baked in individual portions in orange skin on bbq?
Or fresh fruit salad; or mixed berries on a meringue nest?

For breakfast, you could do the dry mix for pancakes in a plastic carton to add an egg and some milk, put the cap back on and shake well (or pour into a bowl and whisk as normal - the bottles has a slight risk of lumps but less mess and washing up).

Steak and salad

Steak with a Caesar salad (pack gem lettuce, a half ciabatta diced, pack of Parmesan flakes and bottle of Caesar dressing as opposed to a kit). Pan fried lamb chops with tabbouleh and salad

Paella

Great ideas. Thanks

So far I've got

Evening meal 1 - steak and salad
Breakfast- bacon rolls
Lunch - sandwiches, crisps, coleslaw
Evening meal 2 - cheese, crackers, houmous, olives, salami, crusty bread

Water, juice, wine,

Sweets and snacks

This is delicious @EarlofShrewsbury and easy to make

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/creamy-smoked-salmon-and-lemon-pasta.html

I'm not sure I would be 'cooking' at all! Except maybe the bacon for bacon baps. I would take some pre-made food that could be easily re-read together with some easy carbs, such as pasta.

I make a REALLY good French onion soup that could be served with crusty bread and good butter. A home-made pasta sauce is easy, and in this weather delicious cold things with salad would be easy and not make you hot. Quiche (home made if possible), cold roast chicken, deli meats and cheeses. You could have a really good ploughmans, perhaps. If you choose your bread/cheese/meats/accompaniments/chutney etc. thoughtfully a good ploughmans can be quite a celebratory meal!

II’d be trying to avoid any cooking as it would make you and the hut hot. I’d especially avoid the steak and bacon rolls as you don’t want your shepherd’s hut smelling of those all weekend!

Take a large cool box with deli bits and pieces (ham cheese quiche olives tomatoes mozzarella gazpacho etc) and also pre cooked/ pre chopped ingredients to make a few fancy salads. Some ideas: cowboy bean salad with feta; beetroot, goats cheese, spinach and walnuts; caesar salad; asian slaw with peanuts and cooked chicken.

Breakfast I’d have yoghurt, honey and fruit