Cooking while camping

[dietstartsmonday]

Hi all,

I am camping for 5 nights at the end of the month and wondered what you all eat when camping.

We will BBQ at least 2 days, but i don't want to eat that 5 days in a row.

So inspre me please!

We take a chilli/bolognaise type thing for the first night. I make it at home so it musts needs reheating and cook pasta etc to go with it.

Stir fries, cooked breakfast, omelette, anything I would cook at home that it quick and easy. I find one pot dishes are the easiest.

oh thats a good idea, thanks. I will take a veg chilli for the first night i think.

I am not a seasoned camper so thrying to cook for 8 on two gas rings scares me slightly!!

I cook for 14 on our big family holidays, wraps are easy - pan of onions and peppers and pan of chicken. Pasta with jars of sauce and ready cooked smoked sausage (add quick cook pasta to boiling water) scrambled eggs in pittas add in any veg you like. Pack of mince, couple of onions fried then add couple if tins of carrots and gravy, serve with crusty bread. Decent big pans are a must and lids help to speed up the cooking. I have a tefal flat bottomed wok and a pressure cooker that I use without the pressure bit.

thanks odd, am making notes on your ideas!

14!!! you brave women

Faitas always go down well with our lot, as does tinned Aldi curry .

Hot dogs, soup and bread, chilli - it's nothing posh when we go camping .

hot dogs and soup, fab ideas, why did i not think of them! think i am overwhelmed by the idea at the moment.

Am devising a meal plan so will add those.

Thanks

Ooh and have you factored in a chippy tea? There's mutiny if we don't include one!

The Cool Camping Cookbook is brilliant!

If you're going luxury pitches with an electric pickup then add a Remoska to your kit. I use ours all the time at home, saves loads on electric as we don't use the oven as much and when camping it was brilliant as you can have jacket spuds etc. I'm GF so fresh bread is a challenge, it made such a difference to my holiday being able to warm it up!

And don't forget about pancakes, great camping food.

Just looked back to our menu Scout Camp last summer - our 11-12 year old boys and girls all managed to serve edible food using two gas rings so you should find it a doddle!

We had:
Sweet and Sour Chicken and Noodles
Sloppy Joes and Salad
Pork chops, mash and vegetables
Chilli con carne and rice
Lamb Tagine and couscous
Spaghetti bolognese
Chicken curry and rice

Oooh - and of course the mandatory Chippy Tea

I still have all the recipes we gave each patrol so feel free to pm me if you would like them!

We used to go camping every year...

Rice
Tinned potatoes
Tinned veg
Tinned hot dog sausages
Smash
Pasta and pasta sauces
Cous cous

Basically anything you can boil/add water to

If you do pudding too, it's amazing what can be improved with a can of squirty cream .

Angel Delight, fruit salald, banana splits, ginger cake...

We always do mushroom risotto - we put the stock cube in with the rice and just make it up with water... sometimes (when bikepacking) we even put pre-chopped onion and dried mushrooms in with the rice/stockcube so it's literally just pour the bag into a pot and slowly make up with water.

Most things you cook at home can be replicated in some way or another. We do fish stew, veg broth with sausages, thai curry, baked potatoes and bbq of course. I always take the ingredients for dampers and we cook them on sticks over the fire for breakfast.

Don't forget to put bananas on the bbq at the end. Once ready you can split them and add lashings of Cointreau or other duty free booze.

We often have sausage baguette+coleslaw bag of salad type thing first night I cook them at some stage in the day or night before and stick in fridge...then have the frozen spaghetti Bol /chilli/stew the next night should be fine in an ok cool box we often get 3 nights done that way...

Also lots of cake as well as flapjacks/brownies helps with meal planning and wine more wine and more wine...

Pasta pesto another fave esp for large group can either serve with salad or just chuck spinach/veg in with the pasta as it cooks..

Bags pre cooked rice/noodles handy if not foolproof way for cooking rice is boil 2 cups water add to 1 cup rice for 4 people boil for 7 mins then take off heat make sure lid on and the rice steam cooks the rest....gives 2 rings free for stir fry/heating up stuff...

You ladies are fab! Thank you am feeling much better about it now.

I just went blank looking at the two rings and nothing else!

We won't starve now

Crisps would love the lamb recipe please

I take frozen stuff out the freezer spag Bol sauce, veggie chilli you can usually keep it frozen for a couple of days in a cool bag

Maryz what are smores???

Oh they sound fab!
My oldest probably knows, he's a scout. I shall ask him tomorrow!!

I can see camping may not be slimming

Ok we are camp old timers and we still learn every time we go.
I usually do a bolognaise/chilli with nachos or bake pototoes first nite (vege btw), I do a veg soup which I freeze and then use to keep all cold food cold until we get where we going (this will defrost in time for nite 2), I also usually have a precooked picnic slice thing with pastry, egg and vege which we have nite 3 (only do this if going somewhere with cold river or refridgeration...if cold river we tie the chilli bin to a branch and keep in river (it is completely submergeable and will keep food cold well in the river). Other food we do is baked spuds either in a kitchen or in a fire, these can be served with chili/bolognaise and also often take extra spuds and canned beans/corn etc for another night. Will usually take eggs which travel quite well if packed well into a container lined with a teatowel, can make scramble, boil, poach etc which will cater just about any meal. Let me think further....

The Look What We Found pouches of things like stew, chilli etc are very good. Not esp cheap, but tasty and good quality, and often on sp offer in Sainsbury's, Wairose etc. They have long sell by dates so I buy them when on sp offer and save for the camping season.