What do you eat when you're camping?

[MrsHathaway]

We are first timers, having not camped since our young drunk days, taking DC to Cornwall for a week this summer when they will be 7, 4 and 18m.

We will have two burners and a gentle grill, and a travel kettle. We will be near enough to shops to buy fresh if necessary, but I'd far rather not have to bother. Spending an hour a day fetching ingredients is not my idea of fun.

We also have a mains-powered cool box and an electric hook-up, so can store a limited amount of cold things.

My instinct is to go for tins and packets and fish and chips from the site shop at least once and keep the cool box for cheese, butter and milk. DH doesn't like tinned tuna but the rest of us do; we've been trialling some of the tinned mince/chicken in white sauce/hot dogs and they seem vaguely palatable.

I'm hoping to channel Anne from the Famous Five and pretend that all food tastes better outdoors ::cough::

What are your camping staples for eating? Does it make a difference how long you're staying? Thanks in advance for any tips.

Bbq meat every night on a grill ie sausages/ burgers/ steak/ chicken. Grill peppers/ sweet corn/ mushrooms. Add salads/ sliced cheese etc

Boiled eggs for breakfast ( no cleaning as just water in pan), sourdough/ jams.

Lunch out, but snacks kept around

M&s also do a jar of pasta sauce which has meat balls in it its lovely

I've just dug all of our camping gear out of the garage to give it a wash and an air out in the garden, marking this thread for some meal ideas, we have just treated ourselves to this.

pookamoo - you book a pitch with an electric hook-up. We'll mainly use it for charging phones and the coolbox. I've heard of people taking a minifridge though.

Our tent is pretty big and we've bought the porch extension as well, so cooking shouldn't be too miserable. But I don't want to be stuck there for hours cooking, if tinned mince with Smash will be just as welcome.

Smash is a bridge too far for us, but we have made fabulous corned beef hash with tinned potatoes while camping before.

juice cartons, cereal bars and peperamis (which don't need to be kept cold) for breakfast.

fried egg in a soft bap served with cherry tomatoes

Just choose a camp site next to a pub! Our stove is used for cups of tea and that's about it!

We have a potato ricer somewhere in the back of a kitchen cupboard. I'll experiment with a tin of potatoes through the ricer...

My lot are precious about food. I take a beef brisket chilli down with us for day one. I cook it over night the night before we leave, wrap in towels for journey and its still warm when we get there. We bought a cadac which is incredible - we like paella on that, seafood linguine etc, it has a pizza stone so the kids like making their own pizza on it. Though it uses lots of gas, we have also roasted a joint in the cadac. Curry is easy, crab salad if we are by the sea. Tesco own brand noodles at about 15p are brilliant. American style pancakes in the mornings which attract kids from every other tent I find!

Oh yes, that's something the DC picked up on from a chuffing Biff, Chip & Kipper book - making new friends. Is that the etiquette then? Children all talk to each other and play together? That would be brilliant.

I missed that about the pub

We keep breakfast simple, poached eggs on toast, porridge, yoghurt and berries, we rarely bother with bacon and that sort of thing.

Have a panini press so have toasted sandwiches and soup sometimes. Pressure cooker is great for camping as we usually want something warming after a long day out and you can make a hearty casserole in an hour. Bbq every third day or so. Cous cous and the flavoured cous cous packs come in handy. Crushed new potatoes are easy enough to make with a fork (I couldn't cope with smash). Curry is easy too, I take the spice tailor packs we use at home but use microwave rice too. We eat more or less what we do at home tbh, risotto is good. I am not a massive pasta fan but will eat it one night. Chicken noodle soup made with a couple of chicken breasts, stock cube, noodles alway goes down well.

We usually eat lunch out somewhere if convenient or dinner out if it is cold/wet and we have been out all day. If not we will eat olive breadsticks, cheese, falafel, houmous, maybe a bit of ham and fruit.

We have 4dcs and our camping holidays are with friends who have 2 dcs, these days DD also invites a mate with her. Our tent is usually the biggest on the site (Vango Monte Verde 900) so our gang attracts attention and usually kids from all over the site! On a secure site the children roam in packs with money for an ice cream and their bikes we find so we are forever feeding or shooing away other peoples children. The kids love it

Just buy a cobb and everything you might want to cook at home can be replicated.

Tinned potatoes are perfect for sauteeing for breakfast or with barbecued meat or fish.

We'll often have a tinned curry with boil in the bag rice. It's fine. Quick and filling.

We buy things like microwave rice when we see them on special offer throughout the year and save them for camping. Also brands like Look What We Found could be worth a try.

We like Look What We Found too Quenelle. We camped for a few months last year and I ordered a big box of stuff directly from them which was really good value.

I always like to have at least one meal for everyone in their packets. We like the curries the best, their rice is fine too - a bit like microwave rice.

What I am finding limiting is the storage (ie no fridge or freezer, just a small powered cool box) rather than the cooking. When we've been to eg Center Parcs you go near the shop once or twice a day; at this campsite the shop is a mile or two away and inte wrong direction.

I will check out that website, thanks.

Not much needs to go in the cool box though. Just some cheese and butter, and meats ( put in cool box frozen).

You can always eat meat the first half then veggie after if cool box isn't huge.

Milk - take uht, fruits and veg in regular box,

That's what I mean really. I sort of anticipate keeping picnicky lunch things in the coolbox, not leaving room for a week's worth of normal food - eg at home I keep meat, eggs, carrots, tomatoes, celery and garlic in the fridge, and lazy onions and other vegetables in the freezer. I use a lot of shortcuts because of demanding small DC, and I'm not vastly keen on increasing my catering responsibilities on holiday.

Nonetheless this thread has been very reassuring for ideas.

Except UHT milk. No. Just no ::pukes::

Have to that the ad on this page is showing as "Divorce on the horizon? Contact "

I can tell you it would definitely be divorce if DH offered UHT though, or indeed if I suggested a vegetarian week.

We also keep eggs/ veg and salads in fridge at home, but they don't need to for hygiene reasons so when you camp just put all of them in a regular plastic storage box.

Houmous doesn't need to stay in fridge either if kids like in sandwiches/ as dip. Marmite and jam also ok.

( and I'm one of these 5 a day at every meal parents, but let it go for one week camping and mine eat their weight in honey sandwiches! Eww). I throw a banana in their direction a few times to reassure myself!

We take a cool bag for fruit/veg/eggs in addition to our cool box. It can be flat in the car if you need the room. We would usually aim to top up food after 4 days.

Art - I find houmous sort of ferments a bit and goes a bit 'fizzy' if it isn't in the cool box, doesn't yours do that?

Lavender - haven't noticed. We do use it within 2 days of opening though. And store all that stuff in shade/ etc so not in direct heat

We go for the simple approach, fry up in the morning ( in France I buy ready made pancakes for the DC) and BBQ in the evening, Other than that we eat out

When pushed for space, things like milk/meat go in the coolbox, then I put salad/veg/cheese in coolbag. Try to keep both in shade to keep cool As we eat I can decant into main box.

You can use many things as a 'coolbox' - a teatowel dipped in cool water and draped over a box works well.

Love you all, but my idea of "simple breakfast" doesn't involve plugging the gas in

Brioche all the way.