Meals when camping

[ronconcoke]

I'm a bit of a camping novice and was wondering what you all do for meals when camping with the family/splitting with other families? Last time i went we did a bbq on the first night, and brought some frozen spag bol sauce for the second, but that was just for 2 nights. This time most of the group are meat-free (and some are dairy-free), and my DD can't eat tomatoes. Would love to hear the kind of camping meals you do, whether meat/veggie or full of tomatoes!

Also....easy lunch ideas please?? TIA!

With a range of dietary requirements, I would stick with each family doing their own catering. It is hard doing big mass dishes on a camping stove, unless you are very well set up for it. Do a couple of more communal BBQs but otherwise cook family by family.

Just think of the simplest meals you do at home, but with shortcuts:

Straight to Wok noodles are brilliant for a stir fry.

Microwave rice pouches can be tipped into a pan with a sprinkling of water and re heated.

Cous cous is quick and easy.

Pasta with a jar sauce and any additions you fancy.

Good non-chilled items include tinned sweet corn, tuna, jars or tins of artichoke hearts, tinned bamboo shoots and water chestnuts for stir fry, tinned cannellini beans to put in a salad. Jars of roast red peppers, olives, sundries toms etc from Lidl or Aldi, good for adding to rice or pasta sauces.

Wraps are versatile: make fajitas, or burritos (tinned re-fried beans, pouch ‘Mexican rice’, tinned chilli), or just make a big ‘quesadilla’: put grated cheese between 2 tortilla wraps, add anything you fancy, tuna, sweet corn, salsa, and quickly dry fry in a frying pan each side. Good for lunch.

Quick cooking veg (courgettes, mushrooms, tomatoes etc) fried in a pan, out in a wrap with slices of fried halloumi.

Tofu to have with stir fry.

Packs of felafels fried or BBQ, in a wrap with hummus and salad.

Be adventurous with your BBQ. Veg kebabs, marinaded chicken, halloumi kebabs, mushrooms if you have a BBQ pan with holes (TKMaxx often sell these), pork steaks etc.

Good extras; packets of brioche rolls and the rolled pancakes with chocolate filling, bags of pain chocolate in individual wrappers, tinned pineapple, squirty cream.

Ooh thanks, lots of good ideas there!

We have a caravan no so meals can be more varied but I usually stick to our camping favourite- pasta and sauce. We treat ourselves to M&S filled pasta ( the fresh stuff) and one of their sauces. I freeze them and put them in our cool box ( which then keeps other stuff cool) it defrosts as we trundle along - one pot tea!

What are you cooking on? We have a giant electric pan, obv need an EHU to the tent. It's brilliant, you can cook anything in it. If you are planning on BBQ, check the site allows them.

Breakfasts - fry ups, pancakes or cereal.

Lunch - hot dogs / tuna and bean salad / soup if it's not too hot / fresh bread if you have a store nearby and meats and cheese / salad

Dinner - first night I bring something I've frozen and then defrost on the way eg chicken curry, chilli, etc. Pasta / stir fry use ready made sauce and boil in the bag or micro rice fries off really well for fried rice, pizza in a pan.

We are away camping this weekend and vegetarian. This is my first time proper camping. My meals are as follows:

• veggie hot dogs (boiled in a pan) and veggie burgers (cooked on bbq) with salad on night 1.

• vegetable ratatouille (frozen - will defrost overnight in the cool box for night 2) and reheat on the hob with halloumi and basil (cooked in frying pan) with a baguette and butter.

• 3rd night is fish and chips!

Breakfast will be egg and potatoe scone rolls and brioche pan au chocolate for the kids (or eggs of any kind!)

Lunches will be sandwiches on day 1, and will be bought the rest of the days as we are going out and about.

I am taking stuff to have a chocolate fondue on night 1 (strawberries, marshmallows, popcorn etc) and lots of chocolate for melting.

I am also taking some tins of baked beans, soup, dried pasta and a jar of pesto for my kids and lots of snacks for when out and about! I want to pack light as we are only away for 3 nights and we also have a 8 month old baby!

My suggestions were based on no EHU, and using a 1 or 2 ring gas stove.

If you have EHU people do all sorts, including taking the slow cooker, in which you could do veg curries, chilli etc.

If you have one of these at home you can use it on a gas stove www.amazon.co.uk/aerolatte-Diablo-Toasted-Snack-Maker/dp/B000H7DEYA/ref=asc_df_B000H7DEYA/?hvlocphy=9045878&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=231964207102&hvpone&hvlocint&th=1&hvpos&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-350941728953&hvrand=8447135073793098833

And make lots of recipes www.cookuk.co.uk/diablo/diablo-sandwich-toaster-recipe-index.htm

Not for big groups though as you can only do one at a time.

Packets of smoked salmon keep well in the cooler, add to scrambled eggs for a hearty breakfast or lunch.

Our veggies sometimes have fried halloumi rolls for breakfast instead of a bacon sandwich.

We never have EHU, and we always do cheese ommlettes for breakfast on the gas stove. The kids like porridge pots too and cereal.

We are usually out and about for lunch but if we are on the campsite it might be sandwiches, soup or ravioli or other tinned food, pasta and pesto with olives and sweetcorn, pot noodles, fried gnocchi, tofu and rice noodles (I press and cut up tofu at home).

Evening meal is almost always cooked on the BBQ, veggie kebabs, prawn and pineapple kebabs, salmon, halloumi, burgers/sausages, stuffed mushrooms, corn on the cob, jacket potatoes. You can also cook most things with a gas stove and a pan. We did a 'roast dinner' of sorts with just a frying pan once. We fried chicken breast, asparagus, potatoes, ready made Yorkshire puddings and has instant gravy.

I agree with not doing group meals. Way too much hassle.

What do you cook on?
We don't have a gas BBQ/griddle thing, just a double burner stove.

I stick to simple.
Pasta and jar sauce with grated cheese.
Noodles, jar sweet and sour sauce with sliced garlic sausage.
Tuna sweetcorn mayonnaise pasta.
Tinned chilli (with extra tomato to reduce the spice for my kids) boil in the bag rice.
Tinned chicken Korma, bulked out with a jar of Korma sauce, boil in the bag rice.

Lots of tinned veg. Salad, fruit etc.

On shopping days we might buy minced beef, onions and new potatoes.
Or meat and veg to stir fry.

I stick to cans and jars as much as possible because they don't need to be kept cool. Our cool box with ice packs works really well, but we drink a lot of milk, and by the time you have milk, cheese, cold sandwich meat and a few other bits there's not much room left.

Lunch is pack-up type stuff.
Breakfast is cereal and croissants/brioche/pain au chocolat type things. Maybe a bacon sandwich one day when we aren't rushing out.

Oh forgot to say, those pancake mixes that you just add water or milk to and shake are great for camping. Or you can make your own batter at home and put in a bottle. We also always take lots of croissants, bread rolls, pain au chocolate, crisps, fruit, nuts, cereal bars, Bear Yo-yo's, marshmallows and digestives for s'mores and Babybels with us, so there is always snacks out the cool box to hand.

Lunches are my favourite part of camping food - take loads of oatcakes, rice cakes, ryvita etc and hard cheese in wax, pickles, olives, celery, bell peppers, salad veg and some houmous, soft cheese and peanut butter. Start the week using the things that go off quickly - fresh bread, softer fruit and veg, houmous, soft cheese etc. Mid week use the hard cheese and harder veg like celery, apples, and by the end of the week you're on PB and pickles

To be honest we tend to do similar stuff for breakfast, but a fried egg and cheese butty is the epitomy of camping breakfasts. eggy bread or French toast, too!

I find veg curry made with a jar of sauce an easy enough one pot camping meal, and you can d o a mild one like korma. Fry an onion, add tinned mixed veg and some butter beans or chickpeas and the sauce. Aforementioned microwave rice if desired.

There's also nothing like sending someone to the chippy one evening! Take a bottle of ketchup with you because sachets are never enough.

Thanks all! I have no idea what we will cook on as I'm relying on others to supply the equipment, but I can find out. I think we may have EHU.

More than ever this year we are keeping it simple as a lot of sites have limited pot-wash facilities. We're trying to do as much as possible at the tent with a bowl of hot water rather than carrying washing up across the site.

So anything that just uses one pan is on the list! Bacon/egg rolls, stir fry, chilli, fajitas, frittata, pasta and stir-in sauce/pesto, steaks in baguettes, halloumi in burgers/wraps...

Camp fire jackets are always a winner here. Wrap spuds in foil and throw them into the fire. Take a selection of fillings. You can do bananas in foil with chocolate too... with marshmallows.. yum!

RubbishQueen, I need your knack: our baked potatoes always end up black or raw. Or half and half.

We’re heading off for a week in a camper van tomorrow. We have a tiny fridge and cooler and don’t intend to shop or eat out. We’re veggie

Breakfasts will be eggs or cereal or porridge (I’ve pre-mixed quick cook oats with chia and hemp seeds and bringing small cartons of long life oat milk).

Lunches we have bagels and pita breads and then stuff like cheese, hummus, cucumber, carrots, falafel for the first few days, some miso noodle pots and carton ready made lentil soup for when the fresh stuff runs out.

Dinners I’ve planned out depending on how long into the trip we are and where we’re camping (whether there’s a fire we can cook over or not)
Sat: pasta pesto
Sun: campfire lasagne (pre made the red and veg sauce and using fresh pasta sheets)
Mon: reggae reggae tofu, pepper and mushroom skewers with corn on the Cobb and potatoes baked in the coals
Tues: Moroccan cous cous with chickpeas, dates and BBQ’d red peppers
Weds: bean chilli and boil in the bag rice (made a chilli mix and taking seperate cans of beans so no fridge storage)
Thurs: tofu scramble using tinned potatoes, defrosted frozen mixed green veg, olives, artichoke hearts and made a marinade for the tofu
Fri: mushroom risotto, made up my own box like you can buy, with herbs and freeze dried garlic, stock powder, arborio rice and dried mushrooms

Saturday we’ll get home and order a pizza I reckon!

Oh and loads of marshmallows to roast over the fire, and bananas to wrap in foil of course!

@IJumpedAboardAPirateShip That sounds great - I am stealing some of your ideas! Have a fabulous trip.

I cook jacket spuds in microwave before we go, then wedge them and cook on bbq