Ground layers / Food

[Yummymummy456]

Hi,
What do people use to insulate the bottom of the tent?
We can take the kids big foam squares, and a picnic blanket to put underneath the airbeds. Will that be enough or do we need more?

What do people eat camping? We have a camping stove, but I don’t want to be slaving cooking, I just need something quick. We aren’t a picky family so open to any easy quick suggestions.

Thank you!

When camping and buying a tent you usually buy what is known as a groundsheet, it's usually plastic ( some campsites don't like them ) as they leave in grass in poor condition , but these days I'm sure they have lots of tiny holes in for the grass to breathe .
When we used to camp , we'd eat out interspersed with having quick meals like tinned potatoes / salad / cooked meats . A breakfast fry up or brought pasties / pies still warm ( would take foil and wrap them ) tinned potatoes and small bag of frozen veg you could use up in one go . All pretty basic stuff but ok .
Just thought of another , make a chilli / curry & rice at home , freeze it , and being with you for a first night meal .

Just thought of another one . Buy 2 buckets , 1 for young kids for wees in the night as most kids won't want a trip to the toilet block or the walk really wakes them up and suddenly your all awake at 4.30 in the morning.

The second bucket half full with water and you can keep your milk container / butter / marg container in it to keep fresh longer . Change water everyday to help keep cool .

We have camping carpets in our tent - big picnic blankets basically. We have air beds and then a sheet, a blanket underneath us, a sleeping bag, and an extra blanket on top. Everyone has merion wool base layers to sleep in and a onesie if it's really cold.

I normally make a chilli in advance, freeze in a tub, and take that with us - it defrosts as we travel / set up etc. Serve with nachos / tacos / wraps and a bag of grated cheese. Those instant porridge pots are good for breakfast, or a pancake shaker where you just add milk or water into the carton, shake to mix, then pour out a bit of batter at a time to fry off.

So the ground sheet goes underneath the tent?
Chilli is a good idea! Thank you for the suggestions!

I think what we have sounds like it should be ok, we have plenty of blankets etc so fingers crossed we will be ok!
Thank you for the chilli idea, my kids love nachos and that will be so easy just heating it up!
Porridge pots are a good idea too! Thank you!

What type of camping stove do you have? A single or dual burner or one of the slightly better ones with a toaster/grill under the hob? The latter kind massively expands your quick meal capabilities with toast/toasties and are good for briefly rewarming sausage rolls or pasties. Omelettes are a good quick brekkie or lunch and eggs don’t need refrigeration. If you have a decent coolbox then you can take more than one frozen meal like chilli or curry and use them effectively as cool bricks. Tinned Soup, baked beans, anything that is “just add water” (although often not very nutritious), a bag of stir fry veg/sauce, noodles and a bit of meat is a quick one pot tea. I take things like the microwave packs of Daal and rice to heat up quickly, same with pasta to mix with a tin of tuna/sweetcorn and a bit of mayo.
Get yourself a collapsible washing up bowl to make trips to the sinks with dirty dishes easier.
I also take a dedicated flexi tub to keep by the tent door to remove dirty or muddy footwear and wet clothing into and help keep inside of the tent cleaner.

We only have a single one, so a one pot meal would be perfect. Soup and beans would be perfect.
I hadn’t even thought about washing up bowls! There is so much to think about. Thank you.

Hot dogs, quick cheap easy and filling.

The foam mats will be good insulation. Maybe a fleece blanket on top of the air beds? Or yoga mats if you have them?

Food:
The pouches of microwave rice are good, emptied into a pan with a splash of water and they heat up v quickly. Go well with tinned chilli, tinned curry etc.

Pouch of refried beans, packet of soft tortillas, tin of chilli … burritos.

BBQ.

A separate groundsheet that goes under your tents sewn in groundsheet is called a footprint.

They are optional, and can make packing up easier as they protect the bottom of your tent from mud.

But they don’t add to the insulation in any meaningful way. I don’t use mine on well drained sites in good weather.

Look up ‘collapsible washing up bowl with handles’. They make carrying stuff to the sink so much easier.

We don’t use extra insulation.
Food wise - pasta pesto, precooked chilli (I find it usually doesn’t defrost enough until the second night though). We also take wraps which stay fresh longer than bread and then fry up halloumi, sausages, eggs, whatever to go in them. Oh and another easy one is I freeze a big carton of nice soup and once it’s defrosted cook it on hob and stir in a packed of packet rice. Always have at least one bbq.

Groundsheet under the tent, built in groundsheet, tent carpet in the main area and I use foil backed picnic blankets of Amazon in the tent bedrooms. We sleep on thick SIMs. Always works well.

We go EHU because I can take our electric throws for a nighttime and I take my ninja air fryer and use that to cook everything in.
It’s a multi-cooker and you can so can cook all sorts of things easily and quickly with minimal effort.

We often have curries, pasta dishes, potatoes, meat and veg (you can cook whole meals over 3 racks in ours) or sometimes quick things like toasted wraps, bacon butties etc.