Camping food

[WutheringHeightz]

We're going camping at a festival in a few weeks. My friend is talking about making food in advance (for her and her family), freezing it and bringing it along in a coolbox and it lasting the whole weekend (four nights) - cooking the meals on the gas hob each evening. I'd like to do the same if I can but I've been camping before but I haven't done this meal prep in this way before before...is my friend right? Will frozen meals in the coolbox last the whole long weekend? Is it safe? What do I need to add to the coolbox to keep things cool?
We won't have access to electricity. I know food will be available at the festival but I can't afford to buy it for every meal and would really like to prep in advance in this way but just want a bit of extra reassurance / advice on how to do this safely!
Would love any advice about coolbox / frozen prepped meals for camping then cooking them on the hob.

it depends on the quality of your cool box my current cool box will keep things frozen for a weekend but my old one lasted less than a couple of hours.

can you give yours a test run first by putting your ice blocks in with a couple of drinks and then seeing how they are the morning after?

Think it also depends on the weather. If it’s particularly hot ours will struggle over a full weekend especially if you can’t refreeze the blocks.

We do usually take a frozen chilli and tortilla chips for the first night though.

Yes, this will be fine- if it’s a decent coolbox well packed with frozen meals and some ice packs. I put in 2 pint bottles of frozen milk as ice packs too. In fact I freeze everything possible and pack it all in!
Rice pouches and wraps are good to take as carbs as they’re light and compact.
Have fun! I should be on the way to our campsite right now but have to wait for Kwik Fit to open!

You could prep frozen food for the first two nights and then buy food for the last 2?

Good point about the quality of the cool box though- we spent quite a bit on ours for this reason. The cheap ones from eg Tesco won’t cope. You could do 2 nights of frozen meals- like the chilli above- then switch to something like pasta and jarred sauce. Maybe eat festival food for the last night as a treat- although it can be eye-wateringly expensive especially if feeding a family.

Our family favourites for camping are a chilli, either cook rice separately or some rice pouches that you can mix in to the chilli to reheat if you don’t mind it all in one! Bolognaise, casserole, plus anything that is one pot is good- so risotto (cook meat, add stock,rice and veggies).

So I’d take fresh chicken to do risotto for night 1,
then a frozen chilli for night 2, frozen sausage and bean casserole for night 3, and then I might not push to night 4 just in case and take a jar of frankfurters that don’t need to be kept cool and rolls.

another thing we do for breakfast for first morning is to whip up some pancake batter at home and put in a bottle - ready to fry!!

You need a cool box that will keep ice for at least 3 days. I’ve got a Coleman marine which keeps ice for slightly longer. The cool box has to be packed correctly as well, there’s info in the internet and if I remember correctly it involves lays and tin foil.
You could take tinned food such as tinned chilli, chicken in white sauce, tinned curry, soup type food or if you’ve got a grill on your stove cooked breakfasts as eggs keep well or toasted sandwiches and things on toast

Also pre cool the box, we have an iglu cool box and it can last a week. Feeeze everything you can and don’t go in it all the time.

I strongly doubt it will stay cool over 4 days. Take refrigerated food for the day you arrive, take frozen food for the next door which will have thawed out so i would choose something that’s safe to be un refrigerated for 12-18 hours. For day 3 either take food you cook from scratch that’s safe eg vegetables or canned/shelf stable. My recommendations include couscous you make up with boiling water, sachets of rice you can stir fry, canned curry, chilli, ratatouille type meals, pasta with pesto (choose quicker cooking pasta), you can heat those ready cooked naans over the flame. Take cereal bars, crisps, packs of haribo (Lidl knock off ones!) canned drinks, capri sun, apples- yes healthy food is good!, bacon is fine for 24 hours in cool box, eggs are ok for 2-3 days. If it’s camp bestival, there’s a farmers market you can buy really lovely bread, cheeses, meats etc which we did a couple of times - not cheap but far more reasonably priced and healthy than ready to eat festival food. Oh and one thing the kids liked, not me, was instant mash and tomato ketchup, friends kids were eating it with baked beans but not a baked beans household here

My cool box wouldn't keep things frozen that long. So would do fresh food for the first night. Frozen meal for the second night then non chilled meals for the next two. Omelette with vegetables for one meal. Pasta sauce with tinned tomatoes, olives and anchovies. Or one of those smoked sausages which don't need refrigeration (mattessons) A hard cheese like parmesan will be ok in a cool box. As will salad to go with the omelette. Bean chilli is another one which can be made either veg and canned beans so no fridge needed.

Eggs last a lot longer than 2-3 days even at room temperature. Weeks.

We take frozen meals with us. However, we do have a fridge so once they are thawed they stay cool. I have kept food cool in a good cool box (Esky) loaded with ice for several days in an Australian summer, so I imagine four days would be easily achievable in the UK.

Frozen burrito are good.
Meat in vacuum sealed packs work well. Like a stir-fry mix with ready frozen stir fry mix.
I'd consider something like a toasted cheese sandwiches. You can pre make and freeze them. Then grill in a pan on a burner.
Or dehydrated food like the packet pasta or laksa.
Tinned beans with garlic bread? Freeze the garlic bread. Even if not frozen it's still like to be in the safe zone for eating.

Frozen veggies will defrost but I'd eat then a fridge temp after a day or two.

This can work with a box such as Coleman Xtreme or Icey Tek. The ‘high performance’ passive coolboxes (i.e not electric) And if the box is pre chilled and well packed with frozen goods and blocks. And you don’t keep opening the box unnecessarily or leave the lid open.

But for 4 days in hot weather I would probably do frozen / cooler meals for two days and then tinned curry + and rice heated from a microwave pouch / tinned chilli and cous cous or nachos or bread. And I really like Lidl’s Greek Week tins, the Butter Beans in sauce, the aubergines, and tins of dolmades.

Oh my goodness you guys are amazing! Soooo useful, I'm really grateful to you all for your amazing ideas and thoughts ♥️
As I'm borrowing a coolbox from the local share library I'll probably err on the side of caution and expect it to be pretty basic and not expect to eat frozen meals for four days but maybe two as a few posters have suggested, and some dry pasta & sauce / eggs etc the others. And maybe a blow out nice festival food meal on the last night too.
I'll pack the coolbox properly too!
@mamagogo1 it's Green Man, not Camp Bestival - don't think they have a farmers market but that sounds lush!
@FaintlyMacabre good luck with KwikFit - hope it's a simple fix and that you can get camping asap!
Thanks guys, really buzzing for the fest now and I'm so grateful to you all for your input! 🙏⛺

Oh Green Man is amazing I’m so jealous! Really family friendly and in beautiful surroundings. We used to go regularly but not been for a while now. Have a brilliant time!

Shelf stable filled pasta works well too.... Doesn't take as long or need as much water as dry pasta.

It's amazing isn't it? Have been a few times before but previously when pregnant then with a 5 year old! Now I have a 7 year old and a 1 year old...will be yet another different vibe but I'm so buzzing. Praying for good weather!

At home we eat pretty healthily, but when camping, I think it's only a few days, and we will take a lot of tinned/packet food.
Tinned curry, boil in the bag rice.
Tinned stew and tinned potatoes or instant mash. (If you don't salt your food at home your kids might notice the difference though).
Ella's kitchen smoothie pouches for a bit of a healthier sweet.
Tinned soup, fruit, custard etc

I expect the cool box you borrow is not going to be high performance, but packing it well will make a difference.
Freeze as much as you can, and fill the gaps with frozen stuff. Bottles of water, Little cartons of juice are great, because you can drink them after they melt, so less to carry home.
Filtered milk (cravendale or supermarket own) really does last longer. I take one fresh, and one frozen. Obviously UHT doesn't need chilling at all, but it does taste very different.
There will almost certainly be a small convenience store on site, but it might be pricey and not stock your preferred items/brands.
Have fun!