Ideas for good ambient-stable camping meals without relying on tinned food

[millowner]

Good quality ambient stable meal ideas.
Our camping is without refrigeration and usually distant from shops - so our meals have to be either fresh veg, canned or dried.
It has got to the point that we largely have "tinned stuff" - very unpopular.
Are there any canned food solutions that don't taste like "tinned stuff".
Years ago, I recall that M&S used to sell foil trays with pasta meals in them that were ambient stable and reheated in a pan of water (a bit like a budget airline meal) - they were quite nice. M&S don't do them anymore. Does anyone know of similar.
Also, are there any online recipe/meal planners for such a camping diet?

How long are you camping for?

Freeze bacon in advance and keep in a cooler bag - for day 1 or 2. Ditto sausages.

Chorizo rings dont need to be refridgerated and massively up the flavour of things like beans from a tin.

Most cheese can be kept out of the fridge in a cooler bag. x 100 if you just buy ice once a day to keep it cold.

DH always takes jarred sausages to make hot dogs.

Gnocchi can be cooked quickly and easily and served with jarred pesto.

Eggs. DH and the kids take a lot of eggs.

What about those pouches of grains with sauce? M&S, Waitrose, Merchant Gourmet, Pataks, etc all do eg Lentil Dahl, lentils with coconut curry, Moroccan bulghar, etc. Pataks have a nice cauliflower and potato curry in a pouch. They're meant to be heated in a microwave, but could be done on a stove.

There's tinned stuff and tinned stuff.

I think M&S tinned chilli con carne is really good - it is chunks of meat rather than mince. Good with a microwave pouch of rice or tortillas.

(you can heat the microwave rice in a pan with a
dessert spoon of wate in about 2 mins)

When Lidl have Greek Week look out for their tins of aubergines and giant beans - great with cous cous.

Dried red lentils cook very fast - take a little pack of spices and make dahl and eat with microwave rice

Pouch risotto is available - add artichoke hearts from a jar? (Lidl have good ones in Spanish and Italian weeks)

You can get packs of dried filled tortellini - serve with pesto, or roast red peppers / artichokes from a jar

Tesco do a range of non-chilled the Real Greek dishes

What sort of tinned stuff is being rejected? Tinned hot dogs, potatoes and peas? Or are good tins excluded?

Yes, the Merchant Gourmet pouches of grains, beans and rice are excellent and you can just smoosh them in a little pan with a bit of water.

Many supermarkets do their own version too, can't vouch for those.

Itsu noodle pots are good and you can add fresh veg and/or tofu or similar to them to make them more of a proper meal. Plus the added bonus of minimal washing up.

Pasta with a jar of sauce and added veg if required.

Tinned soup is a good base to add fresh veg to and we often bulk it up with a pouch of ambient rice or pasta if we don't have any decent bread which all makes it a couple of steps removed from just 'tinned soup'.

Pasta and a sauce is one of my usual meals. Some people cook a curry/bolognaise/chili the day before and heat it up on the stove for the first day, but I am never that organised!

My DC like 'ration packs" like these.

https://basecampfood.com/products/wayfayrer-dofe-expedition-food-ration-pack-silver?currency=GBP&country=GB&variant=55542019228027&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&stkn=0041b3fbd4aa&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21560768770&gbraid=0AAAAADqiBsqBT1AM9-5zupshwjNBdU9Ha&gclid=CjwKCAjw857RBhAgEiwAI-1yKKOAQWgZPkajkwiHyHlxK6VayZNlJuFhrsrmw3FF410_jo0K2yUlcBoCaxoQAvD_BwE

If you have a decent cool box such as the Colman marine or one of the more expensive ones, and it’s stacked correctly it will keep ice for 4-5 days which would give more choices and keep cheese, bacon etc

Tuna and sweetcorn pasta

You can get Al'Fez falafel mix from most supermarkets and it’s very easy to use - just leave to soak in water, shape into small balls and fry for a few minutes. Delicious with packets of pre-flavoured couscous or in wraps.

Egg fried rice - we use packets of microwave rice, spring onions, sweetcorn, diced carrots and soy sauce

Is a high-performance passive cooler out of the question? Coleman Xtreme, Icey Tek, Yeti, Igloo?

Freeze dried fruit & vegetables for space saving & easy cooking.
Oats, UHT milk , chocolate powder for a hearty porridge breakfast.

Rice, quinoa & couscous are also great stables. Plain tinned chickpeas, butter beans or even brown lentils and eggs for protein.

Sourdough bread usually lasts longer and adds taste.

I agree about pe cooking & freezing 2 meals. In a good cool box they last for 2 days.... so arrival day plus hearty lunch the next day.

I was just about to start a similar thread as I am stocking my Campervan ready for the summer, we don’t have a fridge and can’t afford to eat out every day. We try and find sites that have a shop for bacon, sausages and eggs but like to have quick easy meal ideas. Noodles are light weight and quick to cook as is pasta. We have some tins, mainly baked beans with sausages, Mac and cheese and baked beans. Some of the tinned stews and curries are ok. Boil in the bag rice could be an option? You can add a lot of things to rice. Some fresh veg keeps ok for a few days out of the fridge, onions are fine.

Do you have a cool box? I had a really good one that I took camping when the kids were young. Big ice packs, mince, chicken, sausages bacon etc frozen at home and then would bring to the top of the box as required. We used to have spag Bol, curry, sausage casserole mash etc. Really any meals we could have at home with 2 gas hobs.

Stir fry veg is simple and fresh. Risotto rice with stock cubes and fresh veg trumps anything with dried ingredients in every time. M&S tinned chilli is ok, but lacks veg content and is definitely mince and not chunks. Add mushrooms, red pepper and tinned kidney beans. Also, meat chunks in tinned form are way more artificial tasting than mince.

I don’t have a super cool box, just a regular Coleman hard sided cool box. I cool it down the day before I go with ice for 24 hours. Then fill it with things that are properly cold already, and some things that are frozen to defrost (e.g. chicken for day 2, or a homemade meal).

I freeze proper large ice blocks - or a couple of 2 litre bottles filled 3/4 full with water (they melt a lot slower than ice cubes). A bag of ice is really helpful if you can get to a shop (even small shops now seem to sell bags of ice cubes) to replenish - or ask the site manager if there’s a freezer to refreeze blocks.

i also try to avoid opening the cool box as much as possible - so I use a picnic bag to take out everything I need for a meal at once and keep a little chill; or to put the bits that are used a lot like butter and the open pack of cheese etc.

I use a lot of eggs and cheese. Couscous with some veg stock powder/sundried tomatoes/olives added in only needs some boiling water to sit and be absorbed. Dried mushrooms are great to rehydrate for risotto etc. Chorizo is useful as another meat that doesn’t need hard refrigeration to join the bacon. A tin of tuna, a tin of corn, rice, onion, garlic, any other handy veg and some curry powder makes a lovely stir fried rice dish (nasi goreng). I recently found tortellini type pasta parcels with a ham filling that were dried rather than fresh in fridge - so they’ll need longer to cook but they’re on my cupboard shelf. Vegetarian chilli can be made using fresh and tinned veg (like carrots, onion, garlic, peppers, butternut squash or sweet potatoes, maybe courgette fresh- and corn and bean and tomatoes from tins) so can be a “later in the week” meal.

Also, while it mightn’t be your usual, are you so remote that there isn’t even a corner shop to get meat/fresh things a few days in, even if just for 1 meal? Splurge a tiny bit to get the wine that’s already chilled and some ice cream for dessert, throw those in when you get back to the tent and your cool box is chilled down again for another bit by the time dinner/dessert is done.

I love a poster who can't be arsed to come back and thank people for their help