Camping food - NOT BBQs

[potplant]

Hi

We're about to go away for our first weekend of the year and need to get my head round some camping food.

Usually we either eat out of have a BBQ, but this year we have 'pimped' up the old tent and now have a 'kitchen' of sorts. Its got two burners!

So I need some meal ideas:

1. Only uses a max of two pans
2. Will keep for a couple of days in our fridge/cooler (not sure which it is!!)
3. Will suit 1 x fish eating veggie, 2 not very adventurous DCs and 1 x meat eating DH

I'll be taking all the usual snacky foods and breakfast stuff but think I need to have at at least one meal we can all eat that isn't a family bag of crisps.

Anyone got any old favourites they'd like to share?

Curry! Stir/Pan fry a tub of Pilau Rice and do a "Sizzle n Stir" sauce (with prawns?? we use chicken) in other.

Fajitas?

Take something frozen - chilli? and defrost/heat in pan, rice in other pan.

I take frozen sliced chicken pieces to slowly defrost in cool box and use on day 2/3.

Milk also freezes and is a good & useful ice block in the cool box.

Pesto pasta with smoked bacon, that was a camping staple when I was little.

Not sure kids will go for curry but plain-ish stir Fry and rice could be good never thought of that. I hadn't really thought about making stuff beforehand to take - but I could easily make a tuna pasta and have that. If its frozen it will also keep everything else cool on the journey.

I take milk in a thermos flask so has always lasted a couple of days before.

We bought a electric coolbox/fridge so hopefully things will keep longer than just in a normal coolbox with ice blocks.

Cous cous is fab for camping and you can do it with tonns of veg

Couscous - good idea.

Omelette with broccoli, bacon, cheese etc? Can do in 1 pan on the stove

I always take couscous and do a simple couscous salad including tinned chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, olives, tinned tuna, cucumbers and peppers, but you could add anything your family like to it.

Also, a stir fry with those straight to wok noodles or instant noodles is always quick and easy.

You can make a casserole/stew/tagine up in advance, freeze it, and stored in a cool box it will be fine for a few days, then all you need to do is heat it through and cook some pasta/rice/potatoes to go with it.

Mash isn't actually too hard to make when camping, with sausages and beans.

Could also freeze bolognese and take it to have one ngight.

My kids don't like curry as a rule but we went camping last weekend and I chopped chicken/turkey up into bitesize pieces and froze then took that in coolbox, was nicely defrosted by day two cooked it off in pan then added jar of korma sauce (very mild) and cooked while rice (uncle Benn's pre-packed bags) was cooking. Served with poppadoms al fresco while everyone looked on in envy with their burnt sausages (well, the last bit was made up but the rest was true!)

Fishcakes- mash, salt, pepper, butter parsley and tinned salmon, mine never taste as nice as my mum though.

When we used to go camping a lot, I always used to stock up with loads of meals in a tin type stuff such as curry, meatballs, Irish stew, sausage casserole, all day breakfasts and so on, plus sachets of ready to eat rice and pasta and tinned potatoes. Not exactly haute cuisine, but it always filled a gap! Much better than forking out loads of money at the camp restaurant or local pubs etc.

Yeah...I would do:
Couscous salad
Pasta salad
Potato salad
Ratatouille is a very nice veggy option alongside the fish for the fish eaters.
Just make sure you take lots of seasonings, salt, black pepper, plus a small bottle of olive oil, balsamic vinegar (for drizzling), and a small jar of mayo
Oh and some olives and tinned fish (be it tuna, sardines, salmon)if you like (easy to jazz anything up with these things)! Have a great time!

Another vote for camping couscous and I have to say those Ainsley Harriot ones are surprisingly nice

Another vote for Ainsley as camp hero here!

We also just marinade meat or fish and cook in one pan, then cook new potatoes in other pan with one of those steamer thingies over for the veg.

Camping is probably a good time to introduce curry if your kids haven't tried it before, ours are always so hungry from all the exercise they will eat anything! even stirfry!!

Second the fajitas/tacos etc, sweetcorn fritters, stew (chickpea or the like, fresh or tinned veg and potatoes) with dumplings (you cabn get instant herby dumpling mix). Sosmix sausages, mash or smash and instant gravy improved with a bit of red wine and onions, kind of yuk but nice! Tuna and bean hash.

Hungry now - love camping food!

1st burner: fry chopped clove of garlic in a little olive oil, add drained tin of tuna, add box of tomato passata, rinse box with water and add to pan, add pinch of sugar, little salt and a bay leaf. Leave to simmer for as long as you like.

2nd burner: cook penne pasta.

Easiest recipe in the world (and from a genuine Italian grandmother ) and everyone loves it, kids included.

Filled fresh pasta is my best camping standby. keeps in coolbox, boils in 2 minutes, is fine served with just a glug of olive oil (or a jar of tom pasta sauce) and it is nice and filling. Usually on 2 for £2.50 in Sainsburys and that would feed all of you

i know you said not BBQ, but here's our easiest BBQ pudding.... mr kipling pies left in foil and put on bbq whilst coals die down. serve with ambrosia....mmmm.

great thread idea, btw.

I'm really surprised to find my thread still going - I'm usually the thread killer!

Apple pie on a BBQ - its genius! Also just had a thought that you could cook garlic baguettes in a similar way.

Hurrah for mumsnet!!

We miht have a barbie once in a fortnight, no more. Staples for us include:

Grilled tuna with pesto

Salmon in lime and conconut marinade (usually that's a first night one, make ahead freeze and defrost en route in car)

Home made burgers

This year we have a cobb and will be trying a roast dinner in the filed (just for fun really) as well as a cake and fresh bread; more generally recipes we will do include mexican meatballs, pork chops with sage, anything like that- accompanied usually by either a salad and fresh rbead from the bakery, or new potatoes with parcels of veg done in foil. Or corn on the cob, Yum.