Simple camping meals for one

[mindutopia]

Tell me your favourite camping meals (lunch/dinner) for one that can be made from food not needing refrigeration.

I'm camping at an event in a few weeks. Think more sports event rather than camping holiday/festival. 3 days worth of meals. I need to cook all my meals onsite on a camping stove (I'll probably bring the jetboil, so just one pot) and I won't have access to a fridge. I'll have ample space for storage, don't need to carry any of it it with me, so don't need to be lightweight/portable. I do need it to not be much of a faff or require a long cooking time. What would you make?

Breakfast is easy. I'll bring fruit and store-bought pastries and make myself a coffee in the mornings.

First nights dinner I was going to bring fresh (store-bought, but not the sort in the tin) soup with bread and butter/cheese as that won't need refrigeration for the few hours before I eat it. Tinned soup or chilli would be easy for another meal, but I just don't really fancy it, and doesn't seem very filling.

What would you make for lunches/dinners? Not too time consuming, one portion only, no refrigerated ingredients. I eat everything though! This should be simple enough, but I'm so bored with normal meal planning and food shopping that I can't even think of anything. 😂

Surely dry pasta and pesto would be a winner here?

You can get ambient, one serve pesto pots, in red and green if you want variety. You can add tomatoes (they will keep without being chilled).

If you eat meat, for the 1st night, could you take along a frozen steak or frozen lamb chop/s in a small cooler bag? It would be almost defrosted by the time you get to site, and could cook some mushrooms, purple sprouting broccoli, corn on the cob etc?

After that, I'd rely on tinned foods. Stews, soups, macaroni cheese, baked beans with little sausages, spaghetti and meatballs, ravioli in a tin etc. I'd also take plenty of fresh fruit, otherwise you might get constipated from the lack of fresh things 😬

Quick cook veg that keeps well out of fridge for a couple of days - courgettes, onions, tomatoes, aubergine, peppers. So I'd go Mediterranean style and have pasta/rice with tinned tomatoes or sauce. Chorizo (proper not sliced) would also be fine, plus a hard cheese like parmesan.

I'd definitely do ramen at some point as I love it. Maybe something like this. Not the healthiest but tasty!

One of those big mattesons smoked sausages sliced up through pasta and Sauce or fry With some sliced potato and onion and top with an egg. Pouches of microwave rice can be stir fried quickly and served with a tin of curry/chilli. Again not the healthiest though.

Gourmet lentils. They come in a pouch like microwave rice but can be eaten hot or cold and are really nice. I often have them on a baguette ( on the first day) then in a wrap after that. Dried fruit for nibbling. Single serve pastries for breakfast. I am a lazy camper.

Is it possible to make an omelette? You could buy ready-chopped veg or some veg that's very easily chopped so it was more of a Spanish omelette. Eggs might be a good standby generally as they're absolutely fine kept out of the fridge. I'd say scrambled but cleaning the pan might be a tricky business.

One of these (or two depending on how hungry you are!) with pasta https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/286160850

M&S do some nice tinned meats, eg creamy chicken, beef curry, that you can pep up with a bit of whatever hot sauce or flavouring you prefer and have with rice or pasta. Used them loads when I did long weekends in a horsebox.

(continued as I hit post too early)
The cheap, cupboard-stable parmesan might be useful too if you're making pasta and eg pesto as a pp suggested.

I also used to take frozen peas, which were fine on day 2 as they'd gently defrosted, and chuck a handful in whatever I was cooking for greens.

tinned ravioli it's the law to have them at least once on a camping trip

other pasta is always good.
couscous only needs boiling water

Fry tinned potato with chorizo, onion, mushrooms and a pepper.
A quick shakshuka fry onion, pepper, chopped tomatoes (the ones with chilli and garlic are perfect) crack in a couple of eggs.
Tuna pasta with sweetcorn
Tinned ratatouille with a sachet of flavoured cous cous

Some pita breads have a really long shelf life.

Longlife pouches of rossi potatoes tin of corned beef. Mix in pan and add a bit of water. Corned beef hash.

Omelette with salad.

Packs of ready cooked microwave rice and to pan with campbells condensed mushroom soup. Mushroom risotto.

If you have a coolbox you can take a ready made curry and rice. We go fishing a lot so like to try and think up different things that are quick and easy to cook.

Took salmon fillets last time and fried then with med veg then added a packet of cooked rice. That was lovely.

Im really impressed with some of these ideas. Parking them for our next camping trip!!

Op, I think veggie is good option as lots of fresh veg do fine without being refrigerated. A tomato based pasta sauce with added veg.

Then something with eggs I think - French toast with fried mushrooms is quite substantial and easy to do in one pan.

For bread, I would take something like a pack if .pita that can be warmed and refreshed in a pan.

A chorizo ring in a cooler bag would last out of direcr sunlight if tou really wanted some meat. Also tinned tuna/salmon for sandwiches etc?

If you have a large enough esky, ice suppliers sell blocks of dry ice that last for a few days.

I’d have porridge made with water for breakfast and add some berries and ginger or cinnamon (or both) and some syrup or sugar. Take real oats not the sachets, as they just end up as an edible wallpaper paste IMO and are way expensive.
Id be tempted to make up some pasta type sauce with added veg and chickpeas/beans and freeze portions. Eat with pasta/rice or scoop up with tortilla wraps. They can also be used for cooling an ice box to start with.

Id probably get a takeaway at least one night 😁

Bacon and cured meats don't need refrigeration and nor does most cheese. Also eggs so bacon and egg

Tins are the obvious thing, sausage and beans or something like spam. If you like spam you can slice it and fry it. You can also chop it and add a tin / jar of curry sauce.

Pasta doesn't need to be boiled, just boil the water, add some pasta and take it off the hob. Then heat a jar of pasta sauce. Normally I would cook fresh but camping I'd use a jar.

Crisps, nuts etc for snacks, popcorn is easy to make too.

Lots of veg doesn't need refrigeration so peppers, new potatoes, onions, carrots - depending on how much fuel you have.

A lot of these sound lovely but tbh I'd go for ease and convenience as a priority!

Lidl (and presumably other supermarkets too) does some nice sachets of cooked spicy lentil dhal/curried chickpeas etc, as well as packs of ready cooked rice. I lived off those the last time I went to a festival.

The same ready cooked rice stir fried with egg and a bit of veg.

Small jars of pasta sauce and pasta. I'd take parmesan to add some cheesiness as it doesn't go bad (sweaty!) like other cheeses. Although actually individual cheeses like babybel are generally OK so long as they're kept as cool as possible in the shade.

If you pay a bit more you can get some really lovely tinned soups to have with bread.

Tinned potatoes are perfectly fine so I'd have those fried with beans and parmesan or maybe some veg and/or tuna.

You can buy tuna lunch pots which I think are eaten cold and have veg and rice etc (never actually tried one of these).

Ramen/supernoodles are an obvious easy option - add tuna and some veg to make them more nutritious (not that it really matters for three days!)

Cured meat like chorizo can be substituted for any of the suggestions involving tuna if you like it!

As other have already said for 3 days I'd just take simple things like instant/cup noodles or rice and then add tinned fish or meats & eggs to them, they'll be quicker to cook than dry pasta so will save you time, faff and fuel .Take plenty of fruit, biscuits, crisps or whatever your favourite snacky stuff is as well, as you always seem to be extra hungry when camping. Take more than you need if you've got room, you can always bring it home if you don't use it. I take coffee mate in a washed out spice jar and use for my tea or coffee instead of real milk, you don't need much for each cup, just a wee sprinkle is enough and then you don't have to worry about milk going off in this weather.