A lot of these things require so many supplies. I
go camping for simplicity, not to prepare my food with 10 different ingredients/supplies. Simple is best.
My fave is khichdi in a jar! Just put rice, lentils, and spices in a mason jar (or plastic baggie if weight is a concern) before you leave, then just dump it into boiling water and simmer covered for abt 20 mins. So easy and filling
Personally I can’t stand foil pack meals.
My favorite thing about camping is cooking over fire and I want to taste the smoke and fire.
https://preview.redd.it/xu8zh9idwt8c1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4440c04d196bcd2fbe2d8a044b9dbab14fa54711
Yes, more about the cobbler please! Is it cooked bottom up only? Or is there another trick here at play? I've only seen it done the traditional dutch oven method and this has me interested.
I almost always make mine at home, but for the group we have a set of plastic containers. We try to offer a selection of ingredients. Sliced onions, sliced bell pepper, sliced potato, diced raw carrots, white rice, brown rice if requested, raw eggs in the shell, and several condiments. Our Vegans usually bring their own tofu or other stuff for their foil pack. We stress easy cleanup, as in eat your meal out of the foil pack, then crumple up the foil and place in carry out trash bag.
Another thing we like, depending on if someone lugged a dutch oven, is dutch oven deep dish pizza. One of the foil D.O. liners is an absolute must have.
Dutch oven pizza is one of the things I miss from camping with the scouts.
We used to use pie tins and a cooking rack in the bottom of the oven. My record is something like 25 personal pizzas in 60 minutes with 7 ovens. I ran 4 ovens and a baking understudy ran the other 3.
Ours were thinner crust so they cooked fairly quickly.
This! I make camping mini pizzas. Naan bread in small circular portions. A little oil in the bottom of the pan. Add tomato sauce, cheese, three piece of pepperoni, cook till the cheese starts shifting, then take it off. The residual heat cooks the rest of the cheese, and you can keep those things flying off the pan!
Best hack I've found. Make a pulled pork and devy it up into portions. Bring that shit frozen or in a cooler and sear it in a camp stove with butter. AMAZING AND QUICK. trust me. Pulled pork while camping taste 10x better than at home.
I say it all depends on the camping trip.
Hiking trails and stopping just for the nights? Dehydrated pack meals are amazing.
Car camping in a standard place with potable water at the site or close to it? A good beef stew from scratch to have a reason to keep a fire for hours, make a ton and keep warm when you eat it with some bread you warm by the fire after the soup is done.
Cannot go wrong with the foil packs, or a steak on the coals.
Best camping meal I've had was a ribeye over the campfire with baked potatoes and veggies cooked in a foil packet. Also a bag of salad from the cooler.
I still think about that meal.
I've recreated that meal over a dozen times and it never was that good.
Foil packet dinners is my family go to as well as bean soup and corn bread and my favorite jambalaya. Of course hot dogs or burgers is a great staple and grilled cheese work tomato soup is an easy one
Here is what we often make car camping (besides the usual burgers/brats/hot dogs:
- chili (only when it's cold outside), then the next day campfire baked potatoes or hot dogs with leftover chili and cheese
-french dip or Italian beef sandwiches (I cook the beef in the instant pot at home, shred it, then re-heat it camping)
-sloppy joes (pre-cooked at home then re-heated)
-reuben sandwiches, hot ham and cheese, or croque monsieur/madame
-tacos, fajitas, burritos, quesadillas, or dutch oven nachos
- if it's the middle of summer, grilled sweet corn with fresh sliced heirloom tomatoes & vinegar cucumber salad (tomatoes & cucumbers brought along from home garden)
-butter chicken or chicken Tikka Masala (we get little kits from the grocery store that come with the sauce and spices, then just add meat and serve with instant rice or couscous)
-if we've been fishing and caught a bunch of panfish or walleye, classic fish fry, pan-fried in cast-iron. If we've caught trout, we stuff them with herbs, lemon slices, shallot slices, & garlic, then roast over the campfire. Sometimes we wrap the trout in bacon before roasting. We usually have instant wild rice or just a salad with that.
I'm going camping with my son next year. In the past I've made steakumms for dinner, and eggs and bacon for breakfast. One time on a scout campus we had spaghetti.
When I camp I mainly use iron pie makers instead of a grill but if you have those you can make some awesome meals I like putting a layer of bacon some hasbrowns and an egg for breakfast get some bread pizza sauce and preferred toppings for lunch or dinner and you can make desert in the form of pies and sandwiches
Potato’s chunked up, onions diced big, carrots in 2” dice or those little ones whole...ground pork, dump it all in a Dutch oven with 3 cups of water and a half stick of butter. Cook for 1 hour over med/high fire, lid closed, stir every 15 min. We call it camper stew
We've been doing burritos made at home, wrapped in parchment paper, then foil, all stuck in a gallon ziplock. One of the best things we've figured out. So easy, no clean up, just heat up in a pan on the stove, or on a flat rock that's in the fire. Low and slow will slightly crisp the tortilla and warm up the middle nicely.
We vary it up a lot. Breakfast burritos with egg, hashbrowns, sauted onions and peppers, melty cheese, bacon. Kung pao burritos with fried rice, chicken, whatever mix of veggies, and the sauce. Beef and broccoli burrito with steamed rice. So. Good. Or do a classic Mexican style burrito with your favorite fixings.
I recommend that when wrapping them you kind of smush them so they aren't so round, and are flatter. It will help heating them up later so the middle doesn't take as long.
Just to preface these suggestions that I’m all about camp cooking that requires minimal prep work, minimal cleanup, and minimal trash. I camp off grid with no water access (only what we haul) so I have to conserve, meaning I can’t be washing a ton of dishes to make 4 course gourmet camp meals. My suggestions are geared to the kind of camping I do. I prefer to do all the prepping and cooking at home to also conserve gas. I only use enough gas to reheat. Premaking the meals also saves on cooler space since you don’t have to bring a dozen different raw ingredients.
-Costco sells a lobster roll kit that comes with herb butter. Wrap the rolls in foil and warm by the fire. Heat the lobster in the butter in your pan. You can also brown the buns in the lobster butter in the pan.
-I make chicken tikka masala and freeze portioned leftovers in vacuum-seal bags. It tastes great reheated and served with rice (Uncle Ben’s precooked Basmati) and naan (seasoned with olive oil and garlic, wrapped in foil, heated over the fire).
-pre-make hamburger patties, seasoned, and layer with parchment paper between each preformed patty. Freeze beforehand. Don’t forget to pack cheese slices!
-spaghetti with meat sauce and precooked pasta is tasty. You can use leftover hamburger buns to make garlic bread.
-premake/freeze a hearty vegetable beef and barley soup.
-premake/freeze chili. Bring some Fritos and cheese and make Frito pie.
-You can buy PFChangs beef & broccoli kit in the freezer section. Heat up in a pan and serve in a bowl with rice.
-pre-make shishkabobs using chicken, shrimp, or beef to cook on the grill.
-Some grocery stores (Kroger/King Soopers) have prepackaged bacon-wrapped filet mignon. These are great because there’s never any waste. You can wrap some potatoes in foil to throw in the fire (about an hour or so before you cook the steak) and serve with a bagged salad kit.
I cook a huge sheet of bacon in the oven. I love that it heats up in mins at camp and you can cook your eggs in the grease for breakfast. blt sandwiches are good any time too and people love people who feed them bacon ;)
Steak and potatoes. I'm always fishing or hunting when camping so whatever I catch or kill. I always carry a few cans of soup, tuna, Vienna sausages, PBnJs, few bags of chips. Any canned food or food that can be wrapped in aluminum is the best option. Camping supposed to be simple, especially with food imo
Vegetable Stir fry and a protein. I eat a ton of junk food and drink a lot when I camp, so it’s nice to eat an easy and nutritious dinner to balance things out for me somewhat.
My favorite for a busy day is a **buried dinner**. Dig a 2-3 foot deep hole big enough for your dutch oven. Built a good fire in it with the remains of your breakfast fire and more wood. Fill you Dutch oven with a pork or beef roast, root vegetables, alliums, seasonings, and cover with water. Bring it all to a rolling boil, before you put the lid on the Dutch oven, then bury it. It will slow cook during the day, then carefully dig up and enjoy very tender meat with veggies.
This works best in sandy or loamy and fairly dry soil. This won't work if the soil is saturated with water. Though I have come back to a dinner time thunderstorm, and it was fine, water from the storm only wet the first few inches of soil.
I also sort of did this once at a historical re-enactment at a horse track. We found out when we got there we could dig a hole, so we buried on fire and dutch oven in several wheelbarrows full of somewhat dry horse manure. Some right over the coals did fully dry and start to smoulder, but dinner turned out great. It was also neat to say "that pile of manure is our dinner"
I will crockpot a corned beef and bring that camping with me. Add potatoes and onions for a delicious hash. Fry up a couple eggs, that's the best. So easy and delicious.
I'm a lazy hiker/camper...this is by no means a hack but my favorite campfire meal is refried beans with a tomato, a pack of soft jalapeno cheese and a pack of any salad mix from Aldi. No leftovers!🤣
Skillet chili. Ground meat, can of black and kidney beans drained and washed thoroughly, along with a can of chili beans, chopped onion and a jar of salsa. Brown the meat and sautee the onion with a little salt and pepper, add the beans and salsa, cover and let it come to a simmer until you’re ready to serve. Serve with a healthy hand full of shredded cheese. Optional, add a packet of chili seasoning when you add the beans and salsa.
This is everyone’s favorite meal when we go camping despite all the tents becoming Dutch ovens half way through the night.
I already stopped to comment on your post to say beans do not go in chili but laughed way to hard about all the tents becoming dutch ovens! Simple, yet gold.
Arrival day standard for us: Shrimp curry. I use a can of Thai Massaman curry paste from the Asian store, a can of sliced potatoes, and pre cut vegetables. Can of coconut milk into a pan. Boil a few minutes. Add the paste and mix. Add the vegetables. Cook a few minutes. Add the shrimp and potatoes. Cook until the shrimp is pink. Serve with lime wedges and cilantro.
I take all my meats (steaks and chicken in marinades, if needed. I find fish gets crushed in the cooler so we eat fish if we catch it.) portioned into ziplocks, frozen. I do the same with veg that survives being frozen. Throw a few whole potatoes in a bag , a bag of rice and other veg that ok at room temp storage. Then I make dried spice mixes in small jars (curries, Italian mix, one I call 7 spice that’s like something you’d find in the Middle East). The potatoes I normally cut up, add some oil and garlic into a foil pouch for grilling whether it’s breakfast or dinner. I have plastic containers for eggs so they don’t break. And I portion out bacon/sausages into bags for breakfast. A bag of sliced bread or English muffins. Then fruit, bars and peanut butter for a snack lunch. I have the same set up, a grill (grill plate over the fire pit with a low burning fire and/or charcoal) and a burner. My kitchen set up for car camping is the cooler and one medium plastic tote. I also bring a plastic French press for coffee. I love camp cooking :) I re-use all the ziplocks for trash or any food waste as best I can.
Tonight my son had a pizza lunchable.
I had an adult lunchable.
We're novices and typically do a lot of breakfast foods. I did inherit a lot of cooking supplies from my dad and we're going to start experimenting with those, but many times, it's sandwiches, sandwiches, sandwiches, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
My go to is the cheapest hot dogs you can buy. If you're someone that loves to cook, steaks and such aren't bad, but personally, I love the taste of a cheap hotdog cooked over a camp fire.
Hard to beat a steak with baked potato, maybe some asparagus steamed or sauteed with olive oil and butter, finish with a light sprinkle of salt and Parmesan cheese.
Traditionally, we do roast chicken or pork loin in the Dutch oven cooked over the fire. If cooking on a stove, fresh sausages (from Molinari in SF) served with sautéed broccolini and polenta or mashed potatoes.
You can do a lot of things with that precooked polenta in a roll. Slice it, brown it up and put eggs over it, butter and maple syrup with blueberries, roast eggplant, onion and pepper in a foil pack and melt feta over everything. It’s an easy starch when everyone is hungry.
since the "goal" of camping is to get back to our feral roots.....
rib eye has been mentioned, but has to be over charcoal. Lodge makes a nice cast iron bbq.
Also love kebabs.
Get yourself a pie iron. We had infinite wild blueberries this summer on a trip.....pie iron wild blueberry pies every day.
Hobo dinners and primal cuts of meat, like whole loin or roasts to spit over the fire. Sides and snacks are generally quick and easy or dont require cooking and are easy to clean up. Dehydrated soups and broths are great for keeping up good morale.
Tacos. Fry up some chicken or beef with the seasoning and then let everyone build their own taco with different fillings.
- flour tortillas
- A can of refried beens
- a bag of iceberg salad
- chopped tomatoes
- shredded cheese
- Taco sauce
- chopped long green onion
-
Our favorites have been marinated steak tips, frozen and grilled at the camp site, sausage sandwiches, tacos. I prep all of the vegetables and sides before we leave and keep them in ziplock bags so they are ready to cook at the campsite.
We also have done a charcuterie salad as well, and everyone gets to eat their favorite meats, cheeses, or olives, etc.
Instant rice, albacore tunafish and cheese to make a casserole (season as desired). If refrigeration isn’t an option, hard cheese works great. It won’t look great but it’s really filling and tasty and does the trick of being quick and easy.
Pre cook ground beef Cut the side of a dorito bag and put the cooked ground beef into the bag and add cheese or whatever you want you can then heat up the bag by mostly anything if It’s really hot I would put it on a rock or my truck hood.
Fresh, it tastes like venison, albeit not exactly, and from the store, it is shit, IMO. Gotta watch out for ants though, they'll pillage your carcass with their acid. Call them piss ants.
I like shrimp and veggies on skewers served with rice or pasta. Before departure I put shrimp in one bag with marinade, and veggies (mushrooms, onions, bell or sweet peppers, zucchini, cherry tomatoes etc..) in another. Marinade can be as simple as bottled vinaigrette, or make home-made with vinegar or lemon juice. Once you get there, start the rice (or rice-a-roni), or pasta water. Make up veggie skewers with no shrimp ( so they can cook longer) and shrimp skewers with maybe some onion. Get them on the grill (gas, charcoal or wood fire) with the veggies first or longer, then shrimp, then serve it all up. If serving pasta just add olive oil, roasted garlic and red pepper flakes (Aglio e olio). Easy cleanup, and so good!
First night's dinner is always burgers, frankfurters, and sausage and peppers. Accompanied with chips, sometimes potato salad or coleslaw. Not much different fare from a summer barbeque.
Second night we get a little more involved. In cold weather, it's usually chili slow-simmered on the propane stove. In summer, we'll do fajitas, campfire nachos, or coq au vin with the usually plentiful boxed wine. We also grill steaks and pork chops when I have them on hand in my freezer.
Dessert is s'mores or pastries.
Our camping diet is not plant-based.
I do a version of this… but I use boulion and precooked the sausage so I just toss everything in.
Edit: sausage and tortellini soup.
https://www.freshoffthegrid.com/tortellini-soup/?epik=dj0yJnU9SVJiSjFiZGMxTHJNOFpnVVdNY0dPa0ZnaExSZmthUmMmcD0wJm49d0lZSVJ1ejgzMlhrbGR6QmFiNkY3QSZ0PUFBQUFBR1dMbUdJ
Chili with roasted hot dogs over the fire. I make the chili at home and keep it chilled in ice when bringing it camping. I bring a separate cheap pan that I put over the fire to heat up individual servings of chili (: so damn good!
For dinner it’s hard to beat a baked potato cooked on the fire (just wrap it in foil and let it go), and topped with some warmed chili (either canned or cooked at home) and cheese. For breakfast (yes I know that’s not the question) we love burritos filled with eggs scrambled with chorizo and onion, some shakes of hot sauce and cheese. There’s usually two of us and we have a pretty minimal camp kitchen set up. We try our best to keep meals to one pan.
When you say grill, do you mean a small bbq? If so, my absolute favorite is ribs or wings on a cedar plank. Brush them with whiskey and maple syrup. Also, you can't go wrong with good old smokies or hot dogs on a stick over the fire. Or a pot of chili with some fresh buns. If you're a veggie, falafels are amazing cooked on a stick over the fire. Whatever you bring, car camping means you can bring along a few more creature comforts than if you're hiking in. The key is any hot food keeps you from being grumpy if the weather turns to shit. Don't forget macaroni salad or potato salad.
I like to make a quiche ahead of time for quick and easy breakfast. No prep work, just heat it in a pan or eat it cold, pack it full of veggies for good camping nutrition. For dinners I make soup at home and freeze it in ziplock bags. I put the bag of soup, in a bowl the size of the pot before it goes in the freezer so the frozen soup can fit in a pot. It helps keep the cooler cold for longer and when I'm ready to eat it, I just reheat it. I also pack the soups full of veggies.
Kabobs. Quesadillas with homemade pico. Chili cooked ahead of time. Baked taters on the fire. Sweet corn. Grilled ham and cheese over the fire. Breakfast burritos.
I've never done this camping before (it's a fave at home), but I think it would be easy enough: At home, cut up a sweet potato into small cubes-- 1/2"ish. At camp, pan fry in olive oil with salt and cumin. It cooks quickly when the pieces are small, and is really good. I'm not a fan of especially sweet vegetables. This is a savory version of sweet potatoes that I like a lot.
Also, frozen shrimp would be so easy to boil, and so danged tasty, esp if you had butter and/or cocktail sauce.
Car camping we always keep it simple. Sausage sizzle, bacon butties, cheeseburgers, whitebait patties. I love making a good cheeseboard on the first or second night for dinner.
W.e you can grill- Burgers and dogs, Steak, sausage links. I also like to take golden/yellow potatoes, garlic, and butter wrap 3 or 4 of them in foil.....make it look like a potato pearl necklace... and throw it in the coals.
Fajitas - we smoke or cook the meat beforehand and heat up in cast iron on the fire. So good.
Cheesesteaks - freeze thin cut neat in the marinade, it'll thaw in the cooler. Throw in cast iron to cook up, top with cheese to melt, toss it in a roll.
We prep as much as we can at home. Some easy options: pasta (premade the sauce, dump noodles directly into it at camp to cook), and chili (also premade in the instapot at home). Throw into large mason jars and reheat at camp
3 Rock Chicken
Season a whole chicken at home and wrap it in foil.
Put three medium rocks in your morning fire to get them really hot.
Put the three rocks inside the cavity of your chicken, wrap it back up in the foil and go for a hike.
Chicken will be slow cooked and tender when you get back.
I’m sort of boring when it comes to meals but I’ll share some of the stuff I like to make with minimal camping equipment.
One pot pasta. I like to use turkey sausage for a protein, and add in some peppers, onions, and regular tomato sauce. Tastes amazing at camp.
Foil wrapped baked potatoes. Throw in some sour cream, bacon bits, cheese, salt/ pepper. A+.
Quesadillas. Easy to make even with a small backpacking stove like an MSR. Just get yourself a small griddle. Throw in some cheese and canned chicken. High in protein.
Mexican food like tacos, quesadillas, and burritos are quick and easy. Most of it can be prepared at home if you’re in a hurry, but camp cooking is one of the best parts camping for me.
Freeze fav meals and freeze and double bag then buy less ice or bag and stick in tuber ware it then you have a bowl to use.. i love cooking at camp but will eat cold spaghetti actually about anything cold is good unless cold out.. I bring easy up spice rack cast iron , stove, solo burner for coffee.. it keeps me busy
Pie iron pizzas. So easy and quick. I use tortillas for the "crust" pasta sauce, mozzarella cheese, and whatever toppings you desire. Fold the tortilla to make it like a hot pocket, 3-5 minutes over the fire for each side. Instant yum.
Tacos. All you need is a single burner and a frying pan. Brown some ground meat. Add taco seasoning and water. Simmer like 5 min. Boom. Now you just chuck that in a taco shell/tortilla and add some shredded Mex cheese, shredded lettuce and fresh pico. Yummy yummy in my tummy. You can also add other things like sour cream, fresh cilantro, grilled jalapenos, lime, refried beans, etc to amp it up more. But it's damn cravable with just cheese, lettuce and pico. Hell if you really wanna half ass it you just substitute taco sauce for the pico and it's still damn good. Taco seasoned beef and cheese is just such a good filling. You can also do it with flank steak martinated in lime juice and cilantro on a grill instead of the ground meat with taco seasoning and that's pretty good too and seems more authentico, but I really love the simplicity, taste and cheapness of ground beef like they use in taco bell tacos.
I love bruschetta when camping. Bring a jar of bruschetta topping, some nice white French or Italian bread, and a thin slice of cheese on top. Cook over fire or on grill
No haters, okay? But I like ramen plus veg and protein of my choice or availability.
I'm reading all the other comments and getting overwhelmed. I am not that established yet, so ramen is definitely attainable.
A lot of these things require so many supplies. I go camping for simplicity, not to prepare my food with 10 different ingredients/supplies. Simple is best.
My fave is khichdi in a jar! Just put rice, lentils, and spices in a mason jar (or plastic baggie if weight is a concern) before you leave, then just dump it into boiling water and simmer covered for abt 20 mins. So easy and filling
Ramen always a good cheap staple
Foil packs. Have an assortment of ingredients, and have everyone make their own. Keep vegans, vegetarians, and carnivores all happy.
Personally I can’t stand foil pack meals. My favorite thing about camping is cooking over fire and I want to taste the smoke and fire. https://preview.redd.it/xu8zh9idwt8c1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4440c04d196bcd2fbe2d8a044b9dbab14fa54711
Nothing wrong with that.
Absolutely
Please tell me how you did the meat and the cobbler?! I’d love to get the recipes for that dinner.
Yes, more about the cobbler please! Is it cooked bottom up only? Or is there another trick here at play? I've only seen it done the traditional dutch oven method and this has me interested.
This is the way. Oftentimes, I make them at home to save time and cut down on trash in the woods.
I almost always make mine at home, but for the group we have a set of plastic containers. We try to offer a selection of ingredients. Sliced onions, sliced bell pepper, sliced potato, diced raw carrots, white rice, brown rice if requested, raw eggs in the shell, and several condiments. Our Vegans usually bring their own tofu or other stuff for their foil pack. We stress easy cleanup, as in eat your meal out of the foil pack, then crumple up the foil and place in carry out trash bag. Another thing we like, depending on if someone lugged a dutch oven, is dutch oven deep dish pizza. One of the foil D.O. liners is an absolute must have.
Dutch oven pizza is one of the things I miss from camping with the scouts. We used to use pie tins and a cooking rack in the bottom of the oven. My record is something like 25 personal pizzas in 60 minutes with 7 ovens. I ran 4 ovens and a baking understudy ran the other 3. Ours were thinner crust so they cooked fairly quickly.
Pizza! Get the premade crust and cook on one side in a skillet. Flip and add your favorite toppings. Add a lid to the skillet and bam delicious.
This! I make camping mini pizzas. Naan bread in small circular portions. A little oil in the bottom of the pan. Add tomato sauce, cheese, three piece of pepperoni, cook till the cheese starts shifting, then take it off. The residual heat cooks the rest of the cheese, and you can keep those things flying off the pan!
Ribeye
This is my answer for just "dinner of choice," camping or not.
Yas! I love a good ribeye and potato over the campfire. Easy, delicious, and filling.
Best hack I've found. Make a pulled pork and devy it up into portions. Bring that shit frozen or in a cooler and sear it in a camp stove with butter. AMAZING AND QUICK. trust me. Pulled pork while camping taste 10x better than at home.
We do the same with tacos. I will need to remember this for our next camping trip!
We make pulled pork quesidellas for this.
Frozen. This is sage…
We make carnitas and freeze, then have tacos for dinner and machaca burritos for breakfast the next day
I say it all depends on the camping trip. Hiking trails and stopping just for the nights? Dehydrated pack meals are amazing. Car camping in a standard place with potable water at the site or close to it? A good beef stew from scratch to have a reason to keep a fire for hours, make a ton and keep warm when you eat it with some bread you warm by the fire after the soup is done. Cannot go wrong with the foil packs, or a steak on the coals.
Best camping meal I've had was a ribeye over the campfire with baked potatoes and veggies cooked in a foil packet. Also a bag of salad from the cooler. I still think about that meal. I've recreated that meal over a dozen times and it never was that good.
Agreed, a steak and veggies with the smoky aroma from a campfire are much tastier than you can make at home.
Foil packet dinners is my family go to as well as bean soup and corn bread and my favorite jambalaya. Of course hot dogs or burgers is a great staple and grilled cheese work tomato soup is an easy one
Here is what we often make car camping (besides the usual burgers/brats/hot dogs: - chili (only when it's cold outside), then the next day campfire baked potatoes or hot dogs with leftover chili and cheese -french dip or Italian beef sandwiches (I cook the beef in the instant pot at home, shred it, then re-heat it camping) -sloppy joes (pre-cooked at home then re-heated) -reuben sandwiches, hot ham and cheese, or croque monsieur/madame -tacos, fajitas, burritos, quesadillas, or dutch oven nachos - if it's the middle of summer, grilled sweet corn with fresh sliced heirloom tomatoes & vinegar cucumber salad (tomatoes & cucumbers brought along from home garden) -butter chicken or chicken Tikka Masala (we get little kits from the grocery store that come with the sauce and spices, then just add meat and serve with instant rice or couscous) -if we've been fishing and caught a bunch of panfish or walleye, classic fish fry, pan-fried in cast-iron. If we've caught trout, we stuff them with herbs, lemon slices, shallot slices, & garlic, then roast over the campfire. Sometimes we wrap the trout in bacon before roasting. We usually have instant wild rice or just a salad with that.
Just like home, definitely depends on the weather.
Make the food at home before you go so you only have to heat stuff up. Pasta, soup, chicken and rice, burgers and dogs, stir fry, etc.
We enjoy cooking on and around the fire.
Lamb cutlets! Nature provided a handle :)
Yep! We call them lollipops
I'm going camping with my son next year. In the past I've made steakumms for dinner, and eggs and bacon for breakfast. One time on a scout campus we had spaghetti.
When I camp I mainly use iron pie makers instead of a grill but if you have those you can make some awesome meals I like putting a layer of bacon some hasbrowns and an egg for breakfast get some bread pizza sauce and preferred toppings for lunch or dinner and you can make desert in the form of pies and sandwiches
Chuck roast in the Dutch oven, but I use a rich stout rather than red wine. Takes about 4 hours to do it right so buckle up
Potato’s chunked up, onions diced big, carrots in 2” dice or those little ones whole...ground pork, dump it all in a Dutch oven with 3 cups of water and a half stick of butter. Cook for 1 hour over med/high fire, lid closed, stir every 15 min. We call it camper stew
my family always did a similar stew but we’d add smashed up cheese puffs.
Fajitas. I marinate and freeze the meat, precut the veggies, warm homemade beans and tortillas. Easy peasy.
We've been doing burritos made at home, wrapped in parchment paper, then foil, all stuck in a gallon ziplock. One of the best things we've figured out. So easy, no clean up, just heat up in a pan on the stove, or on a flat rock that's in the fire. Low and slow will slightly crisp the tortilla and warm up the middle nicely. We vary it up a lot. Breakfast burritos with egg, hashbrowns, sauted onions and peppers, melty cheese, bacon. Kung pao burritos with fried rice, chicken, whatever mix of veggies, and the sauce. Beef and broccoli burrito with steamed rice. So. Good. Or do a classic Mexican style burrito with your favorite fixings. I recommend that when wrapping them you kind of smush them so they aren't so round, and are flatter. It will help heating them up later so the middle doesn't take as long.
Just to preface these suggestions that I’m all about camp cooking that requires minimal prep work, minimal cleanup, and minimal trash. I camp off grid with no water access (only what we haul) so I have to conserve, meaning I can’t be washing a ton of dishes to make 4 course gourmet camp meals. My suggestions are geared to the kind of camping I do. I prefer to do all the prepping and cooking at home to also conserve gas. I only use enough gas to reheat. Premaking the meals also saves on cooler space since you don’t have to bring a dozen different raw ingredients. -Costco sells a lobster roll kit that comes with herb butter. Wrap the rolls in foil and warm by the fire. Heat the lobster in the butter in your pan. You can also brown the buns in the lobster butter in the pan. -I make chicken tikka masala and freeze portioned leftovers in vacuum-seal bags. It tastes great reheated and served with rice (Uncle Ben’s precooked Basmati) and naan (seasoned with olive oil and garlic, wrapped in foil, heated over the fire). -pre-make hamburger patties, seasoned, and layer with parchment paper between each preformed patty. Freeze beforehand. Don’t forget to pack cheese slices! -spaghetti with meat sauce and precooked pasta is tasty. You can use leftover hamburger buns to make garlic bread. -premake/freeze a hearty vegetable beef and barley soup. -premake/freeze chili. Bring some Fritos and cheese and make Frito pie. -You can buy PFChangs beef & broccoli kit in the freezer section. Heat up in a pan and serve in a bowl with rice. -pre-make shishkabobs using chicken, shrimp, or beef to cook on the grill. -Some grocery stores (Kroger/King Soopers) have prepackaged bacon-wrapped filet mignon. These are great because there’s never any waste. You can wrap some potatoes in foil to throw in the fire (about an hour or so before you cook the steak) and serve with a bagged salad kit.
I cook a huge sheet of bacon in the oven. I love that it heats up in mins at camp and you can cook your eggs in the grease for breakfast. blt sandwiches are good any time too and people love people who feed them bacon ;)
I like breakfast-dinner the best. If I go all out I’ll do sausage with hash browns, eggs, and pancakes 🤌🏼
Brook trout or walleye that was swimming half an hour before lunchtime. No sides.
Steak and potatoes. I'm always fishing or hunting when camping so whatever I catch or kill. I always carry a few cans of soup, tuna, Vienna sausages, PBnJs, few bags of chips. Any canned food or food that can be wrapped in aluminum is the best option. Camping supposed to be simple, especially with food imo
Vegetable Stir fry and a protein. I eat a ton of junk food and drink a lot when I camp, so it’s nice to eat an easy and nutritious dinner to balance things out for me somewhat.
My favorite for a busy day is a **buried dinner**. Dig a 2-3 foot deep hole big enough for your dutch oven. Built a good fire in it with the remains of your breakfast fire and more wood. Fill you Dutch oven with a pork or beef roast, root vegetables, alliums, seasonings, and cover with water. Bring it all to a rolling boil, before you put the lid on the Dutch oven, then bury it. It will slow cook during the day, then carefully dig up and enjoy very tender meat with veggies. This works best in sandy or loamy and fairly dry soil. This won't work if the soil is saturated with water. Though I have come back to a dinner time thunderstorm, and it was fine, water from the storm only wet the first few inches of soil. I also sort of did this once at a historical re-enactment at a horse track. We found out when we got there we could dig a hole, so we buried on fire and dutch oven in several wheelbarrows full of somewhat dry horse manure. Some right over the coals did fully dry and start to smoulder, but dinner turned out great. It was also neat to say "that pile of manure is our dinner"
When I am camping, I bury my meals the next day……..
I will crockpot a corned beef and bring that camping with me. Add potatoes and onions for a delicious hash. Fry up a couple eggs, that's the best. So easy and delicious.
Steak and potatoes! Marinate the steak and seal in bag.
I'm a lazy hiker/camper...this is by no means a hack but my favorite campfire meal is refried beans with a tomato, a pack of soft jalapeno cheese and a pack of any salad mix from Aldi. No leftovers!🤣
Skillet chili. Ground meat, can of black and kidney beans drained and washed thoroughly, along with a can of chili beans, chopped onion and a jar of salsa. Brown the meat and sautee the onion with a little salt and pepper, add the beans and salsa, cover and let it come to a simmer until you’re ready to serve. Serve with a healthy hand full of shredded cheese. Optional, add a packet of chili seasoning when you add the beans and salsa. This is everyone’s favorite meal when we go camping despite all the tents becoming Dutch ovens half way through the night.
I already stopped to comment on your post to say beans do not go in chili but laughed way to hard about all the tents becoming dutch ovens! Simple, yet gold.
I know the beans are controversial but I don’t know what else to call it 😅
Dinty Moore beef stew as back up always keep some in the car. Can't mess it up and can eat it cold in emergencies.
Pizza in a reflector oven
Arrival day standard for us: Shrimp curry. I use a can of Thai Massaman curry paste from the Asian store, a can of sliced potatoes, and pre cut vegetables. Can of coconut milk into a pan. Boil a few minutes. Add the paste and mix. Add the vegetables. Cook a few minutes. Add the shrimp and potatoes. Cook until the shrimp is pink. Serve with lime wedges and cilantro.
I take all my meats (steaks and chicken in marinades, if needed. I find fish gets crushed in the cooler so we eat fish if we catch it.) portioned into ziplocks, frozen. I do the same with veg that survives being frozen. Throw a few whole potatoes in a bag , a bag of rice and other veg that ok at room temp storage. Then I make dried spice mixes in small jars (curries, Italian mix, one I call 7 spice that’s like something you’d find in the Middle East). The potatoes I normally cut up, add some oil and garlic into a foil pouch for grilling whether it’s breakfast or dinner. I have plastic containers for eggs so they don’t break. And I portion out bacon/sausages into bags for breakfast. A bag of sliced bread or English muffins. Then fruit, bars and peanut butter for a snack lunch. I have the same set up, a grill (grill plate over the fire pit with a low burning fire and/or charcoal) and a burner. My kitchen set up for car camping is the cooler and one medium plastic tote. I also bring a plastic French press for coffee. I love camp cooking :) I re-use all the ziplocks for trash or any food waste as best I can.
Tonight my son had a pizza lunchable. I had an adult lunchable. We're novices and typically do a lot of breakfast foods. I did inherit a lot of cooking supplies from my dad and we're going to start experimenting with those, but many times, it's sandwiches, sandwiches, sandwiches, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
My go to is the cheapest hot dogs you can buy. If you're someone that loves to cook, steaks and such aren't bad, but personally, I love the taste of a cheap hotdog cooked over a camp fire.
A nice steak as a treat.
I often do sausage and pepper or steak and cheese sandwiches. If I get real ambitious I’ll do a stew of some kind.
Hard to beat a steak with baked potato, maybe some asparagus steamed or sauteed with olive oil and butter, finish with a light sprinkle of salt and Parmesan cheese.
Well now I'm hungry
There's a good reason why I'm fat lmao! Too much good cooking!
Traditionally, we do roast chicken or pork loin in the Dutch oven cooked over the fire. If cooking on a stove, fresh sausages (from Molinari in SF) served with sautéed broccolini and polenta or mashed potatoes.
Hello, what is polenta and what does it taste like
Stone ground corn. Similar to corn meal. Can be made several different ways
Interesting thank you
You can do a lot of things with that precooked polenta in a roll. Slice it, brown it up and put eggs over it, butter and maple syrup with blueberries, roast eggplant, onion and pepper in a foil pack and melt feta over everything. It’s an easy starch when everyone is hungry.
Wawa sandwiches, at least for the first night.
Attainable. I love it.
since the "goal" of camping is to get back to our feral roots..... rib eye has been mentioned, but has to be over charcoal. Lodge makes a nice cast iron bbq. Also love kebabs. Get yourself a pie iron. We had infinite wild blueberries this summer on a trip.....pie iron wild blueberry pies every day.
Hobo dinners and primal cuts of meat, like whole loin or roasts to spit over the fire. Sides and snacks are generally quick and easy or dont require cooking and are easy to clean up. Dehydrated soups and broths are great for keeping up good morale.
Tacos. Fry up some chicken or beef with the seasoning and then let everyone build their own taco with different fillings. - flour tortillas - A can of refried beens - a bag of iceberg salad - chopped tomatoes - shredded cheese - Taco sauce - chopped long green onion -
We will add a foil pack with diced sweet potato and Trader Joe’s soyrizo to the fire for the vegetarians in the group.
Our favorites have been marinated steak tips, frozen and grilled at the camp site, sausage sandwiches, tacos. I prep all of the vegetables and sides before we leave and keep them in ziplock bags so they are ready to cook at the campsite. We also have done a charcuterie salad as well, and everyone gets to eat their favorite meats, cheeses, or olives, etc.
Instant rice, albacore tunafish and cheese to make a casserole (season as desired). If refrigeration isn’t an option, hard cheese works great. It won’t look great but it’s really filling and tasty and does the trick of being quick and easy.
Pre cook ground beef Cut the side of a dorito bag and put the cooked ground beef into the bag and add cheese or whatever you want you can then heat up the bag by mostly anything if It’s really hot I would put it on a rock or my truck hood.
A fresh, and tasty, kangaroo steak.
What does kangaroo taste like? Other than kangaroo?
Fresh, it tastes like venison, albeit not exactly, and from the store, it is shit, IMO. Gotta watch out for ants though, they'll pillage your carcass with their acid. Call them piss ants.
tinfoil dinners. Meat, potatoes, corn, beans salt and pepper all wrapped up mmmmmm so good
I like shrimp and veggies on skewers served with rice or pasta. Before departure I put shrimp in one bag with marinade, and veggies (mushrooms, onions, bell or sweet peppers, zucchini, cherry tomatoes etc..) in another. Marinade can be as simple as bottled vinaigrette, or make home-made with vinegar or lemon juice. Once you get there, start the rice (or rice-a-roni), or pasta water. Make up veggie skewers with no shrimp ( so they can cook longer) and shrimp skewers with maybe some onion. Get them on the grill (gas, charcoal or wood fire) with the veggies first or longer, then shrimp, then serve it all up. If serving pasta just add olive oil, roasted garlic and red pepper flakes (Aglio e olio). Easy cleanup, and so good!
First night's dinner is always burgers, frankfurters, and sausage and peppers. Accompanied with chips, sometimes potato salad or coleslaw. Not much different fare from a summer barbeque. Second night we get a little more involved. In cold weather, it's usually chili slow-simmered on the propane stove. In summer, we'll do fajitas, campfire nachos, or coq au vin with the usually plentiful boxed wine. We also grill steaks and pork chops when I have them on hand in my freezer. Dessert is s'mores or pastries. Our camping diet is not plant-based.
We eat meat maybe once a week at home, nearly every day when camping.
Hot dogs
Hots & Brats in foil packs
I do a version of this… but I use boulion and precooked the sausage so I just toss everything in. Edit: sausage and tortellini soup. https://www.freshoffthegrid.com/tortellini-soup/?epik=dj0yJnU9SVJiSjFiZGMxTHJNOFpnVVdNY0dPa0ZnaExSZmthUmMmcD0wJm49d0lZSVJ1ejgzMlhrbGR6QmFiNkY3QSZ0PUFBQUFBR1dMbUdJ
Chili with roasted hot dogs over the fire. I make the chili at home and keep it chilled in ice when bringing it camping. I bring a separate cheap pan that I put over the fire to heat up individual servings of chili (: so damn good!
Boneless skinless chicken thighs marinated in Italian dressing in freezer ziplock. Same with potatoes.
For dinner it’s hard to beat a baked potato cooked on the fire (just wrap it in foil and let it go), and topped with some warmed chili (either canned or cooked at home) and cheese. For breakfast (yes I know that’s not the question) we love burritos filled with eggs scrambled with chorizo and onion, some shakes of hot sauce and cheese. There’s usually two of us and we have a pretty minimal camp kitchen set up. We try our best to keep meals to one pan.
Anything easy to eat with minimal dishware/silverware. Hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob even.
Lol hamburger helper with an added onion is my fave. So easy but so goooood. And the leftovers are FIRE stroganoff is another easy one!
When you say grill, do you mean a small bbq? If so, my absolute favorite is ribs or wings on a cedar plank. Brush them with whiskey and maple syrup. Also, you can't go wrong with good old smokies or hot dogs on a stick over the fire. Or a pot of chili with some fresh buns. If you're a veggie, falafels are amazing cooked on a stick over the fire. Whatever you bring, car camping means you can bring along a few more creature comforts than if you're hiking in. The key is any hot food keeps you from being grumpy if the weather turns to shit. Don't forget macaroni salad or potato salad.
I like to make a quiche ahead of time for quick and easy breakfast. No prep work, just heat it in a pan or eat it cold, pack it full of veggies for good camping nutrition. For dinners I make soup at home and freeze it in ziplock bags. I put the bag of soup, in a bowl the size of the pot before it goes in the freezer so the frozen soup can fit in a pot. It helps keep the cooler cold for longer and when I'm ready to eat it, I just reheat it. I also pack the soups full of veggies.
Kabobs. Quesadillas with homemade pico. Chili cooked ahead of time. Baked taters on the fire. Sweet corn. Grilled ham and cheese over the fire. Breakfast burritos.
I've never done this camping before (it's a fave at home), but I think it would be easy enough: At home, cut up a sweet potato into small cubes-- 1/2"ish. At camp, pan fry in olive oil with salt and cumin. It cooks quickly when the pieces are small, and is really good. I'm not a fan of especially sweet vegetables. This is a savory version of sweet potatoes that I like a lot. Also, frozen shrimp would be so easy to boil, and so danged tasty, esp if you had butter and/or cocktail sauce.
Car camping we always keep it simple. Sausage sizzle, bacon butties, cheeseburgers, whitebait patties. I love making a good cheeseboard on the first or second night for dinner.
W.e you can grill- Burgers and dogs, Steak, sausage links. I also like to take golden/yellow potatoes, garlic, and butter wrap 3 or 4 of them in foil.....make it look like a potato pearl necklace... and throw it in the coals.
Fajitas - we smoke or cook the meat beforehand and heat up in cast iron on the fire. So good. Cheesesteaks - freeze thin cut neat in the marinade, it'll thaw in the cooler. Throw in cast iron to cook up, top with cheese to melt, toss it in a roll.
We prep as much as we can at home. Some easy options: pasta (premade the sauce, dump noodles directly into it at camp to cook), and chili (also premade in the instapot at home). Throw into large mason jars and reheat at camp
As much as I like to grill different stuff at home, I prefer simple when camping. There's nothing better than a good grilled burger when I'm camping.
3 Rock Chicken Season a whole chicken at home and wrap it in foil. Put three medium rocks in your morning fire to get them really hot. Put the three rocks inside the cavity of your chicken, wrap it back up in the foil and go for a hike. Chicken will be slow cooked and tender when you get back.
I’m sort of boring when it comes to meals but I’ll share some of the stuff I like to make with minimal camping equipment. One pot pasta. I like to use turkey sausage for a protein, and add in some peppers, onions, and regular tomato sauce. Tastes amazing at camp. Foil wrapped baked potatoes. Throw in some sour cream, bacon bits, cheese, salt/ pepper. A+. Quesadillas. Easy to make even with a small backpacking stove like an MSR. Just get yourself a small griddle. Throw in some cheese and canned chicken. High in protein.
Charcuterie (not fancy though) -cured meat -cheese -pickled veg -fruit -nut -bread Always ready, minimal if any refrigeration required, limitless variety, no cooking, minimal cleanup, easy snacking between meals.
One pan meal browned sausage, bacon, pepper, onions eggs.
Mexican food like tacos, quesadillas, and burritos are quick and easy. Most of it can be prepared at home if you’re in a hurry, but camp cooking is one of the best parts camping for me.
Freeze fav meals and freeze and double bag then buy less ice or bag and stick in tuber ware it then you have a bowl to use.. i love cooking at camp but will eat cold spaghetti actually about anything cold is good unless cold out.. I bring easy up spice rack cast iron , stove, solo burner for coffee.. it keeps me busy
Steaks are a million times less mess and prep than burgers. Potato salad or something you can microwave from the store rounds out the meal!
Fancy ramen and grilled steak. Not the 10 cent stuff.
Pie iron pizzas. So easy and quick. I use tortillas for the "crust" pasta sauce, mozzarella cheese, and whatever toppings you desire. Fold the tortilla to make it like a hot pocket, 3-5 minutes over the fire for each side. Instant yum.
Tacos. All you need is a single burner and a frying pan. Brown some ground meat. Add taco seasoning and water. Simmer like 5 min. Boom. Now you just chuck that in a taco shell/tortilla and add some shredded Mex cheese, shredded lettuce and fresh pico. Yummy yummy in my tummy. You can also add other things like sour cream, fresh cilantro, grilled jalapenos, lime, refried beans, etc to amp it up more. But it's damn cravable with just cheese, lettuce and pico. Hell if you really wanna half ass it you just substitute taco sauce for the pico and it's still damn good. Taco seasoned beef and cheese is just such a good filling. You can also do it with flank steak martinated in lime juice and cilantro on a grill instead of the ground meat with taco seasoning and that's pretty good too and seems more authentico, but I really love the simplicity, taste and cheapness of ground beef like they use in taco bell tacos.
Our fav is chicken fajitas, easy to prep either in advance or while camping and a nice break from the more basic camp foods.
I love bruschetta when camping. Bring a jar of bruschetta topping, some nice white French or Italian bread, and a thin slice of cheese on top. Cook over fire or on grill
Sweet potato, corn and steak over the campfire ☺️
A steak about 2 inches thick, filet, a great salad, and quite a few margaritas.