What are the easiest meals to cook while camping?

[Jon in AZ]

I like the way you think, Dave. The thought occurs to me that easy clean-up (without a lot of water or throwaway disposables) is more important to me than easy cooking.

Grilling or foil cooking makes for easy clean-up. Leftovers are chopped and sauteed with eggs, rolled into a breakfast burrito, and eaten out of hand without plates or silverware, just one non-stick skillet to clean.

We do bring some processed foods as back-up: canned chili and/or ravioli, spicy ramen, mac & cheese. It tends to be loaded with sugar, sodium, refined grains, and bad fats, so we use it sparingly, sometimes not at all.

[CindyL]

Uh, we are looking into an Instant Pot for our Bigfoot Silver Cloud. It is SOO nice at home, that we are thinking of adding it to our home away from home. It makes the best meals in a short time, so we can go out an visit and not worry about getting back in time to cook. You can do a roast in an hour and a half. And yes, we camp with electricity.


CindyL

[Neto]

Resturant is the answer.

[k corbin]

You can do quick and easy eating that is also healthy by making "wraps" as one or two of your meals a day. It saves on dishes since it is hand held.

First you make the bread for the wrap using the skillet, it could be a pancake or a tortilla. Tortillas are not difficult to make, nice to have fresh ones! You can set them aside on a paper plate or paper towel.

Next you do your fry up for the meat, eggs, cheese, veggies etc. Since they are usually cut into small pieces that is something easy to do right after you purchase the products. Just wash, chop and store in zip lock bags. That makes them easy to store in a cooler or fridge. Doing a cut and pack binge after shopping means that preparing a nice hot meal takes only a few minutes time.

Krusteaz pancake and all purpose baking mixes are good for creating skillet cooked flat breads. Nothing to add but water.

Instant rice and instant potatoes are helpful and they don't weigh much. I have also found instant refried black beans in the bulk foods section. They weigh very little and are easy to store. Those are pretty darned good with a bit of spice and hot sauce. It also makes for a very tasty, pretty much instant soup base. Of course also good for bean dip when you get a craving for a crunchy snack binge.

There are a lot of interesting food options in those bulk food sections. Plus you can buy very small quantities of spices from the bulk food area versus having to tote along a big jar or can of spice. They have little zip lock bags to put them into.

[Gerry]

If we are running late into a camping spot I will usually stop on the road for a bit to eat a late lunch or early dinner, But if I can hit a Buffet style lunch that will go us the rest of the day till the next morning. If all else fails.... some hot tea and cheese and crackers just to take the edge off.
As far as easy meals, we like one-pan dishes. One of my favorites is Sea food Alfrado. Cook shrimp & Scolops in butter and garlic, throw in a jar of Alfrado sauce, some parmissan shaker cheese, serve over noodles... OK I used an extra pot to boil noodles so it is really 2 pans.

[k0wtz]

neto we are boondockers mochcampers we usually don't get up until 8am get ready get a quick breakfast. So we follow your suggestions.

we then eat later in the day and we hit a restaurant doesn't have to be fancy just eating out.

I retired wifey retired no big-time cooking allowed while camping and traveling!

if camped I usually barbecue and we follow the same routine! wife used to want to bring along a weeks groceries now she finally gets it!

bob

[Rzrbrn]

Sorry about this response to an old thread but what is a "Coleman propane skillet" post #7 by WaltP? Can't find a description or a pic anywhere.

[WaltP]

They have unfortunately been discontinued by Coleman but here's a dealer still listing them.
Coleman PerfectFlow Instastart Skillet - EpicDealz.com

Walt

[stude]

Originally Posted by Rzrbrn

Sorry about this response to an old thread but what is a "Coleman propane skillet" post #7 by WaltP? Can't find a description or a pic anywhere.

:buy 8" Instant pot makes for easy meals. Beans and wieners, Hot Dogs and Coleslaw, Mac & Cheeses, Soup and Grilled Cheese, soup and sandwiches, Butter Chicken. There is a few that should get you started maybe buy a cook book to help you find more.
stude

[Rzrbrn]

Thank you Walt. I will think about this a bit more, looks very interesting. What do you use when on shore power?

Peter, do you mean the 8 quart Instant Pot? I am looking for something to use while connected to shore power, and this might be better than the electric griddle I currently use. However, when not on shore power I am not sure I want to run my generator to power an Instant Pot. When you are not connected to shore power what do you use?

[John in Santa Cruz]

I have electricity so rarely when camping, I'm not sure what to do when we have it.

[stude]

Originally Posted by stude

:buy 8" Instant pot makes for easy meals. Beans and wieners, Hot Dogs and Coleslaw, Mac & Cheeses, Soup and Grilled Cheese, soup and sandwiches, Butter Chicken. There is a few that should get you started maybe buy a cook book to help you find more.
stude

:We use a long handled tin frying pan over a open fire and if fire season then we have to resort to a Propane 2 burner stove, pot of coffee for my wife, tea for me, I like my eggs boiled and she iikes hers fried especially the bacon, I don't like bacon, used to like it for some reason age has changed me. Before I got Diabetes I Liked a lot of foods now not so much as cannot have sugar or salt but we both like sourdough bread, one of the great meals is when the dough is rising one cuts it and fries it in butter, then uses sugar and I use some of Cabellos sugar free Maple Syrup, man that is the best syrup I have ever had.
I Like the long handle tin fry pans which are now getting hard to find and cook on open fire, cast iron is nice but to heavy for old fart like me.
Stude

[Byron Kinnaman]

The easiest meals to prepare are the same meals we took backpacking. If you light easy meals I suggest a backpacking cook book to lead the way.
You can start by making a list of things like precooked rice, noodle in a package with seasoning and other stuff like that. Then go to column B and add meat that comes sealed envelopes, like tuns, salmon, chicken, etc.



No simply pick on from Column A and one from Column B. A cup of water or two and you're ready to go. Many of the column A will want you to add a 1/2 cup of milk. We just use water. Makes a good "one pot meal". Quite a bit of variety. You can add seasoning are desired or things like Artichoke hearts, pickled ginger, let your imagination go wild.

[Alf S.]

Hi: All... Parboil some small potatos, add some baby carrots & bring back to boil. In the last few minutes add some sugar snap peas and float a couple of Johnsonville Brats to warm. When they come back to a boil it's time to eat!!! Timing is everthing and only one pot to wash!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[Byron Kinnaman]

One of things I see here which can make fixing meals easier is the use of refrigeration. Without it you'll have adjust to backpacker style meals.

[WaltP]

Originally Posted by Alf S.

Hi: All... Parboil some small potatos, add some baby carrots & bring back to boil. In the last few minutes add some sugar snap peas and float a couple of Johnsonville Brats to warm. When they come back to a boil it's time to eat!!! Timing is everthing and only one pot to wash!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

I've almost totally gotten away from boiling food and mostly sautee and a little grilling. But your combination of ingredients is close to what I often use.

Walt

[WaltP]

Originally Posted by Rzrbrn

Thank you Walt. I will think about this a bit more, looks very interesting. What do you use when on shore power?

For the most part shore power doesn't change my cooking practices.
I do use some electric appliances a little, but without shore power I can run them either from my generator or 1500watt inverter.

Walt

[Pam Garlow]

One weekend, as I was leaving to camp, I grabbed a loaf of bread, some sliced cheddar, a package of lunch meat, and some fruit to tide me over for the travel day. I was fully intending to get to the grocery store after I set up camp. But I never got to the store and I had the most relaxing weekend just eating sandwiches, toasting the bread with cheese, and snacking on fruit. I never even went to the store. It was glorious.

[Kai in Seattle]

Pam Garlow: now that's my kind of easy camp "cooking!"

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Pam Garlow

One weekend, as I was leaving to camp, I grabbed a loaf of bread, some sliced cheddar, a package of lunch meat, and some fruit to tide me over for the travel day. I was fully intending to get to the grocery store after I set up camp. But I never got to the store and I had the most relaxing weekend just eating sandwiches, toasting the bread with cheese, and snacking on fruit. I never even went to the store. It was glorious.

yup. gimme some sharp white cheddar, whole grain bread, maybe some lunch meats like a good dry pepper salami, or roast beef, and a couple spreads for variety (hot mustard, tapenade, onion/pepper relish, etc), and I'd be happy for the weekend. of course, if my wife throws in a freezer bag with a couple of her home made meatballs in tomato sauce, oh boy, that will get me through the better part of a week.