Camping out is a great activity. I’ve gone with my family, just with my children and with friends. Even though the company varied, one question was constant: “What are we going to eat?” Planning your camping menus can be just as much fun as cooking them–well, not really, but we still have to plan. Here are some ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Breakfast
It really doesn’t matter if you are using an outdoor portable cooking grill or cooking directly on a campfire. The campfire just takes a little longer to get going. It’s always nice to get some water boiling right away. You know how good that first cup of coffee tastes. If you have hot water going, oatmeal is a good choice to get your energy going. Of course, nothing is quite like the smell of bacon cooking on the grill. Eggs or pancakes go great with the bacon. Make sure you get the pancake mix where you just add water. French toast is yummy too. If you have a portable grill with interchangeable surfaces, you can grill bacon or cook pancakes at the same time.
Here’s a great recipe for your first morning’s breakfast. It’s a sausage and biscuit medley. Cook the sausage at home before you leave and crumble it up. At the campground, mix your biscuit mix and add the crumbled sausage to it. Cover and cook on a griddle or a non stick pan. Yummy!
Lunch
Lunch is pretty simple because you will probably be away from your campsite. Peanut butter and jelly is always good, as long as it doesn’t get squished in your backpack. Cheese, crackers, salami, trail mix, beef jerky and non bruisable fruit are great for the trail. Don’t forget plenty of water.
Dinner
Make sure you bring your tin foil. There are many meals that can be wrapped tightly in tin foil and cooked on the grill or in the campfire. There’s always the ground beef, slice of onion, sliced potatoes and carrots that can be cooked right in the coals. Wrap an apple that is cored and cinnamon and sugar added, and toss it right in the coals. When you are finished dinner, your baked apple will be ready for dessert.
There are lots of noodles, macaroni and rice meals on your supermarket shelf to which you just add canned tuna or chicken. Be sure to dispose of your cans properly.
Treats
Everyone loves s’mores. Try a peppermint patty instead of Hershey’s chocolate for a change. Try slicing a banana in half and alternate bits of chocolate and miniature marshmallows. Wrap in foil and cook on the coals. Here’s another idea. I call them “Biscuit Yummies”. Take some biscuit mix, add sugar and cinnamon. Add water to make the mixture stiff enough to mold around the end of a long stick. Then, cook over the heat of your campfire. Yummy!
Camping is a lot of fun and so is camp cooking. Enjoy!
