Family Chef Talk Forum banner
  • Welcome, guest! Are you ready to join the discussion? Click here!

Camping Menu

217 Views 26 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  KitchenWench
As I'm sure I've bored you all before, I'm going camping for a week in about a month and want to start pulling a menu together beyond hamburgers, hot dogs and steak.

So I'm looking for ideas that are easy, don't make enough to feed a small army, and can be done on a camp stove, cast iron griddle / grill, or an actual grill over a campfire or propane. Not sure which yet.

Equipment I'm taking beyond the above...
Cast iron skillets
2 heavy SS pots with lids
2 coolers: 1 set up as a cold box with regular ice, 1 as a freezer with dry ice

Breakfast is easy...bacon & eggs, bacon, egg and cheese bagels, pancakes.

Lunch...sandwiches, if I remember to eat lunch

Dinner...
Pre cooked shrimp. Probably the first night because I'll be too tired to cook.
1 - 20 of 27 Posts
Beans and wieners are my favorite. Put a little onion and cheese in them to be fancy.
  • Helpful
  • Like
Reactions: 2
Don't forget paper bags for your bacon and eggs in a bag.

  • Helpful
  • Like
Reactions: 2
Thanks for the reminder Wooley! I'll pick some up tomorrow!
  • ChefKiss
Reactions: 1
Burger if you can safely store or go buy the meat.

Cowboy Bob Beans (again ground beef and several cans of different beans). Though one might be able to make a decent concoction with no meat.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Don't forget paper bags for your bacon and eggs in a bag.

Isn't there something else we are to remind her of?
Don't think so but not 100% on that.
Salt and pepper as basic spices and whatever condiments go on your dogs & burgers.
  • Like
Reactions: 2
You could use the precooked shrimp and make a shrimp salad. You can make sandwiches (think lobster rolls) with it or eat it alone.
Potato salad. Make ahead. No cooking. Same with coleslaw. Pasta salad. You get the idea.
Ifd you have the room to keep things cold you could make many things ahead of time. Cut everything up and put in zip lock bags. Then all you gotta do is cook it in any recipe you like. Cut up veggies with dip is also a good idea and very easy.
Bring a can opener and heat up baked beans and stuff like that.
I would save one night for something special. Seafood on the open grill sounds very good to me.
Salsa and chips?
  • Like
Reactions: 1

Check out "Symon's Dinners Cooking 0ut" on Food Network. Anything he does on a grill can be a stove and oven also.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Thanks all for the suggestions. Much appreciated. I'll answer each of you in some sort of order. :)

Burger if you can safely store or go buy the meat.
Burger(s) and any other meat storage isn't a problem. I've got I use a 3 cooler system to keep things cold. 1 is for drinks only. 2 is a "refrigerator" for things I need to keep cold but not necessarily frozen and the 3rd is my "freezer". 1 & 2 get regular ice, 2/3rds of the water is drained off every other day and #3 gets dry ice. I put a layer of cardboard in the bottom of the cooler to protect it, then a layer on top so nothing freezes to it. An average 5 lb block lasts me about 4 days of freezer cold.
Salt and pepper as basic spices and whatever condiments go on your dogs & burgers.
Already in my seasonings box :) I may add or subtract depending on the menu but I've always got salt and pepper in there.
Potato salad. Make ahead. No cooking. Same with coleslaw. Pasta salad. You get the idea.
Ifd you have the room to keep things cold you could make many things ahead of time. Cut everything up and put in zip lock bags. Then all you gotta do is cook it in any recipe you like. Cut up veggies with dip is also a good idea and very easy.
Very good ideas. Or I can prep the salads and add mayo when I'm ready to eat them.
Bring a can opener and heat up baked beans and stuff like that.
Got it. :)

Grilled seafood sounds yummy. I can pick up something really nice from the store. If I could catch one I'd do brook trout almondine with fresh green beans. Since I'm not sure of catching 1, I might look for 1 in the freezer case.

Snacks, pancake mix, etc live in a plastic tote that latches securely and lives in the tent. I've got plenty of room for salsa. :)
See less See more
Burger(s) and any other meat storage isn't a problem. I've got I use a 3 cooler system to keep things cold. 1 is for drinks only. 2 is a "refrigerator" for things I need to keep cold but not necessarily frozen and the 3rd is my "freezer". 1 & 2 get regular ice, 2/3rds of the water is drained off every other day and #3 gets dry ice. I put a layer of cardboard in the bottom of the cooler to protect it, then a layer on top so nothing freezes to it. An average 5 lb block lasts me about 4 days of freezer cold.
That is super organized! Makes it sound more like an expedition than a camping trip. But, I do admire your attention to detail.
  • Love
Reactions: 1
Thanks. For a whole lot of years I did 1-2 week long historic reenactments and leaving site was a monumental PITA because I had to hike to the car then carry/haul everything back that I'd bought so I had to be hyper organized.

You should have seen the camp kitchen I hauled! Everything was in custom made wooden boxes that stacked, had shelving, cubbies and drawers to keep everything organized and I had a massive cast iron set of fire irons for cooking over the fire. Why you ask? That's easy...I was "Camp Mom" for 13-20+ guys every weekend, making sure they were on time for battles or demonstrations, fixed anything they broke, made the menus and fed them. They paid for all the food, did all the work to set up my corner of the camp, set up my pavilion and camp kitchen and generally did all my stepping and fetching and then helped load it all back up and into my truck and trailer.

They're also the reason I won so many cooking competitions. They encouraged me to enter, acted as taste testers and cheered me on. :)
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 3
Back to the menu. I'm thinking of taking some Italian dressing with me to marinade some chicken tenders in. It would make a simple supper, I'll grill more than I can eat and have lunch another day. Any thoughts?
  • Like
Reactions: 1
That would be very good just don't marinade the chicken too long. 30 minutes seems optimal more is not better in my experience with Viva Italian.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Back to the menu. I'm thinking of taking some Italian dressing with me to marinade some chicken tenders in. It would make a simple supper, I'll grill more than I can eat and have lunch another day. Any thoughts?
Would those be roasted over the fire? That just seems to go with the camping theme.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Would those be roasted over the fire? That just seems to go with the camping theme.
No, I'm afraid not. I've got a grill / griddle combination I'm going to do them on. The grate attached to the fire ring isn't what you'd call usable. The bars on it are too far apart and from past experience they're usually nasty. So it's the grill side of the thing over the camp stove unless I take my portable gas grill.

I had a moment of brilliance last weekend btw. It dawned on me that I'll have a grill and camp stove that are propane fired and didn't want to have to mess with all of the little cylinders so I scoured Amazon and came up with a really nice splitter that attaches to the grill tank and then feeds the stove and grill. :)
  • Like
Reactions: 1
I suspect it will be good either way.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
The camping trip is cancelled. I broke my right ankle and tore the heck out of the ligaments and tendons Monday evening. :(
  • Sad
Reactions: 1
Now that I'm done pouting and whining about my trip being cancelled...

How about we keep the conversation going about good, hearty, preferably easy, camping dishes?
1 - 20 of 27 Posts
Top