Preparing Food for the Great Outdoors!!!
There are two different approaches to camping in my eyes.. The first one some call “Car Camping” or “Glamping” and the other could be called “back packing” or “roughing it.”
Glamping
My favourite move when “glam camping” is to bring a small BBQ or hibachi and a cast iron skillet. The skillet is great for pancakes, frying eggs and making grilled cheese sandwiches. For lunch and dinners it makes cooking hot dogs and hamburgers or other meat very easy and no cleanup of dirty pans.
I usually bring a long a one or two burner stove for cooking soup and boiling water for tea/coffee or making pasta.
For this style of camping I make my menu by the day so that everything is very organized and you don’t forget anything. Another trick I like to do is remake my burger patties and then freeze them. They last longer and also help keep the cooler colder for a few days. Pre cooking your bacon for breakfast is also a great move and if you have time I do the same for some potatoes also. Then it’s just a matter of reheating things. My favourite move for potatoes is to par boil them and then wrap them with parchment and tin foil. Potato packs!! Easy to reheat on the BBQ.! Pre making some chilies goes along way also!!
Basic Menu Break down:
Breakfast: Eggs and toast, precooked bacon, pancakes, fruit and yogurt, granola
Lunch: Sandwiches PBJ, salami/cheese, hot dogs, grilled cheese and soup.
Dinner: Hamburgers, chicken, chilli, pasta (also premade and ready to heat up)
The main goal with preparing your meals is that you save time and energy while camping. Especially if you have young kids avoiding dishes the best you can goes along way to saving time so you can be beachside.
Snacks: Chips, popcorn, fruit and cut veggies, granola bars, cookies
Roughing it:
This version involves a one burner back packing camp stove with fuel and a spoon.. That’s it. So whether you are loading up your backpack for a long hike or just wanting to keep things simple here are some of my favourites:
Breakfast: insta porridge packets, toast and fruit, left overs from the night before, tea/insta coffee.
Lunch: nuts, beef jerky, granola bars and peanut butter, dried fruit, baby bell cheese, crackers, tuna packets, humous,
Dinner: dehydrated or freeze-dried meals like chili, pasta, insta rice, Lipton side kicks, Sapporo noodles, etc. just boil water add to the package, wait and enjoy.
Snacks and treats: the same as lunch along with some cookies!! or chocolate.. power bars
watch this video for some more great tips.
check out these great website for more food info:
Seatosummit Jetboil thehungryhiker
Have fun and remember to always clean up properly to keep away the animals..big and small
