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Camp Cooking made EZ!

Camp cooking does not have to be hard or stressful. It all depends on your style. If you love to cook (God bless you!), then you don't have to sacrifice just because you are not in your kitchen. You just have to be more creative. I have a friend who cooks cakes when his family goes camping. I am not the world's greatest cook. However, ask our kids what their favorite thing about camping is and they will tell you, "The camping food!" (my wife and I are no gourmet cooks).

TRICK: What's our secret? Hamburger helper! OK, you can stop laughing now. While you may or may not enjoy hamburger helper, there is a principle that applies to camp cooking. For us, we use prepackage, fairly cheap, meals, that don't require many extra ingredients, and that our kids like. Boxed food items are easy for the cooking challenged.

Some of our favorite camping food is: spaghetti, hamburger helper, the deluxe version of macaroni and cheese (the expensive kind), red beans and rice, hamburgers (BBQ of course), hot dogs (I prefer brat wurst or polish sausage myself), pancakes (you can even get the just add water to the plastic container & shake kind- which is very easy), eggs, bacon/ sausages, top ramen, instant potatoes, cereal, BP&J's (peanut-butter & jelly), meat sandwiches and oatmeal to mention a few. See the Camping Reciepes section.

The key is to keep it simple. If you really like to cook, then replace the above foods with your favorite family meals. Just remember that your refrigerator (AKA- ice chest) is a lot smaller, your stove top is smaller, and unless you use a Dutch or camping oven (of course these are smaller too), you don't have an oven. Basically, you have to adjust to what you do have, not to what you don't have. Planning ahead, before you leave, is essential. Make sure you bring all the ingredients and cookware that you need.

For example, we bring a Teflon coated camping griddle with us. It fits our Coleman camping stove, and is made out of aluminum. It is cheaper and lighter than a cast iron one, but either will work. We light both burners, and let it heat up for a few minutes. It works great for hamburgers, eggs, pancakes, etc. We also bring a frying pan (again, one that fits our stove) and a couple of pots with lids. Lids are important, because food cooks quicker by keeping in more heat, and by keeping things from falling in. Remember, you are outdoors.

Here is a list of cookware that you might want to consider bringing:

Again, keep it simple.

As far as plates, we now bring paper plates. They cost a little bit more, but with 7 of us (5 kids), they are less work (no cleaning). If you want to be more environmentally correct, then camping plates (the porcelain coated kind) work, but they cost a more too, although they do clean easily. Cheap plastic plates work as well. We bring plastic cups and write everyone's names on them. We also use plastic knives, forks and spoons. Anything to keep it easy.

TIP: If you drink hot chocolate (why wouldn't you???) or coffee, I recommend regular coffee mugs. Because the camping version mugs are metal, they transfer the heat straight to your hands, which makes them hard to hold with hot beverages, and they don't keep the coffee hot as long.

We have cereal or a hot breakfast in the morning, sandwiches and chips/fruit for lunch, and a hot meal for dinner. Many times, we are gone for lunch hiking or whatever, so bringing sandwiches that we made beforehand is easier. Lunch time is also the perfect time time for a picnic. Spy out a beautiful grassy area, bring your picnic blanket (or spread as my wife calls it) and food and have a blast.

We bring a variety of drinks, but again, we keep it simple. Sometimes we bring soda pop (OK, Coke if your from the south), but usually we drink a lot of water. For meal times, we'll have lemonade or koolaide (or a beverage drink). In the evenings hot chocolate is the favorite.

If you want to be super organized, then you can take your snack type items, and pre-seperate them into individual ziplock baggies, making them serving size. We have one container that is labeled snacks. So for lunch, we grab a baggy for each person, and viola, no fuss or divvying up the snacks. It is also convenient for snack time (between lunch and dinner) to tell the kids to go pick one snack/ fruit. We use chips, flavored snack crackers, wheat thins, gold fish, trail mix (home made usually), Chex Mix, etc. Be creative here.

For more information on what to eat, visit our Camping Recipes Section.

Next, find an alternative to making your own meals with Camping Food...