With camping season upon us, I thought I would share 10 recipes & tips to help make your camping excursions easier.
We love camping! It is one of the rights of passage of summer for us!
We are campers in the true sense of the word.... we sleep in sleeping bags in a tent under the stars {or rain} to the sounds of nature's music.
Our camping kitchen is outside...it consists of a picnic table, a campfire, a table top barbeque & portable kitchen set-up with a sink and the our cooler of food.
I find one of the things that make our camping trips go just peachy keen is if I have the a food plan ready to go.
So here are some tips to help make your camping season as super fun as the toy department at Christmas!
1. Plan The Meals. Write out all the of the meals you are going to need for your camping trip and write a menu plan for it...however simple or elaborate you want it to be. Add in snacks that your family will be looking for and use this information to create your packing/grocery list. Don't forget to include the condiments you will need like bbq sauce, ketchup, etc.
2. Wash & Prep Healthy Snacks Ahead of Time. I always find it easier to have snacks such as fruit & vegetables washed & cut up before I leave home. I pack everything in ziploc bags or containers and into the cooler it goes. This way when the kids are looking for a snack...I can do my mom duty and say "Eat some fruit! Have some vegetables!".
3. Containerize Condiments. Save yourself time & money by packing small containers of condiments made up from the bigger sizes you already have in your fridge. This saves you from having to buy small sizes of condiments...saving you money. The smaller sized containers from home also fit into a cooler better. I like these little Tupperware containers.
4. Label, Label, Label Your Food Ingredients. This makes it much easier when rooting around the cooler looking for certain things! I like these containers from Ikea...they are so sturdy!
5. Have Side Dishes Ready to Go. I like having our little sides ready to go on the barbeque. These are mushrooms & onions washed & sliced for our steak night.
6. Have Lunch Ready For Set-Up Day. I like having this SPECIAL PICNIC SANDWICH ready for us on the first day of camping when we are busy setting up tents, inflating mattresses, making beds and setting up. It's busy for the first few hours and it is so nice to not have to stop and make lunch. I make the sandwich the day before we leave for our trip and wrap it in plastic wrap, then tin foil and tuck it into the cooler. You just need to add drinks, veggies & fruit and presto....lunch is ready! You can find the recipe for this PICNIC SANDWICH HERE.
7. Recipe Share: Chicks on Sticks. This is one of my favourite recipes for camping....chicken kabobs. I cut & marinate the chicken at home, freeze it and place it in the cooler for a meal. On the day we are eating this, I take it out of the cooler to thaw for a few hours. We just need to thread the chicken on skewers with veggies and bbq. You can find the recipe for 'Chicks on Sticks' here.
For a recipe for delicous steak marinade, click here.
9. Pack A Salad That Is A Travel Trooper. It's always handy to have a make -ahead salad ready to eat with hamburgers, hotdogs, steak or chicken. One salad that travels really well is this bean salad which is full of healthy ingredients and tastes better as it ages.It doesn't get soggy like a lettuce salad would. For this bean salad recipe, click here.
10. Try Camp Cookers For Quick Meals & Desserts. Last summer we purchased some camp cookers from Canadian Tire and we had a blast using them at night time for snacks & desserts. They are perfect for grilled cheese, pocket pizzas or toasted s'more sandwiches.Just simply butter 2 slices of bread, add whatever you like inside and toast in the camp cooker over a fire.We tried: pizza sauce with ham, pineapple & cheese.Desserts combinations are endless. My daughter's fav was blueberry jam with cream cheese, but we also made nutella with banana slices and lots of other gooey stuff.
'in the kitchen' all the time!
What tips do you have to make your camping trips easier?
If you liked this post, be sure to check out these other popular CAMPING POSTS of mine:
11 Best Camping Ideas
Potato Boat Dinners in Tin Foil
Warm & Melty Cheese Dip in Tin Foil
Lumberjack Breakfast in Tin Foil
Tortilla Dessert in Tin Foil
Easy Upside Down Pineapple Cake in Tin Foil
Awesome Vegetable Salad That Travels Well For Camping
You might also love these boards on Pinterest:
Camping Recipes & Food To Love
Vintage Campers To Love
Cottages To Love
Summer Ideas To Love
If you liked this post, be sure to check out these other popular CAMPING POSTS of mine:
11 Best Camping Ideas
Potato Boat Dinners in Tin Foil
Warm & Melty Cheese Dip in Tin Foil
Lumberjack Breakfast in Tin Foil
Tortilla Dessert in Tin Foil
Easy Upside Down Pineapple Cake in Tin Foil
Awesome Vegetable Salad That Travels Well For Camping
You might also love these boards on Pinterest:
Camping Recipes & Food To Love
Vintage Campers To Love
Cottages To Love
Summer Ideas To Love
67 comments:
Oh my gosh you got it going on! You must be a professional camper. I dont get to camp too much but I am so going to use this for just meals at home. I dont like(despise lol) to cook so preparing the meats and stuff like this would really help me out during the week! Thanks so much for this post!
Blessings!
Lisa
We love camping too. We went two weeks ago. Too bad we only camped one night because it was so hot. But we had fun. I do everything that you suggested. All the preperations make camping more fun. I even made cherry cheesecake puggie pies. Bread, cherry pie filling, cream cheese, marshmellow. It turned out pretty good but I think I would use biscut next time insead of bread. Thanks for sharing this great post.
Angela
Simple Creations
This is fabulous! Just made camping plans yesterday, and I will be doing ALL of these things before we go. Thank you!!
Yum, that blueberry jam sammie looks so good...I do the same thing when we leave for the beach. make menu plans, pack all the food, and follow a menu. we try not to use th eoven, tho the condo we stay at has a full kitchen. crock pots work so well on vacay, too! Hubby and sons like to make chicken packets with taco seasoning, chick thighs, and potatoes to cook over the fire when they camp...me, I like air conditioning...
Yum! Makes me want to go camping!
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant and now I'm suddenly very hungry :)
YUM! this all looks so good and makes me so excited to go camping! I found your blog through a link party and LOVE it! I am your newest follower and would love it if you would check out my blog and follow me too! Thanks!
-Nikki
http://chef-n-training.blogspot.com/
Great post! We are hoping to do lots of camping this year too {although we have a small trailer!}. Those kebobs look so yummy and we will definitely have to try those camping cookers!
Oh, I love this. My family loves camping. Thanks so much for sharing!! So organized too.
I can't wait to make some of your recipes. But my favorite thing is the toaster! Toast is my ultimate comfort food. I can't wait to find buy.
This was a great post. We didn't camp any last summer...and this has inspired me to re-think our plans for this summer. I too, always have a meal plan, and try to cook several things ahead. I always make S&S meatballs ahead, then freeze them flat, and then just make rice and a veggie to go with it. I also usually make some sort of chili, and sometimes bring along big buns to use as bread bowls. I find a nice warm meal taste so good at the end of a camping day. Do you go to the same campground, or different places? Provincial Park?
I love camping..I'm going to take the kids camping this year..this year is the year that we enjoy the fact that we live in the Alps!!
Wow! I am so impressed at how organised you are! Your meals look so mouthwatering, will definitely keep your tips in mind for when we next camp.
you are just plain AWESOME!!!!! I was never that organized while camping. Actually.. I was NEVER that organized period. I love it.
I want to go camping with YOU!!! Love all of your ideas!!!
smiles!
Jami
This is the summer that my family is taking the camping plunge. I'm so glad I saw this--I haven't been camping in years and these pictures and tips bring to mind many, many things I never would have thought of. Not to mention that the food looks fantastic and I'd be happy to eat it not just by a campsite, but in an air-conditioned dining room with real silverware and cloth napkins!
we are leaving tommorow and i haven't done my menu yet, this was very helpful!
in your dessert sandwiches try peanut butter and jelly, it is our favorite!!!
My hubby will love all these camping ideas, I haven't made it out to camping yet, he's always talking about doing it someday.
PS. Your pics look yummy, I think I'm hungry now
This is perfect! We are camping in a few weeks and I LOVE all your tips. Thanks!
Hi Angie! I want to go camping with you! All the geat foods and everything so organized...great post!
Very organized. We must be sisters! And what a lot of great pictures. Must have taken a lot of time to collect them.
New to your blog and this post inspired me so much! We're going on a camping trip next month with a large group of friends...and this is such a great food plan! Thanks so much for sharing!
Wow! That was amazing!:) I'd love for you to link this up over at my {wow me} wednesday link party going on over on my blog right now. :) Following from Fingerprints on the Fridge. :)
Ginger
gingersnapcrafts.blogspot.com
I'm a camper too. I couldn't agree with you more about your tips. People who say they don't like to camp are just "doin' it wrong!" Definitely going to try your recipe for the sandwiches! :)
Ok, I'm definitely going to try your tips and trips on the next camping trip we do!
totally amazing! LOVE your ideas!!! We're actually heading camping this weekend, so I might have to use some of your tactics~!
We LOVE camping and used to go a lot! We just got confident about camping with our kids and had so much fun on our first trip with them. I will definitely be trying some of these recipes--salad looks so tasty and the chicken might be fun to cook over the camp fire!
You are like a camping goddess!!!! I am amazed at your organization.
Your ideas are awesome!
Love all of the recipes!!!!!
Been camping for almost 10 years and it's always hectic but these awesome tips are simple and easy, I can't wait to get a preppin'
Blessings!
Anita
I found your blog via Pinterest. I do the majority of my food prep at home before the trip too. I love your recipe ideas. My camping menu stays the same (convenience) but I would love to change it up! Thanks for the inspiration.
Thanks.. Lots of great food ideas!
Oh yum!! I'm getting hungry looking at all that great food. Props to you for mixing up the usual hot dog routine. Such great ideas -- thank you!
Those camp cookers are my single favorite camping tool. I flat out refuse to go camping without them (seriously, I'll leave pretty much anything else at home - my boyfriend even convinced me to go without a tent once - but I still brought those)
Anyway, just a tip - you should try them with canned pie filling for dessert or breakfast.
Love all these tips. I feel so prepared for camping this summer!!!
Great tips! Will be using more than a few of them while camping this summer.
this post is so fantastic! thank you. A favorite camping treat of ours is banana boats. Split a banana 3/4 way through, with the peel still on, and fill with pb and chocolate chips. Wrap in foil and throw in the fire! Eat with a spoon. Messy, but good.
It has been so fun reading all of these great ideas, thanks!
Yum, I just bought a new camping tent and I really start to plan my next camping trip! I like the chicks on sticks, look so great!
Love these tips! I would also add freezing a couple gallons or bottles of water before hand. They double as ice packs for the cooler and cold water to drink! :)
Oh, lady, you have the food dialed, and the best descriptions too! From one professional camper to another- the only thing I could add is that you might want to try Snapware- available at Costco or on Amazon. It is the BEST for the cooler, because it will never, ever leak! Tops never pop off, and you will never pull out another ziplock bag filled with water (yuck!) Thanks for the fantastic ideas :-)
Love the Chicks on sticks! Looks so yummy! One thing I would add is to throw the skewers in some water to soak for several minutes before skewering and cooking. This will help prevent the wood from burning before the food is cooked. Thanks for all the great ideas!
This is awesome!! It is getting to be the time of year that my husband and I start camping. We moved to Utah last fall and we are so excited about the many adventures that we will find around us. I love all of your tips and how organized you are about this. I was starting to make a list, when I decided to Pinterest search "camping recipes" and your site popped up. There tons of ideas and tricks of yours that I am going to use!
Thanks for the great tips. The camp cookers (we call them pie irons) are great. Our favourite is cream cheese & blueberry pie filling on Pilsbury crescent rolls. OH MY, they're good!
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