When car camping you can make almost anything that you can make at home as long as everything fits in the car/cooler and you have a decent cooking system.
With winter coming on, use shut-in days to experiment with camp recipes. See what works with little prep and easy cleanup. See what the family likes. See how far the dishes go (although appetites are likely to be lustier in camp.) Playing "camp" at home helps the family enjoy camping as a year-round sport even if you put your camper away for the season.
On our last trip, I cooked up some pretty tasty skewers that were all prepped at home. Even my picky eating kids loved them. While I am all for making homemade marinades, I found that Walmart carries a great liquid Caribbean Jerk marinade. Soaked a few steaks (usually I prefer ribeyes, but sirloin works great and is cheaper) and some de-boned chicken thighs overnight in the marinade. Cut them up into small cubes along with some link smoked sausage. Cut up green and red pepper, zucchini, and onions for the skewers. Rubbed the veggies with olive oil, then ground salt and pepper on them. Put 'em all together, placed them in the fridge, and was ready to go on our trip.
After setting up our site Friday afternoon, it was a simple meal to throw on our portable gas grill. Paired it up with some corn on the cob and rolls, and we were good to go.
Made great salmon fillets last weekend over the campfire.
Prepare marinade before you leave in a large ziplock and use frozen salmon fillets (I get mine from Sam's club). On the day you're going to cook them, take them out of the freezer and put in the marinade. I grilled them about 10 min each side over a cherry wood fire, using a pan with holes drilled in it over the grate. The people camping with us said it was the best Salmon they had ever eaten.
Marinade: 1/4 cup apple juice, 1/4 cup real maple syrup, 2 tbl soy sauce, died shallots and garlic to taste.
Tom and Stacey
DD Nikki (14) and Kate (9)
Wrigley, our big black dog
You'd think it's repetitive, but it's Good Eats and we don't camp every week. More importantly, my wife's a gourmet cook so the food's to die for. We marinate and freeze the BBQ chicken and prime Costco sirloins (now changing over to choice NY) steaks, occasionally rare pork loin chops instead, and have a green salad first night, canned vegetables the 2nd night. Breakfast is fried eggs with pancakes (Coughlan egg carriers and Complete batter with syrup in small containers) and toast with those bizarre folding toasters. Lunch typically is Jalapeno Burgers with kettle chips and pickles, and/or italian cold cut sandwithces with hot peppers. The hot dogs and smores rule the late-night snacking, made over extendable forks and/or Coleman pie ovens. Beverages at night range from hot chocolate to tea, coffee and beer. And beer. As tent campers carrying the gear in an Integra, things are compact and efficient with Kelty Binto Bar, lightweight utensils, nesting Mirro pots, and high-end GSI frying pans, Weber GoAnywhere gas grills, and classic Coleman propane stove.
Anyway, I see a lot of people say to cook how you would at home. I am a tent camper so that is tougher, plus to me, some foods just go well with camping.
When cold weather camping, nothing like a good stew. Chili is good in all weather. Any kind of cook out food is good for camping. Steaks, chicken, pork (if you eat it, I usually don't), burgers, hot dogs, different sausages. Sides: cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans, watermelon. Some veggies just seem to be made for grilling or campfires- zucchini, squash, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, corn on the cob...mmm, I'm getting hungry. For breakfast, eggs, sausage or bacon, and some home fries. Oatmeal may be another good choice if you are in an RV, or without milk if tent camping. Also, when camping, it is a vacation. Especially when I'm out of the area, I try to do at least one meal at an area restaurant. Either something regional, or often, I may go out to eat while I'm out seeing the sights in the area.
If you camp often enough that these choices get old, I can see doing what you would at home. However, there are a lot of variations of cookout/camping foods so for me, it would take a long time to get sick of them. Grilled steak one dinner, chicken or Cornish hens the next day, roast beef the next, pork the next, Italian or Polish sausage one night, fish one or two nights (different kinds and prepared differently to avoid repetition), turkey breast one night, hot dogs and hamburgers the next, eat out one or two dinners in there and throw in a chili or stew, and you have 2 weeks of dinners with no repeats (and by then you can probably repeat without getting tired of it). For lunch, left-overs, sandwiches, or if separated enough from when you do it for dinner, hot dogs make a good lunch as does chili.
* This post was
edited 07/05/12 11:43am by Jeff10236 *
Vehicles: 2011 Ford Fusion (for car camping), 2009 Suzuki Boulevard C50 (motorcycle camping) Tents: Boulder Creek Hunter Ridge 4 (cheap 4-season tent from Bass Pro Shops), Alps Mountaineering Vertex 4, Kelty Grand Mesa 6, Big Agnes Fairview 4
I made something tonight that would be pretty easy at a campsite (as long as you have a cooler). I crumbled/cooked Bob Evans sausage and added eggs to the same pan (along with the cooked sausage). When the eggs were cooked, I spooned the mixture onto a tortilla and topped with cheese. It may not be the best meal for a hot day, but I'm all for recipes with 4 or less ingredients :-)
If you're feeling fancy, you can add sour cream and/or salsa.
Brandy
Follow our journey as we take our first month-long RV trip with our two young children in June 2013!
We will be going camping shortly and I am planning on a beer can chicken the first night and then a BBQ chicken pizza the next night with the leftovers. I have a Weber Q200 which I love and a coleman stove. I'll probably grill some asparagus and corn to go with the beer can chicken and microwave some potatoes or rice from Trader Joe's. Makes at least one dish of the meal easy to do.
On our longer trip, I am planning on marinated flank steak with soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic, sides will be roasted potatoes with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, garlic and onions and grilled carrots.
Lunches are always simple. Sandwiches or something along those lines.
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