we tend to eat alot fresher better quality foods when camping. I do try to do as much prep work ahead of time (peeling and chopping veggies for soup, preshaping burgers,) I take condensed milk instead of reg milk for gravy. Then I add bottled water to it. We can get by with half gallons in the fridge for normal drinking if we do this. I try to pack healthier snacks for the kids. I use baby food plastic containers (the ones that replaced jars) and put raisins, peanuts, pretzles, dry cereal etc. in them. They are about single snack sized and easy to pack and store., I also have a sharpie that I use to write the kids names on their plastic cups and water bottles. That way when I find it laying around camp I know whose it is. They can also use their cup for the whole day. I hate walking through the site picking up 20 cups and bottles because noone knows whose is whose. Some of our fav recipies are
mussels,.. directly on the fire grate, YUMMO! We also take a dutch oven over the hot fire and deep fry french fries, potato chips, and chicken fingers. We are planning on doing broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, and mushrooms in the spring. We have a huge light dome, like in a factory, that we use to turn the campfire into an oven for everything from porkloin, ribs or beer can chicken to Pizza or biscuits. We do have a cooler with big bold sharpie marker on top saying,.. MEAT ONLY, NO DRINKS for racks of ribs, chicken (prepped and ready to go with whatever seasonings in zipper bags, (double bagged))Anything raw that may cause contamination gets to ride in this cooler. I think we go camping more and more now to see just what we can cook on the fire. lol. We do always have standbys in the camper, manwich, tuna helper, canned soups, etc. But try to cook fresh whenever possible.
Queen Bee and the Hornets Nest
Jill, Jason, the Boy, 3 Girls and our Poodle Mix, Rascal.
2005 Keystone Hornet 24 RSL
2007 2500 HD CHevy with a duramax.
DW and I enjoy potatoes and pasta dishes. Potatoes can be bulky and if peeled a bit of a hassle. Because of RV'ing we discovered Idahoan brand instant potatoes. Yummy! Easy to prepare and taste like the real thing (until we found this brand I wouldn't touch instant potatoes!) There are different varieties and they come in light weight, unbreakable, individual packages. One pack is enough for 3 or 4 moderately hungry people. Costco sells them in bulk. We also use the individual pasta side dishes you can buy in any store. Easy to make, light weight, and don't take up a lot of space.
I fill a peanut butter jar with butter before we leave. It is more convenient than small pats. It does not look as good on the table however I can put up with that. I save plastic jars to store rice, etc. in.I do not have to worry about insects or breakage. I have looked at new plastic storage containers and have never found any that I like as well as those that food from the stores come in.
Spices that I will need sometimes but not often go into small medicine bottles.
We generally eat better when camping. My wife has designated me as the camp cook(which I really enjoy outdoor cooking). Usually we arrive on a Friday evening and cook hot dogs on the fire and have some chips. One thing we bring when we go camping is fixings for mountian ( aka hobo) pies. We do fruit pie fillings and my favorite, pizza pies. Breakfast is usually pancakes(my kids say my blueberry are the best in the world) or breakfast mountian pies( scrambled egg,bacon and cheese). One idea I had this year is to get some small containers for the catsup,mustard,mayo and such as the fridge in my 17' Bantam is small.
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