Camping Mealplans

Stryder

As mentioned - mini sachets are great.

The sachets you get on the freebie forum are ideal for shower gels and shampoo. Free sachets of sauce, mustard, milk, disposable forks, butter etc can also be useful.

chnelomi

Stryder wrote: »

As mentioned - mini sachets are great.

The sachets you get on the freebie forum are ideal for shower gels and shampoo. Free sachets of sauce, mustard, milk, disposable forks, butter etc can also be useful.

My mum collects these for me every week when she takes my gran out. They come in so handy even just for emergency use, how many times have we gotten the salt wet or the kids(OH)left the shampoo in the shower block. or you fancy a bit of mustard on a burger. much better than spending a fortune on big bottles.

Marigold123

I've done quite a few camping holidays with kids, both my own and my nephew and niece, and this is one of our favourites. It's more or less the same thing that we used to eat camping when we were kids, except that then my mum called it corned beef hash.

Make it on one burner ring in a large saucepan, preferably using a wooden spoon to stir in case it sticks. Throw in canned tomatoes, chopped up corned beef, (for God's sake be careful opening the can, they are even more lethal when you're cooking in an unfamiliar situation, so always use a tea towel to hold both halves of the can and wrap it safely in newspaper afterwards), dried onions from a packet, canned garden peas, carrots and a couple of cans of new potatoes, cut up a bit to cook quicker.

I'm not actually a fan of tinned vegetables, but they work well for this meal. I also like to add a couple of cans of baked beans, drained of most of their sauce, but you don't have to drain them if you don't want to.

Add a little water if you need it, a stock cube, or part of one, depending on how salty you like your food, (corned beef has a lot of salt in already), and on your MSG preferences, and, if you want real haute cuisine, add a pinch of dried herbs.

Simmer the stew gently, stirring from time to time, until it looks and tastes right, the shortest time being until the corned beef is getting sloppy and starting to break up, and the dried onions have plumped and the potatoes are piping hot all the way through, then serve with doorsteps of plain bread (wholemeal is tasty) to mop up the juice. Delicious!

If it pains you to serve a meal without any fresh vegetables, put some peeled carrots, a lettuce leaf or two and some halved tomatoes in a bowl in centre of the table and make everyone eat an apple afterwards, and you can feel virtuous about vitamins as well.

Use your judgement as a cook and your family's preferences in adjusting any of the proportions, but however you make it, (the recipe is almost infinitely forgiving), at the end of a long day on the beach or walking in the countryside, we think Camp Stew is the Food of the Gods. It's also quick, dead cheap if you use 'value' ingredients, and leaves only one saucepan to make the children wash up.

Warm plastic cup of wine, anyone??

~ Marigold

thriftlady_2

Some fabulous looking recipes and ideas in these books - The Happy Campers and The Cool Camping Cookbook.

littlenicki

We go camping quite a lot and quantity it most definitely more important than quality! This is generally the kind of stuff we have when we’re away. We very rarely cook “proper” meals when camping as it’s tricky and camping is about roughing it somewhat! J

Breakfast
Cereal Bars
Pop tarts
Cereal (we take Soya or UHT milk)
Those tins of all day breakfasts/sausages and beans – these are really filling and great if it’s cold in the morning

Lunch
Sandwiches
Soup – cartons rather than cans as they’re heavy
Packet noodles
Pot Noodles
Cous Cous – We don’t tend to buy own brand ones of these because they quite often take 20 mins to cook. Ainslee Harriot does some which you just pour boiling water on and leave for 5 mins.

Dinner
Tuna Pasta – 1 can mushroom soup, 1 can tuna, I can sweet corn & enough pasta for you all, mix it all up and done!
Packet Pasta
BBQs are good for the first few nights if you keep the meat in the cool box
Pasta & Tomato Sauce
Pasta and cheese
Savoury Rice
Beans or Spaghetti on toast (we have one of those toasting racks that go over the gas stove – Argos about £5 I think)

Snacks
Take a few bags of apples & carrots
Sultanas/raisins
Crisps
Popcorn is always a winner
Chocolate but only if it won’t be hot and it can be rationed!
Sweets like haribo that don’t stick together when hot

We take a couple of value loaves with us when we go too and everyone has a slice or 2 of bread before we start our dinner. We do this at home too and it has really helped with portion sizes and those before-dinner-snacks that always happen!

1connect

You can get them little blue bricks to refreeze for your cool box but there is a MUCH better way:

Buy 2 Litre Bottled water bottles, Drink 2 to 3 inches out of it then squeeze a little air out then reseal (allows for expansion later) maybe also write your name on the bottle or label at this point
Chuck in the freezer cabinet of your camp site or shop etc - most agree no problem and usually no charge (if they charge - GO ELSEWHERE - miserable gets - ha ha)
Collect it frozen the next day or later that day
I usually put 2 in the cool box in the morning, then as it melts you have ice cold water all day, and the remaining ice cools the cool box, 2 last all day usually, then when we come off the beach we collect the overnignt ones (which we dont drink - just used as coolers, then on the way to the beach we swop em for the 2 frozen ones we have put in ready to collect... anyway this way you get a safe temp in the cool box most of the time and always have a cool drink too !

I recon this is possibly the best camping tip in the world :rotfl:ha ha ... love it ....

Anyway if you try this I hope you enjoy it, even if we are not taking a cool box we take a frozen bottle to the beach - its BRILL ! lasts hours - even at 40 degrees!

Hope you try and enjoy...

1connect

eselt wrote: »

Hi all- really hope you can help!

I am taking two teenagers camping for the first time in a few weeks and haven't a clue how to go about mealplanning. We won't have a great deal of money, so I want to avoid eating out, or relying on expensive camp shops, and take as much as I can with me - but obviously with all the camping stuff in the car space will be a premium.

We will have:
2 X Basic gas one ring butane gas stoves.
Some disposible BBQ's
A cool box (not sure how long stuff will stay OK over a week?)

Any mealplanning ideas or recipes would be great and I'd love to hear any tips from experienced campers out there.

Many thanks in advance.

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Fat_Cat

To be honest whatever you make while camping always tastes a hundred times better than if you cooked it indoors!

We normally take some cooked food like a chilli and reheat on the stove and maybe use a boil in bag rice, though to be honest you dont need many ingredients to make a chilli or a bolognese if you use a sachet or jar.

Enjoy!

jess1974

We always take a couple of tins of tinned curry with us they are surprisingly tasty...

jane3921

We discovered boil in the bag rice and it was the perfect solution ! We buy tins of curry, chicken in white wine, beef casserole or chilli and two pans one to do the rice one to do the tin and it works a treat. Much cheaper than eating out, easy and quick and always tastes fab.

Have fun

rosered100

We tend to do cans now too, as after a day on te beach etc, I really dont want to be cooking at all - and it's usually quite late if its in the summer.
We take a couple of cans of chicken korma & a couple of sweet & sour chicken & then some quick noodles. Also take some naan bread(the vacuum packed type) for the curry & prawn crackers for the chinese just to make them seem special. Also the all day breakfast is ok though not as good as the other two as I think there's too many baked beans in there!!
We also always take flasks with powdered hot chocolate, cappucinos & soups for the day trips out - saves loads of money. The only food we normally spend on when on holiday, is an ice lolly a day & a fish & chip dinner at some point. We always make up lunches - sandwiches (spam + tomato/lettuce), fruit, crisps, muffins & take our own cans of fanta/coke as unless you find a supermarket, there's big markups on these from cafes or on the beach.