Caravan, camping and holiday cookery

Miss_Kitty_Fantastico

Hi All

Hope you can help. We are hoping to go camping in a few weeks and the last time we went (my first time) we spent a fortune on food. We didnt really know what to take or how to keep it cool as the cool bag and frozen thingys only last so long so we ended up buying prepared salads and cooked chicken etc at the local asda.

We have a gas one ring burner (borrowed) so you can only cook one thing at a time - i am thinking of buying the two ring with toaster attachment as i think it will easily pay for itself as we hope to go camping every few weeks this summer (weather permitting).

Any advice on what food to take and how to cook it would be very much appreciated.

I also should have mentioned that we also have disposable barbeques we are going to use.

Many thanks in advance.

(any other camping tips would also we greatly appreciated)

lostfarmer

Have you looked at http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk for tips? It's a good site!

When we go camping we tend to take pasta, tins of tuna and tomatoes etc for easy meals. You can of course take a prepared meal with you for the first night.

Most sites will re-freeze ice blocks for you, so if you take plenty you can rotate to keep a limited amount of things cool- we find it's best to keep cheese and smoked sausage etc cold, and buy in fresh meat from local butchers etc. In fact exploring local butchers can often be a high point of our holiday (is that very sad?!!)

BBQ's - Sausages, Sweetcorn Wheels etc etc. We often take ziplock bags and buy and marinade chicken to make chicken kebabs but I know that can be a little bit of a faff.. A lot of butchers will do various cuts of meat with rubs or marinades on them.

Loads more info on the link above. Have fun!

dianadors

We have a 2 ring burner with a toaster and its great. We dont have a fridge (no room!!) so we tend to have a lot of vegetarian meals unless we are near a supermarket. We are going away for the bank holiday weekend and I have planned to do:
Friday - Chilli with rice (prepared and taken with us)
Saturday - Corned beef Hash with potatoes, carrots, beans and dumplings(all in 1 pot)
Sunday - Ratatouille with cheese and rice or pasta (adding tinned sausage for the kids)

I usually freeze bacon and sausage to have for breakfast - this keeps it fresher for the next day. I have also done omlettes, pancakes, curry, bbq's etc. I agree that ukcampsite is brilliant - we did loads of sites from this last year and have already booked loads for this year from it. My top tip for camping is to take a red wine box as opposed to bottles as the ground is uneven and bottles can spill (!!!) whereas a box is spill proof and when on its side can act as a table for your glass!!!! Carry on Camping!!!

daleyd

The packets of 2minute microwave rice are good - check which ones you can cook on hob, and then just follow instructions.

Great to go with a tin of chilli (So quick & easy)- last time we did this we had just walked up & down Snowdon and were in no fit state to be spending ages cooking!

exlibris

Have you got a pressure cooker? I don't like camping but OH and the boys used to go for male bonding hols. We didn't have a cool box but I used to freeze milk and put it in the cooker with the fresh breakfast stuff. It made a wonderful fridge and also meant that full meals could be cooked on one ring.

This was 30yrs ago but I think the principles are the dame.

HTH

malamala

Have you tried cooking instant noodles?

We too have a one-ring-burner, and it is very easy using it to cook noodles with vegetables and frankfurter sausages. Just be careful not to overcook noodles or they will go soggy.

We tend to first boil the sausage in water, then add noodles, followed by some green leaf, add the soup mix that came with the instant noodles. Result: yummy noodles in tasty soup.

spammeplease

Have you tried cous cous? It doesn't need as much boiling water as pasta, but it's just as good to fill up the family.

We have a small, cheap barbeque that the legs come off and cook most of our food on that. One small bag of instant lighting generally does dinner for 8 (but you need to stay focussed).

We use cartons of OJ and AJ and freeze them instead of freezer blocks - less waste of space.

Keep stuff you want to stay cool in a shady place and be prepared to move it as the sun moves. Covering with a damp towel keeps it cool - the evaporating water draws heat from whatever you are trying to cool - I can get very cold beers by this method but again you need to pay attention.

Freeze as much stuff as you can before you go and use that to keep stuff cool.

For luxury camping use your online account to get food delivered by the local supermarket - you need to set this up in advance.

We love camping, us, and have a great time, but it has taken years of practice, so don't give up to soon!

patentgirl

We love camping and everyones comments are great cant really better any of them first night I always have something prepared at home then freeze it to keep fresh on car journey like chilli, casserole anything that just needs heating back up, we normally have a barbie most nights or a pasta/rice one pot dish, another we often have is simple cheeses, olives, dips, crackers, french stick and cold meats all washed down with red wine, I totally agree with Dinadors suggestion of box of red wine just dont do what we did we use a big plastic storage box for water for cooling beer and wine etc put the carton in that and it fell apart (wine was still ok though)
Happy Camping

Miss_Kitty_Fantastico

thanks for all the quick replies

loads of great ideas - has definately inspired me to be more organised

the freezing tip is good we did that with bacon/.sausages the last time

another tip we used was freezing a 2ltr bottle of water keeps stuff cool and gives you fresh cool water as it melts

away now to check out the website

dianadors

The best bit about the website is the "feedback" section. I have found these to be very accurate and I use this when deciding on a site.