Thrifty Old Style Camping Trip

Frugalista

Smoked Sausage & Bean Feast

Serves 4

1 tbsp sunflower oil
2 onions sliced
14 oz/425g can chick peas
14 oz/425g can mixed beans in spicy sauce
14 oz/425g can tomatoes
1 lb/450g smoked sausage (garlic is best) - sliced or diced (Mattessons or similar)
　
Heat oil in a large pan and add onions, stirring occasionally until golden

Drain and rinse chick peas

Add to pan with remaining ingredients. Cover and cook for 15 mins.

Serve hot with crusty bread
　
Note: Whilst I know this is a camping recipe I make this at home fairly often and have found that this tastes even better the next day when the flavours have had time to develop

meritaten

You could do Pea and Ham soup with the mushy peas. I would take along a pack of ham (offcuts would be great), tip a few tins of peas into a saucepan, heat them up (add a little water if too thick), then add chopped ham and a veg stock cube (or chicken stock cube) salt and pepper and you would have a lovely thick soup for supper.
Serve with fresh crusty bread from a local baker - then invite me for supper as Pea and Ham soup is my favourite!

meritaten

and here is a pud recipe which my kids loved as a teatime treat.
you just need a can of squirty cream, a couple of tins of mandarin oranges in juice (or syrup), half a pack of ginger biccies and some grated chocolate (or a couple of Flake bars).
put the ginger biccies in a plastic bag and pound them into little nuggets then put them in the bottom of a small tumbler (or into a dish if you prefer), drain the mandarin oranges and put them on the biscuit base, top with lots of squirty cream and sprinkle on the chocolate. Delish.

lobbyludd

I tend to make and freeze a couple of one pot meals for day one and three (depp in the cool box for day three).
be aware that *sometimes* depending on weather conditions and the type of stove you have rice/pasta can take ages and a lot of fuel to cook, so I always make sure I take the thinnest pasta, some cheapo noodles and cheapo instant mash as the latter two are life savers when the conditions aren't right for pasta.

this might be O/T on an old style board, but a disposable barbeque for one evening can be a really good idea if you don't have a portable one: they are cheap and after the inevitable burgers etc (and veg kebabs, which you can make in mins on bamboo sticks with a marinade preprepared if you like them), you can cook any meat that is defrosting (I take sausages/belly pork just for this) and have a casserole with mash the next evening safely.
then it's on to the tins and stir fry's (straight to wok noodles are great)- and we have a fish supper as a treat towards the end of the week.

onions, peppers, courgetts keep pretty well in a cool bag and can be fried for curries with a can of chickpeas/mince and served with flat breads/pitta rather than rice.
don't forget cooking oil - and take sparing amounts of cheese/butter and use on first 2 days or so.

I fill the cool bags with frozen bottles of water as well as my ice packs.

the great thing for me about camping is that the kids find things to do without me organising a darn thing, they run free, find friends, climb trees, build dams and dens, read, pick fruit, watch critters, wade in streams. I take tea lights and jam jars, a wind-up radio, a ball and they're off (I don't have teenagers yet though!)