Looking for camping menu planning tips? Making a camp menu can run from fun to work, depending on your creativity and the unique factors with your camp group and dietary restrictions. Regardless, keep in mind that you are going to have limited space and hearty appetites. The variety of cooking methods is as wide as your choice of food. Be sure to consider the amount of storage space you have, whether you are family camping with a vehicle or backpacking with a friend.
When planning your menu it is important to plan your allotted space. If you are limited, your cooking utensils and food needs to be sized accordingly. Quick and easy hot dogs on a grill are great, but so is a pot of chili hanging on a hook over a fire.
Hanging-kettle cooking brings back the old west and pioneer days and some really good food. You can make a great pot of chili in one and it is quick and easy to prepare.
Camp Chili recipe
2lbs. ground beef browned in the Dutch oven over the fire
1 diced pepper and 1 med. onion diced added to the meat
1 can of RoTel tomatoes, with your choice of seasoning
1 6oz. can tomato paste
4 Tbsp. chili powder 2 Tbsp. cumin
salt and pepper to taste
hot sauce if you like.
This recipe will serve 6-8 depending on the size of the appetites in your party.
Mix it all in the pot and let it simmer while you are enjoying other camping activities.
Beverages are sometimes cumbersome. Prepackaged sweetened drinks are a plus. They don’t spoil, take up much room, and only need water to be complete. Coffee prepared over an open fire has a taste some never get to experience. If you don’t have a stovetop percolator, you can bring a pot of water to a boil and then add your grounds directly to the pot. Let it cook awhile. Remove the pot from the fire and put a burning stick in the pot. The majority of the grounds will go to the bottom of the pot. All of the packaged beverages can be brought in the container you will be preparing them in.
Quick snacks that are healthy and very portable include dehydrated fruits, trail mix, and seeds. In addition to being nutritious, they are easy to pack. Fresh fruit is good but bulky. Meats such as the ground beef should be frozen at home. This serves two purposes. It acts as another ice source and can be cooked from a frozen state.
Quick Breakfast Burritos recipe
Flour tortillas
eggs
precooked bacon, crumbled
cheddar cheese or Monterey jack
frozen seasoning mix that includes peppers, onions. They are available in just about any grocery store.
Quart size zip-loc bags
Give each person 1-3 eggs to crack and put in their own bags.
Bring a kettle of water to a boil.
Add frozen seasonings and bacon to the eggs along with some salt and pepper to taste.
Kids love to squish the eggs in the bag and add their own ingredients. Let them. Then put the bags in the boiling water for about 3 minutes. You can pull the bag out with tongs to see if they are done.
While this is going on, wrap your tortillas in heavy-duty foil and place it on the fire while the eggs cook. Remove the tortillas, put the eggs on them, and roll them up for a great breakfast.
While sitting at home making camp menu plans, plan for your space, unique needs and tastes, and for larger meals and more snacks per person than you would normally serve — your campers will have larger appetites than you might expect.