If you’ve ever spent time in the great outdoors then you’ll agree that very few homemade meals taste better than those cooked at the campsite. There’s something about outdoor cooking or the oldidea-fashioned cooking that makes camp dishes taste special.
However, if you visit 99camping.com you’ll see that cooking at the camp can be a tedious affair. It takes more time, calls for patience, and requires more ingenuity than home cooking.
Campsite cooking also comes with limited food options, a severe shortage of cooking gear, and of course the unpredictable weather that could turn your wild culinary attempts into a watery mess. It is no wonder why most campers still survive on a staple of hot dogs on roasting sticks.
And that’s why we’ve come up with the following tips and hacks to make your campsite cooking less hassle and more fun.
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Do Your Food Prep Well in Advance
This is actually a no-brainer but definitely worth mentioning. Take time to do as much food preparation as possible before you leave home to make things easier at the campsite.
Measure the ingredients you plan to use and pack items needed for each meal together. Zip-lock bags provide a safe way to maintain your dry ingredients dry and prevent wet ingredients from leaking.
To make your camp cooking easier, chop your veggies, and keep them in plastic bags. You can also marinate meats and freeze your stews in advance.
Remember to wash your fruits, hard boil a few eggs, and of course pack some dry rations or a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter just in case the weather at the campsite doesn’t allow you to cook.
More importantly, pack all the necessary utensils and cookware that you’ll need at the campsite. This might sound like a lot of work but you’ll thank yourself for the careful preparations when you are miles away from your kitchen.
Plan Carefully for Breakfast
Breakfast is an important meal when camping. The smell of coffee and a freshly cooked breakfast are a perfect way to start the day after a challenging night in a tent.
If you have a small single stove, you could make porridge, which is quite simple to make and can easily be enriched by adding nuts, chopped banana, seeds, and a drizzle of honey.
Eggs are great too, whether boiled, fried, or scrambled. Pita bread warmed briefly and served with tomato, avocado, grated cheese, and chili sauce will make your morning eggs a special delight.
Make Your Pancakes On-the-Go
Pancakes are a favorite camping food but the process of whipping everything together with limited ingredients and tools can be a tedious task.
To make simple morning-ready pancakes, simply premix all the ingredients before you leave home and store the mix in a plastic bag and throw it in the cooler.
When you want to cook the pancakes, just cut off one corner of the bag and squeeze a small amount of the mix on your pan. It’s an easy way to make your favorite flapjacks on-the-go.
Carry Scrambled Eggs in a Bottle
One reason why most campers don’t pack eggs is the fact that you’ll always break a few and possibly mess up other ingredients during transportation.
To avoid the broken eggs nightmare and save a lot of precious space, break the eggs in advance, scramble them up, and store them in a plastic water bottle. When you want to cook the eggs at the campsite, just pour them into a pan and enjoy freshly cooked scrambled eggs.
Make Bacon and Eggs in a Paper Bag
Feel like having a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs while camping without using plates and frying pans and without a lot of cleaning afterward?
There’s an easy way to do it. Just get a paper bag and line its bottom with strips of fatty bacon then crack a few eggs over the bacon nest. Fold the bag carefully and attach it to a stick then roast over hot coals for around 10 minutes.
You can eat the bacon and eggs delicacy straight out of the paper bag if you’re careful enough not to spill everything on your lap.
Make Tin-Foil-Cooked Meals
Ever heard of foil packet meals in the wild? They are quite easy to make.
Throw your ingredients in tin foil, wrap everything up and place it on hot coals until it is ready. Foil packet meals make great dinners and desserts.
Popcorn in a Soda Can
Popcorn is also easy to make at the campsite.
Just get a soda can, cut a small rectangular door flap on the upper part of the can, pour in a little vegetable oil, and add a few kernels then place the can on a grill over coals or close to the fire. Place a frying pan close to the door to collect the popcorns when they start popping out.
