Today, we’re dishing out some hot tips and cooking up some easy camping meals that are simple, delicious, and fun to prepare in the great outdoors. If you think about it, some of our best camping memories revolve around food. From the exciting challenge of preparing meals in an outdoor environment to the pleasure of gathering around the campfire, it all resonates deeply. But it’s not all toasted marshmallows or hot dogs on a stick! Certainly, we all know that easier is always better. However, camp cooking can still be wonderfully creative as well as easy and convenient when you do it right. To that purpose, let’s dig in!
Camping Pancakes
It’s important to fuel up in the morning with a hearty breakfast when you’re camping. Otherwise, you won’t have the energy you’ll need for a day filled with fun outdoor activities. Besides, what could be a better choice than camping pancakes?! Everyone loves them, and you can make it a super easy camping meal by preparing the batter in advance. The fact is, most pancake batters can be stored in the fridge or cooler for up to 4 days. So, throw it together at home and bring it with you! Here’s a great, 5-star recipe for buttermilk pancakes from scratch:
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp. sugar
- 2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2-1/4 cups buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup melted butter
Directions:
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs until combined. Add the buttermilk and melted butter and blend well.
Pour the wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir gently, just until combined. A few small lumps are desirable, so be careful not to overmix. Store in cooler or refrigerator for up to 4 days. This squeeze-top, 2-quart pitcher by Rubbermaid would be an excellent storage vessel for your batter, or, you could even use a sturdy zippered bag.
When you are getting ready to cook, you’ll want to take the batter out and allow it to warm up for about 20 minutes because the baking powder needs a little time to wake up. Next, lightly oil your skillet with vegetable oil and heat to about medium temperature. Pour out the batter to your desired size. Pancakes are ready to flip when you see bubbles breaking on the surface. Top with butter, syrup, or your favorite jam and enjoy!
Tips: A cast iron skillet makes the best pancakes and is a wonderful, must-have accessory for easy camping meals. Here’s a fantastic cast iron dutch oven with a lid that doubles as a skillet. Also, if you don’t want to make your batter from scratch, a just-add-water complete mix is a handy alternative.
One-Pot Chili
Chili is a classic, and the perfect dinner to warm yourself up on a cool night. And who doesn’t love one pot camping meals? Here’s a recipe that features one of our favorite chili seasoning mixes: Chugwater Chili. It’s an award-winning blend that makes for an easy camping meal. Once you try it, you might just be making it at home, too!
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs. ground beef
- 3 tbsp. Chugwater Chili Seasoning
- 1 (15 oz.) can of plain tomato sauce
- 2 (15 oz.) cans of kidney or pinto beans
Directions:
Brown the ground beef in a large pot. Drain off excess fat. Add the chili seasoning mix and tomato sauce and stir well. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Drain the kidney beans and add them to the pot. Simmer an additional 10 minutes. Serve hot.
Tips: This seasoning blend is also great for camping tacos, another easy camping meal. Plus, nothing goes better with chili than cornbread. Try this easy mix from Martha White. You can bake this right over the campfire inside a dutch oven, too!
The No-Cook Lunch
No cook camping meals are an essential part of the camping experience. Sandwiches are a perfect choice! To make it an easy camping meal, do your prep work before you leave home. Bento boxes work great for this purpose as well as for other camping food storage, too. They can be loaded up with your favorite lunchmeats, cheeses, veggies, and other snacks. When it’s lunchtime, simply grab the boxes from the cooler, your bread and condiments of choice, and everyone can have fun making their own sandwich just the way they want it.
Tip: Save yourself the cooler space and the hassle of dealing with open condiment bottles. Use individual serving condiment packets like these instead!
Shish Kabobs
When it comes to easy camping meals, perhaps the most perfect meal of all is shish kabobs. It’s food on a stick that does the one-pot meal one better: It’s a no-pot meal with your meat and veggies combined—all you need are some skewers! We love these wooden ones because they’re disposable and great for toasting marshmallows, too. Here’s a simple recipe that’s quick to put together.
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs. beef sirloin, cubed
- 1 cup Italian Salad Dressing
- 1 or 2 large onions, cut into chunks
- 2 green bell peppers, cut into chunks
- 1 or 2 sweet red peppers, cut into chunks
- 1 package of fresh, whole white mushrooms
- Olive oil
- Salt, pepper, or your favorite seasoning blend
Directions:
Put your sirloin chunks into a bowl or bag and marinate in the Italian dressing for a few hours.
Soak your wooden skewers in water for a few minutes before assembly time. (This prevents burning.) Then, remove the meat from the dressing marinade. Build your skewers by alternating pieces of meat and veggies until your skewers are filled.
Brush the kebabs with olive oil, and sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, or a seasoning blend. Grill over the fire until of desired doneness, rotating several times.
Tips: Clean and cut up your veggies and meat ahead of time and bring them with you. That way, all you have to do is assemble them when you’re camping. This is also a very versatile, easy camping meal—change out the ingredients for all your own favorite proteins and veggies. We also love to use prepared seasoning blends on these, like McCormick’s Grill Mates!
An Aside About Sides…
When you are looking for a simple side dish to go with any easy camping meal, wayfarer foods are terrific. Wayfarer foods are often pre-cooked and freeze-dried, so they won’t take up cooler space. All you typically have to do is add water and heat them up. They make excellent meal options for hikers or minimalist campers that want to avoid all the muss and fuss of cooking, too. Here are some top-rated ones that are not only easy to make, but they’re also easy to love!
Backpacker’s Pantry Three Cheese Mac & Cheese
ReadyWise Open Range Cheesy Potato Soup
Three Sisters Southwestern Quinoa & Beans
Pudgy Pie-Filling Pies
There’s nothing more delightful than making your own pie over the campfire. It may not be an easy camping meal, but it is certainly an easy camping dessert! Of course, smores and toasted marshmallows are traditional must-haves, too. (No camping food list is complete without the fixings for those.) But we think you should throw a can of your favorite pie filling in with your must-have camping food as well.
Why? Pudgy pies! There are countless pudgy pie recipes out there, but we happen to think that pie filling versions are amongst the easiest. All you need is the pie filling, a couple of slices of bread, some butter, and a pie iron. If you don’t have one of those camping gadgets yet, grab yourself one. You can’t go wrong with this exceptional one by Guidesman. Once you try these you’ll be so glad you did!
Ingredients:
- 1 (21 oz.) can of pie filling (pick your favorite!)
- Sliced White Bread
- Butter, soften
Directions:
Generously butter two slices of bread all the way to the edges. Place one slice buttered side down onto the bottom of the pie iron. Add about 3 tablespoonfuls of filling to the center. (One can make several pudgy pies.) Top with the second slice of buttered bread, this time with the butter on top. Close the pie iron and put it on the fire. Toast on one side for a few minutes, then flip on the other side. Then flip it out of the iron, let cool, and then dessert is served!
Tips: You can use biscuit dough, crescent roll dough, and pie dough for these, too. You can also make savory versions. Try a pizza pudgy pie with tomato sauce, basil, mozzarella, and pepperoni. Who says pizza can’t be an easy camping meal, too?!
A Few Final Tips
No matter what kind of foods you enjoy when camping, there are a few basic things to keep in mind to make it easy:
1) Do as much prep work in advance as you can. The less work you have to do at the campsite, the more time you’ll have for having fun.
2) Choose ingredients that don’t require refrigeration whenever possible.
3) Pick things you can use the same pan for. Nobody likes to wash camp dishes!
4) Use paper plates—ditto what we said about washing those dishes. We put together a helpful list of camping essentials you should think about packing when it comes to food. Easy camping meals are also meals that don’t require much clean-up.
5) And lastly, our biggest tip of all: Relax and just have fun with it. It doesn’t have to be perfect, complicated, or fancy to be great. So, make your next camping meal an easy camping meal, and think of us when you do!
