When prepping for your next outdoor adventure, don’t forget to plan ahead the meals you plan to eat throughout each day of your trip. Your camp menu may require some additional preparation, so plan meals out and pack accordingly.
However, there are a great deal of nutritious, easy to make camping recipes and fun ways to prepare them. You can also ensure that your meals do not require fancy camping cooking equipment and prepping food portions and measurements ahead of time makes meals faster and easier to prepare leaving more time to enjoy them .
To start with, you need to plan three meals a day plus at least two snacks.
Breakfast is always the most important meal of the day, even when you’re camping. Starting your day off with a hearty breakfast can mean the difference between a great day and a sluggish day.
A light lunch should not require any camping cooking equipment and when paired with healthy campsite snacks in the morning and throughout the afternoon, campers should be able to make it to dinner without a lot of extra work involved. Ensure that you’re drinking ample amounts of water at all hours of the day as well. This can make you feel less hungry and give you the energy and refreshment to carry you through to the next snack or meal. You may need the extra energy to carry all of your hiking gear when you hit the trails.
After working up an appetite, a hot meal around the campfire for dinner is the perfect way to wind down and spend quality time with fellow campers. Make dinner an event, not just a chore. If you’re prepared with the proper supplies and have planned and prepped your meal in advance, dinner will be a breeze. Get everyone involved from prep to clean up and have fun. And don’t forget dessert!
Below are some of our favorite camping recipes (and non-stove recipes)! Bon Appetite!
Breakfast
With the right gear, you can make a delicious breakfast at the campsite. The go-to breakfast camping recipe is pancakes because they are both satisfying and easy to make. Using a pancake mix can make breakfast go a little faster (measure out ingredients ahead of time in Ziploc baggies). The only camping cooking equipment you will need is a griddle over the camping stove.
Camping Hack: Use the Bisquick plastic bottles to transport your pancake mix. They are easy to mix, pour and can be used for other things around the campsite like sealing off trash or leftovers. Don’t forget the syrup!
Breakfast burritos are another great camping recipe to enjoy a hot breakfast at the campsite. Prepare them ahead of time, wrap them in foil and store them in a cooler until ready to heat over the campfire.
Snacks
When packing for your daily hike, don’t forget the snacks. Crisp, raw veggies make for a great snack in the hot morning sun. Pre-slice, or slice veggies at the campsite, into thin, three-inch strips. Fresh carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, pears and whatever else you love can be used for this snack. Bring along single-serve salad dressing or peanut butter, open one package up and drop it or squirt it in the bottom of a camp-friendly cup. Stand the veggie and fruit sticks up in the cup, so that they stick into the dip at the bottom of the cup. This camping recipe is both easy to eat and easy to clean up, but most of all, it is super healthy.
Trail mix is also a great hands-on camping recipe for a quick camping snack fix. You can buy it pre-made, make it at home or make it right at the campsite. For about 20 servings you will need: 6 cups of honey oat cereal, 2 cups of peanuts, 1 cup of dried cranberries, 1 cup carob chips and ½ cup of sunflower seeds. Mix everything together in either a seal-tight container or gallon-size Ziploc bag and enjoy your protein-packed power punch.
Lunch
Add skewer sticks to your camping gear checklist because they are a vital component of any seasoned camper’s camping gear, and shish kabobs are a favorite of any campsite crew. Again, this camping recipe can be prepped before leaving home or right at the campsite. What you can kabob is only limited by your own imagination. We recommend Roma tomatoes, bacon wrapped hot dog bites and bell peppers. Lunch meat can also be warmed over the fire with some cheese squares. Also skew-able are canned bread sticks. Just pop open the can, wrap one piece of dough around your skewer and stick it in the fire. A hands-on lunch will ensure everyone sits down and rests in the middle of the day when temperatures and humidity peak.
Dinner
Include pre-made, foiled dinners when packing your camping gear before embarking on your camping adventure. Cook chicken or steak or take leftovers and divvy them up into foil packs. Add cooked potatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions or whatever you like. Essentially, you will be throwing these foil packs on the camping stove to heat them up, so make sure all meat is pre-cooked. As an added bonus, these leave no mess behind!
Another way to eat your food right from the packaging is to get single-serve bags of Doritos nacho flavored chips and add everything to the bag that you’d normally put in a taco. Pre-cook some taco-seasoned ground turkey or beef and heat it up over the camping stove. Throw in some cheese, chopped tomatoes, shredded lettuce and bingo, you’ve got tacos in a bag. Use a fork to eat your delicious entrée straight from the packaging. Have as many “tacos” as you’d like, and then throw it all away! The best camping recipes are those that require little-to-no camping cooking equipment to clean up.
Camping meals don’t have to consist of the same old fare—hot dogs and s’mores. Impress your campers. Cut those hot dogs up and put them on a stick with veggies and make your s’mores into an ice cream cone!
Camping doesn’t have to mean peanut butter and jelly sandwiches served three times a day. Camping recipes are easy and can add a bit of excitement to any average camping adventure. Don’t slack on nutrition while outdoor camping because you’ll only end up cutting your energy short, making for a hungry and lazy camper. Don’t be that camper!
