Camping in the great outdoors involves a little preparation and planning, especially when it comes to meals. You often won’t be close to camp stores or grocery stores and even if you are, you might be having too much fun to drag yourself away.
Pre-made meals let you take care of the major cooking at home and relax during your vacation. Once you finish hiking, swimming, fishing or any of your other activities, just heat up the meals. Using a pre-made meal is also helpful when you’re too tired from setting up the campsite to do any cooking.
Soup
Make your own soups at home and store in a metal thermos or similar item. The insulation of the thermos keeps the soup warm until you’re ready to use it.
Alternatively, store the soup in plastic zip bags or storage bowls and pour into a large kettle to heat on the campfire. Look for heartier or thicker soups, including stew and chili.
Bring along crackers, cheese, sour cream and other toppings to let your family make their own bowl. Thinner soups, including chicken noodle and tomato pair well with quick sandwiches, thrown together at your campsite.
Tacos
Tacos are another quick meals you can make at home and take camping. The only thing that requires cooking is the taco meat. Add a packet of taco seasoning and store until you’re ready for dinner.
Heat up the taco meat over the fire when you’re ready to serve. Chop tomatoes, olives, lettuce and other vegetables for the tacos and pack cheese, taco sauce, sour cream and other toppings.
Let campers top their tacos with their favorite choices and also bring along an alternative: taco salad. Grab a bag of taco or cheese flavored chips or tortilla chips. Crumble the chips and serve the taco meat and toppings over the chips.
Packet Cooking
Make packets from aluminum foil and fill with a protein, vegetables and a sauce. Make multiple packets, which let campers pick their favorite.
A few examples include chicken with fresh vegetables and a teriyaki sauce or fresh fish fillets with vegetables and a lemon butter sauce.
Cook the packets at home or leave raw and immediately transfer the packets from the refrigerator to an ice filled cooler. Toss the packets in the campfire until cooked through. Be careful when removing the packets from the fire, as the foil gets quite hot.