The foil potatoes are great. Also soak corn ears in a bucket (w/ husks on) and you can cook these 9foil wrapped) on the coals too. Just keep rotating once in awhile. Put a cookie sheet over the bucket or it may be a squirrel snack. I know 1st hand.

 

Apples
oranges
crackers +peanut butter
trail mix (peanuts and raisins)
home made granola

They can cook with stainless or aluminum over a fire. Campfire cooking is slow, though, they don't want to do more than just heat something up or it will take forever.

Hot dogs or brats are a good idea, they are precooked and will be easy to heat without lugging pans along.

Instant cereal, noodles or rice mixes are popular with hikers as small amounts of water can be heated relatively fast to rehydrate them.

 

~ Hard boiled eggs
~ Microwave-baked potatoes wrapped in foil (they can stick them into the hot coals to reheat them)
~ Sardines if they like them
~ Fruits and veggies that don't need to be kept cold -- bananas, apples, carrots, etc.
~ peanut butter, jam, bread -- toast the bread on a stick over the fire
~ instant oatmeal
~ and of course, the traditional camping standby -- hot dogs and marshmallows!!!

 

BF and I camped a lot in Indiana at Turkey Run State Park (I Love it there!! ) Last year I took stuff for nachos and it turned out GREAT. As long as they have a grate on the campfire, this will work just fine. You need one of those foil disposable chafing dish thingy's, and some tin foil. A bag of corn chips, a can of pre-sliced black olives, some already chopped tomatoes and onions in some zip lock sandwich baggies, a bag of shredded cheese, a can of chili, and a can opener. Pour the chili in the chaffing dish and set it on grate of the fire to heat it up first. After that you can toss the chips in and then top them with everything else. Cover it will the foil and just heat it until the cheese melts. Another way to do this to keep the chips from getting even a little mushy, is to omit the chips and just dip them in the mixture after everything is heated.

 

Found this list...

Foods for a Fire-free camping excursion:
Grains:

• Nuts, rice cakes, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, already-popped popcorn, melba toast, dry cereals,
• saltine, ritz or other crackers, corn nuts, potato sticks in cans, all sorts of chips, and crackers

Cans:

• tuna, canned meat such as vienna sausages --these are delicious when cold or you can set them out in the sun for a while,
• garbanza beans, sliced potatos, peas

Other:

• any variety of breads or crackers, rice cakes, mini-rice cakes, raisens, prunes, dried fruits,
• apple dippers, health food crackers and snacks
• dried fruit rolls or fruit wraps
• peanut butter and jelly, sandwiches
• laughing cow cheese, bon bell cheese --neither of these need refrigeration or cooking
• grated cheeses by the chunk or grated
• candies, chocolate,
• juices or milks in the parma packs ; none of these need refrigeration
• pickles, all sorts of pickles

Others:

• fresh fruits and vegetables such as carrots, apples, oranges, pea pods, grapefruits, watermelons, melons, pears, chinese apples, and pomegranates, and more
• Loaves of Italian bread, sliced breads, RICE (see explanation below)
• Anything else you have that does not need refrigeration or cooking

There is your list. You can pack any and all of that and avoid cooking and avoid needing ice or refrigeration. Now for the rice. Purchase minute rice. You can soak minute rice in water out in the sun and have nice hot rice for your meal. It works, try it. Put the rice in a plastic clear container with some warm water. Leave it out in the sun, and you will have hot cooked rice. You can even just put it in water and you do not even need the sun , as long as it is minute rice.

 

Dutch oven cooking

These are cookbooks in PDF form. Thought I'd share.

http://www.macscouter.com/cooking/docs/DOCookbk.pdf

http://www.oa-bsa.org/resources/toap/powhatandutchoven.pdf

This one is a comprehensive list of dutch oven cooking sites & cookbooks. I didn't have time to look through them - there's a lot! http://www.kcspecialties.com/Dutch_Oven_Resources.pdf

Enjoy! I'm off to plan my menu!

 

Camping and the Frugal Cook

It's almost Memorial Day, and that means the summer camping season is upon us! What frugal meals do you take with you when you go camping? Do you have any tips for the rest of us on campsite cooking?

 

I do not camp, however if I were too I would make up whole grain, high fiber, low (no) sugar muffins to take along for breakfasts and snacks.

1) Their cheap
2) They won't cause blood sugar issues
3) They are filling
4) They do not require a cooler or any special prep. Just unwrap and eat.

I might even make no sugar, oatmeal breakfast cookies to take along.

Enjoy your camping season

 

Lately we been just going grocery shopping near the camp. Walmart is near 1 park I go to. We get the specials and spend what i would for 4 or 5 days.
-steak or chicken marinated shish kabobs,baked potatoes,watermelon,corn on the cob.hot dogs,hamb.baked beans,tuna macaroni salad.
One time I brought the toaster oven. I made grill cheese and stouffers french bread pizza.
We hit the dollar store for pickle,plates and condiments.

Camping is our slurge. We go out to eat at least once and get cones. We have to have smore's at least once too w/ coke.
We like luchmeat for sub sandwiches too. We have electric cooler now so buying ice is minimal.

 

We have a travel trailer that we camp in. I do alot of my cooking over the camp fire. I take most of my food with us. So no impulse buying while camping. I also make up a menu for the time we are camping. It helps to make sure you have the food that you need.

I make chili in the crockpot the morning that we are leaving to go camping. I take the crockpot and put in a box and take it along. When we get to the campgrounds I plug it back in and we have dinner done when we are hungy and every one is tried and doesn't want to make anything.

 

Maybe you will find this link helpful.

http://extension.usu.edu/juab/files/uploads/FCS/Freezer Bag Recipes.pdf

 

I precook & freeze & take it frozen. Taco meat & sloppy joes-made with gr turkey/frozen in a zip lock. Cooked chicken legs, ready to heat back up on grill & brushed with bbq sauce. Bag of HM meat gravy with canned bizkits, add a can of drained mushrooms at your site. A jar of chicken gravy & a can of chicken breast, heated together-over toast or canned bizkits. Already boiled potatoes, ready to be oiled s&p & on the grill. An onion chopped in a container. A can of chicken broth, dry Stove Top Stuffing & can of chicken mixed together-then put in micro or skillet to heat over fire. Pour a jar of gravy over top. Divide a cake mix, put in empty pea butter jars, sprinkle over can of pie filling, dot with butter-dump cake. Take your hot dogs, brats, hamb's frozen. Remember sloppy joes works best on a hot dog bun. Butter LO buns for rolls. I'm going to fix turkey legs ahead, & heat, brushed with bbq sauce-for the 1st time this year. YUM! I know I will think of more....

 

We just went camping this weekend and just used the food that we already had on hand at the house. We had and sausage wraps Friday night and BBQ beef ribs and beans Saturday night. For lunches, we took lunchmeat and chips. We also had snacks such as grapes, cookies, chips, smores for campfires, and sunflower seeds. For breakfast, we used the campstove and made scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast - Saturday and Sunday morning. I don't mind camping as long as we don't have to buy extra groceries to go. I would rather use what I already have. Look through your freezer, pantry, fridge and decide what you might could take that you already have.

 

Snack Ideas for "Camp"?

My boyfriend and I will be going to spend a weekend at "camp". I hesitate to say we will be camping, because I think of that as a tent. We're really going to a kind of conference/convention held at a state park and we will be staying in shared cabins with several other people.

While our food will be covered, that's mainly for meals. My boyfriend is 21 and has a high metabolism (I should be so lucky!) which means he's constantly hungry.

We won't have a car to store things in, but we can leave things in the bunks. I don't think we'll have access to a fridge to store things in. Also, he's not a big sweets fan.

Any ideas for snacks for him?

I could really use help with this. Thanks in advance!

 

Misa! Haven't "seen" you around lately! Good to "chat" with you.

As far as snacks: A few hardboiled eggs in the shell will keep for the first day or two. Peanut butter and crackers are another great snack. I take beef sticks that need no refrigeration. Little packs of peanuts are handy. Some apples and a knife to cut them will provide some fruit, and you could also put peanut butter on them. Grab some cheese sticks. For a short time, they can live without refrigeration. Hope this gets the ball rolling and others can chip in some more ideas. Enjoy!

 

Trail mix is good, you can package it in zipper sandwich bags, lots of recipes, here are a couple, Bird Seed Aka Trail Mix Or Gorp) Recipe - Food.com - 109557
Scout Trail Mix Recipe - Food.com - 107598
Strawberry Fields Forever Trail Mix Recipe - Food.com - 156394

Baby carrots and cherry tomatoes should be good for a couple of days.
A few bananas - buy some that are a bit more green so that they are not all ripe at the same time.

 

I agree with the trail mix. You can put anything in it you want. Nuts, pretzels, dried fruit. You could also take some homemade granola, you can make it chunky and snack on it. The frugal granola bars from this site are really good. I make them with peanut butter instead of all the butter. You can change the recipe to put in what he likes. That travels well.

 

Peanuts and popcorn! Some kind of energy bar or granola bars.

 

- Fresh fruit... I'm partial to apples
- whole natural almonds (no salt etc)
-Trail mix
-Granola bars

 

Fresh Fruit - oranges, pears, apples, green'ish bananas, plums

Dried Fruit - apricots, raisins, pineapple, strawberries etc

Fruit Leathers

Snacking Crackers - Ritz, Vegetable, Saltines, Cheese, Goldfish etc (Handi Snacks with pb or cheese spread)

Chips

Cookies, Granola Bars

Mixed Nuts/Trail Mix

Pizza Buns, Cheese Buns, Rolls, Bagels w/sm jar of PB and/or savory muffins

Meal Replacement Shakes

 

We're going to go camping for a few days, and I need tried and true camping meal ideas. We only started camping this summer. What do you make meal-wise for breakfast, lunch and dinner while camping? What ingredients do you use? What do you use to cook it on? ...All we have is a portable gas grill and a grill for over the campfire. Any and all meal ideas for camping would be greatly appreciated! TIA!

 

Bring foil,cooking oil,pancake mix(complete).
Are you grocery shopping up there or bringing.
We have camped a long time in a tent. I used to make everything now I shop there and bring a toster oven. We bring a screen house in case it rains.
If you want to cook think shishkabobs,foil packet cooking, Soaked corn on the cob,baked potatoes on the grill,pancakes,hamb.,stuff for s'mores. And enough money to eat out 1x if it rains.
Will you have electricity??

 

Are you grocery shopping up there or bringing.

Will you have electricity??

I'm planning on grocery shopping a couple days before we leave and bringing it with us.

No, we don't have electricity on our site.

 

Not sure how far you're going from home, what you have equipment-wise and how long you're going but I thought these links might be useful.

Camping Tips:
Go camping on a budget | Frugal Village

http://www.frugalvillage.com/forums...ing-rvs-trailers-outdoor-living/130339-camping-ideas-suggestions-hints-etc.html

Cooking
DLTK's Recipes - View By Course

Campfire Cooking - Eartheasy.com Solutions for Sustainable Living

http://www.frugalvillage.com/forums...e.com/forums/camping-rvs-trailers-outdoor-living/111650-rv-cooking-recipes.html

http://www.frugalvillage.com/forums...-rvs-trailers-outdoor-living/101413-camping-recipes-thought-you-might-like.html

http://www.frugalvillage.com/forums...ge.com/forums/camping-rvs-trailers-outdoor-living/129829-i-need-your-ideas.html

 

One of my favorites is gravy & biscuits, bacon, and eggs. I cook the biscuits in a dutch oven with coals and cook the gravy, bacon and eggs just over the camp fire in a cast iron pan. If you don’t have a dutch oven you could always serve toast. You can use canned milk and bacon grease for the gravy and biscuit mix for the biscuits.

I agree with pancakes as they are fast and easy.

Lunches were either a pan of biscuits with jam, jelly, butter and maybe some tomatoes or sandwiches with chips.

For dinner I will make pasta with a canned sauce frequently. I start the pasta and then I will brown hamburger add onions and maybe peppers and then a can of cheap sauce. You just need the pasta to simmer to cook, a rolling boil isn't necessary. Just keep an eye on it and don't overcook it. Not sure how you are with side items, but for me add some garlic toast and it’s good to go.

Hamburgers of course were fixed the first night as they were quick and easy. Steaks with baked potato are good too. And the potatoes can be put in the coals after the lunch fire has dropped down wrapped in aluminum foil to cook slowly until the evening.

Also, don't forget that hot dogs roasted on a stick with buns and chips is a great fun meal. Followed with Smores for desert of course.

I used to go camping a lot and one of the things I did was think through my routine recipes while I was home and see which ones I could adapt to the technology at hand. I concentrated on the simple menu's and worked from there. Remember you are on vacation too, so the meals shouldn’t be a huge production.

 

We used to do 3 nighters a lot. The first night we'd usually be getting in pretty late with only a little while to set up before 11 (which is when you were supposed to be semi-quiet at the campgrounds we went to.) So we had take-out pizza the first night pretty often. The second night we did hot dogs or Eckrich sausages with chips and potato or macaroni salad. The 3rd night I always tried something different it seems, each time we went. I think the best thing we made were Nachos, though. I got one of those foil-type roasting pans/chaffing dishes and poured a can of chili into it. You heat it over the campfire until it's hot and then add a bag of tortilla chips, chopped black olives, onions, tomatoes, jalapenos, etc. and finally shredded cheese. Cover it with the lid or some tin foil and keep it over the fire until the cheese is melted and the throw a few dollops of sour cream on it when it's finished.

We never "did" breakfast...too much work for me lol. I think if you tent camp it's enough work as it is So we always had granola bars or brought pre-made cinnamon rolls or something. Lunch was always sandwiches and chips. Maybe a veggie tray with dip.