Man, I've got cabin fever, too! I can't wait to get out for a long weekend camping trip.

Cooking over a campfire or on a camp stove is half the fun of camping, if you ask me. You have more options when you "car camp" since you've got a cooler. Sounds like you've already got a pretty good idea of what to eat. I'm afraid I can't really add anything.

I do like the "ziploc omelet" myself. Chop up veggies and cheese, mix it in a heavy-duty, boil-in-the-bag ziploc baggie with eggs and boil until you can see it's been cooked thoroughly. That's always a nice treat.

When I'm backpacking I usually bring jerky, ramen noodles, granola bars, instant oatmeal, hard italian bread, some canned goods, or those Uncle Bens instant rice pouches, and a snickers bar or two.

I usually camp off a motorcycle. I certainly agree with the pepper grinder, can't be without fresh ground pepper. I use a small pepper grinder from REI which I fill with a mix of four peppercorns from Penzeys. I also take wine vinegar, olive oil, dry Italian dressing mix, and a few other spices.

For a quick meal, Dinty's beef stew is surprisingly good. Especially with a little cumin and oregano added. I like some of the Mountain House freeze dried meals too, but I don't think that I would take them car camping.

One essential is a coffee press. My favorite is the 10 oz or 32 oz GSI JavaPress. I had a stainless steel model first, and it left too many coffee grounds in the coffee. Any of them are a lot better than perked coffee.

Thinking again...potatoes...I have a hard time with potatoes in the outdoors.
If you peel them before hand, they turn brown. There's canned. I was also thinking get some OreIda frozen country style hash browns, but what happens to them when they thaw, even if they're in a cooler they will thaw?
Hmmm, I guess just buy a cheap paring knife and cook potatoes in their skins, if you want to keep the prep and clean up to a minimum.

I guess what I'm getting at is I want to eat good while camping, but want some nice "shortcuts" to keep prep and clean up to a minimum. Not wanting to drag a bunch of gear from my home kitchen, then worry about it getting messed up, then unpacking the whole mess when I get home.

Boil-in-bag rice from Uncle Ben's, good idea. I'm thinking of pepper steak with rice, hmmm, sounds good right now.
Let me frame the question this way:

The camping trip is this weekend, what do you think of to grab in the supermarket?

I still have 2 weeks to get through. Spring break is always my first trip of the year, usually 8 days on either the OR or WA coast. I'm definitely ready to get out.
Food is always a challenge when we're gone that long. We don't go camping to eat beans and hot dogs, we try to think of really good things that we can adapt to camping without spending all day cooking, and that don't have to be kept cold. I use my dutch oven alot, especially with all the easy convenience foods out there. Some of those boxed meals bake up pretty nice in the do in individual foil pans. Easy prep, no refrigeration, and easy clean up. Kind of expensive though, so we take a can of beef stew or chili or whatever and a package of biscuit mix or cornbread and make our own. We also take those boxed mashed potato mixes. Heat up some leftover chicken (or a can of chicken) in some cream of chicken soup, pour over potatos and instant dinner. This time of year I find myself strolling through the grocery store just to see what new ideas I can come up with.
Happy camping all!

I've been meaning to pick up a coffee press. Gotta have coffee out on the trail!

Speaking of potatoes, just get a campfire going and bake 'em in foil. My dad used to soak ears of corn (with the husk on) in salt water for an hour or two, then cook in the husks on some hot coals from a campfire. It takes time, and getting the husks off can be a chore, but if you've got an evening around a campfire planned, it's worth it. Tastes great.

My personal favorite for an outdoor breakfast is making bannok. Make up a batch of bakingpowder biscut mix (don't add the milk). Take that and some milk (canned works well so you don't have to refrigerate) with you, and in the mornings mix as much up as you need, wrap it around a stick, so it's even and not too thick, and doesn't have any seams (or it will crack and fall off) and then cook it *slowly* over the fire (it should puff up and be nice and golden). When it's done we roll it in melted butter and then cinnamon sugar. It's similar to having fresh cinnamon buns with your morning coffee...only better because it's cooked outdoors.

I like to make quesadillas beforehand, pre-cook them and wrap them in foil. They stack neatly and re-heat very nicely in the foil.

I haven't tried the little square frozen hash browns (I think they're "southern style") but I took a bag of the shredded ones camping last year. They had thawed out too much or something and turned into mush when I cooked them. I saw a carton of dehydrated shredded potatoes in the grocery store yesterday that looked interesting. It said to add boiling water and close the carton up and they would absorb all the water. Then you fry them up. Has anyone ever tried anything like that? Hubby likes his hashbrowns and eggs in the morning so I'm looking for a way he can have them without my having to peel and shred potatoes.

Yeah, Windy ... I've used those packaged hash browns and they're not half bad. Especially when your in the great outdoors and hungry as a bear! I keep a package of them in my larder aboard the popup camper ... have some quick rations that I keep aboard that I'll use for a quick stop enroute or for a weekend's outing. I'll use them for breakfast or even to go along with a fish fry in the evening.

For my rathers, though, I always try to take a long a few fresh 'taters and a coulple of onions. I'll slice the raw 'tates and fry them in a little Crisco. About the time for the first turn I'll add some thin sliced onions. Now, this mess goes real good with a fish fry!

Dale

Well,
I wanted my outdoor fix, I sure got it!

Timing belt on my car snapped 8 miles out of town. Towed it and got it fixed. Determined to still go out, I left for Mt Rainier at 3:00 in the afternoon. Went up to Ipsut Creek, road was hellish, and I have Subaru 4-wheel drive. Took 30 minutes to go five miles.
Very cold and getting late, didn't feel like cooking. Had some chips and salsa, and went to bed.
Got up next morning, after a fitfulll night's sleep, (sleeping pad, next post), made tea and cooked my teriyaki pepper steak. Didn't want to hassle with the rice, even though it was boil-in-bag.
Fire died down, took the leftovers to the dump station, and went home. Not the greatest camping trip, but it was an adventure. It was really pretty seeing snow up there though, I wanted a late season snow fix too.

So, to make a point, I still didn't make the best in food choices. I had a good teriyaki pepper steak dinner planned, but I spent way too much! I spent $60 for a less than 24 hour trip when the same amount is supposed to feed me for a week!
Next trip, (when it's warmer and drier), is brats, Lipton pasta sides, and bagged salad greens.
I think I should be spending more like $20-30 for a weekend trip, not $60-90! :/

some good ideas here

similar discussion.

If its just a weekend camping trip. I make up some foil dinners in advance. These consist of a hamburger patty or even a small steak, a slice of onion, a thick slice of potato, some celery, and seasoning. Double wrapped in heavy duty aluminum foil. Then frozen. I toss the packets onto hot coals, flip after about 5 minutes and flip again for 3 minutes. Pull from the coals, add some bread and instant meal. (A camp shovel comes in handy here)
The frozen packets keep the rest of the stuff in the cooler, cool as well.
These can also be made at the campground, with fresh ingredients.
You can also add frozen corn on the cobb instead of celery.
Clean ups a breeze, too.

That sounds delish, railgal. We were camping last weekend and I brought fish for the first night. I saved a couple of tin pans (can't remember if they were from take-out food or from ready-to-bake biscuits stuffed with sausage) and cut zucchini in long strips from end-to-end, lay those as the bottom layer. Put 3-4 fish fillets over that, some onion, spices of choice, I like a little dash of hot sauce. Cover with foil, freeze the whole thing to double as "ice" in the cooler until you thaw & cook it. About 25 minutes on grill grate.

This would also work well with pork chops and slices of onion as the bottom layer.

We go with different kinds of breads, at least 3 different spreads, ready to eat canned goods. Fruits, vegetable salads. All no-cooking needed except of course for adults who always wanted to have hot coffee in the morning.

We go with different kinds of breads, at least 3 different spreads, ready to eat canned goods. Fruits, vegetable salads. All no-cooking needed except of course for adults who always wanted to have hot coffee in the morning.

Yes tamraallen68 I also do that! We just got back from our first camping trip and really enjoyed all our veggies cooked in foil packages. We also sliced up potatoes really thinly, added olive oil/butter mix, garlic, black pepper and parmasen cheese -- took about 30 minutes over the camp fire grill and tasted just wonderful. Just make sure you grease the base of the foil package and make sure it is sealed tightly for when you turn it over -- yummmm :) We also made enough pots so we could have them with our breakfast sausages, also cooked on the fire ! It doesn't get better than that!

I'm getting some amazing ideas from here! I think a lot of people will benefit from it.

Reviving this nice little thread...the best thing we've cooked while camping, that's always a hit, is chicken fajitas. At home, cut chicken strips and slice up onions and peppers. Place it all in a heavy duty ziplock bag along with olive oil and fajita seasoning. Double bag if you choose. At camp, pour it all out on your griddle and cook away! Serve with tortillas.

As a footnote, I've seen many posts with recipes for brownie/oranges where you add brownie mix to hollowed out orange peels, wrap in foil and cook over a fire with hot coals. I've tried this twice, and it never turns out. :-((( If anyone has ever gotten it right, I'd love to hear how you did it.