If possible take precooked meals or casseroles, it makes it a lot easier and saves time to enjoy RVing. You can cook anytime. When I did the camping thing I did that, it seemed to work out for me.

Hmmm, you do have a point. There will be 5 of us, I'm sure I will be the one stuck with all the cooking! haha Maybe I'll just try a couple small things for in the evening for snacks or something. We do have a cooktop and microwave in the rv, which will definitely help.

Thanks Mare!

Yes, you can buy lids for your cast iron skillets. Here's the link to Lodge. You can also buy different size lids at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Steaks, hot dogs, burgers, sandwiches. Bacon and eggs. These are our basics when we camp.

My "go to" is nachos. Heat up a can of chili, topped with grated cheese...then dump over a plate of chips. Or....chili dogs. For breakfast, it's always oatmeal with raisins and honey. Bring a pan of brownies, rice krispie squares or pecan bars. I make peanut butter & honey sandwiches for a midmorning snack for big appetites(no cooking).

Edited to say: We "never" use a fire to cook on, we have a one burner propane camping stove. My camping pots & pans are pretty stainless steel I purchased for nothing @ a thrift store. They clean up with steel wool and weigh nothing....

We rv a lot. I carry my crock pots / slow cooker and my beloved Aroma cooker which can cook a great meal in just minutes. I use the microwave and the oven too and we always carry our little smokey Joe webber grill. Our rv has an outdoor cooking area too which helps. Keeping the heat, moisture, and scents outside is best. I don't do that campfire cooking. I do cook ahead of time and freeze stuff. I carry easy stuff too, sandwiches, hot dogs and burgers. A bag of chili fritoes covered with hot chili and grated cheese is quick and easy and filling. Nachos too, a jar of cheese whiz or melted velvetta mixed with salsa or chili with tortilla chips. We like to eat out too of course. I really have been thankful for my aroma cooker many times on our trips I have created many recipes for it and found lots online and ordered a cook book. The one I have has the saute function so it Browns the meat and onions or veggies, then you add the rest of the ingredients lock the lid and it automatically knows how long to cook then turns it to keep warm setting till ready to eat. I do all kinds of pasta meals in it. The newest model also has a soup and stew setting and a slow cooking setting, I wish mine had those. I got mine as a gift but it's paid for itself in one trip. I actually have only used it to cook rice in once I think. It's great to be able to set up a table outside and set up the cookers on it and not inside. I also have a large roaster oven I take when I have big meals to cook like a turkey or ham or briskets or racks of ribs. I set it up on the outside table. You can cook a massive amount of food in the big electric roaster ovens.

Since you said rving I assume you will have electricity or a generator so you can use this kind of stuff.

We haven't camped in a few years. When we were camping, there were quite a few burn bans going on and we weren't allowed to have a campfire or grill in certain places. We got this little camping oven that we could put on the burners inside the camper. It was sort of like an aluminum box. Our kids were little and liked chicken strips, canned biscuits, crescent rolls, cookies from pre-made cookie dough, etc. It went really well with boxed mac 'n cheese. We couldn't always make real camp food, but we could make anything we ate at home.

If you get to have a camp fire, I prefer things like steak, burgers, hot dogs, brats, baked potatoes, etc. It's ok to keep it simple. Sandwiches are easy and appropriate too.

When we camped overnight on long cross country trips, we cooked on a 2 burner coleman type camp stove. If we wanted a fire in the the fire pit, we would make one, but it was second priority. This beat other options, particularly if we were doing only an overnight rest stop and needed speed and convenience. Never had to fuss with wet fire wood, and we did cook in the rain a few times and ate under a fly sheet. We never took food into the tent unless it was in a sealed wrapper/container. That was to keep food odors from permeating the tent and making it a target for animals.

The stove was used to make a complete kit. Stored in its case was its pressure tank and burner nozzle, 2 hot pads, serving spoons and a knife, matches in a sealed bottle, a small butane lighter, 2 candles, mantles for lanterns, and tooth picks. A few other miscellaneous items were tossed in along the way.

The drill went like this. After arriving at the camp site, set up the stove and get it started. While wife began preparing the meal, I'd finish setting up the tent and fetching fresh water, etc. We'd both finish our chores about the same time, eat and heat water while eating. Finish the meal and clean up the dishes using the now hot water. If we decided to eat at a food counter the next morning, I'd stow the equipment and the next morning, all there was to do to get on the way was to dress, take down the tent and stow it.

When we were mid-career, this was the way we could afford to travel to most of the US National Parks and stay our for 2 weeks. These days, in our old age, we still travel a bit, but use motels. We decided against tying up thousands of dollars in an RV because we would not use it often and we could rent many nights in a motel for the cost of an RV.

I remember cooking the meat on a grate over a low fire, potatoes and veggies wrapped in foil, corn roasted in their husks. No breakfast tastes better than bacon and eggs, and fried potatoes in those cast iron pans.

But the best camping trip, in terms of food, was to Assateague Island. Just about every meal consisted of fresh caught fish, crabs, and clams....camping on the beach and cooking over a fire or camp stove.

We ALWAYS cook over an open fire pit when camping. Often using the cast iron skillet too. Thats what makes it "camping" for us. Our absolute favorite meal is easy & very delicious: Keilbasa, onions & potatoes, all sliced thinly and added to a very hot skillet with melted butter, soooo yummy!!

I was a Girl Scout leader for many years. We kept things the simple. We had too small hibachi's. As mentioned above, hot dogs, hamburgers, I sometimes brought canned beans, sliced cheese,pre sliced veggies, apples or grapes , pretzels, chips, crackers,and ready made dip. Of course s'mores for dessert.

I would use the skillet for making eggs for breakfast. I would get ready made bacon and heat it up. We always had cereal and milk and muffins.

I really wouldn't do anything too complicated if you are not an experienced camper.

Jemdandy...your camping routine is just like what we do, only my husband does the cooking and I do all the set up. We're planning a cross country adventure this summer. Can't wait!!

Hey, Katlan, I wrote to Lodge... and got a reply!

Here it is:

Hello Ms. Bieser,

Thank you for taking time to inquire about this. Lodge, as well as
other retailers, does offer the camp lids separately. At the moment
several are out of stock direct from us as Lodge is catching up from a
foundry expansion, but retailers like Amazon may have them in stock.
Which size are you interested in?

For any other questions please feel free to contact me.

Thank you,

Garrett Cook

Customer Service Representative

Lodge Manufacturing

423.837.7181 ph

423.837.8279 fx

My question to them was: looking
for just the lid, for dutch oven camp cooking... for the skillets I
have. Are there lids/covers available without the whole pot?

:)

Moni

Moni how nice of you! I have been out and about the past couple days so just getting back to this post. We have a Rialta, a very compact motorhome. No slide-outs etc. The campsite has electric hookup, picnic table, firepit, extra space where we can pitch a tent also. That's what we did last year.

I got the skillets at an auction. The name on the bottom is Wagner Sidney on 2 of them, the smallest one says WAPAK. I'll look for lids for them.

Thanks everyone for the ideas and suggestions. I definitely need to keep it simple, I have never cooked over an open fire, except smores, haha. I would like to give it a try anyhow.

I'm hoping that we can get more extended trips in, it will just be the two of us for them.

Many of the sites we go to no longer allow an open camp fire, danger of blowing embers and the smoke problems for breathing. Some do have a small charcoal grill or will allow a small charcoal grill which is why we have a little bitty webber. It's big enough for a few burgers or steaks. So if going to a new location be sure to ask what is allowed. Now most don't allow putting tent stakes in the ground which means we can't even put up our extra popup canopy or tents etc. Our big rug that goes under our awning uses stakes to hold it in place too. My guess is because they have underground septic lines and water lines they don't want to risk getting busted.

I just made our reservations for this summer vacation and I found a great small very private rv park right on the beach with full hook up etc. I think we will enjoy it there much more than the bigger Park we normally go to. It's no where as fancy but that's OK with us. We spend most of our time sitting on the beach anyway.

Your cast iron might be valuable! Check out the links for Wagner Sidney

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en-US&ie=UTF-8&source=boatbrowser&q=wagner+sidney+cast+iron

cast iron camp fire cooking isn't actually over an open fire... my friends do it over charcoal, with additional charcoal on the lids.

Now, those are not regular lids, but the kind for the dutch oven camp cooking pots.

Moni

Right but that type of campfire is prohibited in every rv camp ground we have stayed at. Unless it's in a very contained metal enclosure they would consider it an open fire. Now down on the beach itself in some areas you can do that since there's not much to catch fire.

I was just checking out several other rv campgrounds we have been considering in other areas and each of those also prohibited fires of any kind other than in a contained metal bbq grill. Their liability increases dramatically if they allowed anything else.

Now in boondocking situations if the landowner permits it you might be able to get away with that kind of cooking. The drought conditions in many states would likely determine the safety. Containment is the key, if completely contained it can be much easier to extinguish and control. It doesn't take much to burn an rv to the ground fast that's probably why they have gotten so strict with the rules.

They do have those kinds of cook outs on the cattle trails and ranches and the competitions that are at big campgrounds for those events. We have been to a few of those years ago and it was wonderful. Great food especially the cobblers made in the cast iron Dutch ovens with the coals on top.

Raven, would you be willing to tell me some of the beach front camp sites you are looking at? Right on the beach? That's awesome. The campfire at each camp site at the lake has a cement block perimeter with a metal grate over top. We take our own firewood but a truck drives through out the camping areas selling firewood and ice.

Thanks for the link for the Wagner Sidney lids also. I do believe I have a LOT to learn about cooking over a campfire!

I think I have a gmail listed on houzz that you could use......

If you have a couple of skillets the same size, you can turn one over and use as a lid. Lids can be found at almost all places that sell camping gear. Even Wal Mart has some. Also you might find them at second hand stores, like Salvation Army and Goodwill. I pre-make a lot of dishes at home and use the micro wave to heat things up. Without the microwave, I try to keep the cooking to one pot meals. One of our go -to's is breakfast for dinner by having cereal for breakfast. French dip sandwiches are good too, made with Deli meats. Takes no time to make the dip with a packet. You can find a lot of cast iron recipes online too. Unless it is really cold, you really don't need a hot meal every meal. Keep it simple and mostly just enjoy. When you are camping, everything tastes good! Relax while you are out, especially if you are the primary cook at home. This is your vacation too. Let others plan a meal if they are able. I meant to mention, if you turn your pots over most of the skillets will have the size stamp so you know what size lid you need. If all else fails, I have used foil wrapped aluminum pie tins as lids. Don't forget to have good pot holders with you.

Thanks cathy!