Skip the breakfast casseroles. Waaay too fussy for camping. Instant oatmeal packets are your friends. Likewise, french toast is more convenient than either pancakes or waffles. Bring some potatoes and onions and heavy duty aluminum foil. They don't have to be refrigerated and cook up great in foil (with a little olive oil and S&P) for dinner or breakfast. Freeze your milk for cereal and whatever. It will thaw fast enough and keeps better. Cut and freeze the chicken if you're going to do the kebabs. For a trip like that with a bunch of kids, I'd find it easier to fix something that didn't literally have to cook. I really like those pre-cooked chicken or pork based sausages (like Aidell's but there are many other brands) you can now get at the grocery stores. That way, I'm really just heating something through and not worried about actually getting it cooked. For a short trip like that, I like to cut up a bunch of carrot and celery sticks. You'll want something vegetable-y.

The breakfast casseroles would be easy to throw together if the meat (like crumbled sausage or cubed ham) is precooked and in a bag. Same with any diced veggies that would go in it. Use frozen hashbrowns for the base.

A quick heat up chili is a nice evening campfire meal to serve as it freezes great. Make cheese quesadillas on the fire, fun.

We've been a few times this year.

Husband's favorite campfire breakfast is a cast iron skillet over the fire. Brown up some breakfast sausage. Toss in some diced potatoes. Add diced onion and peppers (green, yellow, red). Beat half a dozen eggs and scramble those in.

I do chicken or beef "not kabobs". Chunk my meat and vegetables into same size pieces and put them in a zip lock baggie. Make marinade in a glass jar.

At the camp site, add marinade to zip lock for a couple hours.

I toss everything in a grill basket and put it over the fire. Shake it up a few times so everything is cooked evenly.

I can barely feed my picky eaters at home, so camping can be a challenge. :P With a bunch of kids, a burrito/taco bar can work. Meats can be precooked (I prefer not to deal with raw chicken under difficult sanitation conditions, but other meats I don't mind bringing raw) or not.

Of course it's not over the fire, but you can have some cobbler cooking in a dutch oven in the meantime to make up for it.

Great suggestions! I appreciate them. We are looking forward to a fun camping weekend with some delicious foods.

I used to use those shake & pour type pancake/waffle mix. Really convenient. Started to refill the containers and use a plastic container and just measure out some "just add water" type pancake mix to them to make it cheaper and measure closer to needs so there's enough with limited waste.

Breakfast for me was eggs, meat of various kinds, though bacon, brown & serve sausage and burger patties were favorites. I would have some kind of fruit usually, fried potatoes, toast and some rolls or something. For us, breakfast was a big meal and we'd usually skip lunch or just go with sandwiches.

Favorite dinner/supper was a steak, baked potato with chili and corn on the cob. This usually was a one meal of the trip to "do it right", and other days were the usual burgers, brats/dogs, chips, salads, etc.

I always had a backup for rainy weather. So the sandwich fixings would be there in that event, Potatoes/onions in a foil pouch goes well for any time of day. If you have kids, or kids at heart, don't forget the s'mores.

Depending on how old your kids are, you might want to Google some girl- and/or boy scout recipes. Most kids love bacon and eggs in a paper bag, bread on a stick and hobo dinners. We do those with my kids and, now, grandkids. I also like cooking over the campfire and pride myself on being able to make pretty much anything on a camping trip that I can make at home. Biscuits baked in a Dutch oven over the fire, fried chicken (you don't have to scrub your kitchen after!) cobblers--pretty much anything is possible.

My girls always loved "coke chicken", which was just some red potatoes, baby carrots, pieces of chicken, layered in a dutch oven and topped with a mixture of half Coke and half catsup. They also liked muffins baked in orange rind halves, after the oranges were eaten, potatoes and onions in foil packets, with cheese added just before eating, and we did have those hobo pie makers, the cast iron things that you put bread or English Muffins in, added fillings and cooked over the fire. They did like ham and cheese and pizza type fillings. Their their favorite dessert was banana boats, which was a banana sliced lengthwise and stuffed with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips, then wrapped in foil and laid over the fire or on the coals until the chocolate melted. Not particularly healthy, but there IS a fruit in there, LOL. That choice was followed by slices of pound cake in the pie makers, filled with pie filling and served with ice cream.

Have fun!

Annie

I would imagine it's too late and you've already gone on your trip. But just in case...

On our annual girl's weekends some of the meals that have worked well, easy clean up, and can be mostly made ahead are breakfast burritos, corned beef hash and eggs, pulled pork and cole slaw sandwiches, french dip sandwiches, spaghetti with meat sauce.

Depending on how adventurous your kids are we have also had Chicken Tikka Masala, Chow Mein, and grilled chicken caesar salads.

We do not have appliances other than a camp stove and a small grill, so you would have an advantage with those at your disposal.

Grilled pizza would be another idea and could be fun for the kiddos, too!

Linda