What are some easy camping meal ideas?

Gourmet Camping Meal Ideas?

• I have to prepare a meal for me and my camping group of 8-10 people. I need to find out what is easy to bring on a 5 day canoe trip and easy to prepare on the stove or on the ...show more

• Answer:

  I'm an avid canoe / kayak camper, and am usually the cook. First, don't rule meat out completely. If you are in a canoe, you'll very likely have a cooler of some sort along (that is unless you have multiple portages). For the first night or two, however, you can probably swing it. A few tricks I've used: Pork loin roast - buy a couple of small ones, season them with marinade/herbs and wrap them in 3 layers of heavy duty aluminum foil and bag them in a giant zip lock. Put them in the freezer 2-3 days before you leave. When you depart, they'll be frozen solid. Put them in your cooler, or in a low part of the boat where they'll have insulation and be closer to the cool floor of the hull. Within 48 hours they're defrosted. Start the campfire, throw them (in the foil) on the grill. Turn them regularly, and after about 30 minutes, check the center to see if it's cooked thru. When it is, remove the foil and brown the outside. Side dish: Instant whole wheat cous cous. Cooks quickly in a pot over the camp stove or open fire. You could use instant rice instead. I usually bring a small jar of mango chutney along as a relish for this - it's excellent, and compliments the roast really well. If you're in a no glass allowed area, be sure to re-bottle it into gladware or a ziplock bag. Also, great with this is when you cook the rice or cous cous, you can throw in some dehydrated mixed vegetables to round out the meal. As another alternative, I have made Irish Stew or really hearty chili a week before the trip, let it cool and put it into heavy freezer bags. Freeze those, and then throw into the cooler or somewhere that's marginally insulated. You can heat that up over the camp stove and enjoy home cooked food. Beats the heck out of the Dinty Moore canned stew. If you are doing a BWCA or Bowron Circuit, you won't want to carry a cooler at all, I'm sure. So, lots of options still: For minimal work, these guys make some amazing foods, I've tried a bunch: http://www.cachelake.com/ And, if you don't mind putting it together yourself, you should check out this website for some great ideas: http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/dinnerricedishes.htm And, if you like books, get the Lipsmackin' Backpackin' book: http://www.amazon.com/Lipsmackin-Backpackin-Lightweight-Trail-tested-Backcountry/dp/1560448814/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237989181&sr=8-1 You can use one of the last three options for ultralight cooking, and wow the campers with homemade bread over the fire. Several ways to do it: There are some bread bakers you can buy some things: I have this and it works beautifully, but is a little bulky: http://www.jackscountrystore.com/detail.aspx?ID=6964 or you can get this: http://www.jackscountrystore.com/detail.aspx?ID=3381 Or you can simply use a sturdy green stick from the forest. Before you leave for the trip, put all the dry ingredients for your bread recipe into a gallon ziplock bag. If the recipe calls for milk, measure in the amount of powdered milk to make the required milk, and write on the bag how much water is needed to fill it out. I only use basic breads that require flour, baking soda/powder, sugar, milk and herbs. You can make cinnamon bread by adding more sugar, rosemary/onion bread by adding dried rosemary and onion powder or flakes, garlic bread by adding butter flavor powder and powdered garlic, etc. Have fun!