Camping is a great way to enjoy the outdoors and sunshine, spend quality time with friends and family, and see sights off the beaten path. Providing nutritious, delicious and fun meals at camp is easy to accomplish. When planning meals, the best strategy is to keep it simple. You'll want to spend your time participating in activities, not cooking and cleaning. Consider whether you will be cooking over a campfire, stove, both, or neither. If you plan to cook on a campfire, have a backup plan in case of bad weather.
Main Course
Take single-serve portions of boneless meats you can grill over the campfire or cook on your camp stove. Some frozen meats, such as salmon and marinated chicken breast, can be purchased in individually wrapped portions you can toss directly into your cooler. Hamburgers, hot dogs, and bratwursts don't require utensils, saving on clean-up. Prepare portions, such as hamburger patties, at home. For trips longer than a weekend, freeze all but the first night's meat.
Vegetables
Grilling corn on the cob and vegetable shish kebabs over the campfire is fun and delicious. Wrap whole potatoes in foil, or put tiny potatoes in a foil pouch with oil and spices, and place directly on hot coals, turning frequently until done. Prepare raw celery sticks, baby carrots, grape tomatoes, broccoli bites and other dipping vegetables for snacking and serving as a side dish to meals.
Snacks
Opt for simple, nutritious snacks that can be eaten on the run instead of junk foods with empty calories. Granola bars, trail mix, apples, cheese sticks, nuts, dried fruit, crackers and jerky will replenish your energy levels and are easy to carry. Prepare items like cheese slices, grape bundles and hard-boiled eggs at home so you can set out snacks with minimal fuss.
Breakfast
Breakfast bars, instant oatmeal and fresh fruit, such as Mandarin oranges, are easy to prepare and involve virtually no clean up. Milk jugs are cumbersome in a cooler. If you do opt for cold cereal, single-serve cups have less potential for spills than traditional bowls, give your campers breakfast choices and leave you with fewer dishes to wash. Cooking a full breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes sounds like fun, but you will not want to clean up the resulting disaster.
Lunch
Lunch should be simple, portable and require no utensils. Sandwiches and wraps, like peanut butter and jelly or tuna salad, are easy to assemble in the morning before setting out for the day. Untoasted bagels can be thrown in backpacks and are delicious with cream cheese or peanut butter. Precooked chicken tastes delicious chilled. Take chicken strips instead of bone-in fried chicken to minimize trash. Prepare sandwich salads, such as egg and chicken salad, at home so they're ready to go at camp.
S'Mores
If you have a campfire, roasting marshmallows is practically a required activity. Sandwich a roasted marshmallow and a chocolate bar square between two graham cracker squares to create this traditional campfire dessert. Serve with hot chocolate (the instant, just-add-water variety) and ghost stories.
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