Easy Delicious Camping Recipes (Even if You Tent)
Cooking while you’re camping is a fun challenge to some and a time-consuming burden to others. It can be a tricky endeavour especially if you’re tent camping. You’ve got limited food storage and you’ve got to keep food cold and out of reach of hungry animals. You also want to have little food waste and no leftovers unless you’re using the ingredient in another meal. Plus you want something that’s relatively easy to make when it comes to prep and clean up – and you don’t want to spend hours making it. Finally your meals have to be tasty and filling for hungry mouths! And you’ve got to do all this with a limited kitchen – or sometimes just over a campfire.
As tent-campers food storage and a limited kitchen are definite factors in our camping meal planning. While we cook over the campfire occasionally we don’t ever count on it due to the possibility of fire bans or wet wood. Most of our meals are cooked on a propane stove our full kitchen includes a cutting board knife a few kitchen utensils a small sieve 3 pots with lids a frying pan a stove toaster and a few plates bowls cups and cutlery. We reuse our dish storage container as the wash bin and just bring along some soap and towels. We have a “pantry” of butter olive oil salt pepper and “spice packs” that we make at home. We also have tea aluminium foil and paper towels. We have a small cooler with ice packs for our dairy eggs and meat and a basket with fruit veggies bread pasta canned sauces or ingredients and snacks like energy bars and trail mix.
Breakfast Camping Recipes
Breakfast can be pretty quick and simple. Our standard is eggs either scrambled or hard-boiled in a batch with a bagel or toast. Sometimes we swap out eggs for yogurt. If we’re in a big hurry we’ll just grab cereal trail mix or a power bar.
If you’re looking for something a little more hearty breakfast burritos are a delicious option. You just need a wrap of your choice dice up some veggies (we usually do peppers and onions) scramble some eggs and add salsa guacomole hot sauce or ketchup.
Lunch Camping Recipes
Lunch tends to be a smaller quicker meal. We’ll usually do sandwiches. There’s lots of variation to fit everyone’s diet and tastes. I try to include a protein dairy and vegetable at the very least.
Lunch is also good for snack foods like trail mix raw veggies and fruit. If you can try to find something local from a roadside stand or market. It’ll have the best taste and it’ll be a chance to try something locally grown!
If you’re looking for something a little fancier try grilled cheese sandwiches (try adding tomatoes and mushrooms or experimenting with bread and cheese types) or quesadilla. These are easy to make and customize. Saute some vegetables cook any meat you want to add and put it in between two thin tortillas or a single folded tortilla. Add the cheese put the burner on low and cover with a lid to get everything to melt.
Dinner Camping Recipes
Dinner is where easy camp cooking really shines. You’re probably a bit tired and everyone seems to be pretty hungry. You definitely don’t want to take too long but you want something tasty and filling. Luckily there are lots of options that you can cook on the campfire or the stove.
Pasta is always an excellent option. It doesn’t take long it keeps you full and you can play around with lots of different ingredients. For example we’ve had a smoked mussel alfredo with mushrooms and a tuna bolognese. We prefer bringing canned meats for food safety and storage reasons but if you’ve got an RV it’s even easier to bring whatever you’d like!
Another option is the traditional meat or fish with a few sides. Cooking meat or fish over the campfire is awesome – and if you have room you can do the vegetables too! Just make sure you wrap everything in several layers of tin foil – one will usually get burned through. You also want a low hot fire with lots of coals for cooking and you’ll really have to keep an eye on everything.
If you’re camping somewhere where it gets cool at night or are camping later in the season soups and chilis are an excellent idea. They’re super easy to make even in one pot though they can take a little bit longer. All you need are veggies a sauce or broth beans and whatever else you’d like to add. It goes well with some crusty bread of course.
Fajitas and tacos are another easy option. Grill up some vegetables and a protein and bring along salsa and guacamole and you’re done! You can choose soft tortillas or hard taco shells for this quick and easy meal.
All of these meals take no more than 30 minutes to make and don’t have a ton of cleanup. Nothing requires any special cooking equipment and could be done on a campfire or portable propane stove or in an RV kitchen. You don’t have to put in a ton of effort to have delicious food! If you’re looking for even more recipe suggestions check out our gourmet camping recipes article .
Of course don’t forget smores for dessert!