Sultana

Hey all, I wanna pick your brains for Super easy camp dinner recipies/plans that aren't pepperbellies, etc.

The group I'm camping with soon apparantly assigns dinner responsiblities, so you really only have to pack food for one meal, and are fed the rest of the time. The cooks don't do dishes when they cook. I wasn't really expecting this kind of a set up, but hey, I'll give it a try at least once.

I want to do as much meal prep at home before hand as possible, I'm not certain as to what type of a camp kitchen will be available. I think I will have two 2-burner camp stoves. Dunno about a campfire situation. Needs to be for about 10 people. Under these circumstances, even just reheating food will be a challenge. But I refuse to offer or eat greasy, unhealthy food even in this circumstance.

Initially I was thinking about pasta (pre-cooked), with a pesto-type accompaniment (have to go light on tomatoes, someone may have an allergy, need to verify). Meat to mix in (may make meatballs). Garlic bread. Dunno what kind of veggie/salad thing, I feel I should offer it, but honestly that tends to be very neglected by this group. At least I can get some bags o' salad, mixin's, and just let people pull together what they want, and realize less than half will eat it.

For dessert, I will likely do the bread pudding thing with a sauce.

For lunches, I'm going to bring a cheesy meatloaf or two, and live off sandwiches. Love the meatloaf!

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kurty[B]

How will food be stored when not in use? Cooler, freezing cold stream rushing by, or in a bear bag up in the trees? Depending where it is stored changes my suggestions greatly. I have a great pork chop marinade recipe, wrap it in tin foil and cook wrapped in tin foil on the fire. Toss some red potatoes in there and you have a very filling meal.

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squeeeb

for a tasty quick and easy soup in one pot, bring some dried shitake mushrooms, some chicken bullion cubes, and maybe an onion. fry up the onion in the pot, add water and buillion and crumble up dried shitakes in your hand and add them and when it boils...soup. you can add whatever else you want that you can bring...

the cool thing about this is, the ingredients are small, light, and don't need refrigeration so you can do this a few weeks into a trip if you are out that long.

or....

while at home, chop up bell peppers and mushrooms. coat a small area in the center of aluminum foil with cooking spray or a small amount of butter. put some of peppers and mushrooms on the greased area of the foil. put in a chicken breast and a pineapple slice. add garlic powder, salt and pepper. fold the foil securely and check for leaks. you can bring these out with you and when it's time to cook, place right on the coals for 10 to 15 minutes per side.


also, depending on storage, you can make chili at home and freeze it, then bring it out with you and heat it in a pan and serve...

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Cynthetiq

I make shrimp scampi in the Mojave when I'm in CA.

zip lock bag of frozen rock shrimp from Trader Joe's, butter, minced/sliced/mashed garlic.

Keep in the cooler where the ice and beer are stored. make the first night of camping.

steak - marinate in zip lock bag, make on day 2 for lunch

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abaya

Hmm... freeze-dried food not an option? Ktspktsp and I swear by it... so easy, just boil water and you're done! Really not too bad tasting, either (Mountain House). But I guess you want something more authentic, huh...

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maleficent

If you've got access to a campfire - roasted red peppers.. then stuff with with some goat cheese or other good stuff...

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Cynthetiq

SMORES!!!

Skogafoss is bringing marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate to Australia in exchange for mor tim tams.

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maleficent

pasta I wouldn't suggest - for me - recooked pasta is just all kinds of mushy gross... unless you're doing a baked ziti or something like that but plain old pasta just doens't reheat well.

Corn on the cob or taters sweet, yukon gold, or red, are great wrapped in tin foil and then stuck in the coals for a little while

whole heads of garlic make for a wonderful roasted garlic - just cut off the top, put on abit of olive oil and sea salt -then wrap in tin foil.

Sausages (chicken, seafood, low fat kielbasa)
Chunks of chicken, pork tenderloin, or beef mixed ith some veggies for kabobs.

with the kebobs, you could serve pita bread and even couscous which is easily preparable -jsut takes boiling water...

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snowy

When camping with my friend's mom, we usually eat pretty well with just a 2-burner stove and a campfire.

She marinates beef shortribs in teriyaki (Kikkoman works well for this because it's less sugary) and then cooks them on a grate over the campfire. She also does teriyaki wings on the grate. We also frequently grill sausages, or cook kebabs and sausages on sticks in the fire.

As for recipes using the campstove, soups are good. There is a Girl Scout recipe called brownie stew that calls for a pound of ground beef plus a couple cans of Campbell's alphabet soup (there are hundreds of variation on this basic recipe, so you can adjust it for preferences). Soups give you a lot of ability to play around--plus, you can pack all the things to make your soup in the soup pot. Chili is always a camp favorite; you can easily adjust the heat levels to make a very mild chili if necessary by seasoning it yourself. You could do chili dogs, with hot chili from the campstove, and people can roast their own dogs over the fire. Just don't forget the onions or Tabasco, for those who like their chili spicy.

Another thing my friend's mom does is bag up all sorts of cut mixed veggies for us to munch on. She also serves us potatoes and onions wrapped in foil and cooked in the coals. Yum. We've also done corn on the grill. Very tasty.

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tecoyah

Veggie Burgers and Tiger sauce.....or, just tiger sauce...heh

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Midnight

Making something that has components that are freeze dried are always good - light weight and not subjected to rot if not properly looked after. if there is going to be potable water there that you dont have to bring in with you, and you have a food dehydrator, I can rummage thru my stuff here and dig out my grandfather's camp chili and beef stew recipes if you are interested. everything is dehydrated and you get to carry nice light things up there, all tucked into the pot they will cook in, nothing to worry about refrigerating/keeping cold. I agree with maleficent on the pasta - i wouldnt unless its a baked pasta, already assembled and prebaked at home and all you would be doing is tossing it on/in/near the embers of the fire to heat thru.
I could be of more help if i understood how far you need to transport this (carry it) and what all you are certain is available. (kitchen wise, ie: refrigeration/cooling, camp stove/fire, and so on)

Sultana

I'd love that marinade...I'll be storing food in a cooler and cooking on a stove. I don't even know for sure if there will be a campfire available for cooking at dinner time, so I need to plan on having just the campstoves. But I'll ask about the campfire.

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My goal? To fulfill my potential.

Grasshopper Green

We made spaghetti the last time we went camping, and even reheated it was pretty good. We just lightly coated the noodles with some olive oil, put them in a ziploc, and then kept them in the cooler until time to reheat.

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squeeeb

cous cous is moroccan pasta, you can make it at home and take it with you (you eat it cold, or reheated, its good both ways) or make it at camp...and all you have to do is boil water and wait 5 minutes...

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Sultana

OK, what I've decided on is beef and wild mushroom stew made in a crock pot the day before, stored in Ziplock bags (after it's cooled) in the cooler, and simply re-heated on site. I'll bring two pots, to speed the process.

Another person is going to bring cheesy bread of some sort (I'm for some reason really wanting to put the bread rolls on a stick and make people eat it that way, seems more "campery" to me to eat food on a stick) and dessert. I don't care if she makes them or buys them.

So stew, bread, and dessert. Simple, hearty, yummy.

Thank you guys for all your input.

__________________
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come." -

Matt Groening

My goal? To fulfill my potential.

maleficent

you can get the pop 'n fresh pillsbury dough boy breadsticks in a can and wrap them around a stick and cook them that way -it's kind of fun

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Charlatan

You can also bake them using a reflector fire OR if you have some river clay, you can make a very simple clay oven.

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robodog

As far as the tomato allergy, check if they are allergic to them cooked. I'm allergic to them raw (I used to swell up, now I just get indigestion), but I'm quite fine (in fact absolutely love) cooked tomato's, especially is sauces. The specific thing that I'm allergic to is a protein that is broken down by heat.

varrybarry

The easiest way to make anything on a campfire is to use tin foil. Just wrap whatever it is you're cooking in tin foil and throw it on the fire. To ensure that whatever you're cooking doesn't stick add a little oil inside the foil packet.

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edmos1

I am going to say fajitas, you can marinate everything before you get there, cook the meat/veggies on the stove, tortillas warmed up on stove/fire
then just cheese/sour cream Guacamole and it is a well balanced, fairly healthy meal.