Cooking Ideas

Cooking a meal outdoors is an essential part of outdoor camping. The smell of a hot meal in the middle of camp kindles an inner hunger that every camper knows. Your camping meal needs to be easy and it needs to be good. The following are a few time-tested camping recipes with easy preparation and delicious results. Some are adjusted for you truly hardcore campers who venture into the wild with no refrigeration for easily perishable goods.

Camper's Power Punch Oatmeal
This is a simple hot breakfast that will fill your tummy and energize your morning.

Ingredients:
4 packets instant single serving oatmeal (Your favorite flavor)
1 pot boiling water
Sliced almonds or peanuts or walnuts or pecans
Dried fruit of your choosing (Cranberries, strawberries, apples, blueberries, raisins etc.)
1 tsp flax seed

Pour packets of instant oatmeal into bowl. Add enough hot water to get the consistency you like. Stir. Top off with other ingredients. Eat. Now go out to conquer your day!


Camping Omelet In A Can
This hearty hot breakfast starts any camping day with satisfaction. 

Ingredients:
1 can sausage of your choice (Vienna sausage works well)
1 egg
1 tsp. chopped round onions
1 tsp. chopped green onions (optional) 

Pop off top from sausage can. Drain juices. Crack egg over sausage into can. Add onions. (You may want to scramble the egg before pouring it into the can.) Place on a rack slightly above coals. Remove when egg looks cooked. Eat directly from can.
Watch this one carefully because it tends to cook really fast on the hot fire. 


Campfire Tinfoil Medley
 As the name suggests, this dinner is a conglomerate of just about anything you can throw into a tinfoil. Here’s an example:

Ingredients:
1lb. meat or poultry of your choice (May substitute your favorite canned meat in place of fresh meat)
2 Potatoes
2 Carrots
¼ cup chopped broccoli
Spices (Your choice)
Sauce (Your choice)
4 pieces of 2-feet-long heavy duty tinfoil

Chop potatoes, carrots and broccoli into 1-inch pieces. Divide into 4 piles and place each pile in the center of the 4 pieces of tinfoil. Divide meat into 4 portions and place on top of potato pile. The thinner the meat is, the faster it will cook. Season with spices or sauce. Fold in all sides to seal tight and lock in juices. Place each tin pouch directly on coals for about 15 minutes. Flip over and leave for another 10 minutes. Check by opening foil with a tong. Every fire burns differently, so be sure to check pouches on occasion. Yours may cook faster than usual. Meat should be completely cooked and potatoes and carrots should be soft. 

Feel free to substitute ingredients with whatever you have. Other suggested ingredients are: chopped bacon, mushrooms, round onions, etc. 


Campfire Chili
This one is great for the backpacker who is limited on space and who needs to carry in long-lasting foods.

1 can of your favorite chili
¼ cup round onions (diced)
1 can corn

Pour all ingredients into pot and place on fire. If fire is very hot, you may want to elevate your pot on a rack or hang on a rotisserie-like pole. Heat all ingredients until bubbling. Remove from heat and eat. 


Campfire Stew
Cowboys ate stew—why can’t you? This simple favorite of every household tastes especially good when pulled from the smoky coals of the campfire.

1 lb chopped stew meat or hamburger (or 1 can corned beef)
1 potato
1 carrot
2 cans tomato sauce
2 cups water 

Salt and pepper to taste (If using canned corned beef, you may want to omit adding more salt since the corned beef is already salted) 

Brown meat. Chop potato and carrot and add to meat. Stir. Add tomato sauce, water, and salt and pepper. Boil over campfire until potato and carrot is soft. 

An alternate easy way to enjoy campfire stew is to bring a can of a ready-made stew, open the top, place directly on fire until bubbly. Remove from heat. Eat directly from can.


Simple ‘Ol Camper's Spaghetti
Don’t let the corned beef ingredient scare you away from this yummy dish. Eating it, you’d swear it was like regular hamburger spaghetti.

Ingredients:
1 can corned beef
1 can spaghetti sauce (or make your own with tomato sauce and spaghetti seasoning)
1 lb spaghetti noodles
Optional: Diced onions, canned mushrooms

Brown corned beef like hamburger. Pour spaghetti sauce over it, heat and mix. Remove from fire. Boil noodles in a separate pot. Add to sauce and mix. It’s as simple as that! 

Camping Tinfoil Dessert Melt
Just have the ingredients at hand, and everyone can build their own.

Ingredients (Any of the following will work well):
Marshmallows
Sliced almonds
Chopped peanuts
Chocolate chips
Sliced bananas
Drained canned peaches
Canned sliced peaches
Graham crackers 
Crumbled crunchy pretzels
Favorite candy bars (diced)
Chocolate syrup
Strawberry syrup
Whipped cream (add after foil comes out of fire)
1 foot long piece of extra heavy duty tinfoil

Combine your favorite meltable ingredients onto a piece of tinfoil. (Chocolates, fruits, and marshmallows are the classics). You may want to add a few crunchy ingredients, and save the rest for after cooking. Fold ends of tinfoil together so contents will not spill out onto coals. Place directly on coals until melting ingredients turn gooey. As tempted as you are to dig in immediately, let it cool a bit before eating. Contents are hot. Add whipped cream, syrups, and other crunchy toppings after pulling foil pouch out of the fire (optional). 


Campfire Rice Pudding
Eating this by the campfire will catapult your memory to when Grandma used to make this treat for you on cold nights.

1 cup white rice
1 cup water
¼ cup brown sugar
5 individual sized packets of powdered creamer

Stir all ingredients together and put on a low-heat fire. If the fire is very hot, elevate pot. Do not stir while cooking. Cook very slowly until liquid mixture is mostly absorbed and rice looks softened. Remove from heat. Stir and let cool. Do not let rice burn. Burned rice is no fun to eat and it is a real pain to scrape when cleaning your pot.