Camping Recipes

You're approaching the campsite at the end of a long day exploring outside sporting a lovely aroma of a sweat, sunscreen, and bug spray. The feet are aching, the tent needs to be set up, and the tummy is rumbling.

Pre-planning meals for camping requires some serious forethought - weight, perishability, and ease of cooking, all need to be considered, but the effort is well worth it when that first spoonful hits your mouth.

Breakfast

Eggs and hashbrowns

Ingredients:

• Potatoes, (about 4 medium-sized)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, (or coconut oil)
• 2 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
• 4 large eggs
• 1/4 cup cheddar or parmesan (hard and aged cheese are shelf stable)
• Black pepper to season

At Home:

Dice potatoes into small 3/4-inch cubes add into a zip-lock bag with 1 tablespoon of oil, salt and black pepper to season. Keep spring onions in a separate bag to prevent them from getting soggy.

At Camp:

Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet or pan over medium heat. Fry the potatoes in 1 tablespoon oil and cook while stirring occasionally, until golden and crispy. To speed up cooking time, cover the pan with a lid, checking the potatoes every 4-5 minutes. Once the potatoes are crispy add the spring onions.

Using a spoon or spatula, make four wells in the hash, crack an egg into each well and arrange the cheese(optional) around each egg. Fry until the whites are set. And Enjoy!

Oatmeal

The speed of oatmeal makes it the most popular backpacker’s breakfast, but it can get old real quick. Making your own blends with dried fruit, berries, nuts, powdered peanut butter, and spices can stop it tasting like edible cement mix.

Ingredients:

• ⅓ cup quick-cooking oats
• Pinch of salt
• Cinnamon

At Home:

Mix oats, salt and cinnamon in a zip-lock bag with anything else you want to add i.e. peanut butter powder, granola, dried apple bits, or walnuts.

At Camp:

Bring 1/2 cup water to a boil. Pour hot water into an oat mixture; stir well and let stand, covered, for 1 minute.

Pancakes

Ingredients:

• "Just add water" pancake mix
• Ghee or Coconut Oil ()
• Maple syrup
• Dried fruit and powdered peanut butter
• Water

At Home:

Measure out and add the required amount of pancake mix into a zip-lock bag.

At Camp:

Mix the water and pancake mix together. You can either do this by adding the water into the zip-lock bag or pouring the mix and water into a container (this option is easier for cleaning and pouring mix into the pan.)

Grease up your pan with either the ghee or coconut oil and pour in the pancake mix. At this point, you can add any dried fruit or peanut butter for added flavour. When the pancakes are cooked add maple syrup and enjoy.

Simple Lunch Ideas

• Trail mix
• Dried meat (check it doesn’t need to be refrigerated)
• Tuna or if you want to get fancy Salmon (check it doesn’t need to be refrigerated)
• Crackers
• Granola Bars
• Seaweed
• Chocolate (yes chocolate can count as lunch)

Dinner

Mango Curry with Rice and Lentils

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups water
• 1/2 cup green lentils (dry)
• 1 cup basmati rice

Curry

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup dried, chopped mangos
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 2 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried ginger powder
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon dried onions, chopped
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon red cayenne pepper powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

At Home:

Mix all dry curry ingredients in a zip-lock bag.

In Camp:

In a pot, bring 2 1/4 cups water, lentils, and rice to a boil. Simmer three to four minutes, cover, and set aside, allowing the rest of the water to be absorbed. In a second pot, add the zip-top-bag ingredients to one cup water and bring to a boil. Simmer five to 10 minutes, until mangos turn a slightly darker color and sauce has thickened. Scoop rice and lentils into bowls, and top with curry.

You can do this with a variety of curry options pre-mixing the dry ingredients for a flavour and protein filled meal.

Coconut Curry Soup

• 1/2 a packet coconut cream powder
• 1-2 cubes vegetable bouillon
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• Pinch of cayenne
• A handful of rice noodles
• A handful of dehydrated veggies
• 2 cups water

At Home:

Combine coconut cream powder, bouillon, curry powder and cayenne in a small zip-lock bag. In another bag, portion out your noodles and dehydrated veggies.

At camp:

Boil the noodles and dehydrated veggies in the water.Once the veggies are re-hydrated and the noodles are tender, stir in the coconut cream mixture.

Summer Veggie Pasta

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup pasta
• 2 Tablespoon crumbled dried mushrooms
• 2 Tablespoon diced sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 Tablespoon sliced freeze-dried zucchini
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried garlic
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil (or 1 packet)
• ¼ cup shelf stable parmesan cheese

At Home:

Add the dry ingredients to a zip-lock. Place the cheese in a small bag separately.

At Camp:

Bring 1½ cups water to a boil, add in dry ingredients. Lower flame and cook for time on pasta package. Add seasonings, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese.

Because figuring out what to eat is hard enough in the most luxurious environments i.e. with running water, an actual oven, and dare I say it, a refrigerator!