Stress Free Camping Food

This amazing spring weather we’re having has got my thoughts turning to one of my favorite summer pastimes:  camping!

I’ve been camping my entire life. When I was a kid, my parents would pack us all into the car and take on two-week trips to Medicine Lake in California, where we’d hunker down and boat, fish, hike, and cook in the great outdoors. And let’s be real, the parents pretty much drank their faces off, too. Does the photo below suggest that perhaps I joined them from time to time? Kidding, of course (but seriously, has a three-year-old ever looked more hung over?).

Another fun fact:  when I moved to Colorado in 1992, I wrote a guide to car camping. My edition has been out of print since the early 2000’s, but a couple of years ago, the excellent Josh Berman picked up the title and improved it mightily (I still recommend it as one of the best Colorado car camping guides out there). But look at my old cover! Awww.

So, yeah, I love camping. And I love cooking. But the two together? Not so much. I’m an extraordinarily lazy camp cook. At home, I cook extravagantly, spending hours prepping and baking and creating a hurricane of dishes. But when I’m camping, the priority is hiking, swimming, drinking beer, and playing competitive Yahtzee. I do not want to be chained to the camp stove or schlepping and heating water for dishes. Newp.

Of course, this does not mean I’m gonna force everyone to eat hot dogs on a stick every night. My solution?  I make as much food as is humanly possible in advance. This is hardly revolutionary, but let me tell you:  it works.  I choose meals that can be easily parceled out and/or frozen, and easily assembled and/or re-heated on-site. I pre-chop vegetables and fruit and whip up batches of portable homemade snacks instead of buying commercial packaged goodies. Everything gets packed in baggies and plastic containers to keep things super simple and organized. Yes, it’s an investment of time before you leave. But it ensures you’ll really get to relax on your vacation. We eat well when we camp. And no one feels like they’re working too much and missing out on the fun.

One major note:  you’ll notice aluminum foil plays a starring role in the re-heating of many of these recipes. Be sure to get the heavy-duty kind, and it’ll save your bacon, and all your other food. And – this is important – check on your food often, particularly if you’re heating it over the campfire. Things cook faster than you think.

With camping season about to kick off, I’m happy to share my current cheat sheet:  a list of meals and treats you can make ahead of time. Most of the recipes live right here on Butter & Air, and none require more than two pans once you’re at camp. How great is that? You get to eat like a king, spending minimal time on cleanup, and then have lots of time to sit around the fire and drink beer. Amen.

BREAKFAST

• Whip up a batch of Ridiculously Easy Baked Eggs at home. At camp, wrap them in foil and re-heat over the fire or camp stove, maybe sprinkled with a little extra cheese and crumbled bacon or sausage.
• Buttery Mile-High Biscuits. Bake a batch and bring a zip-top bagful. For breakfast, make breakfast sandwiches by slicing them open and topping with a little pre-cooked bacon or sausage and maybe a slice of cheese. Wrap in foil, heat over the campfire or on your cook stove.
• These Orange Scones make a great breakfast when paired with a banana or a carton of yogurt. Actually, don’t be surprised if people are caught sneaking them at all times of day.
• Cinnamon Toast Banana Bread. Eat it cold, smeared with almond butter and honey, or toast it lightly in a pan coated with melted butter (this is so good I’ve been known to do it at home).
• Cheesy Potatoes. At home, cut russet potatoes into 1/4 inch slices, scatter them on baking sheets, and bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes. Let cool, then toss into ziplocs or plastic containers. For breakfast, toss them into foil, sprinkle with a little cheese and bacon, and heat until everything is melty.

LUNCH & DINNER

• Make a batch of my Thai Coconut Curry or Lamb Coconut Curry, place in gallon-sized ziplocs, and freeze them flat. At camp, just make a batch of jasmine rice, heat up the curry, and eat.
• Stovetop Pizza:  make a couple of batches of High-Altitude Pizza Dough and freeze it, or buy premade frozen dough (I get mine in the deli section of my grocery store; many pizzerias will also sell you pie-sized portions of their dough). Buy pre-shredded cheese, chop up your favorite toppings and stash them in plastic zip bags, and toss all of it in your cooler. When the dough defrosts, coat your hands with a little flour, pull and stretch it to a rough circle the size of your frying pan (I use a 10-inch cast iron skillet). Brush with a little sauce or olive oil, sprinkle on your pre-prepared toppings, and cook it on the campfire or your stove.
• Camp Nachos:  Line a cast iron pan with foil, then layer tortilla chips with cheese, beans, pre-cooked ground beef or chicken, cheese, and salsa. Cook on your camp grill or stove. When everything’s hot and melty, add chunks of fresh avocado and a dollop of sour cream.
• Taco bowls: This is my most-requested camp meal. I simply mix jasmine rice with water and a packet of Frontera Taco Sauce, a combination that makes seriously amazing-tasting mexican-style rice. You can cook up some ground beef or chicken if you like, but we often keep it vegetarian, topping the rice with a warmed-up can of black beans, grated cheddar, avocado, salsa, and lots of fresh veggies.
• Hot Ham & Cheese Sandwiches. This is SUPER easy, and doesn’t require any pre-cooking at all (unless you make your own croissants, in which case I’ll be right over with your trophy). Just buy some good croissants, slice in half, top with thick slices of ham and your favorite cheese, and cook in a little melted butter in your camp skillet. For extra points, bring along some tomato soup for dipping.
• If you don’t want to deal with cooking vegetables, bring along a batch of my Creamy Homemade Hummus for dipping raw ones. And/or consider whipping up this Beet, Jicama, Carrot, and Apple Salad. It’s simple to throw together before you leave, and the crisp ingredients won’t get soggy in the cooler.

TREATS

• Stovetop S’mores. In my family, no camping trip is complete without classic s’mores. Sometimes, though, the weather doesn’t cooperate, and torrential rain, or worse, a fire ban, can mean no campfire. And no campfire means no roasted marshmallows. But do not despair! Tragedy can be averted by making breaking out your secret jar of chocolate hazelnut spread and coating two graham cracker halves. Sandwich your marshmallows in between (cut them in half for quicker melting and better coverage), and cook them in a pan on your campstove, flipping once to melt the marshmallows. I guarantee you won’t have any complaints. Pro tip:  line your pan with foil first for easy cleanup.
• Portable treats:  try my Superfood Bars, Chocolate Chip Cookies, or Cinnamon Toast Banana Bread (also excellent toasted in your camp pan and/or spread with a thick layer of the aforementioned chocolate hazelnut spread).
• Chocolate Pound Cake Packets:  cut up pound cake, banana bread, or my Lemon Cardamom Cake into bite-size pieces and place them in aluminum foil. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and fold foil over to form a packet. Heat over fire or stove. Open up, sprinkle with some fresh cut berries or bananas, and dive your fork into the gooey, melty deliciousness.
• I’ve never tried this one, but I’d like someone to do it and report back, please:  Roasted Starburst

OTHER TIPS AND TRICKS

Here are just a few more suggestions for keeping your camp kitchen clean, organized, and efficient:

• Invest in a hanging organizer and attach it to your shade tent (you have a pop-up shade tent for over your picnic table, right?). It’ll help de-clutter your table and keep all your go-to kitchen items within easy reach.
• Bring lots of stretchy bungee cords. You can use them to string up your paper towel roll, line with hooks for hanging spatulas ad serving spoons, or flick your sister on the butt.
• Freeze gallon jugs of drinking water and keep them in your cooler. They’ll help keep your perishables fresh, and as they melt you can use the extra water for drinking/cooking/brushing teeth.
• Separate items in your cooler into plastic ziploc bags, including ice, veggies, cheeses, and meats. Your fresh foods and any cardboard packaging will stay dry, and it’ll be much easier to find and pull out just what you’re looking for.
• Separate layers of items in your cooler with metal baking racks. It makes it easier to see whatcha got in there because everything doesn’t get smushed together. Organization! So satisfying.
• Save space by decanting small amounts of the spices you’ll need – salt, pepper, cayenne, whatever – into empty Tic-Tac containers. They’re the perfect size for a few days’ use, and their flip-up lids snap nice and tight, so you’re less likely to spill.
• If you brew coffee in the morning, pre-pack small plastic zip bags with just enough grounds for a pot, one per day.
•  If mosquitoes are buzzing, find some wild sage or lavender (plentiful at many campgrounds around Colorado) and toss the leaves into your fire. It smells nice and it’ll keep the bugs away.

Happy camping, y’all. Let’s go play some Yahtzee!