Preparation for family camping can sometimes feel never-ending and making a camping food list is often daunting. Though the packing for camp meals may seem like a big job we’ve got an easy camping food list for you including food to take camping with kids. It’s necessary to be as thorough as possible when planning for your trip, so included is a printable camping food list in pdf. How inconvenient would it be if a spatula was left at home?
No matter what your experience is with camping, cooking at the campground is completely different from making meals in your home’s kitchen. In fact, we’ve included a camping recipe for Dutch oven you’ll love. Taking along the right tools, healthy ingredients, and our camping food ideas will only make your family’s camping trip more enjoyable!
Planning Camping Meals
Before you create your ultimate camping checklist, you must figure out what meals you want to prepare for your family. Even forgetting one ingredient specified in your recipe can be a bummer, and having it all ready makes a real difference. Though don’t forget, one of the great things about campfire cooking is making magic out of what you have for the best easy camping meals.
Camping Drink Ideas
Staying hydrated while camping is extremely important. Sipping on fluids to keep you from dehydration is important on sunny days outside.
- Water – Don’t take for granted, make sure you’ve got a supply at your site or good water filter.
- Coffee – For the coffee addict, pack your favorite grounds and a cup filter as the basics.
- Naturally flavored juices – No cooler? Powered we’ll get it done, and vitamin powders come in individual packs if needed. If you bring a cooler, opt for natural juices without added sugar and flavorings. Cranberry, orange, and grapefruit are just a few favorites.
- Tea – Whether you are winding down for the night or just want a soothing beverage, take a box of tea bags to spice up your water. Sun tea can be made right at the campsite, or brew it while you are camping.
- Milk – A few recipes that you decide to try while camping may call for milk. If so track down some UHT milk, Parmalat or Organic Valley are brands that make UHT milk.
- Hot Cocoa – Hot cocoa is a camp must! Perfect for a dessert or a yummy addition to breakfast.
Hiking Snacks On-The-Go
Whether driving or hiking, tummies are bound to get hungry! Healthy, pre-made snacks can tide you over until the next meal and fuel your family’s energy.
* Tip: Even if already packaged, store snacks in heavy-duty Ziploc-like bags to keep snacks fresh and portable.
- 2 cups salted, roasted peanuts
- 1 cup whole salted, roasted almonds
- 1 cup whole salted, roasted cashews
- 1 cup good-quality milk chocolate chips, such as Guittard
- 1 cup dried blueberries
- 1 cup dried cherries
- 1/4 cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup unsweetened, flaked coconut, such as Bob’s Red Mill
- details at Chowhound
- Dried fruits
- Crackers
- Protein or granola bars
- Jerky
- Dry multi-grain cereal or granola
- Fruits like bananas or peaches (easy to eat and do not require refrigeration)
Easy Camp Breakfast Ideas
Starting off your family’s morning with a satisfying and nutritious breakfast can help get you ready and fortified for an outdoor adventure. The camping food list is small and simple, making packing hassle-free.
No Cooking Options:
- Greek yogurt and granola
- Cereal with milk and fruit (blueberries, bananas, strawberries, etc.)
- Breakfast bagels with cream cheese and cold cuts
Cooking Required Options:
1. Birds In A Nest-
Using something with a circular top (like a lid or a drinking glass), cut out the center of a piece of bread. Toast the bread in a skillet, cracking an egg to cook in the center. Flavor with your favorite seasonings and flip to thoroughly cook both sides.
2. Tasty Breakfast Burritos-
Cook up scrambled eggs, hash browns, bell peppers, and turkey sausage or bacon. Sprinkle salt, pepper, or additional spices along with a handful of low-fat shredded cheese. Transfer to a tortilla and fold in the sides to form a burrito. Toast the burrito in a skillet on both sides and garnish with a dab of salsa.
Best To-Go Lunches
Lunch is the perfect time to sit down, take a break, and recuperate! Just because you are not cooking in your own kitchen, doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice flavor. Whether you take a simple route with classic hot dogs or try preparing a challenge, lunchtime goodies are plentiful.
1. Pasta Salad
Prepare this meal at home for camping convenience. Combine canned, shredded, or cooked fish or chicken with cool, chilled whole wheat pasta noodles. Dice half an onion and a few of your favorite veggies, adding them to the pasta. Drizzle with olive oil and basil, dressings like ranch, or even a simple, seasoned mayonnaise.
2. BBQ Pork Wrap
Mix together chilled and shredded pork with a BBQ sauce of your choice. Spread a thin layer over a large whole grain or spinach tortilla. Prepare a simple cole-slaw with shredded carrots and cabbage to top of the pork layer. Fold or roll up the tortilla as best as you can and enjoy it!
3. Thermos Italian Tomato Bisque
You can make your own tomato base or use canned tomato soup. Watch out for hidden sodium! For a home-made version, boil a can of organic stewed tomatoes with a low sodium chicken or vegetable broth. Add in a sprig of rosemary, tyme, and few chopped basil leaves.
Dice half an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic, mixing them into the soup. Spice it up with garlic and onion powders, pepper, and Italian seasoning.
*Tip– For a heartier bisque, prepare bite-sized meatballs and combine them into the soup. Pair with bread and it’s like a deconstructed meatball sub!
Campfire Dinners
After a whole day filled with fun activities and adventure, a relaxing evening is well deserved. Before you and your family settle down for the night, unwind with an easy to make and gratifying dinner. Add these ingredients to your camp food list and you can make some deliciously simple meals!
1. Camping Recipes Gourmet Salmon and Potatoes
For the potatoes, cube enough for the whole family. Dice onion, garlic cloves, and rosemary. Place the cubed potatoes and the diced ingredients on a large piece of tinfoil, coating generously with olive oil. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and dried oregano.
Fold the foil, closing the ends completely, and cover with two more foil pieces. Cook on the fire or on a rack over the flames for thirty or so minutes. Garnish with Parmesan cheese!
For the salmon, begin by seasoning your fillets with salt and pepper. Take a generous piece of tinfoil and lightly coat one side with olive oil. Place a fillet separately on the tinfoil, layering on top two lemon discs per fillet, a few cloves of garlic, a sprig of rosemary and thyme, and one last splash of olive oil.
Completely enclose the fillet within the foil and place it on the fire directly. Cook thoroughly for at least ten minutes.
2. Camping Recipes Dutch Oven Alfredo Pizza
Slice up a couple of chicken breasts and coat them with salt, pepper, and dried basil. Fry them in a skillet with olive oil until fully cooked and set them aside. If you bring your own dough, place it on the bottom of the Dutch oven and cook for ten minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. If not, place a pre-made, whole wheat pizza crust in the Dutch oven.
Spread a layer of Alfredo sauce over the crust, leaving a free inch around the diameter. Take the cooked chicken pieces and disperse them over the pizza. Sprinkle a few handfuls of low-fat mozzarella cheese. Dice fresh basil and sprinkle over the pizza. Place the lid on the Dutch oven and cook the pizza for ten to fifteen minutes.
3. Camping Recipes Vegetable Enchiladas
This recipe can be used with a Dutch oven or a skillet! Grab a can of black beans and low sodium corn. Drain, and mix them together in a bowl. Dice bell pepper, zucchini, onion, and garlic cloves. After frying them in a skillet, incorporate them into the bowl as well.
Season the mixture with salt, pepper, paprika, chili and garlic powder, cumin, and oregano. Stir in a few handfuls of your family’s favorite cheese, enough to bind the mixture when heated.
If you choose the skillet method, coat the bottom with a mild enchilada sauce. Place spinach or whole-grain tortilla on the sauce with the mix in the center. Fold up the enchilada and continue to make the others. Cover with more sauce and cook for fifteen to thirty minutes.
For a dutch oven, line the interior with tinfoil. Cover the bottom with a generous amount of sauce, else the enchiladas will stick. Place a tortilla in the Dutch oven and cover with the mixture. Roll up the tortilla and repeat until the oven is filled with enough enchiladas. Cover the top with the sauce and cook with the lid on for thirty minutes.
Campfire Dessert Time!
Loading your family up with sugar right before bedtime might not be the wisest thing to do. With portion control, there is no reason to miss out on yummy treats to end your day with. Bored of smores? Try some inventive dessert recipes instead and let the whole family help prepare!
1. Individual Chocolate, Orange Cakes
Take a box of sugar or gluten-free cake mix and pour it into a bowl. Mix in the package’s required ingredients like oil, eggs, and water. Cut the tops off of the oranges and scoop out the fruit. You can save the orange’s insides for the next day’s breakfast or snacks by placing in Ziploc-like bags and storing them in a cooler.
Fill the oranges two-thirds full and replace the tops. Wrap them with tinfoil and cook on the fire for around twenty minutes.
*Tip: You can use any flavor of cake mix, brownie mix, muffin mix, cookie dough, or even cinnamon roll dough!
2. Self-contained Apple Cobbler
Like the Chocolate Orange Cakes, cut the tops of the apples and scoop out the insides. In a bowl, mix uncooked oats with honey or agave syrup. Add a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg with enough olive oil to cover the oats. Scoop the mixture into the carved apples and cover with tinfoil. Let them cook on the campfire for fifteen to twenty minutes.
Organization Is The Key
Camping often requires a fair amount of preparation beforehand. By cooking and freezing the parts of your meals that allow for transportation and later use, you cut down and simplify your cooking time when camping. REI’s camp kitchen checklist might come in handy.
Lists are your new best friend. Write descriptive checklists of what each recipe for drinks, snacks, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and desserts requires. As you pack each item, check it off your list. Before your departure, make certain you packed everything on you had written down.
Your master camping food list of everything you will need to prepare the above recipes:
Utensils
- Forks, spoons, and knives
- Cooking knife
- Cutting board
- Eating plates and bowls
- Mixing bowls
- Mugs, drinking glasses (not glass) or bottles, and thermoses
- Spatula and soup spoon
- Tongs
- Food thermometer (optional)
- Skillet or frying pans
- Dutch oven
- Coffee pot
- Coolers, ice packs or ice
- Coffee filters
- Ziploc bags
- Tinfoil
- Washable Napkins
Spices And Herbs
- Salt
- Pepper
- Dried basil, oregano, and Italian seasonings
- Powdered onion, garlic, and chili
- Paprika
- Cumin
- Fresh rosemary
- Fresh thyme
- Fresh basil
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
Food And Drink Items
- Cooking oil, preferably olive oil
- Agave syrup or honey
- Teabags, hot cocoa mix, and coffee grinds
- Juices and milk
- Fruits (oranges and apples for dessert recipes)
- Whole grain bread
- Whole grain or spinach tortillas
- Cooked whole-grain pasta noodles
- Pizza dough or whole-grain pizza crust
- Sugar or gluten-free cake mix
- BBQ and Alfredo sauce
- Shredded low-fat cheese (including mozzarella)
- Eggs
- Frozen hash browns and potatoes
- Onions and garlic
- Lemons
- Bell peppers and zucchini
- canned black beans, low-sodium broth, mild enchilada sauce, low-sodium corn, fish or chicken, and organic stewed tomatoes
- Cooked or raw chicken breasts
- Cooked or raw fish fillets
- Shredded Pork
- Cole-slaw
- Uncooked Oats
Happy camping everyone!
