JamesT You’ll have to break a few eggs when making any decent omelet, but when you’ve got an army to feed, you might be feeling a budget pinch. Here are some great tips and pointers that can make an omelet breakfast bar at camp a lot more practical. Here’s the complete camping cooked-to-order breakfast bar.
Omelet Bar Ingredients
Putting together an omelet bar is easy if you start with gathering your ingredients. To make it easier, you’ll want to prepare all your ingredients by slicing and dicing all of them to make an omelet bar more self-serve-friendly. Just like Mongolian BBQ all of the ingredients can go into a bowl and be given to the omelet chef to cook up. Here are some excellent ideas that are great for creating a large selection. For additional camp breakfast ideas see here.
Fruits, veggies, and herbs
These are great ingredients that don’t cost much and are great additions to any omelet. The variety of colors and flavors can add a whole new layer when you use popular ingredients. Bell peppers are always great since they are equally colorful ranging from red, green, orange, yellow, and even purple! Chives are also great but don’t forget that Mung bean sprouts and alfalfa sprouts make for a satisfying crunch.
Herbs are great here to keep an omelet simple while adding a little punch. Try adding some fresh tarragon to plain omelet. Pair thyme or even some lemon thyme with mushrooms. Even basil paired with tomatoes will work here. For something a little more complicated but great, check out adding curry for a Sri Lankan Omelette.
Now you might think that fruits are an odd addition to an omelet but consider that avocados, tomatoes, okra, corn, cucumber, snap peas, tomatillos, and olives are all part of the fruit family! Keep in mind that tomatillos need to be cooked beforehand while an omelet is being made, but only to soften them before they’re cooked with the egg. That doesn’t mean you can’t use traditional fruit too.
Among the fresh fruits, you can add kiwis, strawberries, mango, banana, pear, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries. Not to forget that raisins, dried cranberries, walnuts, and apple pecans. Seeds like walnuts and apple pecans are best if they’re semi crushed since they’re naturally a bit more expensive. You might like to sauté the pears before putting them into an omelet for a better result.
Meats
The best addition for any omelet is always a good variety of sausages, bacon, chorizo, and any cured meats you can think of. Ham makes a great addition if you get smoked ham and can be cubed beforehand. Even if you get your hands on some Canadian bacon, it’s worth the flavors you can achieve and tastes great too. Don’t knock it til you try it but sliced hot dogs, Slim Jim’s, and sandwich meat.
Cheese
We’re not talking about busting out the government cheese, but any kind of shredded cheese is great for adding to an omelet bar. Good old American cheese is great, but sharp cheddar is better to get loads of flavor that most kids will love. Try to steer clear of processed cheese since there often taste as they sound. Halloumi cheese is nice since it can be diced up and makes a nice chewy yet squeaky addition to any omelet.
Meat alternatives
Many people are often concerned with their kids eating meat or want to introduce meat alternatives to their kid’s diet. Especially for teens who are now obsessed with going Vegan, a variety of substitutes are out there. There are many varieties of tofu that can be pan-fried before it’s added to an omelet, but nothing mushrooms that get pan roasted. There is even soy chorizo that tastes nearly as good as the real thing
Cost-effective fillers
If you’re trying to stretch your budget you can add fillers to an omelet such as hash browns. This helps stretch your egg mixture and also appeals to kids since the outside gets nice and crispy. Alternatively, you can use mashed chickpeas that are added to your egg mixture. It’s packed with protein and also goes great added into an omelet as is. You can also add a small bit of pancake mix to your egg mix to extend it further.
Omelet Bar Camping Tips
Are you running short of cool ideas to add to your omelet bar? Here are some tips that will liven up this concept and keep your campers entertained likewise.
Choose a theme
Aside from the obvious clues such as Meatless Monday or Taco Tuesday, you can turn any omelet bar with decorative themes such as a Hawaiian Luau, Farmers Market, and sporting games like football or baseball. Dinosaurs are still very popular so a Jurassic Park theme with ingredients that are set up with funny names given to the ingredients. Use whimsical names for meats and sausages such as Raptor bites, Bronto-toes, or T-Rex tidbits…
Great budget items
If you have a lot to prepare and you don’t want to waste much time, you can’t go wrong with a quick chopper that chops veggies and fruits very quickly. These choppers are also doubling as storage containers, but you’re better off putting all of your veggies and fruits in separate storage containers that can also double as serving containers in a pinch. It’s better to cut all of your ingredients fresh, so a quick chopper can do this in a few minutes.
Egg alternatives
Don’t make the mistake of using powdered eggs, since the water that comes out of a cooked omelet is very unappealing. Did you know that the liquid from Chickpeas (called aquafaba) can be used instead of eggs? Here’s a good recipe that can replace eggs and is also good to extend eggs if you’re in short supply. Canned chickpeas are very inexpensive and since the liquid will also be handy to use, you can add the chickpeas to the ingredients bar.
Great options for kids and teens
If you have a camp that has specific age groups, you’ll want to theme your omelet bar to the correct age that you’re serving. This will ultimately affect the types of ingredients you add, so stick to the sweeter fruity versions for younger kids. Older teens will be more open to veggies but might still have a sweet tooth for just the right theme. Perhaps you can consider a Candyland-style theme that will include tropical fruits, dried fruits, and various nuts.
Think of the kind of omelets that are more like crepes and can even have sweet fruit syrups added on top. The best ideas always come from asking kids and teens what they would like to see, so putting ideas in a box at the end of each omelet breakfast bar serving. This can make every themed breakfast lively and fun for campers too.
