Best Camping Food Ideas

Chili beans and roasted sausage links

A classic favorite that you can customize exactly how you like. All you need is a few decent cans of chili mix. The secret is to use two or three different brands of chili for this kind of camp food. Look for a thick chili, meat chili, and veggie chili variety so you have a bit of everything. You’ll also need a portable pot that can be put on your grill so it can stew. Bring along some onion and stewed tomatoes and your favorite spices. I recommend having a dash of your preferred hot sauce to spice it up how you like. Also, have a frying skillet or pan to roast-up your sausage. Use the Jimmy Dean pork links or smaller spiced sausages. The reason is that these smaller links fry-up faster than regular sausage. Chop your onions and add them to the skillet with the chopped sausage links with a bit of oil. When the onions are almost clear add the chopped stewed tomatoes and let it simmer down for 10 minutes. While you're warming up the chili in the pot add the sausage, onion, and tomatoes to the chili pot. Stir well and let it cook for 5 more minutes. Serve with fresh sliced French bread that’s warmed-up on the skillet that had your sausage onion and tomatoes. Let it soak-up that oil and brown a bit. Grab a bowl and serve it up. Enjoy!

Grilled camping cheese pizza

Unlike a regular grilled cheese sandwich, you're using sliced French bread instead. The slices are bigger and make for a great camping meal. You want to use your favorite pizza sauce that comes in a can, jar, or squeeze tube. The cheese must be grilling cheese which has a better shelf life and doesn’t need so much chilling. Bring along a good dry sausage that doesn’t need to be kept cold. Slice it up in thin slices so they can be stacked onto each bread slice easier. Have a nice large skillet so you can cook at least 3 or 4 sandwiches at a time. Have some butter to coat your bread before you start and lay them on tinfoil butter side down. On one slice of bread, add your pizza sauce, slices of grill cheese, and dry sausage. On the other side of bread, you'll add pizza sauce to sandwich it together. Then plop them all down onto the grill that's been warming up. Cook these like you normally would with grilled cheese and flip them with a decent sized spatula flipper. When you're done the cheese will melt into a great chewy cheesy pizza-like stuffing that keeps your grilled cheese altogether. If you like extra toppings don’t forget to bring them along! See more on making delicious homemade campfire pizza.

Sausage Egg and cheese on an English Muffin

You'll love this incredible meal no matter what time of day you need something extra tasty. The best part is having some Thomas English Muffins that are King-sized. If you want a real camp food taste bring-along some farm-fresh eggs that are brown shells instead of white-shell eggs. For some extra zest bring some spicy sharp cheddar and a handy cheese grater. You can always chop it up in small pieces. Bring some onions, fresh tomato, your choice of sausage, and salt and pepper. You’ll need a large deep skillet so you can feed your clan. Have a cutting board to chop up your tomato, onion, and sausage. Put together about 4-5 cracked-open eggs in a deep bowl and add your salt and pepper. Into the skillet, start with your sausage to give the bottom a greasy release for your eggs. Add your egg mix that has a dash of salt and pepper to the skillet. Throw in your onions and tomatoes and let it cook until it’s slightly underdone but still a little runny. Then throw in your cheese for a minute or two. Toast-up each half of a muffin on the grill so they can get a little crispy. Have those English muffins ready and scoop out this mixture onto each half of your muffin. Top it off with the other half and it’s ready to serve. It’s serious energy food for serious campers. See more details on making the iconic fast food breakfast sandwich.

Chickpea breakfast hash omelet

Here's a powerful energy booster that has something for everyone. Unlike regular hash browns, you don't have the potatoes that bog you down. Chickpeas are satisfying and full of protein that's great for outdoor living. You can make a quick meal that has a distinct southern Tex-Mex feel. The big difference is that it's healthy and also very tasty. Here are the basics of how it works. You'll need about 3-4 cans of chickpea in a can. These can be used anytime and are ready to mash. Empty the liquid and put the peas into a big mixing bowl. Mash them up with a fork or if you have a potato masher. It should look like a chunky, dry paste. Then crack open 2-3 eggs, add salt and pepper and mix it all. Into a hot skillet with a little oil, start to fry it up. It only needs to 2-3 minutes before it's ready to serve. Have a choice of main dishes with grilled hot dogs, sausage, or grilled meat. Add a dash of salsa, BBQ sauce, or even hollandaise sauce on the side. Be creative and enjoy this with sliced baguette or toasted bread. You don’t need much to make this meal and it takes way less time than boiling potatoes would take you. The advantage is that you don’t need so many fresh ingredients to have a satisfying meal in minutes. See More Omelet Ideas

Backwoods burrito

Are you getting hungry for some authentic south-of-the-border food while out in the backwoods? This backwoods burrito requires some extra-large flour tortillas. Think of the 12-14" pizza-sized ones that you can lay-out onto your grill with some tin foil. You'll also need a couple of kinds of salsa to mix. One should be extra chunky and the other should be chunky style. Bring the meat you want to grill and slice them into thin strips thick. Give your meat a good marinade for 10 minutes with any BBQ sauce with a dash of vinegar. You can skip the vinegar if you use chicken or pork, but it’s a must for beef. After that, you can cook it up in a pan, and then you'll put it aside. You'll also need fresh tomato, onion, cilantro, and cucumber from your icebox. Be sure to separate all these in plastic Ziplock bags to keep them dry and fresh. You will also need to bring baked beans that will need to be turned into refried beans. Put your baked beans into a small pot and mash them down with a fork. Add some oil and salt for taste and start to warm it to a boil. It will take 10 minutes to cook, but you need to stir it so your camp food doesn’t burn. Be sure to cut your vegetables into small pieces and add sliced bits of cilantro in a bowl. Add a bit of each salsa to give it a good coating. Warm-up your tortilla and then add your refried beans on the bottom layer avoiding the edges 2 inches around. Add the meat as the second layer in the middle like a vertical strip. Then add your salsa and vegetables along the sides of the meat. If you want to be creative and different shred some cabbage on top for a distinct crunch! You might also bring some sour crème powder as a light topping that will never go bad while you’re camping. Wrap it up and Enjoy!

Cornbread corn fritters

Here's a fun meal that doesn't take long to make and can be served at any time, day or night. These also make great on-the-go camp snacks when you're on a hike too. You won't need too many things to make them since everything is packed-away until you cook them up. You start with a can of whole corn kernels. Pop-top tear-away lids are the best since you don't need to bring a can opener. Pour-out the excess liquid and give it an extra rinse with drinking water if you like. Then have a large plastic mixing bow to put in the corn. Then add 2 cups of cornbread flour (the kind you make cornbread biscuits with) and 2 tablespoons of sugar. After that, you'll add cup of drinking water into the plastic bowl. Use a long plastic mixing spoon to start to mix all your ingredients together. At some point, you might need to add a little water but you want a final texture that's like sticky mud. Enough to scoop out tablespoon size golf balls that you can flatten with your spatula. Have a deep pan skillet that contains of it filled with cooking oil. Heat it up so the oil is hot enough to make each fritter sizzle but not boil. Use the spatula to flatten each one and let cook for 3 minutes on each side. When they're ready scoop them out and drain off the excess oil on a waiting plate that has a paper towel.

Bacon, beef, and bean casserole

You might call this a good old-fashioned cowboy meal with a camping twist. This makes a hearty dish that will warm your stomach and feed your soul. Starting with Lbs or fresh bacon slab, dice it up to inch cubes and toss that in a deep skillet and cook it up on medium heat. Once it's done toss the cooked bacon into a large plastic mixing bowl. Drain-off your excess oil and save that for extra cooking oil. Tip- (a baked bean can make great storage for left-over oil) Next, you add 1-2 cans of canned baked beans into the mixing bowl. Now into your skillet you add Lbs of ground beef and cook that up. Add some chopped onion if you like while it cooks. After that, you can add it to your bowl too. Then comes the best part! Take one small jug of BBQ sauce or your favorite meat pasta sauce. Add that to the bowl as well, and mix it all together. Then you'll scoop it all out into your deep empty skillet. Cook this until it comes to a boil and then bring it back to a simmer and then take off the heat completely. Over the top, you add a layer foil and add fresh sausage biscuits. You can separate them in half and layer them close to each other. When the biscuits are nice and toasty add them over the top of the casserole and serve. Now that's good eating!

Beer-battered fish fillets

This is great for the adults but not so good for kids if you use actual beer. I know the alcohol burns-off when you fry this up, but bring along a can of alcohol-free beer if your kids are a concern. For this, you'll need fresh fish fillets that you caught yourself of brought pre-sliced in an ice chest. You'll need 1 cup of pancake mix, 1 cup of flour, and one beer. First, you'll need to flour-up your fillet so the beer-batter will stick to your fish. The beer batter is exactly that, beer mixed into pancake mix until it's slightly sticky but smooth more or less. Now you'll warm-up your deep skillet with oil. Start dipping your battered fish fillets and put them into the hot oil. Depending on how many camp friends there are, bring enough so everyone has 2 fried fillets. Make sure your fillet is deboned so you don't have fish bones ruining your evening. Put the fried fillets onto a plate that has paper towels to soak up excess oil. While it fries-up be sure to have a golden brown coating on both sides of each fillet. Bring some fresh lemon to squeeze onto them if you like.

Double baked potato boat

[caption id="attachment_128" align="aligncenter" width="2500"] Slow-Cooker Breakfast Potato Boats[/caption] Who doesn't like a good baked potato? This version is pretty fun since the potato boat is the excess skin that holds everything together. Here's what you need to start. Get yourself some extra-large potatoes that are equal to two fists worth. Don't forget to scrub them down with water before you bake them, some of us like eating the skin too! Poke each potato with a fork at least 3-4 times on each side, this helps it to vent while it bakes. Wrap them up in double foil or one thick layer of thick aluminum foil. Now you put them on the grill and let them bake for 20 minutes or so. Don't let then sit over a direct fire but off to the edges so they cook evenly. After that you let them cool a bit and then you can handle them easier with a kitchen mitt. Slice each one in half and scoop out the inner potato leaving at least ¼ inch behind in the potato skin. You're going to put the scooped-out potato into a plastic bowl and break them into smaller bit using a fork. Chop-up some fresh bacon and ham into little bits and throw them into a skillet to cook. After that chop up some chives and add that to the potato in the bowl. Then add your cooked ham and bacon. Now you can add shredded cheddar cheese and mix it all together. Using a spoon, scoop that mixture back into the potato skin halves. Add a slice of butter on top and put each potato half into the skillet. Now you cover the top with foil and let cook another 10 minutes over direct heat. Your double baked potato boat is ready to be served.

Camping chili dogs

Did you say camping chili dogs? Well yes, I did, and here's how you can make awesome camp dogs that feed your crew. You'll need one small onion a can or two of chili, and a pack or two of chopped-up hot dogs. Bring your favorite brand of dogs as you like along with your favorite chili. You'll also need to add some heat, so have a good brand of chili powder. I recommend using the cayenne chili since that's a deeper heat that's not so spicy. You'll also need a squeeze bottle of your best BBQ sauce. In a skillet, start with frying your hot dogs. While that cooking dice-up your onion so they're little tiny bits. Now put that aside for later. Then add your chili powder to the hot dogs and pour over your cans of chili into the skillet. Let it simmer for a while. You'll also need a big pack of hot dog buns. These need to be gutted so the excess bread will make room for your chili-dog mix. Lay the bun face down on the edges of the grill so they can get toasty. After 10 minutes of simmering your chili, your buns and chili-dog mix are ready to serve. Using an oven mitt, carefully fill your buns with the thickened chili-dog mixture. Add a dash of your BBQ sauce on the very top and then some chopped onions for a garnish. This is one campfire favorite that never gets old. Enjoy!

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