Camping Food

A Whole Bunch of Suggestions to Help You Eat Better in the Great Outdoors

Minute Rice and Other Good Things

Minute Rice now has a long grain and wild rice mix that makes it a  hit on outings.  I am a big fan of Ziplock Freezer bags, put the mix in the Ziplock bag and add boiling water.  The bags are strong enough to not melt or break.  I usually use two, just in case but have never had one fail.

On the subject of bag cooking, check out your local health food store for dehydrated refried beans. Rehydrate in the bag, squeeze onto a tortilla, add cheese and salsa and you have a crowd pleasing fast lunch entree.

Tomato powder has many uses, you can get tomato bouillon in the Mexican food section of Wal-Mart Supercenters.

Some Backpacking Suggestions

Backpacking chow can be really good if you just think about it. The old standby  is Ramen noodles. Take a package or two of Ramen (more if you're feeding more people) and prepare according to directions.  Add a can of boned chicken, tuna, or whatever to the noodles to heat.  Add chopped scallions, green pepper, dried and reconstituted mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, slivered carrots, or any other back packable veggie (one that won't get crushed easily and will keep a day or two out of the fridge.

The Ramen noodles also don't require draining, as the water you use becomes the soup when you add the seasoning packet.  Have Koolaid or instant iced tea with this, some dried fruit, pita bread and margarine out of a squeeze bottle, and you've got a fine high-carbo meal that will stick with you the next day during the next 10 miles.

Try the spaghetti sauce out of an envelope, not a jar.  This is pretty good, too, although a bit bland. The package directions call for 2 1/4 cups water, a couple tablespoons of oil, and a small can of tomato paste.  Bring this to a boil, add the packet of spices, and simmer 15 minutes. Add to it whatever else you want in the way of veggies.  Add summer sausage here, since summer sausage keeps without refrigeration as long as you don't open the packet.  Angel hair pasta works well, too, since it only takes 2-3 minutes to cook.  And add some spices to jazz up the sauce.  

Any of you tried making a backpacking Day Oven?  Buy a 9" pie pan, and 2 8" cake pans.  Bolt the pie pan back-to-back to one of the cake pans by drilling holes and using short bolts.  The pie pan becomes the lid to the Day Oven, and the cake pan on top is where you put the coals when you are baking.  The second cake pan is where the food goes.  Set the contraption on some rocks and put coals underneath, and coals on top, and you've got a small but serviceable backcountry Day Oven--works great on brownies, biscuits, etc.

Breakfasts in the back country are usually of the Poptart/bagel/dried fruit/coffee/cocoa variety, although you can make pancakes once in a while with the pancake flour that only requires adding water. Instant dehydrated syrup is about the only item you need to buy at a specialty camp food store these days.

Lunches are invariably of the trail variety--i.e., no cooking. Deviled ham or chicken, pita bread, cheese, dried fruit again, maybe a carrot stick, Koolaid, etc. Some of my guys even eat Vienna sausages (urrrrpp....)

Meal Planning

One thing you can use to help the boys think up ideas is the one-pot-meal planner table.  Write on the board 4 column headings:

Meat/Protein ------ Starch ------ Sauce ------ Vegetable

Begin with the first column. Ask the Scouts to list all of the meat or other protein foods they can think of. Chicken, beef, cheese, eggs, etc.

Then go to the second column, list the starches: bread, pasta, rice, potato, stuffing mix, etc.

The third column: tomato sauce, gravy, soy, teriyaki, cream, etc.

Finally, the vegetables: you get the idea (somehow spinach never makes it up there).

Now, let's plan a one-pot meal: take one item from each column and put them all in one pot. Now some preparation might be needed for some components, and some items might need special cooking techniques, but that's how you can teach them to begin planning and cooking real meals. By picking your foods carefully, you can create some interesting backpack meals as well.

If you don't raise the expectations, you won't ever see your Scouts really learn to cook.