Cooking outdoors is part of the camping experience, and the rules are slightly different to those at play when you have a whole kitchen at your disposal. In order to cook when camping, the food needs to be easy and needs to be good – after all, it has to sustain you while you live in a tent! But where does your wellbeing come into it? Can camping-ready recipes also cater to your nutrition wellness? Here are a few time-tested camping recipes with easy preparation and delicious results:
1. Oatmeal: When you’re camping, you need something to fill your tummy and energize your morning, and this simple hot breakfast will do exactly that. To keep things simple, you need to add four packets instant single serving oatmeal, in whatever flavour you want, to hot water. When you’ve got the right consistency, stir and add in sliced almonds, peanuts, walnuts and/or pecans. Then top it off with dried fruit of your choosing (cranberries, strawberries, apples, blueberries, raisins etc.) and a teaspoon of flax seed – everything you need to conquer your day!
2. Omelette in a can: This breakfast recipe will change your life, my friend. Start with a can of sausage – you can choose what you like but Vienna sausage works well. Drain the juices from the can and crack and egg over the sausages (if you prefer, you may want to scramble the egg separately and then add it to the can). Chop up two teaspoons of onion and add to the can and place the container on a rack slightly above the coals. You need to watch the cooking process carefully as the food will cook very fast on the hot fire. When the egg looks cooked, you can eat straight out of the can – genius!
3. Tinfoil Medley: As you may be able to discern from the name, to make this dinner you just amalgamate anything you can throw into a tinfoil. The possibilities are almost without end but here’s an example to get you started: chop up two potatoes, two carrots about a ¼ cup of broccoli into one-inch pieces. Divide the mixture into four piles and then place each pile in the centre of four pieces of tinfoil. Take a pound of meat or poultry of your choice – it can be canned if that’s easier but fresh is always best – and divide the meat into four portions. The thinner the meat is, the faster it will cook.
Once you’ve sliced your meat, place it on each of your potato piles and season with sauce or spices of your own choosing. Fold up the sides of the tin foil so that it’s sealed tight with the juices locked in, and then place each tin pouch directly on coals for about 15 minutes. Flip the pouches over and leave for another 10 minutes, or until the meat is completely cooked and the potatoes and carrots are soft. Remember to open the foil with a tong so you don’t burn your fingers! If that doesn’t do it for you, or you don’t have those ingredients, try the same technique with mushrooms, onions and chopped bacon.
4. Chilli: If you’re backpacking it, this meal is great for saving space and lasting for ages. Pour a can of chilli, ¼ of a cup of diced onions and one can of corn into a pot and place on the fire. Depending on how hot the fire is, you may want to elevate your pot on a rack or hang on a rotisserie-like pole. All you need to do is sit back and wait until all the ingredients are bubbling, and then you simply remove from the heat and eat.
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