Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I'm looking for ideas on foods to bring on longer camping trips that DO NOT require refridgeration. The fridge/icebox only holds so much. Cans of soup..
and what else?

Thanks,
Bev

Canned meats of all kinds can be your best friend.

Couple them with pasta and you can have a grand meal.

Canned beef and egg noodles with cream of mushroon soup for a poor mans beef stroganoff

Canned chicken and mayo and pickle relish for a quick chicken salad sandwich

The same canned chicken and a can of chicken noodle soup added to the water to boil with the egg noodles again. You now have chicken and noodles. (The soup is simply a convenient source of chicken boulion flavoring)

Canned salmon an egg and a few crackers and you have salmon patties a little mac and cheese and you are golden.

Canned tuna a can of cream of mushroon soup in some cooked elbow macaroni and you have a nice tuna cassarole.

God forbid but you can even find sausage gravy ready to serve in a can!

Packets of oatmeal (I don't use milk on oatmeal), rice & some of the canned chicken Bob mentioned with some sweet & sour sauce, pasta and pasta sauce, pancake mix (who says pancakes are only for breakfast??), plus you can also make biscuits or waffles with the mix.

There are packets of small boxes of organic milk that do not require refrigeration. My brother keeps them on hand for his grandsons.

Ready made packets of puddings and jello's don't have to be refrigerated.

And how about peanut butter and honey? Honey is the one food that doesn't spoil, so I've read.

Thank you, keep em coming:) Great ideas.

Bev

There is also canned buttermilk powder that doesn't require refrigeration. Boxed rice a roni, scalloped potatoes, pasta Salad,

verna wrote:
And how about peanut butter and honey? Honey is the one food that doesn't spoil, so I've read.

You are correct, indefinite shelf life. Just not safe for the real little ones under 2 years old.

Ramon noodles, the noodles can be cooked fast and easy and added to anything. They were a mainstay in Korea. Spam, egg and Ramon noodle.

Sounds kind of gross now that I think about it.

Here's an easy one:

Camp Beef Stew:
Add a 14 oz can of green beans, drained, to a 14 oz can of Dinty Moore Beef Stew. Then, add 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil, rubbed between your fingers to crumble it a little more. (The basil helps take away the 'canned' taste.) Heat and eat. Serves 2-3 people.

Much to the amazement of my step-daughter, my step-grandkids loved this stew from the first bite. (The oldest boy went back for third helpings.) Note: It is gluten free! (Dinty Moore makes canned chicken & dumplings but I've never tried it as that one is not gluten free. I saw it at Walmart.)

A good dessert with the stew is:

Hot Spiced Peaches
Dump a can of sliced peaches into a pot and add about 1 tablespoon honey & 1 teaspoon cinnamon, more or less to taste. Heat and stir until the peach juices, honey and cinnamon are well blended.

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Spaghetti
To save fuel when camping, you cook spaghetti noodles a little differently. Bring your water to a boil and add the noodles. Bring back to a boil and cook 2 minutes. Cover and let stand 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make or open your favorite canned tomato spaghetti sauce and heat. ( Many sauces come in a breakable glass jar which might be a problem in some situations. Heinz makes a marinara sauce in a can.*)

At the end of 20 minutes, bring the noodles back to a boil, just to reheat them or to finish cooking, if they aren't as done as you would like. When both the sauce and noodles are at the desired temperature and the noodles are cooked as desired, drain the noodles and serve the sauce over top. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese. (Buy the smallest size of grated Parmesan cheese that you can find, as after it is opened, it is supposed to be refrigerated. Kraft makes a 3 oz size that works well when camping.) The cheese is part of your protein for this meal.

Note: Tomato sauce and whole wheat spaghetti noodles make a complete protein meal for vegans. Gluten intolerant people can use rice noodles instead. Tinkyada makes some that work well with the above method of cooking. Using white, processed wheat or rice noodles does not give you a complete protein; so, you will need to supplement this meal with more cheese, milk, hard salami, etc. If you like, you can add chopped or minced hard salami into the tomato sauce. Uncut hard salami keeps well without refrigeration.

"Home Made" Camp Marinara Sauce:
*To make your own marinara sauce when you are camping, use one 8oz can of tomato sauce and one small can (about 6 oz) of tomato paste. Refill the 8oz can with water, adding and mixing with the tomato paste and sauce to the desired consistency. Stir in 1/2 tsp each crumbled dried basil, oregano and thyme. Add 1/4 tsp garlic powder and salt and pepper as needed...more or less to taste. Some people also add in about 1/4 tsp sugar; but, I don't. If you like mushrooms, add in a small or larger can of drained mushrooms. Bring all to a boil; then, lower heat and simmer 5 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. This amount of sauce serves 2-3 people.
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...Forgot one...You can also use soy noodles in place of whole wheat noodles ...not my favorite; but, I think that would make a complete protein with the tomato sauce.

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Pancakes
Pancakes can be made with Bisquick. Bisquick now makes both the regular and the new, gluten free type. Pamelas makes a great gluten free pancake and baking mix, too. (Allergy Note: The Pamelas mix contains almond meal.) For eggs, use Just Whites dehydrated egg whites according to the instructions on the container. You won't notice the difference in the pancakes; except, they may be a little lighter in texture, which is a good thing! Add in dehydrated or canned, drained blueberries or banana chips,to get some fruit into your camping diet.

Real maple syrup is supposed to be refrigerated; but, you can purchase both maple and blueberry flavored agave syrups that do not need refrigeration. As a plus, agave syrups work well for diabetics because they have a low glycemic index. Agave is gluten free and can be used by vegans, as well. ...Blueberry pancakes with blueberry agave syrup? Yum!

Berry Shortcakes
Another fun thing to do with pancakes is to use them as a replacement for shortcake in a stacked berry shortcake dessert.

'Bacon' and Eggs
For non-refrigerated breakfast meat, you can sometimes find cans of Canadian Bacon that you can open and fry up.

If you go to the local sports shops or even the sports sections of some department stores, you can find dehydrated packets of scrambled eggs. Just open and add hot water.

We use a lot of dehydrated food. It is from out canoe camping days. Lean hamburger can be dehydrated and used in spaghetti and hamburger helper. We take dehydrated fruits for snacks. Banana, pineapple, apples and many other things. This works for us and is light weight, again a hangover from canoeing.

Canned or jarred dried beef, just make sure to rinse it first to get rid of some of the salt, you can make creamed chipped beef over toast, or boil-in-bag rice (in the field, we used to drain it by swinging over my head, clamped with a giant hemostat).

You can get pancake mix in little bottles, just add water, shake and pour. The precooked bacon seems to be pretty stable, most stores do not refrigerate it. As others have said, syrup is pretty stable, the sugar content is too high to grow bacteria, just buy in small containers. I used to buy several packets of mayo, cream cheese and jelly from restaurants, if you are nice to the waitress, you may get them. free

The small containers of margarine are pretty stable at room temperature as well. I wish that we could still get the canned bacon that K-Mart used to carry, although I did hear that they are starting to import it again.

Many salami and other sausages are stable at room temp, as well as many cheeses, especially the hard ones. If you are willing to spend the money, you can even get canned cheeseburgers, dehydrated wine, albeit alcohol free. Corned beef hash is great with eggs.

The canned beef patties are pretty good, and you can buy small packages of dehydrated mashed potatoes.

These are just off the top of my head, 20 years of being a field rat stuffed alot into my head.

Pat

We have a granddaughter who has an egg allergy. We use ground flax seed as an egg substitute. For one egg, 1 Tablespoon flax seed + 3 Tablespoons water. Not recommended for "eggs and bacon" but we've found it perfectly satisfactory for baking.


While the quantities are overwhelming, there are a lot of shelf-stable foods designed for emergency or off-the-grid living: http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.a ... BC&topnav=

This is a great thread! Thanks all for posting.

Large can of beef stew and a regular can of chile. You can even put it over rice.

I just bought dehydrated hash browns in a little milk looking carton. Have not tried it yet but seems perfect for camping.