Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

You scream, I scream.

Yep ! Tim and Judy were there......

We made homemade ice cream in the D.O.

There are a couple of ways of looking at this. One is the overkill method in which you spend $400 on everything you can possibly think of for a weekend of camping. We're all experts in that, so I don't need to elaborate further.

Of course the other method is what I'm getting at here. A weekend outing probably involves six meals, tops. What do you eat at home? Bagels? Fruit? Mostly simple stuff, right? Well, keep it simple for the weekend camping as well. I've gone out for an over-nighter several times this last summer, and I took a can of Bush's baked beans, some crackers, some cottage cheese, some milk and Frosted Flakes. Super easy dinner and breakfast, and it was all stuff I already had at home. Basically, the campout cost me a few dollars in gas.

One of the reasons many people don't make use of their camper as much as they'd like is because they make too big a production out of it. Sure, if you're going 200 miles from home and spending a week, it is a big production. But if you're just heading for the hills for a night or two, stuff from your pantry will get you by, and you'll have fun enjoying nature instead of slaving over a banquet for no apparent reason, and bringing most of it back home with you.

The worst thing about cooking is the cleanup, so keeping that to a minimum makes everything better.

We do cook differently when camping particularly when planning for what will amount to 10 days worth of meals with out shopping for food this summer.
There are two separate types of meal plans, we have the on the road each day, and the sitting on the shore of the lake for a week or more.
The on the road tended to be "bag meals" ten minutes in the electric skillet ready to eat, lunch jerky trail-mix...
The sitting on the shore, many dinners on the gas grill, kabobs, steak, burgers, brats, sausage, bacon... meals that can be prepared early i.e.chicken with sour cream sauce (pre cook the chicken). Clean up with the water heater/sink is no more difficult than at home and as a result we do not use paper plates or plastic cups.

Perhaps this is a good place to put BobHenry's DO cookbook tip:

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=54682

I usually camp alone most of the time, and I seldom cook a large full meal. I like to keep things simple.

I may take some things for the first day or two that are frozen or need to be kept cool. The other cool items, I usually keep are things like cheese, eggs, lettuce, carrots, fruit, and cooked meats like ham, bacon, or sausage. I eat the things that would spoil first. If I run out of ice, it gets cold enough in the mountains that I can open the cooler at night and even put out a couple of gallons of water to get cold, then in the morning I pack them back in. I also add insulation by putting the cooler under blankets or my sleeping bag. Cheese etc can keep a long time if kept reasonably cool.

Most of what I keep packed and ready to go are things that don't need refrigeration, as I am out mostly in the high mountains away from power or stores. A couple of boxes of cereal and crackers, canned meat to put on the crackers such as chicken and tuna, canned soups, chili, beans, and stuff like ravioli. Some other staples such as bagels, rice, pasta, mixes etc. The real majority of my meals are dehydrated dinners that I make throughout the year. Most things can be made into dehydrated meals from soup to lasagna. Just NOT eggs... they are nasty!

Another area of the super market you might look for meal ideas is in the sauces and quick cooking rice or dried mashed potato aisles. You can make a lot of different meals by adding dried sauce or soup packets to rice etc. Also little condiment or salad dressing packets can help with the camp kitchen supplies.

One trick in my lazy cooking is that I will park my truck so that the windshield faces the sun. Then I put up the sunshades, but I will put a can of soup or add water to a dehydrated meal and then set it in between the windshield and the sunshade. I go fishing for a couple of hours and come back to a nice hot lunch already made.

This fall I learned how to pressure can meats. I use wide mouth pint jars. I canned 40 pints of deer and antelope this year. Since the meat is already cooked in the jars, it makes a very quick and delicious meal. I use rice or pasta packages with the seasoning in them. I use broth for the liquid in the jars when I can the meat and add that to the rice/pasta meat dish. Clean up is easy and very little effort is needed when camping.

Bob

I too can meats, soups, and so on. I didn't think to mention it, since few others do. I am glad you said something. They can really add to a dinner and are easy to use. Besides elk, I did some nice jars of pork shoulder. Trimmed of fat, it makes some amazing shredded pork sandwiches and carnitas. YUM!

For shot trips I like taking boil bags of pasta , pancake mix, lunch meats .... If I cook real meat ... Its the same as on the grill but just using a wood fire. Chops,steak,fish