EZ camping meals with kids?

August 11, 2005 5:59 AM

We'll be camping with the kids (5 yrs and 18 months) for 2 nights, with a cooler full of ice and a tiny sterno stove. Got any suggestions for no-cook (or very-little-cook) family meals - besides cheese and crackers and baby carrots?
posted by chr1sb0y to food & drink (17 comments total)

Sammiches.

Pre-cook taco meat and take some refried beans for tacos/burritos.

Pre-cook a crock pot friendly roast in a bottle of your favorite bbq sauce. Shred or chop it up after 6-8 hours at low heat. At the campsite all you have to do is reheat in a pot with a little water and serve on hamburger buns.

Hot dogs and hamburgers.

Kabobs.

Could get something from the deli for the first meal.

Backpacker meals.
posted by sublivious at 6:19 AM on August 11, 2005

MREs?
posted by missed at 6:20 AM on August 11, 2005

I have a good technique for pizza done on a camp stove. It uses pita bread as the crust and you can bring all the toppings precut/shredded to make assembly much easier. You'll need a largeish frying pan with a lid and a bit of water. Put about a tablespoon of water in the bottom of the pan and put the pita on top. Place the lid over and let the steam melt/cook your toppings. The water will prevent the crust from getting too hard. If its soggy then you used too much water. It might take a pizza or two to figure out how much water you need to the crust perfect. I've always loved this while camping and its a hit with my friends. In fact, I'll be using this in two weeks when my bf and I go camping for a week in the backcountry!

Have fun!
posted by LunaticFringe at 6:27 AM on August 11, 2005

Check out the Hurricane Cookbook (pdf)
posted by grateful at 6:53 AM on August 11, 2005

Have you actually tried using a sterno stove? It is hard enough trying to boil water for a single cup of tea much less heating a meal with one of these. You are going to be carrying a cooler of ice; can you carry a small barbecue? You can heat anything on the grill. Failing that I would invest in a camp stove.
posted by caddis at 7:32 AM on August 11, 2005

I would recommend an Esbit ($10 at just about any outdoor store) over Sterno any day. Esbits are solid fuel so a little safer than liquid sterno and they boil water pretty quick.
posted by m@ at 7:41 AM on August 11, 2005

I agree with the above: cooking on a sterno stove is a recipe for basically not cooking anything at all. Can you make a fire?

Camp meals that don't need to be cooked:

- tuna salad sanwhiches (make in advance or bring onion/celery and add to tuna ana bit o salad dressing

- cold soup from a can. this is not very good, but you won't die or anything. It'd be better if the soups were hot. If you've got only sterno, then buy the smaller cans and heat them one at a time. Even this is sure to be slow...

- tub o' bar-b-q / cold cuts (with cheese) on bread

- pre-make some lasagna or casserole or spaghetti and then serve it lukewarm.

I am thinking that $20 at walmart to buy a light and crappy camp stove (the kind that take the small green propane cylindars) is going to make your whole family a lot happier. At least, if they like their dinners warm. If you can make a fire, then cooking in heavy duty tin foil is a lot of fun. Chicken and potatoes. Apple pie. Toss in a can of soup and then fish it out with pliers. etc.
posted by zpousman at 7:49 AM on August 11, 2005

Just out of curiosity, why couldn't you make a campfire and cook using that?

Peanut Butter is very versatile.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:54 AM on August 11, 2005

Would your kids eat Indian food? You might try Tasty Bite. Comes already cooked and sealed in foil pouches, so all you have to do is heat and eat. Take some bread and you're set.
posted by MsMolly at 7:55 AM on August 11, 2005

Seconding all those who say make a fire. With a fire you can do all kinds of things, quesadilla, spaghetti, anything. If you are absolutely stuck with sterno, than I'd do as much as possible ahead of time. Make all kinds of salad-y type things (potato salad, macaroni salad, fruit salad, sesame noodles), put them in tupperware & into the cooler. Hotdogs for the kids, polish sausage for the adults. Cheese & bread & mustard. Olives. Also, go upscale. Good bread and cheese vs. packaged crap from the supermarket won't freak out the kids and will make the adults much happier. Sausage & hot dogs are precooked, so they heat up quickly. Btw, hotdogs boiled in beer are delicious camping food. Really.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:00 AM on August 11, 2005

Chili dogs! Get some cans of chili, open it part way, throw it over the fire to heat up. Meanwhile, sharpen some sticks and use them to roast hotdogs. Then when the dogs are cooked and the chili is warm... mmm chili dogs!
posted by gus at 8:07 AM on August 11, 2005

Raw cabbage combined with ramen noodles with sesame oil and a bit of vinegar in a big ziplock makes a good noodle salad that needs no cooking.The moisture from the cabbage softens the noodles,so make it ahead of time.
posted by hortense at 9:31 AM on August 11, 2005

Falafel. You can get falafel mix cheap at the store, make up the patties at home, and eat them as needed on the trail. They last a long time with refrigeration. Bring a small tub of tahini, some pita, and you're in business. This is one of my camping staples.

Couscous. If you're cooking over a camp stove, this cooks really fast.

Also, I've got to say (in response to zpousman, and contradicting Campbell's), canned soup is bad food. Have you ever looked at the label on that stuff? One can has like a week's worth of salt.

I've never cooked over sterno--I've always used a Gaz stove or Coleman stove--when you're car camping, those two-burner Coleman stoves are super-deluxe.
posted by adamrice at 9:35 AM on August 11, 2005

Couscous is the ultimate backpacking meal. Couscous + dried fruit + nuts + boiling water = one helluva hearty meal.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:51 AM on August 11, 2005

the leave-no-trace backpacker in me says dont burn a fire, get a small iso-butane stove and go for it.
but the dad in me says build a big ole roaring fire.
but keep in mind it is REALLY hard to regulate heat when cooking over a open fire.

but the kids will really dig the fire.
have fun
posted by ShawnString at 9:51 AM on August 11, 2005

Get a sandwich maker/press (like these and fill it up and put it in the fire. The kids will love it. My parents had one of these when we went camping and my brother and I thought it was the greatest thing. We used to put, along with the bread, tomato sauce and cheese and made 'pizza'. Also try canned pie filling for a nice dessert.

ps. I've never ordered anything from the link above, so I cant say if their products are any good. I have no idea where my parents got theirs, it was well over 30 years ago.
posted by isotope at 9:52 AM on August 11, 2005

Hard boiled eggs with intact shells keep for ages. Boil, air-cool or crash-cool under cold water, pop them back in the carton and off you go. Great for salads, sandwiches (do you make curried egg sandwiches in the US?), munching with some salt and pepper, or dunking into dukkah.

Cereal in a sealed plastic container with full-cream UHT milk requires no refrigeration. Get a cereal you don't normally eat (Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Cornflakes are my weakness) and add sliced bananas to make a breakfast treat. If you get cereal in individual boxes can pour the milk straight into the bag. Saves on washing up, but be sure to take your trash with you!

Speaking of bananas, you can dunk them into a bag containing a mixture of crushed stuff - icing (confectioners) sugar, crushed M&Ms, crushed peanuts, Milo / Ovaltine / Quik - great for dessert and a hit with older kids. For the grownups, it's hard to beat a banana and brie sandwich.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 4:59 PM on August 11, 2005