One of the hardest things for many families who want to try camping is figuring out what to eat and what they need to bring to cook good meals in the great outdoors. What exactly do you need to take with you so you can have a good cup of coffee and meals that do not include prepackaged junk. How will you keep things cold and how will you wash your dishes? Camping is lot so fun when you iron out these details and all it takes it some planning and perhaps some special gear so you can set up the perfect camp kitchen. Once you get into it, you may just find that your inner pioneer loves the challenge!
The first thing you will likely need is a cooler. If you already have one… great! Use that one. If not, check into a steel belted cooler from Coleman. They are super durable. You may even be able to find a used or vintage one at a yard sale or estate auction. Try packing it several different ways to find the most efficient way to pack it all up.
Marinate meats ahead of time and freeze them into blocks so that they can serve as ice packs until they thaw out. Flat Nalgene bottles can also be used as ice packs. Pre-cut and pre-wash fruit and veggies so that you are only packing in usable and ready to eat foods. Package foods in stackable, glass storage containers.
For coffee, invest in a good stainless steel Percolator. They are light and they make great coffee on a camp stove. I do not normally drink coffee but a good warm cup of coffee on a chilly camp day sounds like heaven to me.
And of course you will need a camp stove unless you like to do all your cooking over top of the camp fire. We like to do 50/50. For campfire dinners your best bet is a cast iron skillet and a dutch oven. You can even bake fresh sourdough bread in these babies! Before you go Google some of your favorite recipes and put the word campfire in front of it. You will be surprised how easy it is to cook over a campfire. Many campers get a kick out of making “gourmet” camp food. For nourishing options check out this blogger ebook: Kitchen Stewardship in the Big Woods: A Family Camping Handbook with Real Food Options.
So what do you eat off of? Camping just ins’t camping unless you eat and drink from those stainless steel plates and cups that have the speckled enamel finish. They come in dark blue traditionally but there are some other colors. Each piece is built from heavy-gauge steel with an enamel finish. Twice kiln-hardened to 1,000 degrees F to prevent scratches and chips.
These stainless steel bowls can be used to pack in nuts, dried fruit, trail mix, pretzels, and other snacks. Then they can be used to as mixing bowls or food bowls when emptied. Part of camping is making things do double duty.
Washing dishes IMO requires a galvanized wash tub. It serves as a washing tub and a place to store your gear when not in use. Make sure to use a planet friendly soap like Dr. Bronners.
And don’t forget cutlery, measuring cups and spoons, spices, cook utensils, a cutting board, matches, and scrub brush. Once you have the gear and some recipes in your arsenal it will be cinch to pack it up and take the family camping at a moment’s notice.
What is your favorite tip or product for an efficient camp kitchen?
Love your blog! Featured one of your recipes on my blog today!
http://www.newlymeds.com/2011/08/guest-blogger-one-smart-brownie-healthy.html
i love the little stainless steel bowls! now i want to go camping so bad!!
I am camping right now (waiting for the water to heat up so I can wash dishes). We like Batter Blaster organic pancake mix or Snoqualmie Falls Lodge pancake mix for a quick breakfast for a hungry child. The Snoqualmie mix only takes water so it is super easy to make. We cook up a few
Pancakes to take the edge off and then make a heartier breakfast.
We keep a full set of xtra kitchen camp gear ready to go in the garage. All the items you listed here. Also, measuring cups and spoons, a good knife, small bottles of our favorite spices. I have a camping backpack ready of sunscreen, hand sanitizer, baby wipes (for those camp “showers”), rehydration tablets, and recently I added some Sacchromyces for emergencies (a nutritional supplement to help with diarrhea). Having a few “camp” bags already packs is great for me cause my husband frequently comes home and says, “hey honey let’s get out of town” and he means like in the next 15 minutes :)
I have a plastic set of drawers that fits under my folding table to hold most of the things you listed. It’s easy to load up and all the convenience of home when you get there!
Put a refrigerator thermometer in the cooler!
Hi I am from New Zealand and we camp out the beach for a month and I love to set up my kitchen cause we have a big (whanau) family. To be efficient we put a lot of our gear into plastic containers so if rains we don’t worry about our stuff getting wet been caught a few times
A few other tips, pack the last day frozen at the bottom and work your way to the top by day. Freezer bags are great for frozen storage and that added ice pack. Pre-cook, slice and prep anything you can, freeze what can be frozen, combine ingredients that will go in the pot together. And if your bringing that heavy Dutch oven… Use it, make fun breakfasts and dessert cobblers.
We use 2 xlarge bins with wheels for our kitchen gear and odds and ends stuff. I usually pre freeze gallon jugs of water and stick them in the coolers instead of ice. I also use a 10×10 canopy with walls to set up my kitchen in. In summer time I use the screen walls to keep out bugs.
Salt water frozen is colder than clear water but I don’t want the kids drinking it. So I put a few drops of food coloring in the jug of water before freezing it. The kids know “Don’t drink the Yellow (or blue, green or whatever) water!”