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Cook's Notes: Camping Edition

Planning meals to be cooked in the woods for a family of four was the thing that was stressing me out the most about getting ready for our inaugural camping trip last weekend. I am pretty adventurous about trying new things that are food-related, but cooking over an open fire was definitely outside of my comfort zone. We talked about getting a Hibachi-style grill for our trip, but in the end we didn't find one that we really wanted. Instead, we went armed with a camp stove, a roll of heavy duty aluminum foil, some cooking spray, and a few random ideas.

For breakfast we went with special treat cereal for the kids, and eggs on english muffins for us. Derek toasted the english muffins in a dry skillet on the camp stove. After the muffins were toasted he prepared the pan with olive oil cooking spray and fried the eggs over easy.


Coffee was also made on the camp stove using an old percolator.


Lunch was super simple - pb&j for the kids, and turkey and swiss sandwiches for us. Before we left I prepped a large tupperware of cut-up raw veggies to eat with lunch; Derek also made these for a delicious snack.

No-Bake Energy Bites
1 cup (dry) oatmeal
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix ingredients together in a large bowl. Roll into bite size balls and refrigerate.

For dinner we planned simple, 3-component meals that we cooked in foil packets on the open fire. On Saturday night we did spinach and feta chicken sausages, diced potatoes, and baby carrots. Each component went on the fire in its own packet so that we could control the cook times for each ingredient separately. I used a double layer of foil for the packets, as well as a generous coating of cooking spray. I topped off the potatoes and carrots with a few pats of Smart Balance and salt and pepper.


Everything was cooked perfectly and tasted delicious!


On Sunday night we did broccoli which I had cut up before we left. For the main course we did spice-crusted salmon with lemon. We had planned on cooking couscous on the camp stove, but decided to cook potatoes again because they were so yummy the night before. 


Wowza, what a feast!


And what camping trip would be complete with marshmallows,


And s'mores!


Cooking over an open fire (with no grates!) was a challenge, but after two successful meals I'm excited to see what other foil packet meals I can come up with for our next trip!

What are your go-to camping foods?

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