Monday, February 16, 2009

Planning Your Camping Food

By Alison Stevens

Camping food for many people has come to mean granola, oatmeal, and more granola. Camping food can range anywhere from veggies or hot dogs – great for roasting over an open fire – to a steak-and-baked-potato dinner and one-pot meals. Freeze-dried camping food is great for hiking, backpacking, or camping meals because you don't have to keep it cold to avoid spoiling. Camping food such as Mountain House Brand or Backpackers Country brands can be a very convenient way to eat. Camping food benefits include your meals can be already. Camping food downsides include cost as meals can be more expensive, and you can lose your creativity for cooking while camping.

Camping Food Recipes

A search of the internet will turn up many online cookbooks and recipes submitted by people interested in camp cooking and are free for you to download. Things to consider when researching camp recipes include cooking for different travelers on different days, planning for large groups, planning for partial trip days, different guests eating different meals, large and small appetites, storage for ingredients, and much more.

Do not overlook soup recipes for camping and other meals that require only one pot or pan, so you can pack light, eat well and enjoy your camping trip.

You can create yummy gourmet meals with a little understanding of grilling and adapting recipes to the grill. You should learn how to adapt regular recipes to grill cooking, too, and you'll see that you can create some mighty tasty gourmet recipes that taste like you've spent hours preparing them.

Family Camping Food Ideas For Children

Children love to get involved, and the beauty of camping is that the recipes are usually simple, easy and fun. The kids will enjoy them even more if you let them modify the camp recipes and have some cooking fun. Before your next family camping trip, gather up some kid-friendly camping recipes. Camping dessert recipes are fun and easy for kids to make, and the whole family enjoys eating them.

Camping Meal Planning

Meals should be planned around the "core" entry but like buying a car it's the extras that make it more enjoyable. Meals should be made as simple as possible. Meals or soups in a cup are definitely convenient foods but they may be too bulky for many backpackers and campers. Meals take more time to prepare at the campground but it's also one of the jobs that everyone seems to want to help out with. Meals around the campfire are just as much the centre of camping life as meals around the kitchen bench at home.

Freeze-dried Camping Food

A quick search of the web turns up numerous companies producing freeze-dried foods for backpacking, including many vegetarian options. One of the best types of camping food is freeze-dried food or dehydrated food. Nowadays, people climbing the Himalayas, exploring the Poles, competing in offshore races, canoers and all kinds of travelers and globetrotters take very light freeze-dried food with them, which in extreme conditions can be made eatable by adding water acquired from snow or even sea water after desalination. Dehydrated or freeze-dried camping food is great for hiking, backpacking, or camping meals because it doesn’t have to be kept cold to avoid spoiling. Camping, backpacking, or hiking food that's freeze-dried or dehydrated can reduce weight by sixty to ninety percent. With a little creativity it's easy to make meals better-tasting and healthier than freeze-dried astronaut meals!

With some tasty camping food in your pack, you can make sure you won’t go hungry. Take easy to carry, high energy camping food to fuel your expeditions and outdoor adventures. If you're used to eating at gourmet restaurants, no matter what type of camping food you pack you'll probably be disappointed but you’ll still have fun. You'll also want to consider animal and/or bear resistant camping food containers especially if you're going to bear country. Please check the local area for suggestions on camping food storage and how to deal with trash. Good camping food is easy, light-weight, and served hot quickly.

Alison Stevens is an online author and maintains The Hiking And Camping Website to assist hikers, campers and backpackers to choose the right equipment and enjoy their outdoor adventure.

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