Cooking for eleven while camping, need suggestions!

[Sweet Life]

The title kind of says it all. We're headed out to camp with another family, actually we're in yurts so we'll have a micro, a small fridge, a grill outside, plus whatever camping supplies we bring (maybe a camp stove if we can find one). I really need recipe ideas for cooking two of the evening meals for us - 4 adults, 5 young kids, and 2 toddlers. I'll literally take *anything* to get the juices flowing here bc I've only done backcountry cooking for DH and I long before kids - I am at a loss as to camping and cooking for this many people!!

Any suggestions?

[jenny_islander]

If somebody has a cast-iron skillet or griddle, bring it! It's a wonderful cooking tool because you heat it up, then take it off the fire (to a fireproof surface, of course), and it keeps on sizzling. So you can be cooking on the grill and off the grill at the same time!

Suggestions:

1. Dutch oven baked beans. For this, of course, you need a good pot. You can start from scratch and let it cook all day long, scenting the campsite maddeningly, or you can cheat with canned beans.

2, If the little ones are used to cereal and milk in the morning, bring it along. If it's hot cereal, don't forget that you can do it on the grill and in the microwave simultaneously and make enough for everybody. Also bring fixins such as slivered almonds, raisins, etc; whatever doesn't go into the cereal can be mixed into:

3. Gorp. Trail mix. Whatever. Excellent for a hot day if chased with plenty of water. Also bring:

4. A watermelon or three. If you'll be eating as soon as you arrive, I suggest making a big batch of fried chicken the night before your trip, taking it in a cooler with plenty of ice packs, and serving cold fried chicken, watermelon, and chips with dip. If the weather turns nasty you can reheat the chicken in the microwave.

[ThreeKids]

You can do Taco Soup entirely out of pantry items except for the ground beef.

[Oliveshoots]

Shack Burgers!!!

Make little pockets/envelopes out of heavy duty aluminum foil.

Place into it a hamburger patty (or other meat of choice, I bet it would work great with veggie burgers!)

Add some chopped/sliced carrots, onions, potatoes, celery if desired, or whatever veggies you like (I like just the carrots, potatoes, onions)

Squirt in a blob of ketchup (I'm guessing it was about 1/4 cup or 3 tablespoons of ketchup) to make a nice "sauce".

Salt and pepper inside if desired, I bet it would be nice with garlic salt or seasoned salt, maybe even Old Bay. Depends on what you have around.

Fold closed the packet, toss them all into the campfire (well, not really *in* the flames, but close...kind of in the hotter coals, close to the flames.)

Sorry, I have no idea how long to leave them in. I guess you could pull one out and test it. Seems like it was a long time when we made them. We got them started then went off and played a while, and when we came back they were AWESOME!!!

They are super yummy, and fun for kids.

There's always the hotdog/chickendog/veggiedog option Let each person cook their own over the campfire. Or if you had a large enough grill, grill all the hot dogs, put them in the buns, then slide the filled bun back into the bun bag as they were before, tie them closed. This keeps the hot dogs warm and the bun from getting hard. We have always done that when making hot dogs for a large group. Then you can fix all the dogs ahead of time and they will still be warm for the group to eat.

I REALLY love the cold fried chicken, watermelon and chips idea! I LOVE cold fried chicken.

[righteous mama]

My favorite camp food was one my mom made when we went camping. I named it MEaP. Dumb name, but it's basically meat, eggs, and potatoes. I'll tell you the ingredients and the idea of it and you can guess the amounts.

Ground Beef
Eggs
Canned New Potatoes

Brown the ground beef, throw in cut up new potatoes (bite sized pieces), finish wish eggs to bind it all together. You could add salt, pepper, garlic, onions...whatever. It's a great basic dish to play with. It's hearty, kid-friendly, and faily inexpensive.


Another thing that is sooo good on the campfire is baked potatoes. You could do a potato bar with butter, cheese, sour cream, chives, turkey bacon or soy bits, diced chicken, etc. You could make a giant green salad to go with it and yum!

[Sweet Life]

Oh these are great ideas, keep 'em coming.
Maybe we should camp for more days so we can eat like this longer

[jenny_islander]

To gild the lily, add deviled eggs to your fried chicken dinner. To ship, put two egg halves back together and wrap snugly in waxed paper or Saran wrap; put the egg bundles into a Tupperware box in the cooler. The egg halves won't be pretty, but they'll be just as tasty. Cleanup is much easier than it would be with a bowl of egg salad. Or just pack some nice organic tomatoes or crispy pickles as an extra tidbit.

If you're in a horrible hurry, pack some large Ziploc bags. Stop for pizza on the way. When you get there, repack the pizza in the bags (in quarters or sixths) so it will fit into the mini-fridge. Reheat or serve cold, with Cokes. (Be sure that it's a kind of pizza that makes good leftovers!)

If the weather is going to be icky, make a big batch of macaroni and cheese or some other baked pasta (not lasagna--something that can be spooned out easily). It should be in a foil or reusable metal pan. Bring more foil unless the pan has a lid. Reheat on the grill; if it's raining a bit, you can cover the pan. If it's raining really hard, reheat in individual dishes in the microwave.

Hide a tidbit that you know the little ones will go nuts about. Only bring it out if the camping trip is turning into a total bummer. Chocolate chip cookies come to mind.

If you want to pop some eyes, I suggest making a cobbler. You can do it on the grill if you have a large, shallow metal pot with a lid. Goes in looking like soup, comes out looking like dessert!

[ThreeKids]

Originally Posted by jenny_islander

...
If you want to pop some eyes, I suggest making a cobbler. ...

Popped eyes are fun when you are making something scrumptious in front of the people who are going to eat it.

[Oliveshoots]

And of course there's always s'mores....eye-poppin' and kid-pleasin' since you have a microwave, put them in there to melt the chocolate and make it all gooey.

[ShangriLewis]

We roast soaked corn over the fire grate.
We do the packets with lots of veggies including whole garlic and top with a Gardenburger riblet.
Potatoes get wrapped in foil and put along the outside of the fire.
Chili from a can is nice for topping hot dogs and baked potatoes. You can, also, put it in a bag of fritos.

The next day we wrap up any leftovers in foil and bake for a bit less. You can add a little margarine/butter to keep it from sticking. We toss that on potatoes and top with sour cream.

I always make up a big pasta salad to snack on, granola bars, peanut butter/jelly, tea, and lots of fruit. We don't eat as much when camping.

Campfire stew:

Brown some ground meat...add canned vegetable soup...serve over boiled/mashed potatoes

[TestifyToLove]

We make a variation on tomato soup. Take chunks of velveeta, wrap them in Bisquick dough and drop into a big Dutch oven of tomato soup. Heat and serve. It works well over a campfire and my kids love it.