Camp Cooking and Supplies

* Camp stove
* Charcoal
* Plates, utensils (one set for each camper)
* Pots and pans
* Aluminum foil
* Dish washing detergent
* Food
* Bottled water
* Cooler
* Can opener
* Paper towels

These items allow you to store refrigerated foods, open cans if necessary, and givesS you some of the comforts of home. While some campsites provide open grills for cooking, ice machines and water spickets, you may not want to rely on these items working or being available at every camp site. Unless you've stayed at a particular campground before, it doesn't hurt to pack these items just in case.

This list is similar to the one above, but you may not need to pack as many pots, pans, and plates, as the cabin may be furnished with them already. What you should bring with you includes the following:

* Food
* Bottled water
* Aluminum foil
* Cooking utensils
* Can opener
* Dish washing detergent
* Bug spray
* Paper towels

Bug spray may be needed if you notice bugs in the kitchen area, which can occur during the spring and early fall months. Be prepared, because you never know what you'll be walking into.

RV camping is different from cabin camping in that you'll only have a limited supply of water from the faucet when on the road because the water comes from a container underneath the RV. This container keeps the toilet and shower working as well. Unless you plan to refill the container often, you have to learn how to conserve water so there's enough for the trip.

The same goes for electrical power. While the small generator is recharged when the RV is in motion, you'll have to conserve the electrical energy used. Many RV campsites will allow you to plug into electrical outlets that will run your generator. This will allow you to have a full functioning kitchen so you won't have to conserve as much energy.

If you're staying in a campground without electrical power for RV's, you'll have to conserve energy throughout the day.

The equipment and supplies you will need include:

* Food
* Bottled water
* Pots and pans, cooking utensils
* Plates and utensils
* Aluminum foil
* Dish washing detergent
* Paper towels
* Can opener

Cooking in an RV is similar to cooking at home. Many RV's have stoves, ovens, microwaves, and refrigerators. Cooking while camping shouldn't be a big production. You should bring foods that are fun to eat and easy to cook. You can still add flavor to food by bringing your favorite spices and herbs, but you won't want to cook a five course dinner with dessert.

Preparing food in advance is how many people eliminate the time spent cooking while on vacation. Foods that can be reheated include spaghetti sauces, soups, cobblers, pies, and other foods that you would normally reheat at home.

List of items you will need to cook your camp food:

* Skillet that can withstand high temperatures (iron skillets work the best)
* Large pot
* Pans
* Cooking utensils (spatulas, spoons, forks)
* Aluminum foil
* Tea kettle
* Mugs
* Cups
* Plates
* Eating utensils
* Dish washing detergent
* Towels
* Paper towels
* Grilling utensils
* Plastic storage containers for leftovers

Cooking equipment can be packed in a small box that will not take up too much room. Make sure all equipment is cleaned and stored safely each night so it can be used the next day.

Cooking Food Ingredients

When preparing for a camping trip, you should bring the following food ingredients:

* Meats
* Fish
* Vegetables
* Fruits that have strong skins
* Potatoes
* Bread
* Liquid eggs
* Powered milk
* Cereal
* Luncheon meat
* Trail mix
* Water
* Salt
* Pepper
* Coffee, Tea

Store meat, certain fruits and vegetables, and liquid eggs in the cooler when traveling to the campsite. You can also store leftover food in the cooler for the next day.

When planning breakfast, you should prepare a larger meal that everyone will want to eat. A hearty breakfast will give everyone energy for activities during the day. A typical campground breakfast usually includes some or all of the following:

* Eggs
* Toast
* Sausage or bacon
* Coffee, tea, milk, or water
* Oatmeal
* Cold cereal

Camping Breakfast Recipe

Mountain Man Breakfast

Ingredients

* 1 12-inch Dutch oven
* 1 md Onion,chopped
* 1/2 lb Bacon,cut into small pieces
* 1 pk 32-oz. hash brown potatoes
* 12 Eggs
* 1 1/2 lb Cheddar cheese,grated
* 1 8-oz. jar of salsa

Preparation

Preheat Dutch oven over 10 charcoal briquettes and preheat lid with 14 briquettes. Brown 1/2 pound bacon. Add onion and cook until clear.

Remove bacon and onions from Dutch oven and drain on paper towels. Wipe excess grease out of dutch oven and place back over hot briquettes. Stir in the 32-ounce bag of hash brown potatoes.

Fry until potatoes are golden brown, then mix the bacon and onions back in. Break 12 eggs into medium mixing bowk and beat thoroughly. Pour over potatoes, bacon and onions. Cover with hot lid and cook until eggs are almost solid.

Sprinkle with 1 1/2 pounds grated cheddar cheese. Continue cooking until eggs set and cheese melts. Just before serving, top with 1 8-oz jar of hot, medium, or mild salsa, according to taste.

Iron Skillet

You can use an iron skillet over a fire if you have a grate that can be placed over the flame. Iron skillets aren't expensive and can be used for many years. Cook food in the skillet as you would in any other cooking pan.

If you need more room to cook when using an open flame, you can use smaller iron skillets, or cook them in aluminum foil. This will reduce the amount of space needed.

Grill

If you're planning to use a small grill, you can cook food using foil. This may take a little longer, but the taste of the food is amazing. Grilled food is healthy, and easy to keep warm. You'll need to buy charcoal and lighter fluid in order to create heat.

Grills come in a few sizes and you should find one that's large enough for your group of campers. Small gas grills are available if you don't want to use a charcoal grill.

Some campsites have grills available for use, but they're usually not close enough to the sites, especially for the first meal of the day. Best to bring your own grill so you can use it whenever you want to.

If everyone plans to return to the campsite for lunch, prepare foods in advance, if possible, so you can eat and enjoy the rest of the day. Foods that could be served for lunch include:

* Luncheon meats
* Sandwiches
* Salads
* Fruits
* Hamburgers
* Hotdogs

Prepare salads one day before traveling so they'll be ready to serve. Salads such as potato salad, macaroni and hearty fruit salads are best because they won't spoil as quickly. They should be stored in the cooler and thrown away if they haven't been consumed three days after preparing them.

20 Minute Hamburger Skillet Stew

Ingredients

* 1/4 lb Lean ground beef
* 1 lg Onion,sliced wafer-thin
* 4 Carrots,sliced wafer-thin
* 2 Potatoes,halved, sliced - wafer-thin
* 3 Ribs celery,sliced - wafer-thin
* 1 c Boiling water
* 2 t Beef extract OR bouillon
* 2 Bay leaves
* 1/4 t Dried thyme
* Salt OR garlic salt
* Pepper
* 1/4 c Dry red wine or tomato juice
* 2 T All purpose flour

Preparation

Use melon baller and shape meat into tiny meatballs. Brown in skillet. Discard any fat. Stir onion into skillet and cook 1 min. Add boiling water or broth and extract or bouillon. Add remaining veggies, seasonings.

Cover, cook over low heat, 15 mins until vegs are tender. Combine wine or water and flour in covered jar. Shake and stir into skillet. Cook and stir until sauce is thick, 4 minutes.

Preparing food on your camping trip can be one a fun activities regardless of whether you're staying in a tent, cabin or RV. However, if you've never been on a camping trip, you may not be comfortable cooking over a fire, camp stove, or cooking in a small kitchen in an RV.

If you prefer a small grill or barbeque when cooking on a camping trip, then bring it along. You don't have to cook on an open flame if you prefer not to.

Camping food need not be just about junk foods

When camping, it helps to think light and carry light. However, no matter how pretty the image is of a camp fire with eggs and tasty bacon sizzling in the background, plus hot coffee, reality bites. And reality is heavy.

In order to make this food camping image real someone has to carry all the cooking equipment needed such as a cast iron pan, a cooler, as well as ice to keep food fresh, etc.

The usual options, therefore, are frozen and dried meals which basically cost more, doesn't taste like anything at all and are heavy on preservatives and artificial flavors.

Believe it or not, there are a lot better options out there at the grocery store nearest you which provides healthier, if not a lot tastier food options. And they aren't just instant noodles.

Camping requires a lot of energy walking and traversing trails and trees. So any stuff carried during this time must - as much as possible - be light in weight or at least tolerably heavy. This is because besides food, clothes also need to be packed, a sleeping bag, a system for purifying water, a mattress, and so on.

The cooking system used most during camping trips are stoves that involve micro cooking. This is composed of a burner primarily used to boil water. Usually any nourishment a camper consumes is dehydrated food.

Cereal like Cheerios is a good option. There are also dehydrated foods. Also, there are packaged cereals that all you need to add is hot water so you can enjoy a warm meal. Oatmeal is one of them, also Cream of Wheat. It's best that these types of meals be placed in a bag, preferably a Ziploc bag so you can appropriately portion the quantity you'll be taking and eating. Better this than bringing an entire package of oatmeal.

Dried fruits such as raisins are also a better and healthy option. Dried cranberries are another, as well as blueberries. For drinks, good old powdered orange juice like Tang is readily accessible and easy to carry as well. Coffee could also be brought on a camping trip, preferably instant coffee that doesn't have to be brewed.

What's good about this type of camping food is that there's less trash left behind.

During camping, compared to bread, crackers are a better option because they're less likely to get stale and fill the tummy as well. Plus they're light and handy. A good cracker brand is Wasa. However, if you want cheese with your crackers, choose those that don't need to be refrigerated. Or, if you want to be tastily creative, there's always easily-packed pepperoni and salami.

Peanut butter can also be placed in portable tubes, as well as chocolate which is extremely tasty and emotionally filling, especially during that difficult top climb. However, if you prefer to experience a little of the luxury in the real world to your camping climb - and don't mind carrying some heavy stuff - pack a can of liver pate, chicken chunks, ham or tuna.

Relax though, if you're having difficulty sacrificing your wants, remember that your camping climb isn't forever. You'll eventually be coming back to the world where there's a microwave oven, a stove-top grill, refrigerators and coffee machines.

Prepare, prepare and prepare

Prior to camping, make sure you know just how many days or weeks you'll be out. This helps you prepare the meals you need to take during your trip. To get the most nourishment without feeling too heavy after having eaten during camping, calculate the quantity of snacks you can take in. Usually carbohydrate rich foods don't have a lot of moisture and so they're a good choice.

Also, to avoid the monotony of the same meals during camping, it's best to schedule or designate different types of food at each meal. Dried fruit for breakfast and oatmeal for lunch are good choices. Cookies in between isn't a bad idea.

Actually, camp food is just like regular food minus the usual amenities. It can taste good and be healthy too.

After a long day of activities, sight seeing, and spending time with other people, you will be tired. Cooking dinner will vary on what you and your family prefers and what you feel like cooking. The possibilities are endless, but some common dinners to prepare when camping include:

* Hamburgers
* Hotdogs
* Spare ribs
* Chicken
* Macaroni and cheese
* Grilled vegetables
* Fruit
* Salads

Desserts can also be cooked while camping. Popular campground desserts include:

* Cobbler
* Corn bread
* Pie
* S'mores
* Marshmallows

Quick and Easy Campfire Stew

Ingredients

* 2 lb Hamburger
* 1 can stewed tomatoes
* 1 can corn
* 8 oz Elbow macaroni
* 1/2 cup Chopped onions
* 1 cup Water
* 1/4 lb Longhorn cheddar cheese

Preparation

Brown beef in dutch oven, kettle, or skillet. Drain. Stir in tomatoes, corn, macaroni, and water. Cook until done. Just before serving add cheese.

Building a good fire on your camping site isn't just a fancy party trick to impress your fellow campers. Actually, knowing how to build a proper camp fire can spell the difference between life and death in extreme circumstances.

In simpler and less complicated times, when matches and gas torches were luxuries, building a proper camp fire was essential to any outdoor activity. Camperfires provided warmth against the cold as well as the means to cook a warm dinner for everyone.

Aside from the heat, wild animals tend to stay clear of a burning campfire, which is why they're always left burning well into the night.

While the art of making campfires has been all but forgotten - partly because matches are more convenient - campfire making is an important skill and essential to any camper's repertoire of tricks.

The first secret to starting campfires is to start them quickly. You can only do this if you have a firm grasp of what's needed to start a fire - heat, oxygen, and fuel.

Oxygen, while around us, isn't always readily available to the campfire. You may have to arrange the fuel in such a way that it has an adequate air supply. You may also supplement this supply by blowing into a cinder, or fanning an already blossoming flame.

Heat is usually generated for campfires by friction. You'll probably use an assortment of methods to generate this heat - rubbing two sticks together, using flint stones, and other techniques. However, this won't give you a glorious fan of flames if you don't have the right fuel.

Fuel is what keeps your fire burning, and finding the right type of fuel is integral to your efforts at building and maintaining a fire. Building a fire by applying heat to the logs isn't going to work. You'll need tinder. Tinder is easily combustible materials that burns quickly and hopefully emits enough heat and gases to start a fire with larger pieces of wood.

Ideal tinder includes dry sticks, bark, dry leaves, and twigs. Use this kindling to start the fire and to help maintain it. But remember, you can only successfully build a fire if the larger, harder to burn pieces of wood burn actually keep burning.

Tepee: Tepees are great for quick fires, and last long into the night. It makes use of a lot of tinder, so you'll need a lot of it. The longer burning wood is placed and balanced against each other vertically around the tinder. This makes sure that the heat and the gases of the tinder are generated in a way to help the larger pieces of wood burn. It's the perfect fire for boiling water and general purpose campfires.

Pyramid: You build a 'pyramid' of logs by laying the logs horizontally on the ground together, then building another layer on top of the next, gradually forming a pyramid. Although this type of campfire is a bit more difficult to start up, the advantage is that it generates a lot of charcoal that will be useful in the future. It burns quite well and is quite a stable fire.

Parallel: The parallel fire puts the tinder in between two logs. This is an efficient burning fire since the insides of the log burns as well - having the fire and heat going in a good, snug place between two logs.

Star (Indian): This is the type of fire you usually see in those old Western movies. The logs are laid out like spokes of a wheel. Tinder is placed in the middle. The fire is easy to maintain, although you do have to push each 'spoke' of the wheel towards the middle as the fuel burns up.

There are other types of campfires, all with specific purposes. But as with any outdoor skill, creating and maintaining any of them takes a lot of practice to get right. Like mothers usually tell their kids, don't play with fire. Treat it with respect as it has the power to save and to destroy.

Remember to follow safety precautions after using a fire - douse the fire with water or bury the remains of a campfire with dust and dirt. Fires left unattended may cause serious property damage, so always take precautions to make sure nothing that shouldn't burn gets burned.