Breakfasts
Bacon + Egg Muffins: Pack bacon, eggs, cheese, sauces + english muffins. Cook everything on bbq plate and enjoy!
Pancakes/Pikelets: Pack a pre-mix 'shaker' pancake bottle or make your own dry mix in a jar, add wet ingredients when ready to cook. Bring along your favourite toppings - maple syrup, nutella, spray cream, berries
Porridge: Simple and filling start to the day, especially for kiddies. Pack your quick oats, milk, honey, cinnamon and cook in a pot on your stove burner.
Yoghurt + Granola: This is my light and easy go-to, great for pack-up day to avoid cooking. My fav? Tamar Valley Blueberry Yoghurt in the individual serves and Jordan's Almond + Hazelnut Granola - delicious!
Baked Beans/Tinned Spaghetti on Toast: Pack your tins, your bread (or use english muffins) and your butter. Toast your bread over a fire or on a bbq plate while warming your tinned beans/spag in a small pot (or just eat straight from the tin!).
Shashuka: Ok, now this feels like a fancy AF camping breaky option but I am a bit of a foodie/diva at times. Pack eggs, tinned tomatoes (diced or crushed), spices, capsicum (I prefer fresh but jarred can be easier while camping), onion, minced garlic, feta (pack a jar of it in your fridge/esky, great for salads or bruschetta while camping too) and your favourite bread, fresh or toasted.
Lunches
Bougie Burgers: Pack brioche buns, meat patties, use some of your breakfast bacon + cheese, lettuce, sliced tomato, sauces and red onion (cook with some brown sugar and balsamic vinegar in a small frying pan to be extra bougie). We like to halve our buns and toast on the bbq plate before adding all our fillings. So damn delicious!
Chicken Schnitzel Wraps: Pack chicken schnitzels, multigrain wraps, salads, cheese, sauces (I'm a chipotle mayo gal) and feel free to add bacon because our motto is, everything is better with bacon! This is a great one to save for the end of your trip when you've used all your bread or it's getting a little old, the wraps are also great for breakfasts towards the end of a longer trip too.
Bruschetta: This is a great light lunch that can be pre-made as a 'set-up day' meal, chop up all your ingredients and pop in a well sealed container and even pre-toast some sliced baguette. It can also be made any day while camping and slice up a baguette or loaf of bread (ciabatta/pana de casa etc) and toast over a fire or on your bbq plate.
Tacos: We always like to have some pre-cooked meals that we freeze and pack in the esky/fridge to keep things cold for longer and eat later during the camping trip. Taco mince is one of them! We also like to pre-cook diced up capsicum, red onion and black beans. Then on top of pre-cooked ingredients, pack wraps/soft tacos, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, avocado, taco sauce and grated cheese.
Protein + Salad: For a simple, straightforward lunch pack a pre-made salad (greek, garden, slaw, pasta, potato - whatever!) and then simple throw a protein on the bbq (sausages, steak, chops, chicken, vegetarian option).
Sausage Sizzle: Always a hit, bring on a 'Bunnings' lunch - sausages, onions, sauce, bread - done!
Dinners
So many of our dinners are pre-cooked. By the end of a day camping, running around outdoors, swimming, riding bikes, kicking balls and maybe even having a few beers, we like our dinners to be as straight forward as possible to just enjoy winding down.
Fried Rice: We pre-cook and freeze fried rice leading up to our trip so we can just reheat in a frying pan/pot when we are ready to eat. Our fried rice includes, chicken, bacon, carrot, beans, shallots, ginger, garlic, peanut oil, soy sauce and brown rice. Delicious!
Spaghetti Bolognese: The bolognese is pre-cooked and frozen, then we simply cook dry pasta on the camp stove, add a sprinkle of parmesan and often pack store bought garlic bread wrapped in foil, that we then pop on the fire or bbq.
Chilli Con Carne: Another pre-cooked meal option, sometimes we make it on mince but if feeling fancy (organised) we will place a chunk of meat in the slow cooker to create a shredded meat chilli, which we then freeze. We often pack microwave rice that we just heat in a frying pan to serve with the chilli and of course a big old bag of corn chips and grated cheese. If you're a sour cream or avocado fan, feel free to add these on top too. I could pretty much eat this every single day if I'm honest.
Chicken Thighs + Veg: You can do pretty much any protein really, but we love seasoned chicken thigh fried up on the bbq and greens (beans/broccolini/bok choy/asparagus etc) either fried or steamed over the stove. Sometimes we might pre-cook a small potato bake in a foil tray to warm up on the bbq or fire to have as a side or if we are feeling basic and missing chips, a hash brown on bbq can also do the trick.
Meat + Veggie Skewers: These can be assembled before your trip or on your trip or picked up pre-made from a butcher. If planning to assemble while camping, I like to at least have my meat option diced and marinating before we leave. Then I pack skewers and veggie options such as mushrooms, capsicum, tomatoes, zucchini, pineapple, red onion etc ready to assemble before throwing them on the bbq plate.
Campfire Stew: Ok this is a classic and amazing when the weather is on the colder side. For me, this is definitely not a pre-cooked option, you have to enjoy this process while camping. Pack a dutch oven (one of those big heavy camp pots with a lid) along with your ideal meat choice to be slow-cooked, veggies such as potatoes, carrots, onion (maybe some peas to add in at the end) along with garlic, stock, tomato paste, worcestershire sauce, herbs etc. You can always take this opportunity to make damper to eat with the stew and soak up the juices - GET. IN. MY. BELLY.
What will you be adding to your next camping menu and what do you think I should try??
I can't wait for your suggestions!!
Big love and happy camping,
Steph x
