16 Quick and Easy Camping Meals..
When you go camping, hiking or backpacking trips, there is already a lot to handle right? There is lots of stuff you need to take so complicated meals and needing loads of cookware is not really practical. Quick and easy camping meals are the order of the day and we have a list of great ideas here. Each of the 16 easy camping meals either has instructions or a downloadable recipe card for you to use.
What to consider when planning easy camping meals
You won’t have all of your usual kitchen tools, surfaces and ingredients to hand so you need to think about making easy camping meals that will fill the family up, but not take hours to make. It is all about practicality and making it delicious…
- Consider how many ingredients you need and what you can do to minimise the amount of things you need to take.
- Ideally you are looking for one pot meals
- Think about meals that can be prepared at home and taken ready to go.
- You might also consider using some tinned items which are easier to take along than the fresh ingredients
- Think about how you are going to store your ingredients. If you have electric hook up and a plug in cool box you may be able to take more fresh ingredients than if you are, say camping in the middle of the summer with no way of keeping things cool.
- Consider what you are going to be doing each day. If you will be very active you may need bigger portions
So if you are looking for quick and easy camping meals which can be made with very few ingredients and a single piece of cookware, we have come up with a list of delicious recipes that can be tried without out any hassle.
QUICK AND EASY CAMPING MEALS
Ok let’s get into it with our quick and easy camping meals that wherever possible use just one pot!
And don’t forget to check out our advice on what you need to take for your camping cookware set up so you are able to cook these awesome quick and easy camping meals
Ultimate Camping Cooking Gear List
Scrambled Eggs and Chorizo Rolls
Scrambled eggs are a great thing to plan for your first night dinner or your first day camping as they are quick to prepare, but also nutritious and delicious.
Add chopped chorizo (pre cooked, ready to eat is easier for an easy camping meal) and cook in one pot stirring as you go.
Once the eggs are ready you can serve inside a bread roll or just with the roll on the side.
Top tip for taking eggs camping
Scramble them before you go and put them in an air tight container.
That way you don’t have to take eggs and worry about them breaking and the meal is half prepped already.
Asparagus skillet hash
Savoury pancetta, delicious potatoes and colourful asparagus makes a perfect camping brunch. Two eggs in it will not only enhance the taste but also make it super nutritious giving you energy to go for a long walk.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 medium potato, cut into 1/4 inch dice
- 1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 4 oz pancetta, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 eggs (pre whisked)
Instructions
Add some oil to your frying pan and place it over the campfire or on your camping stove. As it becomes a little hot add even layer of potatoes and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes. Turn them occasionally and cook them until they are golden brown.
Now add pancetta garlic asparagus and salt to the skillet. Cook these ingredients for another 8 to 10 minutes until they are ready. Now take out the hash and fry the eggs in the skillet for about 3 minutes. Your delicious asparagus skillet hash is ready to serve.
Baked Potato and Beans
Pierce your potatoes with a fork and wrap in foil. Then simply place in the embers of your fire covering them with hot coals or wood for at least one hour, but they could take longer depending on the size of the potato. This isn’t necessarily a quick meal, but it is very easy and has minimal ingredients and is great for a family camping trip as once it is on you have nothing to do so you can just enjoy family time whilst you wait for the potato to cook and then heat the beans 5 mins before serving.
All you need is baking potatoes, a tin of beans and maybe some grated cheese or soured cream for the top.
I also like to pre cook crispy bacon bits at home and do this as our first night meal. When I am doing that I also par cook the potatoes before we go and cool them completely before putting them in the fridge and then finish cooking in the fire.
Cheesy ham and pineapple sandwiches
This is a simple and quick recipe that doesn’t take much cooking at all and is a great option for a quick lunch or an easy dinner after a long day.
Ingredients
- 4 rolls
- 10 ounces ham
- 4 pineapple rings
- 4 slices cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
Instruction
Take four pieces of aluminium foil which are large enough to cover a sandwich. Cut the rolls in half. On the bottom of the roll add a slice of ham, pineapple ring and one slice of cheese. Pop on the top of the roll and wrap them with foil. Place the wrapped sandwiches on grill tray and cook
We have used toasted sandwich bags when camping for this type of sandwich which work really well. They are intended for use with toasters, but we have just put them into a frying pan and used another pan on top to make sure it stays together. We also love our stove top sandwich press that works straight on the campfire. These are an extra piece of kit, but personally we find these super useful so worth the space and they are only small. The only downside is they only do one sandwich at a time so you need more than one or it takes a bit longer to make it all.
- Make toasted sandwiches directly over your gas stove or camp fire
- Small and compact so great for camping tr
If you don’t like the idea of the pineapple just leave it out. You could consider frying an egg instead and adding that in. It is delicious that way!
Sausage and potato fry
This is a 20 minute recipe which can be done in just one pan if you cut the potatoes small. Serve with a salad to make a great lunch or dinner option.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 6 oz. potatoes cut into small pieces
- 4 carrots cut into small pieces
- 1/2 red onion, sliced
- 1 pack of sausage cut into small chunks
- 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
Instructions
Heat the pan, add the oil and then add potatoes and carrots. The smaller you cut them the quicker they will cook. You can par boil them first if you prefer them to be softer, but this adds another step and another pan to wash up.
NOTE: This is an example image as we were so hungry when I cooked this on our camping trip there was no time to take an image 😉
Cook the vegetables until they have softened and keep turning them occasionally. Then add red onions and mix it all together in the pan. Lastly add the sausages and cook until browned and cooked through. Then sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese over the top for the last 1 min of cooking.
Serve immediately!
Camping hot dogs
Camping hot dogs is a two ingredient recipe which makes an awesome snack or lunch. You can make it even more interesting by adding a slice of cheese into your hot dog bun or turn it into a more substantial meal by adding sauté potatoes.
Ingredients
- Hot dogs
- Hot dog finger rolls
- Potato chopped into small pieces
Instructions
Boil some water and heat your hot dogs in the water. Once ready pop into your finger rolls et voila!
If you want to add sauté potatoes then use a tongs to get the hot dogs out so that you still have the boiled water.
Par boil your potato chunks in the boiled water and then once you have tipped out the water you can use the same pot with a small amount of oil to sauté the potato. At the very end pop the hot dogs in the pan to heat if needed.
TOP TIP: The smaller the bits of potato the quicker they will cook, but par boiling them will definitely help with decreasing the fry time
LINKS TO MORE AWESOME CAMPING MEALS
The other meals that I would recommend are below with links to great recipes that I have found.
Some of the quick and easy camping meals here are ones that I created or adapted and these are the ones that link to my other site Navigating Baby.
The other recipes are linked to other sites and may not show up as being specifically camping meals on those sites, but rest assured I have tried all of these recipes on our camping trips and so I know that they are all quick and easy camping meals that you can make with simple equipment like a frying pan, saucepan and knives.
If you are looking for more information about the best camping cookware sets to get or what you need for cooking camping meals with a family then check out these links.
Pasta and Pesto
BBQ Chicken Foil Wraps
This recipe suggests cooking the foil packets in the oven, but what I do is put the packets on top of the open fire on a grill tray which works brilliantly. Just make sure to check that chicken is cooked through….
Please note this is a canva image used for illustration purposes and is not actually my cooking
Quesadilla
This is the quickest camping meal and great for a lunch or even a brunch. We love it as you can use basically anything you have as your filling. If you also plan to do the chilli and rice the two meals can really complement one another as you can used soured cream as a topping for both!
This recipe says to warm the tortillas first using a microwave. Clearly you can’t do that when camping, but don’t fear. I never do that even at home and the quesadilla always work perfectly
Chicken Fajitas
3 bean chilli and tortillas
With this one I always pre make the veggie chilli and take it with us as then it the quickest meal ever to prepare as you are basically reheating and just serving with tortillas. For a longer trip this may not be possible of course so in that case you can easily do this on a camp site
Savoury Pancakes
Top tip: Make up your pancake batter at home and bring it ready to cook with in a jar. It saves so much hassle and makes this into the quickest meal ever for a family camping trip
Beef Stroganoff Pasta
Cheats Risotto
Pasta with tomato and hidden vegetable sauce
This tomato sauce is the most amazing solution for camping meals as it is so versatile. You can make loads of it before you go and then use it for a plain pasta with tomato sauce, for a bolognese or for a pasta and meatballs.
One Pot Chilli and Rice
TOP TIP: To make this even easier I always make up the chilli mince before we go. I then freeze it and put it in our cool box so it acts as an extra ice pack whilst it defrosts and our meal is half cooked when we want to eat
Which one of these quick and easy camping meals will you try on your next family camping trip?
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