JMDRAD Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 My family and I may be taking a 2-3 week road trip in August to AZ. We plan to bring our small dog with us and do some camping along the way. I was wondering if anybody has any advice on: Traveling with animals Eating healthy on the road and saving money Camping in general ???? We've only camped once using a friend equipment. My husband has experience camping but his is more along the lines of "single guy with just a sleeping bag". Anyways... We need to buy a tent and camping supplies. I am hoping to be able to cook most of our meals but I'm not sure what to make besides the usual hotdogs. LOL Does anybody have any camping cookbooks they would like to recommend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CariS Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 I would like to hear some answers to this as well. I will be camping with my two kids in Sept, and would like to have some stuff to eat besides hotdogs and burgers. Last year I did buy the individual things of tuna that came with mayo and crackers. But that can get pricey. We also had some individual ravioli cans, but we had access to a microwave. I also baked a bunch of muffins and oatmeal cookies ahead of time. And of course we had lots of fresh fruit and veggies that I cut up ahead of time. If you are going for more then a week, I would plan on shopping as you go. Oh, my mom used to take a big ziplock bag and fill it with fill it with eggs and milk, and whatever else we wanted like cheese, then mixed it all up (like scrambled eggs). She would toss the bag, sealed of course, in a pot of boiling water on the fire. I remember that being pretty good. Cari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenpatty Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 We have a propane camp stove that works great & doesn't take up much space. I can cook most anything on it. Soft tortillas work great for holding almost any kind of filling - pbj, tuna salad, beans, etc... They also travel better than sandwich bread. I got this link in my email today. It has lots of camping recipes. HTH! Sounds like fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalicoKat Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 My family and I may be taking a 2-3 week road trip in August to AZ. We plan to bring our small dog with us and do some camping along the way. I was wondering if anybody has any advice on: Traveling with animals Eating healthy on the road and saving money Camping in general ???? We've only camped once using a friend equipment. My husband has experience camping but his is more along the lines of "single guy with just a sleeping bag". Anyways... We need to buy a tent and camping supplies. I am hoping to be able to cook most of our meals but I'm not sure what to make besides the usual hotdogs. LOL Does anybody have any camping cookbooks they would like to recommend? my favorite for camp cooking is a grill hamburger, hot dogs, short ribs, even pizza can be cooked over this! Our favorite though was foil dinners. Make them ahead and have them in the cooler ready to plunk on the grill to cook while you go about setting up camp. Of course making the fire is the first order of business at the camp site. Add a fruit or green salad and you're good! As for camping with a dog. Good luck. We did it a couple times but then opted to board the doggie's so we were free to do activities where dogs weren't welcome (even on a leash they're not welcome on most hiking trails). In the heat you can't leave them in the car or tent/camper unless you have air conditioning and pet escape-proof place tent/camper. If/when we're able to buy our hard side camper we'll be more comfortable brining along the pooches again. But we also had 6 little kids and 2 doggies.........:D might be different if you have fewer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 my favorite for camp cooking is a grill We have one of those grills. We cookie on it frequently, either directly on it like a grill or with a pan on top of it. For breakfast, we usually have breakfast burritos made with fried potatoes, eggs, cheddar cheese, and sour cream. Sometimes we have just eggs and bacon. They are all cooked in cast iron pans on top of the grill, which is set over the fire. For lunch, we usually have sandwiches or hot dogs. For dinner, we have the usual camping fair like hot dogs and hamburgers, but we've also gone fancy with Mignon roast, baked potatoes with all of the toppings, sauteed mushrooms, and green beans when money wasn't so tight. We grill the meat on the grill, bake the potatoes in foil in the fire pit, and cook the veggies on pots on the grill. We've also done bbq chicken on the grill. We have a two burner camp stove now. We usually use that for breakfast these days because it is faster. With the camp stove, we've added pancakes to our breakfast list because the heat is more even. We've made Kraft Mac & Cheese for the kids for lunch/dinner, as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erica in OR Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 We like the foil dinners a previous poster mentioned, too. Another option is "taco in a bag". You just need the taco fixings and quart-size freezer bags. I cook and season the meat before we go and have it in the cooler. Throw in tortilla chips (the kids prefer Doritos) and crush, then meat, cheese, sour cream, salsa, lettuce. Seal the bag and mix it up. Eat directly from the bag with a fork. It helps to fold the top edge of the bag over. We actually ate this for supper at home yesterday. :001_smile: Erica in OR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Breakfasts: Pancakes--either fry them up on a camp stove or premake them, wrap in foil, and heat. You can also eat thin pancakes cold with fruit and cream cheese in the middle like a burrito. Muffins (premade) Cereal with milk (bring a cooler) Eggs of various sorts. If you want hashbrowns, bring some baked potatoes, cut them and fry them up on the grill. Instant oatmeal. You can cheat on this one by buying normal oatmeal and grinding quickly/lightly in your blender. Add raisins or almonds or cranberries or blueberries or apples, etc. We often also have some sort of protein drink or instant breakfast drink to slurp down first thing--it helps to have a little something in the tummy while preparing the rest of the meal. Lunch: *We usually make our lunches cold and quick so that we can stay on the move with our daytime activities. Summer sausage with cheese Sandwiches Dinner: Foil packets premade are always a good thing. Steaks or chicken or sausage on the grill Garlic bread toasted up on the grill You can buy dehydrated meals from REI or other camping stores. This can get pricey though. Instant potatoes and instant rice are easy to do on a campstove or grill. Bean burritos Bean soup--2 cans beans + 1 can diced tomatoes + 4 c. chicken broth +diced onion + oregano + salt. **** Always supplement your meals with fruit and/or veggies. I usually like tea or coffee in the morning, especially when camping as I feel foggier in that setting first thing. I try to keep granola bars on hand for snacking. The more organized you are ahead of time (prepacking meal portions and so forth), the nicer your trip will be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 This site has great (easy) recipes for real food when camping. I am a huge dutch oven fan for camping. When camping, we cook with a dutch oven and a small saucepan. http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/~papadutch/ When camping it helps if you can do as much prep ahead of time as possible. With a 2-3 week road trip, it's a little trickier, but worth it to keep a cooler with ice for fresh veggies, etc. Prep them when you have time and store the prepped veggies in the cooler for making faster meals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 We have a propane stove and can cook just about anything. We also have a grill rack, that sits over the fireplace and we use to cook meat. We do pre-cook a lot of things and then just heat them up while camping. Since our kids are pretty picky eaters we do a lot of pasta and macaroni & cheese. For breakfast we bring cereal or make pancakes for the kids and eggs/bacon/sausage for us. Lunches are usually cold sandwiches. We bring two coolers - one for drinks and one for food - so that the food cooler isn't being opened constantly. We also make what DH calls moon pies. We use a 2-sided hinged metal holder. You put in two slices of bread and between them you put sauce, cheese and any fillings you want. Put the two halves together and stick in the fire to cook. It makes a little pocket pizza that is really tasty. Don't forget marshmallows and stuff to make S'mores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My3Boys Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 When we camp we always bring our Coleman camp stove and our cast iron dutch oven and skillet with accessories for cooking in coals/over a fire. You can bake just about anything in a dutch oven! I have made pizza, pies, biscuits, stews, casseroles, you name it. You can use regular metal pie plates and cake pans (for biscuits) inside the dutch oven. I also usually bring a regular skillet for the campstove. If you have access to electric at your campsite and you need to cook for more than 4 people, an electric skillet is really nice to have. You can fit more food in it than a regular skillet. Think one dish meals. You want to minimize cleanup. I would recommend you get a good dutch oven cookbook. The site someone else posted is really helpful too. Now I'm in the mood to go camping! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koerarmoca Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 We are camping next weekend for the first time as a family. Walmart has a good deal on a 10 person 3 room tent for $119. We are staying 2 nights/3 days. we wont be at the site fulltime as we are visiting my bff and her new baby we figure we will eat only breakfast/dinner at the site and lunch with her as we visit. so we plan for 2 breakfasts/2 dinners we plan eggs/sausage/steak for 1 breakfast & cereal/poptarts for another breakfast hotdogs/chili fritos for one dinner foil dinners another night and will pack plenty of snacks and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMDRAD Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 WOW!! Thanks so much for all the links and suggestions! I'll be checking those out very soon.:D We will be on the road for 2-3 weeks on our way to AZ for two months. We are planning to find an apartment (soon) to stay in while we are in AZ. This is the reason we are bringing our dog with us. He's small and we were hoping to find places/people to dog sit along the way. Not sure how that will work out though. Anybody have any ideas on finding dog sitters? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptwoman Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 We use a small propane stove, and we have a grill attachment for it. In Australia you are not always allowed to light fires due to bush fire danger, so camp fire cooking is not common. I take a large skillet and large pot, I cook lots of one pot meals in the skillet and I use the pot to make potatoes, pasta etc to accompany things cooked on the grill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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