How I Cook for Camping Trips

 With three camping trips under our belt this year and many more in years past I feel adequate enough to speak on how we cook for camping trips.  As with any plans I make, I start with a Google Doc so I can map out the meals we need, the ingredients and special utensils we may need for that meal, and a list of snack ideas.  Then I use this Google Doc each time we go camping so I'm not needing to reinvent the wheel. 

We have a Coleman stove that we have had for years.  It has one burner and then a grill on the other side.  The grill can be removed and replaced with a griddle.  In my opinion this is the best set up rather than having a two burner stove.  We occasionally cook on the fire but mostly we stick with the stove. This is sort of like the one we have but ours is opposite and ours is the class Coleman green.

We have one small pot and burner top kettle for boiling water. We have brought the cast iron pan before when we have made campfire nachos and a big pot when we made macaroni and cheese, but mostly we stick with minimal items.  we also have one of those folding toasters:

Breakfast Ideas

Pancakes - I make the dry mix at home and bring it along in a Ziploc bag, and then bring along eggs, milk, and oil to mix up.  We usually serve with bacon.

Egg McMuffins - Another yummy hot breakfast with either bacon or sausages. 

Cereal, Toast, Yoghurt - We use camping as an opportunity to buy sugary cereal like Froot Loops. 

Coffee - This is a must have for us and although we used to bring along instant packets, we have upgraded to a French Press and real coffee grinds.  It really does make a difference.  We also bring along hot chocolate and hot apple cider mix for the boys. 

Lunches are usually sandwiches on the beach - PB and J for the kids, ham and cheese for Dave and me and a variety of snacks.

Supper Ideas (I like to save some meat free meals for our last two or three nights so I don't have to worry about meat staying too long in the cooler)

Burgers - These are good but always pretty greasy.  I have to put down tin foil under the grill so keep it as clean as possible.

Skewers - These are made up ahead of time and grilled up quickly.  We would eat these when we arrive since I don't like leaving chicken for too long in the cooler.  I will also bring a salad that I've made up ahead of time or one of the bag salad kits.

Tacos - I will make up the taco spice and grate the cheese ahead of time, and with the soft shells, it makes it easy to put together.  I'll bring along a whole avocado too to mash up, and a small container of plain yoghurt in place of sour cream. Everyone loves tacos at our campsite. 

Baked beans and hot dogs - Best to do this as you get your fire going so you can roast the hot dogs instead of having to grill them.

Pasta and garlic bread - We did this for the first time last week.  I had a package of tortellini and a jar of sauce and I just brought along the prepared garlic butter to spread on a baguette.  

Soup and grilled cheese - We have a grilled cheese maker that we use over the fire and serve the soup in mugs.

Macaroni and Cheese - The recipe I use requires you to boil the pasta in a milk/water combination until cooked, then without draining the liquid, add cheese and stir.  It is pretty delicious. 

Campfire nachos - This requires a heavy pan and tin foil.  I will cut up tomatoes and peppers and bring a bag of already grated cheese. 

Chili - If we have this I will have made it ahead of time and frozen it in a Ziploc bag, then I just warm it up for supper. 

Greek Chicken Bowls - Pre-marinated chicken breast pieces, pre-made greek salad, rice, hummus, tzatizki, and pitas.  This is good for a group too since everyone can put together their own plate/bowl. 

Cooking our garlic bread, so good!

Snack Ideas

Fruit and Vegetables (our family is currently partial to pears, berries, cucumber and bell peppers. I used to cut it up ahead of time but now I just bring the whole thing and cut it up as needed)

Cookies

Chips

Candy (I always get a pack of Super Nibs, they are my favourite, Dave prefers sour candies)

Crackers

Nuts

Trail Mix

Campfire cones - sugar or waffle cones stuffed with chocolate, mini-marshmallows, banana pieces, strawberries, mini-peanut butter cups, and cookie pieces (or any combination fo this), and wrapped in tin foil and set on the fire grate until melted.

Something I've noticed recently is that we aren't as hungry as I think we will be, so I've been pretty good at packing less food so we aren't bringing so much home. 

Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N.

We took the day off on Friday to take the kids to a special event at Yorkdale Mall - Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N.  It was basically an exhibit set up to be like a "training facility" to help the Avengers save the world (*eyeroll*, but the kids love it), with displays and some interactive games and photo ops.  We had tickets for this for December as a little treat since we were going to miss out on other Christmas events but then of course we went into lockdown at the end of November and we didn't get to go.  We finally rescheduled for last week and we were given two free tickets so we brought two friends with us, also big Avenger fans.  This was my first time inside a mall in a long time, it was busy but not too bad.

Let's do this!

Superhero pose

The exhibit was a timed entry so it wasn't too crowded and if you kept moving along then it was fine, it took about an hour to go through it all.  All of the movie posters at the front. 

First up was the Ironman room. 

Then Bruce Banner's lab.

Captain America's shield.

And motorbike.  It looked like they were supposed to have a fan hooked up in front of the bike so it could feel like you're riding it, but of course Covid protocols put the ix-nay on that. 

My favourite one, Black Panther - Wakanda Forever!

Trying to pull out Thor's hammer.

W acted as Q's chair.

Then we grabbed some lunch at the food court before we headed home. 

And a few bonus pictures from the rest of the weekend.  Q carrying E's baseball bag after his game on Saturday morning.  They did not pose for this, glad I caught it!

On Saturday afternoon E was at a birthday party and Dave was golfing so I took Q on a paddleboard ride at the lake.  We parked at the South Kingsway boat launch and went out the Humber River into the lake, east along the shore to the Sunnyside Pavilion and back.  It was slightly choppy out there so I paddled from my knees around the mouth of the river so I wouldn't fall off, but it was a pretty good time other than that. 

Fun to be out on the water!

Summer in the city, nothing better!

Camping Recap - Arrowhead

 Recapping our third camping trip of the summer.  This time we went with another family of four, who also have two boys.  We hang out with them in the city but this was our first camping trip together.  Let's get to it!

We were all packed up to go last Sunday.

Full but not filled to the brim, we could see out the back!

Obligatory stop at Webers since we were heading north on Hwy 11.  Q says he likes this "sandwich" (cheeseburger).

Then we went to Kawartha Dairy in Huntsville for ice creams.

We got into Arrowhead Provincial Park mid-afternoon and set to work. See how hot and humid it is from Q's sweaty hair.  And I am also looking tired :)

Q enjoying his pasta.  If you're interested in how we prepare food for camping I am going to do a post about that on Wednesday.

Note the tarp above us.  We had rain several times throughout our trip so it was good to have this up.

Our site was right next to be beach (No. 501 in Roe, for those who know), so I took the opportunity to go out for a paddle board ride before breakfast.  I was the only paddler that I could see, but I did some some fisher people on shore.  We got ready after breakfast for the beach and spent much of the day there. 

The kids got a lot of biking in and Q kept up despite being the youngest.  They got these activity books at the store.

They also got some push pops.

A little bocce ball action.

On Tuesday morning we enjoyed our breakfast under the tarp.  The was what the kids were most excited for - Fruit Loops and Corn Pops. 

Then we set out on a hike around the lake.  The boys all did well.  Our friends had some walkie talkies which was a big hit with Q.

After our hike we went to the beach for part of the afternoon.

I paddled down the East River to the waterfall.  This was proof I made it to the bridge :)

Lots of fun in the water.  It started raining mid-afternoon so we grabbed everything and headed back to our sites. 

Fire starting time after supper.

Making some campfire cones.

That night the boys actually went down to fish and caught a small one.  This was a highlight for Q and he has asked to go fishing every day since.  Looks like we need to make our way to Hyatt's again soon!

They also saw this big turtle!

The forecast for Wednesday was calling for lots of rain so we weren't sure what to do with our day.  First up was pancakes though.

We thought we would start with a bike ride to the lookout and then throughout the East River campground and to the waterfalls.

Thanks for this great photo Colleen (along with some other photos. !!

Then the sun came out and it was the most beautiful beach day, no rain!

Dave took the paddle board out for a spin.

We got a bit of rain overnight so we were packing up a wet tent again.  We were ready to go home so we hit the road around 11:00, got some lunch in Huntsville and made good time home.  Usually we are heading out of Muskoka on a Sunday afternoon so the Thursday traffic was much better.  Thanks for the great camping trip friends!!