by Rebecca Dyson

Created on: January 10, 2009

Camping is supposed to be a relaxing activity. The relaxation factor significantly decreases if large blocks of time are spent cooking the meals, however. Keeping this in mind, camping food can be created easily and with minimum of time spent during the camping trip itself if a bit of planning and preparation occurs prior to the camping trip.

First, plan every meal prior to going on the camping trip. Figure out exactly how many days you will be camping and what you will serve for each of those meals. Choose meals that are easy to prepare and take a minimum of time as well. Also consider how long each food item has to cook, as cooking on a camp stove is often less efficient than cooking at home in one's kitchen.

After the menu has been planned, prepare every food item you possibly can ahead of time. The camper's best friend is a vacuum packer such as the FoodSaver. Camping stove meals are ridiculously simplistic if you have prepared the food using a vacuum packer. Pretty much any food can be vacuum packed, so camping food variety greatly increases when you use this method.

To heat up vacuum packed food, simply drop the bag in boiling water. Let it boil for a couple of minutes, then turn it off and let it sit in the hot water until it is heated through. We vacuum pack everything from pasta to pizza for eating on our camping trips.

If vacuum packing and reheating food is not your thing, there are plenty of quick and easy camp meals that will please and satisfy your camping crowd. Some of the more popular camping meals are:

Hamburger goulash - brown hamburger in a frying pan. Add cooked pasta and spaghetti sauce.

Hamburgers - form patties and fry them in a frying pan.

Hot dogs and beans - heat hot dogs in a pan of water. Heat beans in a separate pan.

Fried potatoes - slice and season potatoes, then fry them in oil in a frying pan.

Spaghetti or any other pasta - Cook spaghetti noodles. Brown hamburger in a frying pan and add spaghetti sauce.

Omelets - Cook them in a frying pan using whatever ingredients you fancy.

Tacos - brown the hamburger and season it. Heat up the taco shells in a frying pan. Serve with all the usual condiments.

Camp stove basics include making sure you have adequate fuel to last throughout your camping trip. Pack enough cooking utensils and pots and pans that are sturdy enough for camp stove cooking.

The bottom line with ensuring an enjoyable camping trip is to bring enough food that is easy to cook so you can spend your camping trip enjoying yourself instead of slaving over a hot camp stove.

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