Keep Camping Menus Simple

Camping menus work best if they need no fancy ingredients and are simple enough that you don't have to read a list of instructions.

Unless you're one of those TV personality chefs showing off for a cooking show you just want something that's tried and true. You already know what the friends or family you're cooking for like to eat best. So keep your camping menus in line with the KISS principle... (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

A bad tradesman blames his tools, but a good cook knows the limitations of a 'make do' kitchen, and works within them.

Remember, when you're playing the role of camp cook, your range of tools is smaller. There are more ways for things to go wrong when cooking in the Great Outdoors. You won't have the same oven or cook top you're used to, your working surfaces will likely be smaller, and so on.

Appetites are larger when people are out in the fresh air, particularly of they've been actively burning up calories. You'll get rave reviews just by serving up the chow on time and keeping it from getting burned. What I mean is don't keep your guests waiting too long, but by all means let them build an appetite watching you do the cooking.

Just spend a little time preparing a rough day-by-day guide on 3 x 5 inch cards showing what you'll all be eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. Buy your supplies the day before, if possible, and those cards are the only camping menus you'll need.

Most easy camping recipes are what we call 'one pot meals'. That's fair enough, because you just don't have the same variety of kitchen conveniences when you're off camping somewhere.

You want to keep things nice and simple.

People who are backpacking and want to save every ounce will often use dehydrated foods. These come in aluminium packets, rather like soup. You just tear open the top and mix them with boiling water. They are cooked in a few minutes. The advantage is speed and convenience; the downside is cost - they are expensive - and I don't think much of the taste myself.

You can improvise easy camping recipes yourself by making thick soups and stews, and chucking all kinds of 'extras' into the mix to make it more interesting.

Rica and pasta add bulk and carbohydrates to your meal. They cost almost nothing and are light to carry. You flavour these with packeted (powdered soup) and real adventurous campers will add their own touches, like dried curry powder, or chili flakes. You can use plastic 35mm film canisters to hold salt, pepper and spices in your camp kit.

Dried beans were a staple of the Old West and our forefathers lived on beans and pork (salted) and beans and bacon (also salted). Lentils are another kind of bean that a quarter of the world seems to live on as a meat substitute. They're very tasty with rice, and can even be stored together dry in measured amounts for one meal. Experiment a little with some add-in spices and chopped vegetables, possibly dehydrated ones... Make your own meal packets in little plastic zip-lock bags and save real dollars every time you eat. (Be sure to bring the empty bags back home with you as well. Don't trash the wilderness!

Oatmeal (porridge oats) makes a great breakfast and so does muesli. And muesli can also be cooked like oatmeal, and is much more interesting because it's full of bits of dried fruit.

Experiment. Have fun with some easy camping recipes, and you'll soon have a bunch of your own.