Food For Camping - to cook or not cook!

When choosing foods for camping, you have a big advantage over backpackers, and you have more space left. In order to have more options when planning your trip. There are two trains of thought in planning meals for a camping trip, and have to cook or not cook!

If you wanted some good food for camping easy to cook without, then you might want to go on / dried food freeze dried route.There are companies (such as Mountain House) who produce these meals and can be ordered online. They offer a wide variety of choice to the consumer from main courses to desserts that are very calorie controlled, nutritious, and filling at the same time. So these would fit the bill perfectly. The downside is that they are quite expensive to buy and if you were planning a lengthy trip, then you would probably need to take out a small mortgage to purchase the food.

Another alternative for not cooking when camping are M.R.E packs (meals ready to eat) These are rations pioneered by the American Army, and can be purchased at most Army Surplus Stores. They consist of a case of 12 meals, (one for each day containing main meal and dessert). They come with their own heating source and spoon with each meal. They are literally "ready to eat" and are reasonably cheap to buy. The downsides are that they come in cans, so they are quite bulky to carry, and there is not a great deal of choice. However there are vegetarian options available.

If however you like cooking when camping then your options are endless. It is probably true that you do not want to spend your entire camping trip slaving over a hot campfire; however with a little bit of planning and preparation, then you could eat really well quite cheaply.

Think of bringing items like pasta, and pulses. They will keep indefinitely and will not spoil, and are also versatile. Pulses make great additions to "one pot stews", and pasta is great with a tomato sauce. Foil meals make great camping fayre because you can just place all ingredients like chicken or fish and top with fresh vegetables in a piece of tin foil, wrap it up and put it in the embers for approximately 20 minutes or until done, Eureka!, an instant meal. Plan the night before what you are cooking and prep as much as you can. That way you you do not have to start from scratch cooking, if you have a hard day's work completed.

I personally prefer to cook like a happy ending came out less, and you know you are getting a healthy and balanced meal, and something good to know how you like. Yes, there is more work, but if you do your planning properly, it's really a big problem.