Camping food doesn’t have to be expensive or repetitive! We’re extremely passionate campers. Over the years, we have been through various challenges when thinking of meals during camping. So to save you some time and effort, here’s our intensive experience compressed in this article which helps you guys decide on the best affordable food for camping.
This list closely keeps nutrition and transportability in check, as we all know camping can lead to rough and rocky paths sometimes.
Include any of these delightful camping food ideas on your menu, and you’ll be looking forward to each bite.
Easy Camping Breakfast Ideas
A fun-filled camp day starts with an amazing breakfast. Here are some of the ideas we gathered for a great and healthy meal to start your day right!
Granola
In the crisp world of granola, there’s store-bought granola with ingredients you’re not particularly sure about and homemade granola with everything you enjoy for a fraction of the cost. We always make our Granola Ourselves!
Granola and Camping go well together. Since we love camping, we know it requires food that is easy to pack and carry. Granola is an excellent choice for packed food when planning on this meal for camping. The taste that comes with Granola is also fantastic, especially when eaten with a fresh cup of tea.
Crunch, crunch, forest sounds–perfect!
Cereal
A delicious breakfast is one of the best ways to start the day. However, as with your other breakfast options, you should choose cereals that are practical, lightweight, and take up little space in your backpack. Individual cereal sachets are a great way to start the day with a toasty snack. Pots of oats are also ideal for grab-and-go breakfasts, but they can be consumed at any time when you need something quick to eat.
Small packets of individual cereals might also help you start your day off well. However, choose low-sugar cereals or muesli instead. Breakfast bars or cereal bars are a great option for cereals that you can take in your pocket.
Oatmeal
What could be better than a hot cup of hearty, healthful oatmeal on a chilly camping morning? Sure, a steaming mug of salted caramel mocha with soy milk would be more appealing… But keep in mind that you’re roughing it.
1 You can stuff them with dried fruits, seeds, and nuts, which are high in calories and nutrients.
2 Instant oatmeal can be made at home for a reasonable price.
3 Individually packaged single-serve containers are simple to make.
4 They’re free of preservatives and other additives.
5 And they’re more than just sugar (which, let’s face it, is the case with our beloved Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal Packs).
Pancake
You’re probably familiar with pancakes and camping; it’s a simple camping breakfast that almost everyone enjoys.
Many of you may simply grab one of those shaker bottles from the grocery and bring those pre-made mixtures with you when you go camping these days. They’re simple to use and keep on hand, and there’s nothing in those bottles that you can’t make yourself.
We recommend picking up the pre-made mixtures and using them with your touch of pancakes. Have a gourmet breakfast instead!
Maple Syrup
When you go camping, you want to bring faster and easier food. Breakfast is one of those meals where you don’t want to make too many mistakes. Pancakes are a great alternative to cereal, especially on a cold morning.
Pancakes are enjoyed by everyone, regardless of their age. Pancakes are not complete without maple syrup, but it’s so much better if you use real maple syrup rather than store-bought.
Easy Camping Lunch Ideas
Is it not true that lunchtime is the finest part of camping? It is just what you need to finish off a day packed with fresh air and outdoor activities. Our favorite meal of the day is lunch since it does not have to be complex.
Here are some of our favorite lunch ideas for camping:
Cracker Stackers
This is exactly what it sounds like a feast of tasty treats piled high on crackers. Peanut butter and jelly, cheese and salami pieces, hummus and vegetables, and turkey and cheese are just a few of the options. This is a simple one-to-serve buffet style, with everyone preparing their dish.
Bagels
Another one of our favorite lunch meals while camping is bagels. They’re easy to carry and go well when you toast them with cream cheese & lemon juice.
Pita Bread
Pita bread is a popular camp snack, and it’s simple to fill with any toppings you have on hand for a quick lunch. Hummus, vegetables, pesto, or peanut butter and jelly may all be placed inside a pita to make a meal, and the bread is rather light, making it easy to transport.
The one drawback to pita bread is that it dries out quickly, so if you don’t use it up in the first few days of your vacation, you’ll be stuck with slightly stale sandwiches.
Grilling that slightly stale pita flatbread is a fantastic option. With a little olive oil on the exterior and a little melted cheese on the inside, you’ve got a sandwich that’s as good for dinner as it is for lunch. Let’s face it: this is essentially a glorified grilled cheese sandwich. Who hasn’t enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich at some point?
Rice Cakes
Rice cakes, depending on what you add to the mix, provide a reasonable quantity of incredibly simple carbs from the white rice, as well as a little salt, fat, and protein (excellent for long endurance rides).
Canned Tuna
These come in a wide range of tastes and are simple to use on sandwich rounds with cheese or to spread on crackers. Tuna salad is a terrific camping supper and it works well for lunch. It’s delicious in a wrap or sandwich, mixed with cold spaghetti, or served over greens for a lighter salad. This one is also simple to pack for a hike.
Canned Salmon
Canned salmon is a pantry essential that can be used to create a variety of delicious and healthful dishes. To make nutritious and delicious salmon burgers, combine canned salmon with saltine crackers. Serve on toasted buns or English muffins with mayonnaise and optional melted cheese for a quick lunch or dinner.
Tinned Sardines
Sardines in a tin have traditionally been a good camping food since they pack a lot of nutrients and flavor into a compact package. Sardine cans fit perfectly in corners of your pack, cooler, or camp box where very little else will fit. They’re fantastic for snacking, as the main meal of a quick lunch on the go, and as ingredients in salads and other cuisines. Even before the pop-top moved from beer cans to sardine tins, the sardine could always have the camping benefit of self-opening because it had an opening cover.
Tinned Oysters
Camping mainstays like tuna and canned chicken are tasty, but they’re also quite dull. Bring smoked oysters or sardines to up your packed-protein game. They’re salty and flavorful, and they work well with cheeses, tortillas, crackers, or just by themselves. Appetizers are a great way to show off your actual taste.
Canned Beans
Baked beans are a well-known canned camping food staple, and no camp food collection is complete without a few cans. When you’re trying to maximize the amount of space and weight you have, it’s best to bring cans that contain as many different foods and nutrients as feasible. Beans and sausages in a can are essentially a meal in a can, and they come in a variety of flavors, including beans and burgers and all-day breakfast. If you don’t have access to a kitchen and don’t want to eat sausages, there are a variety of canned beans that may be eaten cold (such as three-bean salad).
Canned Soup
This is a popular canned food delicacy all around the world, with succulent steak chunks cooked in a delicious sauce. When you’re camping on a cold night, there’s nothing more satisfying and nostalgic than a bowl of warmed-over-the-fire tinned beef stew. This is a fantastic dinner because it is significantly more substantial than soup while remaining equally warm. This camping supper doesn’t taste as it came from a can, and it goes well with rice, potatoes, or French bread.
Dry Soup Mixes
These soups are popular among backpackers and campers, but they’re also ideal for a quick supper on the go for travel, the office, or dorm rooms. All you’ll need is a microwave or another method of bringing water to a boil. You can keep these on hand at home or in your car in case of an emergency.
Peanut Butter
It’s delicious, filling, and reasonably priced. Peanut butter is high in healthy fats and protein, as well as calories, which will provide you with enough energy for tough physical activity like trekking.
Bread & Sandwiches
No trip is ever complete without the good old sandwiches. Bread slices are a great addition to your camping food package, along with stuff that goes well with it. This includes Jam, Mayonnaise, ketchup & mustard.
Pasta
You can’t beat pasta for a quick refill after a long hike or for a much-needed rush of energy at lunchtime. Many campers prefer to bring dry pasta to boil over the fire, while others prefer to prepare it ahead of time. However, canned pasta options like spaghetti in tomato sauce are just as good and may even be eaten cold.
You may also take canned pasta sauce along with you, which is a great addition to meals other than just pasta.
Pasta with dried pesto made from fresh parsley and basil and topped with parmesan cheese is the ideal camping dinner because it’s light, delicious, and hearty. This dinner served with hard buns slathered with clarified butter, is unquestionably one of our favorite traveling dinners.
You can get a jar of Pesto from your local store for storage in your backpack.
Potatoes
Potatoes are an excellent camping food. They’re inexpensive, portable, simple to prepare, and adaptable. Always remember that you can complete the prep work at home and properly load the items into your cooler so that your supper is ready to cook when you arrive!
Another thing to keep in mind when deciding your camping food list is the variety of drinks you’re gonna need.
First and foremost, plenty of water is necessary as this will be vital for thirst along with all the preparatory stuff with most of your food packaging. Dry juice mixes are a great addition to your backpack, considering foods like pancakes go well with these as well.
It’s also a good habit to keep raw materials for tea or coffee to add a little fun to your camping experience. Most people would also go as far as to keep hot chocolate as well.
Some important food items regardless of your meal plan are also to be kept in mind.
It’s good to keep the vital stuff like salt, sugar, black pepper, garlic, and some spices to have the ability to modify or improve your meal instantly.