5 Easy Meals You Can Make While Camping

Cooking at a campsite isn’t as convenient as cooking at home, but with the right recipes it can be both easy and delicious. Here are five ideas that need few ingredients and little equipment.

1. Foil packet (chicken or vegetables)

Wrap chopped chicken and seasonal vegetables (potato, pepper, onion) with some spices in aluminum foil and set it on the coals. In 20–25 minutes you’ll have a filling meal without dirtying a single dish.

2. One-pot pasta

Cooking water, pasta, and a sauce ingredient you like (canned tomatoes, a bit of olive oil) all in one pot keeps both cleanup and cooking time to a minimum.

3. Skewered vegetables and cheese

Zucchini, mushrooms, peppers, and cheese cubes threaded onto skewers are ready in a few minutes over the fire — and it doubles as a fun activity for families with kids.

4. Overnight oats for the morning

Combine oats, milk (or a plant-based alternative), and dried fruit in a jar and let it sit in a cooler overnight. You’ll have a ready breakfast in the morning with no cooking required.

5. Campfire toastie

Put cheese and tomato between two slices of bread and hold it over the fire with a long-handled toasting iron or two forks — a classic that never gets old.

General tips

• Chopping and bagging ingredients at home ahead of time cuts prep time at the campsite significantly
• Choosing recipes with minimal dishes is a practical choice given how limited water and cleanup facilities usually are at a campsite
• Never leave food scraps at the campsite — they can attract wildlife