Quick and Easy Camping Menu

For our last camping trip I wanted quick and easy meals so that my family could enjoy their time on the beach.  I also knew that rain was going to be in the forecast for our weekend of camping, so any grilling would have to be done quickly.   The menu I came up with was a basic camping menu with a few make ahead options to keep things simple.

Camping Menu For A Weekend

Friday Dinner:  Walking Tacos

Saturday Breakfast: Pancakes

Saturday Lunch: Hot Dogs, Pasta Salad, Watermelon, and Cherry Coke Camp Cake

Saturday Dinner: Hamburgers, Pasta Salad, Watermelon and S’mores

Snacks: Banana Muffins

Sunday Breakfast: Banana Muffins

So this was the plan anyway.  It didn’t quite happen.  The  boys enjoyed the  beach so much we didn’t get to make lunch until late in the afternoon.  A huge storm blew in from the gulf, so a dinner of grilled hamburgers was not going to happen, not that anyone was hungry after the huge lunch they ate.  So all my pre-planning is going into this blog post.  Hopefully someone can get use out of it.

Thursday morning I made up my shopping list and headed to Publix.

Thursday night I made the hamburgers up and froze them, so that when I packed them in the camper refrigerator they would stay cold with added freezer packs.  I pre-cooked and seasoned the taco meat for the Walking Tacos.  I also chopped up the lettuce and tomatoes.

Friday morning I made the pasta salad, banana muffins and cut up the watermelon, while my husband went to get the camper out of storage.  We didn’t have much time to get the camper refrigerator cold enough to store our food for the two-turned closer to three, hour trip.  We had to use our cooler.  Normally if we are doing a short drive, everything stays cold in the refrigerator in the camper.

Walking Tacos

The Walking Tacos for Friday night are simple to make.  Just open a small bag of Doritos, crunch the chips up, add your pre-made taco seasoned hamburger (heated in your camper microwave), lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, and hot sauce.  A quick and simple dinner with no hassle.  Also easy to clean up!

So the hamburger may look a little off to you because it’s ground turkey.  Not my husbands favorite, but he eats it.

For breakfast on Saturday we just ate pancakes.  I bought the pancake mix that is labeled “complete” so that you just need to add water or in our case almond milk to mix it.   Quick and easy and out the door ready to explore!

Saturday lunch as you know was late.  My sons worked on the Cherry Coke Camp Cake found here.  While my husband got the campsite’s grill up and going for the hot dogs and cake.  Turkey hot dogs for me and regular ones for the boys.  The hot dogs really do not take long to cook, so with the pasta salad and watermelon, lunch was ready in no time.

The pasta salad is really a quick and easy side dish to make ahead for a campout.  Just take the following ingredients and mix with your favorite Italian dressing to your desired flavoring.

Pasta Salad

• 6oz (1/2 a box) of Tri-Colored Rotini Pasta
• Tomatoes
•  Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Green Peppers
• Italian Dressing
• Cheddar Cheese and Black Olives (optional)

Cook and drain the pasta.  Let it cool.  Chop up the vegetables to how much prefer and add others that you like.  Add the vegetable mix to the pasta.  Next add the Italian dressing, depending on how you like the taste.  Put it in the refrigerator to chill until ready to eat.  Top with cheddar cheese and black olives if desired.

This salad added with the watermelon made a fantastic lunch out of just plain hot dogs.

The Cherry Coke Camp Cake was a great way to finish lunch.

So Dinner was suppose to be grilled hamburgers and turkey burgers.  Using up the rest of the watermelon and pasta salad.  S’mores for dessert because camping always involves S’mores.  That of course didn’t happen.  But these banana muffins came in handy for snacking.

I took my Mom’s tried and true Banana Bread recipe, made a few changes, to make Banana Bread Muffins.  Here is her recipe:

Mom’s Banana Bread

• 3 Bananas
• 1/2 Cup Soften Butter
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Cups Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Walnuts

Break and Beat bananas until a liquid; set aside.  Cream butter and sugar; add eggs, one at a time.  Beat well.  Stir dry ingredients together, mix with creamed mixture.  Add bananas and nuts.  Pour into a well-greased loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

The only things I did differently was substitute the butter for Butter Flavored Crisco, because my youngest is lactose intolerant.  I also omitted the nuts.  Instead of pouring the mixture into a loaf pan , I used a muffin tin.  I baked them for approximately 25-28 minutes and made 17 muffins.

Don’t forget to pack your desired drinks, and condiments.  Enjoy your stress free camping weekend, with a simple, quick and easy camping menu.

Happy Camping!

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