Camping Recipes

We’ve been camping enough with our family by now that I can safely say it’s one of our “things”.  We love being outside in nature enjoying God’s creation!  Now, we don’t exactly rough it.  We spend a few years tent camping and now own a pop-up which really helps during Texas summers because it has an A/C.  Even so, it’s a stripped down, simple version of life when we go on our adventures because we’re out of the hub-ub of life, away from the busy suburb in which we live and for the most part, away from technology and screens.  Now, we may be living simply when we camp but there’s one thing we don’t skimp on and that’s food!  We love camping food and have enjoyed everything from chocolate cake with chocolate ganache to pork and beans from our cast iron Dutch oven or skillet.  One of the things that makes cooking outside easier is doing almost all of your prep at home.  For things like pancakes, you can bag up all your dry ingredients in a gallon size Ziploc baggie, label it and end up adding your egg and milk and mixing it by hand!  You can even pour your batter straight from the bag and save yourself some camp kitchen clean up!  Below I’ve written out the recipes for two of my favorite meals we use when camping.  They are delicious and incredibly easy! 

Pancakes

2 Cups Flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/3 Cup sugar

1 tsp salt

(Combine above in a gallon sized freezer bag)

When it’s time to cook, add:

1 egg

2 cups milk

Massage or “mix” your sealed bag until a batter forms.  It will be lumpy, but most pancake batter is!  Ideally let it sit around five minutes. 

On a griddle or skillet set to medium/low (ideally one that has just fried up some bacon!) pour out your batter in four to six inch pancakes.  When the edges are no longer glossy looking and there are visible bubbles on the batter, you can flip and brown to your taste.  Butter those babies up and enjoy with some syrup or make roll ups with bacon or spam. 

Smoked Sausage and Veggies

1 pound smoked sausage of your choice

½ chopped yellow onion

Four to six cleaned and sliced zucchini or yellow squash

1 cup chopped green beans

Seasoning of your choice (my favorite is Serendipity seasoning salt, tastes great on anything and I only have to carry around one bottle of something in my kitchen supplies)

2 tbsp. olive oil or butter

So, there are two options for this.  One is a skillet cooked dinner with a cornbread topping.  The other option is making individual foil packets to be cooked over the fire.  Both are very tasty!

For the skillet dinner:  Chop and combine all veggies and sausage and place in a gallon sized freezer bag.  In another freezer bag combine 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 3 tbsp. sugar, 1 tsp salt.  Just as you did with the pancakes, add one egg and 1 cup of milk to the bag when it’s time to cook.  Melt olive oil or butter in the bottom of a deep skillet with a lid or a Dutch oven.  Over your stove or coals sauté your meat and veggies until tender and the onion is glassy.  Pour your cornbread mixture over this and place your lid.  Three heated coals can be placed on the top of the Dutch oven to brown the cornbread for about fifteen to twenty minutes.  You can also place your lid and lower your heat on your stovetop and the steam will heat and cook the cornbread, this should take fifteen to twenty minutes as well.  Let it cool and enjoy! 

For the Foil packets:  Divide your meat and veggies into five or six servings.  Take aluminum foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray and wrap up each serving adding a dash of olive oil or butter to each one.  Cook over the fire until tender or layered in your dutch oven, three or four heated coals under and on top.