I've just discovered Marks and Spencer tinned mince and curries - really nice. I think I might take some camping next time. Although we have a fridge it spoils the holiday always thinking what to buy/cook/eat.
How about buy fresh food and cook it? A while back I bought a dutch oven and its really easy to have a tasty roast chicken and salad or bake some scones or what ever you would use a normal hob/oven for. Or just stick to a small double burner gas stove and grill and take a wok along. I would use tinned or precooked too, easy to use a tinned chicken curry as the base of something really nice. Just a bit surprised they seemed the only options in the discussion
On a three night away trip I would normally take two chilled meals and one tinned meal, with the tinned meal being optional if we decided to eat out instead.
Both for me but do prefer prepared Bol & Chilli which I pop in the freezer the night before and take in a cool bag on the day of travel. Usually it is just about defrosted by the time I get to the camp site or we will end up having eggs and beans on toast. Not bad for a quick bite. Last trip, got some tesco's finest sauagues (buy 1 get 1 free deal) Cooked them off, made some onion gravey with diced carrots. Put in sealed container. When we got to site, peeled some potatoes for mash, heated up the rest of the food, fab meal. Enjoy your camping trips.
------------- JMGA
Everyone brings happiness to my life, some when they arrive and some when they leave.
Since we are Italian the idea of anything other than fresly cooked pasta is a complete no-no!
As far as the sauce is concerned, forget tins or Dolmio, while the water for the pasta is coming to the boil put a glug of good olive oil in a pan, fry up a couple of coarsely chopped cloves of garlic until they just begin to colour, chuck in a jar of passata, salt and pepper and either dried oregano or chopped flat-leaf parsley. A slosh of red wine helps but is not essential. Simmer gently and by the time the pasta cooks it will be ready. This basic sauce is quick, simple, cheap and tastes far better than anything from a jar. Vary it by adding some chopped bacon (or lardons if you want to sound posh) with the garlic or a drained tin of tuna in oil at the same time you put the pasta into the water.
------------- Eagles may soar but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
mixed feelings then! I personally would not keep any food out of fridge longer than 24 hours, sorry. the last thing you need on a camping trip is food poisoning.
Dried peperoni type sausages are useful, can be added to pasta as well as tuna. We also add tuna, dole out to kids then add anchovies and mushrooms to ours.
kids favorite is tinned meatballs! :(
our favorite is thinly cut steak on fresh crusty bread with salad and bottle chianti :)
Annie
------------- Annie :)
Its better to regret things you've done than things you have never tried
It varies according to how long we go away for. For a weekend we would take fresh ingredients to cook the Friday evening, and usually a home pre-cooked then frozen meal in the cool box for the second evening. Also in the cool box is a frozen carton of milk for Sunday breakfast and those two keep the beers cold for Friday evening and bacon for Saturday morning
Part of the fun for my fella is the cooking .... he's odd like that.
I used to freeze everything until we got the fridge. Once the weather wasn't too warm and nothing would defrost!!! Ended up defrosting the bacon for breakfast on the bonnet of the car with the engine on! The fridge has changed our lives things keep cool for a few days now. Got mine in Lidl for £29 last summer.
I always take things like tins of soup/beans/spaghetti which are ideal for light meals or snacks when the kids say they are starving at 9 o clock in the evening, despite having had a good meal earlier. Tend to buy fresh meat etc and cook that. We have a mini fridge and that will keep meat fresh for a day, but wouldn't risk it for longer.
Nothing wrong with tinned stuff.A potato is a potato a carrot is a carrot and peas are peas.Now meat , most tinned meat comes from places like Argentina and not from the zombies we have mooing in our fields.
We take Boiled ham Boiled bacon for sandwiches which are kept in the fridge.I eat more when we camp than i do at home , must be the fresh/sea air
Soz Surfin, no tinned meat or veg for me.... have you tasted a freshly cooked carrot and a tinned carrot side by side? They taste well different!...
We do have the old staple of baked beans, which OH says has to go on his "Full English"!!! They're a good snack - always have 2 tins of beans in our camping food box ready to go, so we always have something quick to eat if needs be.
But...there are some ready meals which are great. They're called "look what we found" and they do soups and meals. They're not cheap, but honestly, they taste great. Give em a go, I also keep a couple of these in the camping box for us.
Totally agree with some other posts, pasta is the easiest thing to transport, I also use chorizo sausage and a bit of bacon and some mushrooms and either a few chopped fresh toms if in the summer or a good splosh of passata for a quick spicy pasta tea! bit of crumbled cheese on the top is good too.
I'm lucky as we have a good camping fridge, but I tend to buy fresh meat on the day to cook that evening.....