10 Hacks to Make Cooking While Camping a Breeze

Let’s Make it Easy

When I was young and single I was lucky enough to have a job planning corporate high adventure trips. This required figuring out the trip agendas, lining up outfitters, and planning, prepping and cooking all the food for a group of 15+ adults. Over the years of doing that job, I learned a thing or two about meal prep for camping trips. Since then I have had the opportunity to refine those skills on our family camping trips.

Let’s face it, camping with kids is a lot of work. While I can’t make that last piece of baby gear fit in your overloaded car, I can share with you my hard-earned knowledge to make cooking while camping a breeze!

10 Hacks for Making Cooking While Camping a Breeze

When it comes to camping I am all about making things as simple as possible. While I think the fact that I have to decide what’s for dinner every night for the rest of my life is some sick joke. I think having to cook while on vacation is even worse. So if there is anything I can do to make that task easier (or in some cases none existent) you better believe I am going to do it.

The hacks below are designed to do just that. To make it so that once you get on the camping trip the workload is lightened, the task of cooking and meal prep can be easily delegated, and you have plenty of time to bond with the hammock and a good book. So let’s get started!

Hack #1: When possible pre-cook your meals

When deciding on meals for your camping trip try to pick meals that can be easily cooked prior to the trip. This means that you do the bulk of your food prep and cooking at home and then simply reheat the food on your trip. There are a couple of benefits to doing this:

• You are able to relax more on your camping trip and can delegate out the “cooking” (cough…reheating) assignments.
• The chance for cross-contamination is removed by not having to bring raw meat on your trip.
• You don’t have to bring as much cooking equipment on the trip.
• And if the recipe you chose makes more than you will need, you can save the extra food to be eaten when you return home (which is really nice since the last thing you are going to want to do when you get home from camping is make more food!)

To refrigerate or freeze…that is the question

Once you have pre-cooked your camping meals you will need to make the decision as to whether you will freeze the meals or simply refrigerate them. To make this decision you will want to take a couple of things into consideration:

• How hot is the temperature going to be on your camping trip? If it is going to be fairly warm (90+ degrees Fahrenheit or above) you will want to freeze your meals. In hotter temperatures, it will be harder for your cooler to retain ice. Having your pre-cooked meals frozen will help with your cooler’s ice retention.
• What is the quality of your cooler? If your cooler struggles with ice retention under normal circumstances then you will want to freeze your meals. Once again this goes a long way in helping your cooler not become a soupy mess and ensuring your food stays fresh. If you are looking for a quality cooler I would recommend the Lifetime 55 Quart Cooler {aff. link}
• How long is your trip going to be? If you are going on an epic 7 day camping trip then you will want to freeze your meals. Since all you will have to keep your food fresh is a cooler than freezing is your best bet to ensuring your food doesn’t spoil.

Additional Things to Keep in Mind

If you end up freezing your meals keep the following things in mind:

First: Let the food fully cool before sticking it in the freezer. This reduces excess condensation from freezing on your food and potentially making it soggy or watery when you thaw it.

Second: Be sure to NOT freeze any meals that you will be eating the first day of camping. Since most camping trips begin in the afternoon you don’t want to have to be trying to thaw your dinner in a matter of hours.

Third: It takes time for food to freeze so if possible make the food at least a day or two in advance to leaving on your trip – not the night before.

Fourth: Be sure to always look one day ahead so that you can pull the food out of your cooler and give it enough time to thaw. This will also make the reheating process quicker. Just be sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t end up in direct sunlight or left out too long.

Hack #2: Prep your fruits and veggies prior to the trip

To make life even easier, prep all your fruits and veggies prior to your trip. To help your produce stay fresh on your trip try the following tips:

Tip #1: For berries (e.g. strawberries, blueberries, etc.) soak the fruit in a vinegar bath (4 parts vinegar to 1 part water) for 20 minutes. Rinse thoroughly with water and then air dry fully before packing them for your trip.

Tip #2: Pack washed lettuce in a bag with a wet paper towel to keep fresh.

Tip #3: Buy and prep produce as close to your departure date as possible for optimal freshness.

Hack #3: Avoid bringing certain kinds of fruit

When choosing what fruit to bring on your camping trip be sure to avoid fruit that bruises easily (e.g. bananas). If your camping trip just won’t be complete without them then plan to use them the first day. Some examples of fruit that hold up well while camping are strawberries, apples, small watermelon, oranges, clementines, cherries, blueberries, and grapes.

When buying your fruit, you will also want to carefully inspect it to make sure the fruit isn’t already bruised or has a rotten piece of fruit in the bunch (oranges, clementines, or apples).

Tip: If you think you are going to be short on cooler space, pick fruit that can be stored at room temperature. Just make sure to store them in the shade at your campground.

Hack #4: Put your bread in a cooler

When storing your bread during the trip try putting it in a small cooler with either frozen water bottles or frozen ice packs. When bread is stored in a plastic tote or left in direct sunlight it will sweat and then quickly start to grow mold. The reason I recommend using frozen water bottles or ice packs is that there is no chance of those turning the cooler into a swimming pool which can result in your bread getting wet. We like to use our small soft-sided cooler for this job.

Hack #5: When possible repurpose food

We all like variety in our food choices, especially when on vacation but when planning your food for camping it is ideal to repurpose one food item for multiple meals. This makes for less food you have to pack and potentially prep. Here are some examples of how you might do this:

• Pick one or two fruits or veggies to use as side dishes for multiple meals
• Have the same topping for multiple meals (guacamole for egg sandwiches, for tacos, etc.)
• Or use the leftovers from one meal to make another meal (pulled pork revived as pork breakfast burritos)

Hack #6: Separate meals into Ziploc bags

To avoid having to dig through your cooler for stray meal items try grouping everything for each meal into a gallon Ziploc bag. You will then want to label each Ziploc (e.g. Breakfast – Day 3) and if possible load your cooler in order of when you will eat each meal. This makes it super easy for your little helpers to find everything they need to make dinner (or breakfast/lunch). If there is a food item that will be used for multiple meals you can either divide it up into smaller containers to put in each Ziploc bag or you can place it in the first Ziploc bag it will be needed and then after the meal is over move it to the next meal’s Ziploc bag.

Hack #7: Make eating lunch on the go easy

If you plan on eating lunch away from the campsite consider bringing a smaller cooler to store your lunch items. This will prevent you from having to haul around your big cooler. Which will save on gas mileage and ice since your big cooler won’t have to sit in a hot car. If you are bringing a small cooler for your bread you can try and repurpose that cooler for lunch use. If you have to move your bread items to your bigger cooler, just be sure that there isn’t a risk of it getting wet from melted ice.

Hack #8: Don’t forget storage containers

When packing kitchen items for your camping trip be sure to bring some aluminum foil, Ziploc bags, and Tupperware containers. These are super helpful for storing the fruit and veggies you will cut up on your trip, along with any leftovers you might have from your meals.

Hack #9: Practice cooler safety

Nothing will ruin your camping trip faster than a bout of food poisoning. Check out my post 13 Tips for Keeping Food Icy Cold in a Cooler for everything you need to know about how to pack and store food for your camping trip.

Hack #10: Make Feeding Baby Easy

If you will be bringing a baby on your camping trip that has started on solids I would recommend bringing a couple of items to make feeding them easy. Feeding a baby off your lap is doable but is a serious pain because, as we all know, babies are notoriously messy eaters.

Solutions for a Travel Highchair

If you have space (and I highly recommend you make space) consider bringing a travel highchair. It doesn’t have to be anything big or fancy. We ended up getting the Summer Pop N’ Sit Portable Booster {aff. link} and we love it. If you want to see my review of it you can check out my IGTV channel on Instagram (@adventures.after.kids)

Here are some other options you can consider:

• Bumbo (just be sure not to place it on high services). We have this one {aff. link} which has an attachable tray.
• Child Carrier. Just prop it up on the ground and stay nearby to make sure it doesn’t tip over. Personally, we don’t do this because we have a nice Deuter pack {aff. link} and we don’t want food getting all over it.
• A cheap umbrella stroller

In the end it doesn’t matter what you use, just make sure you think of a solution before leaving home.

Other handy dandy feeding tools

Some other items I would recommend to make your life easier are:

• Silicon Feeders {aff. link} These are awesome for safely feeding your baby raw fruits and veggies. I use them for apples, carrots, halved strawberries, etc. I am always surprised at how much food Emma is able to get out of them.
• Reusable Pouches {aff. link} These are great for babies and toddlers. If your baby is eating purres you can use the pouch instead of spoon-feeding them. I also like to use them for applesauce, yogurt, and pretty much anything else I can mass up small enough to get through the opening. It is much cleaner than Emma feeding herself.

Are you Ready?!

Hopefully, you found these hacks helpful and get a chance to try them out soon. What other hacks have you used to make meal prep for your camping trips easier?

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Happy adventuring!

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