If you’re planning to venture into the great outdoors to sleep beneath the stars any time soon, you’ll want a few family-friendly camping recipes up your sleeve that will wow your kids without breaking the bank. So here are six of our favourite cheap and cheerful camping recipes which even fussy eaters will love. (Hopefully.)
Chorizo Breakfast Burritos
We made these by accident once, when my husband chucked the contents of our fridge into a cool box immediately before a hastily-arranged camping trip, but it’s now our favourite family camping recipe. Crack your eggs over a well-greased frying pan, add a splash of milk and some chopped up chorizo, then whisk for a minute or so until your eggs are suitably scrambled and cooked to your liking. Spoon the scrambled eggs into a tortilla wrap. (You can brown these first in a frying pan in a few seconds if you prefer your burritos crisp and crunchy rather than soft and soft and floury). So yum. If your kids don’t like chorizo, try making theirs with chopped ham or crispy bacon. Or, you know, educate them as to the error of their ways.
A Bag O’ Nachos
You eat these tasty beef nachos straight out of a packet of your favourite tortilla chips - perfect for mealtimes around the camp fire, plus no-one needs to traipse to the washing up facilities afterwards. First, make your favourite nachos recipe. I usually brown some lean beef mince in a little oil over a low heat, and then stir in a packet of fajita seasoning. Next, I chuck in a variety of chopped veg - mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes and diced red onion work well. Then, simply grab a packet of your favourite tortilla chips, crush the bag a until the chips are all broken up, then spoon a serving of the cooked beef mince into the bag. Top with grated cheese and a handful of your favourite nachos toppings - quacamole, sour cream, and tomato salsa work well - and voila! Dinner is served. Kids go crazy for this. When else do they get to eat their dinner out of a crisp packet?!
Pitta Pocket Pizzas
Slice a pitta bread in half, squeeze a smidgen of tomato puree or your usual pizza base sauce inside each half, add a generous handful of grated cheese along with your favourite pizza toppings, and wrap the whole thing in tin foil. If you spray the foil with Fry Light first then the pizza pockets won’t stick to the foil. Pop the foil packages on your campfire for about a minute and allow to cool a little before eating. Suddenly there’s a packet of pitta bread calling to me from the bread bin…
Dutch Oven Cowboy Stew
This camping recipe cooks really well in a Dutch Oven, if you have one. (If not, check this one out at Amazon.) Bung in some lean minced beef, some diced red onion, a small bag of potatoes (peeled and chopped into bite-size chunks) and then a couple of cans of your favourite beans - my lads love baked beans so I go for those but you can try anything from butter beans to kidney beans, and those 'value' tins of mixed beans are great if you want to bulk up the recipe on a lean budget. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes - if you fancy a luxury version, a tin of Heinz tomato soup adds a lovely, rich flavour - then season with your favourite herbs and spices. Brown the beef and onions first then bung everything else in the pan and cook in your Dutch Oven for 45 minutes - 1 hour. This smells AMAZING as it cooks; it always bring my kids running.
Omelette In A Bag
Every time we've shared this on our Facebook page, someone tells us that plastic bags release toxins and we’re all going to die if we try eating it, so, er, please proceed with caution. For this you’ll need to chop your omelette fillings in advance. We go for onion, mushrooms, ham and grated cheese but you can go wild - pretty much anything will work in an omelette. Then simply break two eggs into a re-sealable freezer bag, add a splash of milk, carefully seal the bag (this step is vital) and then gently shake to break up the eggs a little. Add whatever omelette toppings you fancy, close the bag, and then steam it for around five - ten minutes in a pan of boiling water. Once all the liquid in the bag has disappeared, gently open the bag and let the steam escape before tucking in.
S'mores
No camping recipe feature is complete without including s'mores. So named because they always leave you wanting some more. My lads go bonkers for them and routinely beg to be allowed to make them in the microwave, although they first discovered them on a family camping holiday. Our favourite approach is to toast some marshmallows over the campfire - these marshmallow toasting forks could come in handy - and then sandwich them between two McVitie's caramel digestives (Best.Biscuits.Ever) before stuffing several into your gob in quick succession whilst huddling around the camp fire. They only take seconds to make, and tend to vanish just as rapidly. So yum.
Image credit: Flickr/iris
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