There’s really nothing better than sitting down around a fire to cook your dinner after a long day of adventures. Unfortunately fire takes time to get going and then letting it die down enough to actually cook on takes even longer. To simplify the process there are a number of good meals that you can make that are able to be eaten cold, with boiling/hot water, or near a roaring fire!

This article is a temporary placeholder and hopefully will get updated and improved over time (or moved somewhere else entirely!)

How to plan a menu

This is a much longer topic than I have time to write tonight. In a nutshell though, you need to consider the following factors:

1. How many meals do you need?
2. Which meals will you have time to cook (and what type of cooking? Fire or hot water?)?
3. Will you have to carry all your food for the whole trip? If so you need light weight, space conscious items.
4. Will you have access to refridgeration? Food safety is extremely important. Do NOT bring foods you can not safely store.
5. What cooking tools will you have access to? Pie irons? Dutch oven? Skillet? A flat rock?
6. How many people are you feeding?
7. Does anyone have allergies or dietary restrictions?
8. What is your budget?

Once you know the above answers grab a piece of paper. Make a table like the one below. Make sure that you plan healthy meals that cover all the basic food groups. And while a baked potato and s’mores are yummy, they do not count as a healthy meal.

Day/Time	Meal	Ingredients	Equipment Needed	Instructions
Fri Evening	Cracker Barrel	strawberries, pretzels, water	none	pre-chop berries
Sat AM	Egg in a bag omelet	eggs (3), precooked bacon, shredded cheese	freezer bag, tongs, patrol boiling water	see below
Sat noon
Sat PM
Sun AM	PopTarts	unfrosted strawberry, duh		open, eat

Breakfasts

Yum, it’s a good idea to start your day with a nice warm meal with some healthy proteins to keep you energized for the day.

Eggs in Bags

This is a quick breakfast that is easy to customize and only requires heating up water.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 eggs
• 1 qt freezer bag with your name written in permanant marker
• mix-ins! Pick things like diced peppers, diced onion, pre-cooked meat, shredded cheese, seasonings

Directions:

1. Get a pot of water boiling
2. Crack the eggs into your bag. Work together to minimize spills. Make sure to dispose of the egg shells properly.
3. Add about half of your mix-ins (but wait on the cheese) to the bag.
4. Seal the bag, getting out as much air as possible.
5. Squish! Gently.
6. Put the bag in the boiling water until the eggs are set to the desired consistency.
7. Remove the bag (with tongs or similar).
8. Add the rest of the mix-ins and the cheese, squish more if you want scrambled eggs.
9. Eat out of the bag or pour onto a plate.

Grab-and-Go Breakfast

On Sunday morning you are going to roll out of your tent to a bunch of hungry people wanting to packup and leave. There is generally no time for cooking, sadly. Instead bring some “no cook” items that are typically single-serving. Examples are:

• Donuts
• Pastries
• Pop-Tarts
• Granola Bars
• Fruit (Bananas, Apples, Oranges)
• Yogurt (if you have a cooler to keep it in safely)
• Muffins (Pre-packaged)
• Cracker Barrel leftovers
• Any other leftovers that don’t need to be cooked

Drink ideas

• Orange Juice
• Apple Juice
• Milk (again, if you have a cooler to keep it safe)
• Juice Boxes

Lunch

Make a sandwich and bring it in a baggie/container. If you will have access to a cooler you can bring lunch meats and cheese. Otherwise various Nut Butters are a safe choice.

When I’m backpacking I substitute tortillas for bread since they pack smaller and don’t get squished. A week of peanut butter tortilla wraps will make most people go insane - so try to be a little creative.

Dinner

Foil Dinners

When I was a kid we called these “hobo packs”, you may still see them called that in various places. The concept is simple, put a bunch of ingredients into a bag (pouch?) that you make from Heavy Duty Aluminium foil, and then seal it up tight and put it near the fire or some coals. The heat will cause the water to evaporate out of the ingredients steaming all the food in the bag. It is important to have some foods that are greasy/oily or you will need to add some vegetable/olive oil to the bag to prevent your food from sticking to the foil.

The Troop 308 Cookbook has a recipe for burgers made this way, but personally I stay away from raw meat when camping.

I will typically put the following ingredients into my packet:

• precooked meat (e.g. hot dogs, kielbasa, or smoked sausage)
• diced vegetables (onion, carrots, celery)
• diced potatoes
• diced mushrooms (I haven’t tried this yet, but it sounds yummy!)
• spices & seasonings (boullon cubes, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, cajun seasoning)

Directions:

1. Chop up everything into similarly sized chunks.
2. Toss the chunks with the oil and seasonings.
3. Get a big piece of Heavy Duty foil. Put the ingredients in the middle, then wrap up as tights as you can. Multiple wraps are just fine.
4. Place into a warm spot near the fire. Don’t put it into the flames though.
5. Wait…and wait…and wait. If you use potatoes you are probably gonna be waiting 30 minutes depending on how hot your fire is.
6. Carefully remove and open a corner to let the steam out. Remember steam is hot and will cause burns!
7. Add ketchup or other toppings and eat right out of the bag (or be polite and pour onto a plate/bowl).

Dessert

Ah yes, I have saved the best for last :)

We all know S’mores. I recommend you consider replacing the chocolate with a Dark Cholocate Thin Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. At the very least use Dark Chocolate instead of Hershey’s.

Other ideas are:

• steamed apple with cinnamon (cut up apple into chunks, sprinkle with cinnamon and put into foil packet)
• pie (canned pie filling plus premade pie dough then cook over fire in a skillet or dutch oven)
• hand-pies (canned pie filling plus white bread and cook in a pie-iron over the fire)

Further Reading

A lot of the ideas here are from the BSA Troop 308 Cookbook. They have a ton of other information there that is really helpful.

The image at the top of this page is CC licensed by Psilenz.