Food Ideas for Group Camping Trip

Updated on August 02, 2010
K.B. asks from West Jordan, UT
12 answers

My family and I are going on a camp-out this upcoming week and the agreement of sharing food was discussed. I need to provide breakfast for about 10 people one morning and dinner for 20 people one night. I want this to be as economical as possible on our budget to provide these two meals for the group. What are some ideas of food that pack well in a cooler or are non-perishable that I could bring? We will be camping in a tent. I'm not sure if a barbecue will be there or just an open fire as I've never been to this particular campsite. We will be very close to a lake and have some shaded areas available as well. Thanks for your help Mamas...

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T.H.

answers from Bismarck on

You can get a dehydrated soup (it comes in a bag) and it feeds a lot of people so if you got a couple of them you would probably be good. We just put it in a kettle and put it on the fire. Another thing that we really enjoy while camping is Tortilla Pizza's. Just get a thing of tortilla's, a jar of pizza sauce, shredded cheese, and some pepperoni. We just put all the ingredient on one shell and fold it in half and then put it on a pan over the fire. We do both of these a lot when we go backpacking. Both taste great, are easy to make, easy to travel with, and easy on the pocket. Hope this helps some.

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K.S.

answers from Detroit on

What about bagels, cream cheese, donuts for breakfast.
I would get more info on the campsite before you try and figure out meals - you really need to know what you have available.

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C.D.

answers from Eugene on

Chili is a great camping dinner that can fee lots of people for pretty cheap. I just load up on cans of beans, cans of diced tomatoes, diced fresh peppers and onions and chili powder of course. I usually follow a basic recipe, but it's pretty easy. Saute the onion and peppers, then dump in the beans, tomatoes and chilli powder. You can bring already cooked ground beef to add if you want to, but we usually throw some sausages on the fire and eat those alongside the chili. You can also make some corn bread at home and bring that. Bring some grated cheddar cheese to toss on top and you'll have a great meal! Hopefully someone will have a Coleman camp stove at the very least. You need for one for good car-camping cooking! Good luck and have fun!

L.C.

answers from Washington DC on

Bring your crockpot if there is going to be electricity at your site. Make pulled pork - serve with rolls, bagged salad, and chips.
There are breakfast casseroles you can make in the crockpot as well... check out the recipes on line... It's easy and you don't have to think...
YMMV
LBC

S.A.

answers from Salt Lake City on

I'm not sure if you've already left yet or not, but I was in charge of food for our girl's camp last month. Food for 30 people for a week. We did the Omelets in a bag (but we did our's in pint jars instead. It took longer, but we didn't get any water leaks that you can sometimes get with baggies.) We actually turned the omelets into breakfast burritos by using tortillas, salsa and sour cream. We used ham, tomatoes, olives, bell peppers and onions. We also had tacos, spaghetti, and grilled chicken breasts for some of the dinners. One piece of advice, I pre-cooked all the ground beef, seasoned it accordingly (taco/spaghetti) and then put it in gallon freezer bags and froze it. It helped to keep the rest of the food in the cooler cold too. If you have a griddle/grill, pancakes or french toast are easy too. We also used pre-cooked bacon (very quick & easy cleanup, but you have to watch them very closely since they cook so quickly) and sausage links. If you want to really wow them, make a dutch oven cinnamon roll for dessert. You use Rhodes frozen bread dough. Thaw them out, cut each loaf into 4 pieces. Roll the pieces into an 18" long rope, roll the rope in melted butter then in a mixture of cinnamon & brown sugar, and coil them in one giant coil in the bottom of a 12/14" dutch oven. Sprinkle the remaining sugar/cinnamon mixture over top. Let rise until double, then cook for about 35 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes then drizzle with a glaze of milk, powdered sugar and vanilla. It was a HUGE hit at girl's camp! Good luck and have fun camping!

F.H.

answers from Phoenix on

I didn't see anyone post this prior. Omelets in a bag. You take a big pot and bring the water to a boil. You take quart size zip baggies and a permanent marker. Everyone writes their name on a baggie and cracks 2 or 3 eggs in it. Add shredded cheese, ham, onions, turkey, olives, etc. All this can be in containers or baggies already chopped up and ready to go. then you squeeze your baggie and mix everything up. Dont forget the salt and pepper! Then you squeeze out the air and zip the baggie shut. Throw it in the pot for about 12-15 minutes. When you take it out and unzip, it comes out just like an omelet! We do this at home for holidays when we have family over and everyone loves it since it's made how they want and easy clean up! Good luck and have fun!

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J.J.

answers from Dallas on

For breakfast - breakfast tacos. Brown your sausage before you go and freeze it. Then you can cook your scrambled eggs - add the sausage, cheese and some salsa in flour tortillas.
If you have electricty - bring a griddle and make pancakes!!! Super cheap and easy.

Spaghetti with meatballs is a great dinner - buy frozen meatballs - used jarred sauce and pasta - this is always a hit when I have taken it camping. We often bring our crockpot if there will be electricity in our site. Add a bagged salad and garlic bread grilled in foil on the fire.

B.K.

answers from Chicago on

We just got back from our annual neighbors camping weekend so I have a few ideas. One family did pulled chicken for supper. They heated it up on their camp stove. If you haven't gotten a camp stove I would recommend that, since you are doing breakfast AND supper and you're not sure about the cooking arrangements. You're going to need something to cook on. You could also do pulled pork sandwiches. The family that did this bought ready-made pulled chicken at Costco, and I imagine you also could get it at Sam's Club. They also served baked beans and a tomato/mozarella salad. Another family did chicken breasts on an open fire grill (we had a fire pit but that family brought cooking grates from their home Weber grill. They also cooked corn on the cob (soaked in a tub of water before cooking in the husk). I made breakfast. I cut up a huge fruit salad and kept it in two rubbermaid containers in my cooler. I also stored the containers in ziplock bags so ice water wouldn't get in. I also bought cartons of egg beaters and put them in bags in my cooler. I cooked scrambled eggs on my cook stove in one pan, and frozen pre-cooked sausage links in another pan. We also had one electrical outlet on our site so I brought a cheap coffee maker from Target and made two big pots of coffee every morning. Everybody loved that.

You will need a really big cooler to store all your food and drinks. You should also call the campground and see what the cooking arrangements will be. If they have a fire pit, someone will need to bring charcoal, firewood and cooking grates. Have fun!

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K.B.

answers from Salt Lake City on

Premake what you can. Crockpot shredded BBQ beef served on buns is good, or spicy pulled pork served in burritos or on tostadas or salad is yummy So is taco salad. Premake the meat for any of the above, then refrigerate or freeze. Keep cold in your cooler and warm over your campstove. Anything people can assemble themselves is fun, like hero sandwtches, hearty salads, burritos, etc.

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V.M.

answers from Erie on

You can boil water and make pasta with some jarred sauce and maybe brings some bread and butter.

breakfast--Poptarts cold????? i like the little indiv servings of cereal but that's a lot of milk.

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S.L.

answers from Salt Lake City on

You could do chicken salad sandwiches. You can have it all made before hand and just put it on croissant rolls. Pancakes are always easy for a big group if you have a camping stove. Or muffins and yogurt and fruit if not.
Good luck!

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S.S.

answers from Cheyenne on

Our fav camp meal growing up was hobo dinners. Take a strip of foil per person. You get hamburger patty and put it in the center and then pile up chunks of potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, etc (nice because each person can make their own and only put the veggies you like in it)-season with Mrs. Dash and then roll it up so it makes a closed packet that you can put on a grill or on the eges of a campfire-cool about 40-60 mins depending on thinckness-then cut open foil (foil is ur plate-hence "hobo" part!!) And use ketchup and mustard! Delicious and fun!

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