Camp Menu

[susan]

Getting a little bored with the same old camping menu. Anyone have any suggestions for great food to bring whether prep ahead, camp cooking, or amazing grab & go meals?

One all time favorite is:

Idahoan's - quick prep mashed potatoes where all you do is boil water and wait a few seconds to stir a couple seconds more. They need nothing and are tasty, easy and satisfying.

[YETI]

Not being able to have fires is really a drag on the "menu"

Otherwise, the dutch oven and spit roast would be king at our table!

I always liked cold pasta salad in ziplocks.

[mungeclimber]

beer meals?

Need an extra two burner stove or two? I gots one, maybe two.

[susan]

Josh, yeah, those meals you made are the bomb. It would be fun to try pizza or baking in that sort of thing.

Hmmmm, Tx Munge, if you think of it next time, I could take a look at the two burners and see. Thanks! Beer meals tho? Like beer can chicken? Or beer stew?

I love using the one burner tho. Setup is easy and usable from a camp chair. Really limiting what gets cooked, which is also kinda nice to tone down big production efforts. Maybe what I'm really looking for is one pot meals. The one other criteria is they have to be delicious or it won't happen.

[mungeclimber]

oh sorry, I was tracking on the Mucci party plan wrt to the stoves.

[daniel banquo merrick]

If it is just Bob and me, we eat cold chili out of the can. Does the job especially if you have a piece of bread or a tortilla. You can roll it up in a tortilla and call it a burrito.

Last time the family went I slow roasted a a pork shoulder at home for pulled pork. With some canned beans, tortillas, precooked rice from TJ's, cheese and salsa it made fine burritos the first night. Some BBQ sauce and bread turned it into sandwiches the second night. Buy a big pork shoulder with the bone in, rub with kosher salt and chili powder, roast at 200 degrees for 12 hours. Pull it apart and pack in a zip-loc or tupperware. Cheap and easy to make ahead. Burrito and sandwich makings are easy to warm up on the stove.

If it's just my daughter and me we will usually buy prepared food and salads at TJ's.

Clint eats dry ramen (crunch crunch!) and little debbie cosmic brownies. Bob and Clint consider a day wasted if there is time to cook. They don't confuse a climbing trip with a camping trip.

[mungeclimber]

roast at 200 degrees for 12 hours

That's a lot of cooking time!

Sounds like a job for a Crock Pot.

[susan]

The only chance I would get would be to run the oven all night from 7 to 7. Does sound delicious tho.

Have heard about Clint with the dry ramen noodles and Little Debbie snack cakes. Funny. The dry ramen noodles are pretty good actually, but not a meal for most.

Grab & go helps a lot! Healthier fresh foods are important tho if doing that a lot. You know you've gone a little too far when these habits flow into non-climbing days, say, when at home or work you open a can of chili and don't think to put it in a bowl or heat it up.

[John]

I remember when we were kids a bunch of us would go on an annual "mens" fishing trip. My dad would stick his chest out and say to the kids "men, we aren't bringing any food, you have to catch what you are going to eat. No fish, no food". Us kids all hated fish and sucked at fishing so this terrified the crap out of us. Of course when our catch would end up as a few tiny trout the dads would eventually pull out the "emergency rations" stored in like 10 packed coolers and the weekend was saved. Now I always bring 10 packed coolers for just about every weekend.

[susan]

I haven't tried these but think they sound good. 

Linguine With Caper and Green Olive Sauce
Hands-On Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil   
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced     
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes   
1 26-ounce jar marinara sauce   
1 6.75-ounce jar Spanish olives, drained and roughly chopped   
1 3.5-ounce jar capers, drained and roughly chopped (rinsed if salt issues)   
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped     
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest     
1 1-pound box linguine     

Directions   

• Heat the oil, garlic, and crushed red pepper in a large saucepan over medium heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
• Add the marinara sauce, olives, capers, parsley, and lemon zest. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, cook the linguine according to the package instructions. Drain and add to the sauce, tossing to coat. Transfer to a serving dish.

Nutritional Information Per Serving 

• Calories From Fat 126
  
• Fat 14 g           
•   Sat Fat 1g           
•   Cholesterol 0 mg           
•   Sodium 1,423 mg (unless rinse those capers)           
•   Protein 12 g           
•   Carbohydrate 67g           
•   Sugar 8g           
•   Fiber 5g           
•   Iron 3 mg           
•   Calcium 29 mg           

         

**********************************
Spicy Coconut Noodles

    Hands-On Time 15 minutes
    Total Time 20 minutes
       Serves 4

     Ingredients
   8 ounces rice noodles or fettuccine   
1 13.5-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk     
3 tablespoons tomato paste   
1 teaspoon chili powder   
1 teaspoon kosher salt   
 1 tablespoon chili paste or sauce (optional)   
 3 scallions, thinly sliced   
  8 ounces bean sprouts   
16 basil leaves, whole or torn     
1/4 cup shredded coconut, toasted (optional)       

Directions   

• Cook the noodles according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.
• Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, over medium-high heat, combine the coconut milk, tomato paste, chili powder, salt, and chili paste (if desired).
• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Stir the drained noodles into the sauce and toss. Divide among individual bowls. Top with the scallions, sprouts, basil, and coconut (if desired).

   
   

[susan]

 Pad Thai - Probably not for camp cooking - unless you want logistical challenges

 

• 2 limes, one juiced and one cut into wedges or half moons
• 1/2 cup canned tamarind paste (look for "cooking tamarind" rather than sweet tamarind) or 1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate in 1/4 cup water and the juice of one lime
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground dried chilies (more to taste)
• 2 shallots, minced
• 1/3 cup agavé syrup
• 3 tablespoons tamari
• 1 package Thai rice noodles (1/4"-wide flat noodles)
• 2 tablespoons veg. oil
• 8 green onions, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 2/3 cups bean sprouts (half will be cooked and half used for garnish)
• 1 large carrot, cut into 1" x 1/2" x 1/8" thick (or whatever small size you want)
• 2 cups broccoli, cut small (I'm sure I used much more than 2 cups. Who measures broccoli?)
• 8 ounces firm tofu, small cubes (optional)
• 1/3 cup chopped peanuts, toasted (best if you toast them yourself but pre-toasted will do)

• Soak the rice noodles covered with warm water in a large bowl until they are limp and white, about 20 minutes.
• Heat the oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add the garlic and cook until golder, about 1 minute. Add the carrots, broccoli and tofu (if using) and stir-fry about 4 minutes.
• Drain the noodles and add to the wok. Add bean sprouts, green onions, shallots, tamari, tamarind, agave and chilies. Toss until the noodles are heated through and the veggies are cooked.
• Sprinkle with peanuts, bean sprouts and raw green onions and serve immediately with a slice of lime.

 

[susan]

So I tried making the pad thai tonight. There are far simpler recipes but this being my first....was much ado... I'd recommend boxed versions only needing hot water instead of this recipe.

My version of tamarind and the fresh rice noodles combined to overdo the sauce"s texture... made it slightly gooey. Maybe I added a touch too much tamarind from having to make it from scratch bc I couldn't find it in any grocery except in dried pods. Interesting though to experiment with and not difficult or overly time consuming to make the tamarind concentrate. I would put less next time.Still nice to have the pad thai but would like to find a better recipe for it. Also, next time I would not chop the broccoli down as much.

[mungeclimber]

Lots of talk. I don't see a FedEx package with pad thai  in it on my doorstep.

[susan]

Chuckling at that Munge.

Here are some cell phone photos in place of Fedex.

This recipe took some prepping - here's more than a dozen dishes of veggies, sauces, spices ready for the final minutes in the stirfry...






Plating


Should have shown the red peppers I added for color... o well.

[mungeclimber]

BAM!