Key Points
- Cooking fresh meals while camping can be a bonding experience and help your body maintain good energy levels while hiking, fishing, and spending time outdoors.
- Bringing a mobile grill and its accessories, a portable generator, and cooking utensils on your camping trip allows for versatile cooking options.
- With minimal effort, you can adapt recipes built for home cooking to on-the-go options by doing prep work at home before your trip or bringing kitchen appliances along.
Whether you’re an RV full-timer or someone who enjoys a family-friendly hike, you probably keep trail mix and pre-packaged meals on hand while you’re camping. These are simple solutions that help you endure extended time in the wilderness, but mere survival shouldn’t be your end goal. You deserve to thrive in the outdoors, and that flourish starts with what fuel you put in your body. I mean, we’ve all gotta eat. When you can bring powerful cookware on the go, why wouldn’t you make the best possible version of every meal?
Why Should I Cook at the Campground?
Have you ever gone on a float trip? There’s nothing like being in the hot summer sun, surrounded by water on all sides, to make you appreciate the way cold cuts and fresh fruit cool you down. While quick and easy foods like hot dogs and sandwiches are game changers for outdoor excursions where you can’t make more than canoe coffee, camping doesn’t limit you to pre-made meals and bagged snacks. Processed foods make travel easy, sure, but they can often leave your body feeling ill-equipped to handle intensive midday hikes or hours on the water. Not only does cooking fresh meals give your body the energy and nutrients it needs to rough it, but cooking together is a great way to bond during downtime at the campgrounds.
What Cooking Accessories Do I Need When Camping?
We’ve got you covered! Our Camping Kit Buying Guide outlines what accessories and appliances can make or break your next outdoor adventure, regardless of whether you’re roughing it or glamping. The Blaze Kamado grill and US Stove Caribou Backpackers make it easy to transport robust cooking hardware anywhere you want to go. Remember: just because you can sit on a fallen log and cook over an open fire doesn’t mean those are your only options when you’re tent or RV camping.
Generate More Cooking Options
If you’re already planning to bring a portable generator on your camping trip to power outdoor lights and other electronics, why not pack a kitchen appliance or two as well? One extra tool can make a world of difference when planning out your next campground meal. You can do most of the prep work at home to eliminate the need for appliances on the go, sure, but some things in life are worth a little extra effort. For instance, you could:
- Bring a blender! Make any number of delicious smoothies and sauces in moments. Use up some leftover s’mores ingredients to whip up a delicious s’mores milkshake that’ll scratch the sweet tooth itch. Start your day with a tropical summer fruit smoothie that’s as bright and vibrant as the energy you’ll have after that last sip.
- Include a griddle! An electric griddle isn’t normally an appliance people bring to the campground, but when you have a generator available, there’s no reason to leave it home. Even if you’re just wanting griddle-top scrambled eggs cooked up in leftover bacon grease, or you’re making the many components of a St. Louis slinger simultaneously, you won’t regret bringing this along for the trip.
- Fry food with an air fryer! Ensure your next camping trip has extra special memories to cherish without the guilt of deep-fried, greasy bites. Grab a snack after the morning hike with some air fryer snack mix. Make your favorite carnival treat and use up leftover pancake mix by air frying some Oreos.
- Embrace the versatility of a rice cooker! It’s that easy to open a new realm of possibilities for your campground meals. Just mix up cheesecake batter at home and keep it on ice until it’s time to cook for a sweet and airy dessert that pairs perfectly with fresh fruit. For those braving the wilderness with cold-weather camping, a hot bowl of rice cooker congee can heat up the most frigid mornings.
Recipes to Elevate Your Campsite Cooking Game
Did you know? We have more recipes available for cooking wild game, grilling for spring break, and smoking meat. We even have unique spice mix blends you should test out!
Backpacking Meals
Some scenic locations are worth a little extra time and effort to reach, but that doesn’t mean you should be left to snack on pre-packaged foods while you take in the view. The 14” US Stove Caribou Backpacker is a perfectly lightweight and easy-to-transport cooking solution that can be assembled at the campground, on the trail, or at the final destination of your hours-long hike. If your trail ends at the beach, be sure to bring your fishing gear! You can use the collapsible camp stove to cook up some fish with butter, lemon, & dill in an aluminum foil packet that’ll pack a punch without making clean-up difficult.
Rotisserie & Me
Get inspired to use your Kamado grill’s rotisserie attachment with a recipe for honey-glazed duck with drip-pan potatoes. If you prepare your glaze at home, this recipe is effortless from start to finish. Once you’ve done the hard part and hunted down the fowl in question, ideally, you should score and dry brine the duck overnight for the next day’s dinner. Once it’s all stuffed, trussed, and skewered, you just have to wait. When the duck is done cooking, everyone will be fighting for scraps of that low-and-slow succulence.
New Heights for Hot Plates
Nothing knocks it out of the park like a hearty one-pot meal when you’re camping. The combination of minimal cleanup and maximum flavor is hard to beat, especially when the product is the mountain man sausage & egg breakfast casserole. This gluten-free recipe will make even the pickiest eaters come back for seconds, and without any gluten, even your most gluten-intolerant friends and loved ones will be good to hit the hiking trail afterwards without any lingering worry!
Grilling In the Great Outdoors
One of life’s simplest but most rewarding pleasures is eating well-seasoned meat off a skewer. There’s something primal about ripping into a meal without pomp or circumstance, and that feeling’s much easier for some to stomach when doing so in the Great Outdoors. With recipes like these mouth-watering goose satay, you’ll enjoy every bite of fresh waterfowl. We found that prepping the sauce and marinade ahead of time at home and storing them in air-tight containers eliminates a lot of steps that feel more burdensome during the trip itself. Once the bird is prepped, marinate the strips and soak your sticks in water for 30 minutes. Once that’s done, simply use a portable grill to char strips of goose breast fillet to tantalizing perfection, dip them in your delicious peanut sauce, and enjoy!
Level Up Your Campsite Cooking with IWAE
Keeping your campground comfortable and your campers well-fed is the best way to enjoy your outdoor experience to the fullest. I have exceptionally fond childhood memories of backyard camping at my friend’s house, and not just because there was indoor plumbing. Making time to spend a few days with loved ones without all the hustle and bustle of city life does wonders for the soul, but the hassle of going without modern amenities can be a lot for some of us to handle. With the right set of outdoor living appliances and a little thought into the menu, you can make your next camping trip one to remember. If you’re planning a modern camping trip, don’t leave the burden fully on your own shoulders. Call our whole home experts today to ensure you have all the outdoor equipment you need for a perfect camping trip.
