Easy Camping Meals Kids Love

We are so lucky to be able to take our kids camping each year, sometimes multiple times a year. One of the biggest questions we ponder before we leave are easy camping meals that we can make while out.

Our Ways to Cook

1. We have a stand alone grill that we can use regardless of if we have electric and water hook-ups. This is our favorite method of cooking meals since it is the quickest. Additionally, it allows us the most amount of time to explore our environment through hikes and programs.
2. We also have an oven and stove in the kitchen of our camper that can be used when we have electric hook-ups. This is a nice addition, but something we don’t use too much.
3. Be sure to check if your camp site allows open fires. We love to have an open fire, but find that it takes much longer for cooking and you are tied to your campgrounds, so we tend to plan these types of meals much less frequently. Lunch make great times for open fire as this tends to be the hottest and busiest time for others to go exploring. So taking a break near your campsite can be refreshing. Our kids love dinner and dessert camp fires because then they get to make smores. Consequently, it’s not a bad idea to plan a few nights of late dinners where the kids can play around the campground as you make dinner.

Preparation

We spend a lot of time the week before we camp getting ready to camp. It usually starts with making our list of meals and supplies needed. Then hitting up a grocery store to get as much as possible in one trip. We also plan a few times to go to the store during our camping trip because we like to have fresh fruits and vegetables throughout our trip.

Breakfast Prepartion:

1. Prepare a few different types of bread. We love banana bread, cinnamon raisin bread, and peanut butter. These are great because you can make in advance. Then, wrap in saran wrap and aluminum foil, Finally, freeze to make them last longer.
2. Prepare some muffins. We love to make 3 – 4 kinds of muffins – chocolate chip, triple berry, banana nut, and plain. These can also be frozen, so are great to make in advance and keep for a few weeks.
3. Prepare a coffee cake or cinnamon rolls. We love to make both of these as a special treat while camping. I usually don’t freeze these but they could be prepared in advance and frozen as well.

Quick Camping Breakfast Ideas:

For days when we want something a little different, or don’t have anything prepared, here are some of our favorite breakfasts.

1. Oatmeal. This is so easy to make and quick too! We find we just need a little hot water (or milk) to stir into our quick oats and then flavor with fruit, honey, brown sugar, or even syrup depending on what we have on hand.
2. Eggs. You can never go wrong with eggs. These tend to take a little longer so we save for mornings we have some time to hang around. They can even be made over the campfire. So many different ways to make them, but we love to just scramble them in on pan on our grill.
3. Pancakes. We use a premade mix which you can make ahead of time or buy from the store. We make these right on our grill which keeps things very easy and quick.

Lunch preparation:

Our lunch preparation is mostly just buying quick and easy meal ingredients that we can make with little effort. We then assemble these on the day that we are going to eat the lunch.

1. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – our family favorite.
2. Grilled cheese sandwiches – which we make on the grill or use pie irons to make on an open fire.
3. Nutterbutter sandwiches – these are more of a treat so use sparingly. Peanut butter, chocolate, banana and marshmallows on bread which we either grill or use our pie irons.
4. Mini Pizzas – we use any type of bread or dough that we have (tortillas, english muffins, bread, homemade dough) with some pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese made on the grill or in pie irons.
5. Large cans of Chef Boyardee that you can make in a pot on the grill. So easy and quick and great when you need a warm meal.

Dinner:

We try to keep most of our dinners easy and quick so we love things that can be grilled. We mostly stick to sausages, brats, burgers, pork chops, and chicken breasts that we can grill up quickly. In addition, we pair with a vegetable that can be made on the grill (carrots, zucchini, yellow squash are our favorites). Just don’t forget the buns and condiments if your family likes them.

For our more adventurous dinners we may make a one pot meal. We have made BBQ bacon chicken which is easy but takes a bit of time to get everything cooked. We also love BLT sandwiches which are great if you can find fresh vegetables and can make the bacon on the grill. Just know bacon can be a bit messy and not so easy to clean up! Any kind of one pot pasta is nice too!

If you want to prepare some dinners in advance, you could also make up some soup and freeze it to be made for an evening in a pot on the grill or inside on the stove top. Just reheating the soup doesn’t take too long and soup is one of those meals that tastes better the day after it is made.

Snacks:

We love to have some quick snacks on hand for the kids and us to grab.

1. Fresh fruits and vegetables. We pre cut them up whenever possible, or cut them up the evening after we go shopping and store in either ziploc bags or plastic containers to make for an easy grab and go snack.
2. Granola bars. We made these from scratch so we can throw in lots of goodies that the kids don’t even know are in them. These store well in a closed tupperware which we keep in the refrigerator to keep longer.
3. Oatmeal cookies. We love these since they can be made, stored, or even frozen for later. Plus we pack them full of extras and they are easy to grab and eat on the go.
4. Trail Mix. We make our own trail mix so we can control what we put in it. We make a large bag and just refill our trail mix containers daily for the kids and us. So easy to then have a nice snack when you are out on a hike.

Driving Foods

Now for the driving! Part of camping is the drive to the campsite. For us, this is usually a painless process but does require a little thought and effort. We also make sure to plan special snacks and meals for our driving days (or plan to stop to pick up food).

Favorite meals – muffins (for the easy of passing out and quickness of eating), sandwiches (especially pb&j), and we usually plan to stop somewhere for dinner. We tend to plan our gas fill ups, bathroom breaks, and meals so that they overlap, saving us time and energy. This also means that we can grab something to eat near where we get gas if we want a change of pace for meals.

Snacks –

1. Applesauce packets – these are great because they are a wet snack so help quench thirst while filling bellies plus they don’t need to be refrigerated.
2. Yogurt bottles or go gurts – these do need refrigeration, so only plan if you have that option, but these are another wet snack.
3. Cut up fruit and vegetables – we pre cut and prewash and store in child sized baggies which are easy to grab and eat. We like to keep these in the cooler, but it isn’t required if they will be eaten early in the drive. Our favorites: grapes, apples, cucumbers, carrots, cherry tomatoes, berries (whatever is cheap), and broccoli.
4. Cheese and Crackers or Peanut Butter Crackers either premade and stored in baggies or store bought, no time to make while driving plus it’s too messy.
5. Snack packs. We usually avoid premade snacks, but these are great for driving since they are already made in kid size plus are a treat for our kids since they don’t usually get them. You could also make your own using larger quantity snack boxes and divide them up into snack bags or containers for your kids. We happen to like the easy of the store bought ones since we have so many things to prepare already.

Getting ready to camp definitely takes some planning, but is well worth it so that we aren’t eating out every meal and have some grab and go snacks around for hungry bellies. No one wants a hangry kid. If you are ready for an adventure, check out some of our favorite camping family trips.

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.