This is my family's 3rd annual back-country glamping trip, and you get a glimpse of what it's like to go camping where there are zero modern comforts, except for what we pack in. Now mind you, we pack in a LOT of modern comforts. In fact, it's basically like staying in a luxury hotel...if a luxury hotel involves an OUTHOUSE, cooking for the crew over a fire, lots of mosquitoes, dirt, no shower and bees living in the outhouse along with the spiders.
Don't take this the wrong way, I love going on this adventure every year and I'd never pass on this camping trip. It's an amazing experience for my kids and myself to pull the plug on the electronics and live and play simply.
The tricky thing is, it requires a lot of planning and prep work and if you're like many people, the very idea of trying to plan everything that goes into a large-scale camping trip is daunting, to say the least. So I am sharing my experiences with you to help you know exactly what you need to bring....or pretty close as I'm sure you won't follow my menu plan to the T. But it's easily customizable to your own needs.
I've written about how I meal plan for camping plus all kinds of other good stuff, as well. This is what I do before every camp out to ensure I forget the least possible amount of things. Forgetting happens and then you just Macgyver whatever you forgot.
Step 1: Figure out what you want to eat every day for every meal. I normally start with dinner as it usually involves the most work, and then I figure out breakfast because we have a nice breakfast every morning. Lunch is always easy so it's a no-brainer, peanut butter, every lunch, every day. If you are going camping with another family, decide if you are going to meal-share. This year we decided to be in charge of all our own meals except for one. Dutch oven potatoes (which my buddy made) to be served with campfire cheese sandwiches and dutch oven dessert (which I was in charge of). You may want to meal share more meals than we did, but it makes things slightly more complicated.
Decide what snacks and treats you want to bring. It's amazing how much food you need to pack in when camping, but it's because there's usually not a store nearby to run to if you forget something or don't buy enough. So, consider a few snacks a day for every member of your family. Pre-packaged cheese, yogurt tubes, cookies, fruit and trail mix are all good options for snacks.
Step 2: Make a list of what you need to buy at the grocery store and what you have already in your pantry. If you don't need to buy it, don't. Camping costs a startling amount of money.
My
food list list. I have everything separated into categories: What I
need to buy at the grocery store, What I need to get from my pantry and
My menu: every meal for every day.
Wednesday: Hot dogs roasted over the fire, veggies and dip and S'mores.
Thursday: Breakfast burritos. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Campfire cheese sandwiches and dutch oven bread pudding to go with my buddy's dutch oven potatoes....and S'mores in case bread pudding is a complete flop (it's always good to have a contingency plan).
Friday: Ham steak, biscuits and eggs. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Tin Foil dinners with diced melon and s'mores for dessert.
Saturday: Pancakes, sausage and eggs. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches.
Step 3: Figure out what you can pre-make/assemble/freeze at home. I freeze everything I can. Remember, all we have are ice chests and food safety is a huge part of camping. Nobody wants to eat something that's inadvertently spoiled, so the more items you have frozen, the better chance you have of keeping your food safe.
Step 4: Start prepping, cooking, freezing and packaging and packing everything you can days in advance. I have three storage boxes that are dedicated for my camping gear. One for dishes and cookware (which are also exclusively for camping, thanks IKEA), one for food and pantry items that don't require to be kept cold and one for all the miscelaneous camping gear: matches, bug spray, newspaper, lanterns, flashlights, sunscreen, roasting sticks... I also have two ice chests, one strictly for beverages and the other for the food. This is because the beverage chest gets opened a lot and I don't want the food chest to be opened except when necessary to preserve coldness.
* Put in the freezer your yogurt tubes and all candy, especially chocolate.
* Make the filling for the breakfast burritoes: sausage, eggs and cheese (or whatever your family likes) and wrap them up in tortillas that are buttered to keep from getting soggy from the moisture in the filling and then wrap in two layers of heavy-duty foil. Freeze.
* Make your tinfoil dinners. Cook your protein, par-boil your vegetables, season appropriately. Wrap in heavy-duty tin foil, twice. Freeze.
* Make your own version of GORP: Good Old Raisins & Peanuts. My version involves: almonds, roasted peanuts, whatever pistachios I could find in the pantry, Reece's Pieces and raisins.
* If you are going to make anything from scratch, assemble the dry goods in labeled zipper bags. I made biscuits and bread pudding this trip from scratch so in one zipper bag I assembled the ingredients for the biscuits: flour, baking soda and powder, sugar and salt and then on the outside of the bag noted what else goes in, ie: 1/2 C melted butter and 1 C buttermilk. For the bread pudding I assembled the sugar and spices that were required and marked it as bread pudding so it wouldn't get used for anything else.
* I cut the carrots and celery for our veggies and dip. I chose NOT to cut my melon as I felt that they could get squished.
* Start packing all your non-perishable items. Plates, cups, silverware, bug spray (lots of bug spray), sunscreen, flashlights, pots and pans, paper towels, toilet paper, lanterns, extra dry goods like flour and sugar, creamer and sugar for coffee, instant coffee packets, salt and pepper, vegetable oil, shortening, flour and lemon pepper (as there's a good chance I'll be frying up a batch of fresh-caught lake trout), hot chocolate mix, tea pot for making hot water for cleaning and warm beverages, matches, first aid kit, garbage bags, newspaper for starting fires, dish soap and hand washing soap.
* Start packing fun things for the family: card games, bow and arrows, bb gun, frisbees, balls, nets to catch tadpoles and fishing gear (haha just kidding, that's the husband's job).
* Gather up fun things for you: books, magazines and crafty stuff.
This isn't a complete list, you've got to remember your sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, tents, clothes (Make sure to pack appropriate clothes for where you are going. We are way in the back country at about 10,000 feet above sea level, trust me, it was cold at times. We brought lots of pants and jackets and even winter coats), tables, dutch ovens, canopies, air mattresses....or bunk bed cots if you've got 'em (best camping purchase EVER!).
Stay tuned, recipes will be coming up in future posts. Lots of good stuff this camp out, and maybe a flop...it happens.
Hope you enjoy my pre-camping process.
Thanks for reading!
Heather
Please take a look at my previous posts on glamping:
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How to do glamping
How to do glamping II
I've written about how I meal plan for camping plus all kinds of other good stuff, as well. This is what I do before every camp out to ensure I forget the least possible amount of things. Forgetting happens and then you just Macgyver whatever you forgot.
Step 1: Figure out what you want to eat every day for every meal. I normally start with dinner as it usually involves the most work, and then I figure out breakfast because we have a nice breakfast every morning. Lunch is always easy so it's a no-brainer, peanut butter, every lunch, every day. If you are going camping with another family, decide if you are going to meal-share. This year we decided to be in charge of all our own meals except for one. Dutch oven potatoes (which my buddy made) to be served with campfire cheese sandwiches and dutch oven dessert (which I was in charge of). You may want to meal share more meals than we did, but it makes things slightly more complicated.
Decide what snacks and treats you want to bring. It's amazing how much food you need to pack in when camping, but it's because there's usually not a store nearby to run to if you forget something or don't buy enough. So, consider a few snacks a day for every member of your family. Pre-packaged cheese, yogurt tubes, cookies, fruit and trail mix are all good options for snacks.
Step 2: Make a list of what you need to buy at the grocery store and what you have already in your pantry. If you don't need to buy it, don't. Camping costs a startling amount of money.
Wednesday: Hot dogs roasted over the fire, veggies and dip and S'mores.
Thursday: Breakfast burritos. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Campfire cheese sandwiches and dutch oven bread pudding to go with my buddy's dutch oven potatoes....and S'mores in case bread pudding is a complete flop (it's always good to have a contingency plan).
Friday: Ham steak, biscuits and eggs. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Tin Foil dinners with diced melon and s'mores for dessert.
Saturday: Pancakes, sausage and eggs. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches.
Step 3: Figure out what you can pre-make/assemble/freeze at home. I freeze everything I can. Remember, all we have are ice chests and food safety is a huge part of camping. Nobody wants to eat something that's inadvertently spoiled, so the more items you have frozen, the better chance you have of keeping your food safe.
* Put in the freezer your yogurt tubes and all candy, especially chocolate.
* If you are going to make anything from scratch, assemble the dry goods in labeled zipper bags. I made biscuits and bread pudding this trip from scratch so in one zipper bag I assembled the ingredients for the biscuits: flour, baking soda and powder, sugar and salt and then on the outside of the bag noted what else goes in, ie: 1/2 C melted butter and 1 C buttermilk. For the bread pudding I assembled the sugar and spices that were required and marked it as bread pudding so it wouldn't get used for anything else.
* I cut the carrots and celery for our veggies and dip. I chose NOT to cut my melon as I felt that they could get squished.
* Start packing all your non-perishable items. Plates, cups, silverware, bug spray (lots of bug spray), sunscreen, flashlights, pots and pans, paper towels, toilet paper, lanterns, extra dry goods like flour and sugar, creamer and sugar for coffee, instant coffee packets, salt and pepper, vegetable oil, shortening, flour and lemon pepper (as there's a good chance I'll be frying up a batch of fresh-caught lake trout), hot chocolate mix, tea pot for making hot water for cleaning and warm beverages, matches, first aid kit, garbage bags, newspaper for starting fires, dish soap and hand washing soap.
Stay tuned, recipes will be coming up in future posts. Lots of good stuff this camp out, and maybe a flop...it happens.
Hope you enjoy my pre-camping process.
Thanks for reading!
Heather
Please take a look at my previous posts on glamping:
How to do glamping
How to do glamping II
Only you can make camping look fun!! Hope you are all having a wonderful summer my friend. I could only dream of being that organized. I am excited as Mr. FT is getting his birthday gift this weekend. He won't be here on his real Bday. Will keep you posted on his reaction. You are so talented!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy reading your camping ideas... I always told my colleagues that I didn't like camping and now they are making fun of me as I've been "camping" in my own house with no hot water and no electricty for two weeks ;)
ReplyDeleteSound Yummo I'll come clamping with you cooking anytime.
ReplyDelete