Road Camp Meals

D

Deertick

New member
Mar 2, 2014
1,763
For the last 4 years, I\'ve been packing in to camp, which means ... dehydrated meals.

This year: Road Camp.

So ... this opens a lot of options for meals, but I\'m not used to planning like this.

What are some good ideas/recipes for food in this setting?

I\'d like to make as much ahead of time as possible, an minimize the cooking time.
 
John, first question is how long will you be hunting? Long weekend? All week? Second question is how far away do you plan on being from camp? If you\'re 10 miles out, you ain\'t going to want to do much. 2 miles and you\'ll be back early.

I have a small gas hibachi I use for most all my cooking other than a single burner for heating up water. Hint: Go by Starbuck\'s and pick up a handful of individual honey packets to put in pack. A lot less mess when out in the field.

Suggestion: Have one cooler strictly for frozen food. Nothing else. It gets opened once a day in the morning when you get out what you want for dinner. Put that in your other cooler to thaw and help keep that food cool.

Breakfast
Sausage/bacon biscuits with cheese. Make ahead of time and wrap in foil. Toss on hibachi in morning when getting ready. If I have far to go, I will pack it and eat a banana then stop halfway and eat biscuit. If only staying long weekend, add eggs from home. I don\'t trust cooked eggs past a couple of days.
Burritos - same idea as above
Oatmeal/peanut butter
Bacon, peanut butter, honey, tortillas - cook bacon at home then quick to assemble in morning - make extras for lunch

Lunch
Assume not coming back to camp.
Bacon, peanut butter, honey, tortillas.

Dinner
Baked potato - nuke potatoes ahead of time and wrap in foil to go on hibachi.
Sloppy joes - put in individual size containers and freeze.
Stew, chile, posole, soup, spaghetti....can all be made ahead of time and frozen then just need heating up.
Burger/steak won\'t take more than 15-20 mins total using hibachi.
Elk backstrap with cracked black pepper, splash of Maker\'s Mark for the aching muscles of the haul out!
 
I like your dinner ideas.

Basically, we will need 1 \"meal\" a day ... breakfast will be a quick snack, and then -- depending on where we are hunting -- the \"big meal\" will be either lunch or supper.

Pre-made sloppy joes and backed potatoes is a great idea ... or chili and potatoes ... I guess I like your potato idea. Heat \'em up in a fire and cover with other stuff + cheese. Lots of energy there.
 
yep - good carbs! Might consider cutting potatoes in half lengthwise - will heat up quicker. But to your point, you can put just about anything on them for a quick dinner. The bacon/peanut butter tortillas don\'t sound that great but aren\'t bad.
 
And I like the sausage/cheese biscuit idea for breakfast. Add a Clif Bar or something like that and I would think you could really fuel up.

Having a \"camp\" this year with coolers and propane will be a great advancement for me.
 
Other ideas for you:

-Take that baked potato and smother it in Schlereth\'s Green Chili (just heat that in a pot on a stove).
-Costco has frozen Carnitas that come in plastic pouches. Normally they recommend microwaving them, but we take them and just put the bag in boiling water. Add some \'boil-a-bag\' rice, heat up a can of beans, and you have a heck of a good burrito. I think they also have the same brand in chicken, carne asada, etc.
-Any sort of hot dish - pre cook it at home, freeze it, and just heat it on the stove. We\'ve done this with a barley hot dish, shepherd\'s pie, etc.
-If you have a propane grill, you can do a lot of other things as well including the burgers and steaks Russ mentioned as well as chicken, etc. Makes for quick burgers or sandwiches.

The great thing is the majority of this stuff can be done in a short amount of time with little to no work involved at camp. It\'s heating and/or boiling things and then chowing down.
 
Forgot about those carnitas Derek - good reminder for next weekend scouting trip. Boiling water would be fine alternative to microwave. I\'d add in some of those flour tortillas that aren\'t completely cooked - put in skillet while carnitas are boiling and you got fresh tasting damn near homemade tortillas. Rice and beans would just be icing on the cake!

Brand is Del Real. They are stocking in our King Sooper\'s now too. We tried the pork chili verde and nowhere as good as the carnitas. Had lots of fat and just not as flavorful.
 
I cook large meals ahead then portion into vacuum bags and freeze. I keep a pan of water on the stove and boil the bags for about 5 min. or so. I have stuff like spaghetti and meat sauce, shredded beer can chicken with fried potatoes and green beans, eat with a fork chili and rice....the sky\'s the limit! I also have a little weber portable gas grill for steaks, brats, anything you might want to grill. The goal is NO dishes to clean and great food quick and easy!

Another wonderful, \"special lunch\" I learned of from someone else is to split a baguette and load it with pepperoni, salami, and whatever cheese (I like provolone), wrap it in foil. Make a few of these ahead and throw one in your pack. For your lunch break, start a little fire and burn it down to coals. Throw your foil wrapped sandwich on the coals and flip it a few times. When you start to hear it sizzle, it\'s done. I carry a little packet of Dijon mustard and squeeze that on the hot sandwich. The bread will be crunchy crusted, warm and chewy with that melted cheese and meats on the inside....pure heaven!
 
Deertick

Something to discuss with your other members of the camp is that each night, someone makes supper, someone else cleans up, someone gathers wood, etc, alternating duties every night. Dont feel like you gotta do it all

Some good ideas on food choices posted above.

I also pre-make meals, portion them and freeze. Make enough to have them twice. Easy peezy

My favs:
Home-made chicken noodle soup
Chili
Hotdish

6 days of main entrees right there.

Keep everything froze and take meals out to thaw as needed.
A cooler full of frozen meals will last all week, even if they do thaw they are still good to eat.

Tortillas are a good choice for sandwiches or wraps. They store and carry well
Some peanut butter and jelly, lunch meat, cheese and you\'re good for mid-day meals

Breakfast for me is more of a grab a granola bar, coffee and dash.

Snack choices:
Trail mix
Dried fruit
Snickers - Fun Size
Cheerios
 
We do a lot of what has been said already.

Chicken breasts grilled ahead of time and froze. Fast to warm up.

We all so cook a ham and slice it up.

Cook up a roast beef of pork and shred it ahead of time.

I make venison or elk sloppy joes.
 
This is a great thread :clap:
I\'ll have a truck camp this year too and am looking forward to the luxuries that will bring (ie: no freeze dried food!)
 
I would add that along with the meals, is to use plastic ware and paper plates [heavy duty]
Easy to dispose of and less dishes to do
 
What a great thread! Having the luxury of a BIG cooler is so sweet! I\'ve tabled in the menu for this years hunt & it goes like this. Rocky Mountain oysters & walleye will sizzle in a nice oil bath at some point in the week. Tacos made with last years jalape?o bacon cheddar burger. Homemade German sausage with eggs & hashbrowns. Marinated grilled rib eyes, chicken & pork chops with a side of four cheese instant potatoes or Lipton noodles & sauce. Probably the most requested is pre cooked baby back ribs (a slab each) wrap them in foil & throw em on the grill with some eastern Colorado sweet corn. We usually do the meals mentioned above at noon & just keep it simple with soup & sandwiches , burgers or brats for a pretty easy evening meal. Foil wrapped Breakfast burritos made in advance are nice to throw on the grill along with the coffee pot. Make nice hand warmers in the jacket pocket too. Only about 60 days ladies & gentlemen!!
 
My bro brings a wok. Fastest cooking vessel that there is using a turkey fryer burner.

I\'m a fried rice making fool.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.
 
Dang Dave - why didn\'t you offer up any of those dishes on our hog hunt! I would\'ve skinned your hog and you could\'ve cooked and listened to the owner all night! :)

Cliff, used my modified wok this weekend and it worked great! One thing I did notice is since some food can handle the heat from the burner, I should\'ve lowered it to fry potatoes then raised back up for eggs.

I need to look into adding fried rice to my list of menu items.

Love Midwest idea of a baguette even though i generally don\'t make a fire when staying out all day. Might make some and leave at camp for a quick lunch or maybe after hunting quick dinner.
 
You guys are so fancy. My friend that I hunted with in WY is pretty simple. This is how he rolled:

Peanut butter and a loaf of bread. Seriously. LOL

A year or 2 before I was out there I had another friend hunt with my WY buddy. This guy was big on all the freeze dried meals. He gave my WY buddy one of those Mountain House meals and he said he crapped like a goose for like 2 days straight after eating it. It pretty much solidified his diet routine to peanut butter.
 
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