Base Camp Meal Prep and Cooking

[Bulldawg]

What foods and preparation are you guys doing in a base camp setting with say a good 2 burner stove and cast iron pans. Typically, I will do some frozen meals such as chili, stews, etc. in vac bags and heat up in a pot of boiling water. On camping trips I've had some pre prepared fajitas where all i gotta do is cook on a skillet real quick.

What is your meal prep look like before going out on say a week long camping/hunting trip where you'll be at a base/truck camp the entire time.

I've done a lot of this in the past, but just getting some more ideas/see if anybody is doing anything different that I can glean from.

For my specific example we will go out for a few days of scouting prior to season starting and then hunting for 5 days. For the scouting days, I'm thinking we'll do more involved meals, cook some steaks and veggies, pork chops, burgers something like that.

For the hunting days, since the idea is we will be out later, gone earlier do some of the frozen meals, heat up in a bag and maybe some quick skillet meals that we can cook real fast and have limited clean up.

Also, what are you all doing for breakfast? I'm a real sucker for a hot breakfast and coffee, I don't like cold convenience really, and I don't do well with just stuff like oatmeal. I've been thinking about premaking a bunch of burritos, but a weeks worth might start to turn at the end of the week potentially, I guess I can have them frozen and they'll keep longer. Anybody actually cook a egg skillet breakfast each morning?

 

[thegrouse]

I am big on minimal dishes. I use the Blackstone with a side burner for coffee. Breakfast is usually a hashbrown omelette with bacon, cheese and sometimes peppers and onions. I also do breakfast tacos and french toast. This is generally prepped at the house so there is not any cutting involved.

Dinners I do tacos and spanish rice. I use the spanish rice in a bag and cook on the griddle. I do steak and potatoes on the griddle, the potatoes are chopped and par boiled at the house so they cook fast. I also do philly cheesesteak sandwiches. A few trips this year I have done the tortellinis in a bad with marinara sauce on the griddle.

 

[StinkyPete]

Maybe I’m just the oddball here, but I do big lunches at camp, and for dinner I do a freeze dry meal, premade and in a hydroflask food jar to stay hot. It lets us stay in the field longer and go to bed earlier.

For the lunches, we do fajitas and tacos a lot, all prepped ahead of time. Burgers and chili are also pretty popular.

 

[TaperPin]

For hunting I can’t relate to cooking via headlamp at camp, other than dehydrated meals.

If I wasn’t hunting and was camp cook I like to do eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown patties, and 1” cubed potatoes tossed with oil and Lipton onion soup mix, baked at home, refrigerated in big batches and smashed on the stove to reheat, or left cubed and crisped up.

I also like to pre prep sliced sweet onions, garlic and sweet red bell peppers lightly sautéed at home so a handful tossed in with everything else the last few minutes rewarm quick in the pan and are still firm. Nobody asks for this ahead of time yet everyone eats it up.

Those extra sweet grapes sold at Costco are loved by everyone in our family and a small amount as garnish for any/all meals always gets eaten up. Nobody asks for them for breakfast, but they always disappear. Same for a Costco muffin - breakfast lunch or dinner, the heavy eaters in the family always seem to munch one down.

Tacos can be prepped at home, warm up tortillas in one pan, taco meat in the other, and all the other fixing’s in snapware. Home made corn tortillas cooked at home warm up great for 2 to 3 days.

A tritip cooked and sliced at home warms up quick in the pan with a little butter and is a crowd favorite for any meal. Same for Costco thick bacon - cut them in half and cook up all four pounds at once at home, and they make a great easy to warm up side for any meal, or cook with them. Precooking sausage patties at home are the same.

I’ve always been a meat and potatoes guy, but everyone is into healthy stuff nowadays. A covered nonstick skillet is a great way to steam veggies - just barely enough water to keep from browning broccoli for 5 minutes and you’re done. Laying brussle sprouts cut in half and face down on the pan - drizzle with oil add a few diced garlic cloves a pinch of salt and pepper, steam with a small amount of water for 5-8 minutes, don’t stir anything, remove lid and cook a few more until the bottoms are browned. It’s stupid talking about veggies at hunting camp, but this what the world is coming to. lol

 

[Poser]

Maybe I’m just the oddball here, but I do big lunches at camp, and for dinner I do a freeze dry meal, premade and in a hydroflask food jar to stay hot. It lets us stay in the field longer and go to bed earlier.

For the lunches, we do fajitas and tacos a lot, all prepped ahead of time. Burgers and chili are also pretty popular.

Are you saying that you put your freeze dried dinner in the Hydroflask jar during lunch and just leave it until you get back for dinner?

 

[TaperPin]

I should never talk about food before having breakfast. Another favorite for any meal that pairs well with anything is simple garlic bread browned in a skillet. For every stick of butter 1 teaspoon of garlic powder and a heavy pinch of salt. Thick slice bread, butter it up on both sides and brown in a skillet before cooking everything else - everyone enjoys snacking on it or eating with the meal. An entire loaf always seems to disappear every night and leftover cold garlic bread gets munched first thing in the morning.

Camp cooks who aren’t hunting and have a lot of time should master biscuits and gravy, and find a method of cooking biscuits, or at the very least bring both from home to warm up and eat the first morning.

Pulled pork is super easy to warm up and is a favorite with our boys. Either on a bun or just a pile of meat they cover in sauce.

 

[Skerhunter]

A lot of hunts I’m only in camp to get a little sleep every night so fewer camp chores the better! Hunts like this my go too is premaking everything in burrito form (breakfast, Philly, fajitas, etc). Wrap them in foil and freeze them. Microwave is easiest if you have a generator, but you can reheat them various ways. Also easy to get a ton of calories down in a hurry (2 tortillas lots of cheese and grease).

Easier hunts it’s hard to beat the ole Dutch oven with roasts potatoes and veggies. Just need some hot charcoal, start it before evening hunt and it’s ready when you get back (obv an issue if bears around or higher fire risk).

Lazy hunts/scoutning I usually go all in and cook real meals like steak, burgers, sausage, bacon hashbrowns. Camp stove with a skillet