Sorry to take so long between posts. It's mighty hot this weekend - hope you're staying cool! My son was at Boy Scout camp this week and we picked him up yesterday evening. It was rather warm at closing ceremonies.
Let's talk about meal suggestions. My personal theory is that you're not going camping to eat - you're going camping to spend time in the great outdoors. Therefore, the simpler the meal, the less time it takes to prepare, and the more time you can spend enjoying the outdoors. So here's some ideas for meals.
Unless you have one of those propane ovens, biscuits or cinnamon rolls are out, unless you buy them ready made. I usually make pancakes, using the pancake mix that you only have to add water to. You can make a lot of pancakes fairly quickly. I usually heat up sausage in a separate skillet to go with the pancakes. The precooked sausages are very good for this.
The next morning, I usually make scrambled eggs. For a side dish, I warm up the precooked bacon you can purchase at the grocery store. It doesn't take long to heat up, and most of the grease has already been cooked off of the bacon.
For lunch, we usually have sandwiches and chips. You can't get easier than this.
You may want to cook something a little more substantial for dinner. If you have a boat and you've been out on the lake all day, or if you've been hiking, you're probably pretty hungry. Cooking in advance can be helpful. Here is a recipe from a friend of mine:
Burritos
Ingredients:
2 lbs. precooked taco meat or Old El Paso (or other brand) precooked taco meat
Shredded lettuce
Shredded cheese
Flour tortillas
Chopped tomatoes
Cook taco meat in advance. Allow to cool, then place in a freezer bag. Put this bag inside another freezer bag. Or use the Old El Taco precooked taco meat in a tub.
When it's time to eat, warm up the taco meat. Warm up the tortillas one at a time in a small skillet. Combine meat, lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes on tortilla and roll up into a burrito.
You could cook some Spanish rice (like the Lipton brand) to go with this.
You could also precook sloppy joes for dinner and serve with Kraft mac & cheese. Barbecuing meat is easy and makes a filling meal. Please use the comment section and advise as to whether you want more dinner recipes.
That's all for now. Next time, I'll talk about how to pack your vehicle with your camping supplies for easy campsite set up. Until then -
Happy camping!
Diane
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Back from camping!
We arrived Friday night at Dam West and checked in with the attendant, then set up camp. Then I went back into Carlyle and picked up some KFC for dinner. I had to wait for biscuits, so the nice lady gave me a free soda while I waited. I could get addicted to that Lipton sweet tea!
After we got all set up, we turned on the radio & listened to the Cardinals play the Orioles (the Cards lost :( ). Three girls (well, they were in their early 20's but I'm old enough to be their mother) stopped by and asked if we could help them start a campfire. I volunteered to help and went back with them to their campsite. I had one of them go back to our campsite and get the lighter fluid; I just couldn't get the wood to light. It's OK to cheat a little bit; we use those firelogs to get our fires going. I told them about this blog, so any of them have stopped by, hi!
The campground was all right, but there wasn't a lot for the 12 year old son to do. They had a movie night, but it was on Thursday, a strange night. How many kids are at a campsite on a Thursday night? There was a playground, but he's getting too old for that. There were a couple of programs at the ampitheater, but the son isn't interested in squirrels or water safety. The next time we go camping, we will pay the extra $4.00 a night and go back to Eldon Hazlet.
There was a showerhouse with individual stalls and each stall had an adjoining shower. These smelled rather musty. I was glad I remembered my flip flops for when I took a shower. No athlete's foot for me! I should have went to the big showerhouse at the entrance to the park. It was nicer and didn't smell. It had a laundry with a fold down ironing board - who irons their clothes when they go camping?
On Saturday, we went into town for supplies. We went back to the campsite and filled up the coolers with fresh ice. We then went for a ride and checked out the other two Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds at Carlyle Lake, Coles Creek and Boulder. They appeared to be nice sites, but they take longer to get to and longer to get somewhere to purchase supplies, so we probably will not be going to either one of those campsites.
The water level of the lake was really high, probably due to all the rain we've been getting in southern Illinois these past few weeks. The weather was really nice, not too hot during the day and not too cool at night.
We left around 10:30 AM this morning and came home. We got all unpacked and I discovered that my bottle of shampoo came open in the bottom of the health & beauty duffle bag. We need a new one anyway, so I just threw away the bag rather than attempt to clean up the shampoo.
After we got all set up, we turned on the radio & listened to the Cardinals play the Orioles (the Cards lost :( ). Three girls (well, they were in their early 20's but I'm old enough to be their mother) stopped by and asked if we could help them start a campfire. I volunteered to help and went back with them to their campsite. I had one of them go back to our campsite and get the lighter fluid; I just couldn't get the wood to light. It's OK to cheat a little bit; we use those firelogs to get our fires going. I told them about this blog, so any of them have stopped by, hi!
The campground was all right, but there wasn't a lot for the 12 year old son to do. They had a movie night, but it was on Thursday, a strange night. How many kids are at a campsite on a Thursday night? There was a playground, but he's getting too old for that. There were a couple of programs at the ampitheater, but the son isn't interested in squirrels or water safety. The next time we go camping, we will pay the extra $4.00 a night and go back to Eldon Hazlet.
There was a showerhouse with individual stalls and each stall had an adjoining shower. These smelled rather musty. I was glad I remembered my flip flops for when I took a shower. No athlete's foot for me! I should have went to the big showerhouse at the entrance to the park. It was nicer and didn't smell. It had a laundry with a fold down ironing board - who irons their clothes when they go camping?
On Saturday, we went into town for supplies. We went back to the campsite and filled up the coolers with fresh ice. We then went for a ride and checked out the other two Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds at Carlyle Lake, Coles Creek and Boulder. They appeared to be nice sites, but they take longer to get to and longer to get somewhere to purchase supplies, so we probably will not be going to either one of those campsites.
The water level of the lake was really high, probably due to all the rain we've been getting in southern Illinois these past few weeks. The weather was really nice, not too hot during the day and not too cool at night.
We left around 10:30 AM this morning and came home. We got all unpacked and I discovered that my bottle of shampoo came open in the bottom of the health & beauty duffle bag. We need a new one anyway, so I just threw away the bag rather than attempt to clean up the shampoo.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Menu planning
Well, we will be camping the weekend of June 12th - hubby had me make reservations at the Dam West campground at Carlyle Lake, which is run by the Army Corps of Engineers. You can make reservations online for any federal campsite here. It allows you to make reservations up until the end of May 2010. You can see a map of the campsite and if you click on or hover over the campsite, it will tell you how much shade is at each campsite, whether it's near the lake, etc. It amazed me that this campground was already completely reserved during Memorial Day weekend 2010.
It's time to talk about menu planning. The first thing to determine is how you're going to cook at your campsite.
If you have an electrical hookup and an electric skillet and a two burner electric stove, you can pretty much cook like you do at home. If you don't have an electrical hookup, figure out if you're going to cook over a fire, cook on a BBQ grill, or on a camp stove.
You should make a menu plan for the days you'll be camping. Once you figure out what you want to cook and write it down, you can then make a shopping list for the grocery store. As an example, here was our menu plan for Memorial Day weekend:
Friday dinner - McDonald's
Saturday breakfast - Pancakes, sausage, milk
Saturday lunch - Sandwiches, chips, soda
Saturday dinner - Bratwurst, macaroni and cheese, soda
Sunday breakfast - Scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, milk
Sunday lunch - Sandwiches, chips, soda
So my shopping list was:
Pancake mix
Precooked sausage (like Banquet or Armour)
Bread
Lunch meat
Potato chips
Bratwurst
Macaroni & cheese mix
Eggs
Bacon (get the precooked variety; you just need to warm it up in the skillet and you won't have all that grease)
Shredded cheese
Margarine or butter
Milk
Soda
If you have any questions, please feel free to comment and I will answer. Next time, I'll talk about menu options. Until then -
Happy camping!
Diane
It's time to talk about menu planning. The first thing to determine is how you're going to cook at your campsite.
If you have an electrical hookup and an electric skillet and a two burner electric stove, you can pretty much cook like you do at home. If you don't have an electrical hookup, figure out if you're going to cook over a fire, cook on a BBQ grill, or on a camp stove.
You should make a menu plan for the days you'll be camping. Once you figure out what you want to cook and write it down, you can then make a shopping list for the grocery store. As an example, here was our menu plan for Memorial Day weekend:
Friday dinner - McDonald's
Saturday breakfast - Pancakes, sausage, milk
Saturday lunch - Sandwiches, chips, soda
Saturday dinner - Bratwurst, macaroni and cheese, soda
Sunday breakfast - Scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, milk
Sunday lunch - Sandwiches, chips, soda
So my shopping list was:
Pancake mix
Precooked sausage (like Banquet or Armour)
Bread
Lunch meat
Potato chips
Bratwurst
Macaroni & cheese mix
Eggs
Bacon (get the precooked variety; you just need to warm it up in the skillet and you won't have all that grease)
Shredded cheese
Margarine or butter
Milk
Soda
If you have any questions, please feel free to comment and I will answer. Next time, I'll talk about menu options. Until then -
Happy camping!
Diane
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