Food planning ideas for budget minded campers?

[loriandmatt]

ok, so we have a sticky packing list thread and we have a sticky camping recipie thread, but i am looking for help on a combo of those two things.....

i am trying to come up with a packing/shopping list for food items for a 10 day camping trip. yes, we will occasionally be eating at the trails end, other counter and sit down places in the parks/resorts, maybe even go off site for a meal or two....but i am working on a plan for grub to fill in the gaps (and be lighter on my pocket book.)

we will be driving from PA, camping for 10 days in our pop up. we will be bringing our mini fridge, as well as the cooler, our mini gas grill and our crock pot.

what i have so far......

Cooler in car. in that cooler: Drinks/snacks for way down. Case of water frozen for “ice” in cooler and can be used for drinking water while at parks. frozen hot dogs, frozen chicken breast in ital dressing in zip lock bag, frozen items for crock pot meals (???)

possible Crock pot dishes: shepards pie? Mexican chicken? It’s gonna be hot……do we really want sheppards pie????

Should we bring microwave? If so, what would we cook in it?

Stuff to buy over the next few months and pack: mustard, ketchup, chips, peanut butter, jelly, plastic silverware, paper plates, paper towels, crock pot liners, cheetos, Pringles, spray cheese & crackers, goldfish

Stuff to by at food stop when we arrive: Bread, hot dog rolls, deli meat?, chip dip, grapes, grated cheese, OJ, milk.


Please make suggestions for things to add.

 

[SunshineCamper]

Should we bring microwave? If so, what would we cook in it?
We bought a $30 microwave for our pop-up and used it for popcorn and defrosting meat (sometimes it was still frozen when we went to make a meal. Heating up a meal from the night before. We make instant oatmeal in the microwave too. Great breakfast item and quick. We placed the microwave under the table/couch for storing. Microwavable soups, ravioli-my kids love them. potatoes baked, instant rice (uncle ben's-rice in 90 seconds)

Crock pot-I add either noodles or rice to the meal (cooked seperately but it make a WHOLE meal) pork chops with cream of mushroom

Add butter, onion (great for the crock pot to add flavor), eggs, to your shopping list. Mayo? Kids drinks, salt and pepper, Pam spray for spraying the grill, bacon, sausage, fruit (bananas), quick cereal bars, potatoes (baked potatoes in the microwave)

Spaghetti is a quick meal. Hamburgers, mac n cheese, gal water for cooking

Walmart has these frozen packs that you can place in your fridge and cooler and it does help keep the cooler and fridge cooler along with the frozen water bottles idea!! Coupons for the groceries-that's me...

 

[ilovejack02]

I dont have alot of ideas for you, but I will say I am planning on making chili and chicken and dumplings before I leave freeze it and pack with dry ice for the drive to WDW. I will be able to defrost and heat up easily. Im not planning on doing that for everday we are there of course. We will def. shop in florida for all of our cold stuff.

 

[jima53]

We camp in our popup and cook meals just like at home, and yes, we do cook inside on the stove at times. Our visit to WDW we had steaks cook on a electic grill outside, cowboy speghetti on the outside propane stove, ane we have a cheap $60 microwave that we use to re-heat takeout chicken from the buffet. The biscuits and steak fries heat up just fine too. When we camp we eat meals as if we are at home, hamburgers, hotdogs, pasta meals, crockpot meals, really just depending on whether it is hot or cool weather. We didn't eat any counter meals inside the parks and ate breakfast at the campground buffet and a few lunches.


Jim

 

[mouseketeer_mom]

I'm not exactly sure of the kitchen set up in a pop-up but I'll share some of the ideas that worked for us in March. We are a family of five and are very budget concious (read: cheap )

What worked:
1 month ahead I made and froze: sloppy joe and pulled pork BBQ. I made enough to get two meals out of each as we had a total of 12 days away from home.

I brought enough frozen chicken breast for two meals. We marinated and grilled it all at once, saving half for a chicken ceasar salad two nights after having the grilled chicken.

I bought a large box (12 count, I think) of Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches from Costco. I think it was about $12 so not the cheapest breakfast I could have come up with but it sure was easy. (they do have to be microwaved)

I bought steaks, really good ones. My rationale was that if we had some really good meals at the motorhome we would be less likely to spend big at a table service meal. The steaks were $30, still way cheaper than a TS for a family of 5.

I found that we really ate very little lunch meat. I think I brought 2lbs., we maybe ate 1/2 lb. We ate breakfast at the motorhome. I packed a few small snacks and water bottles for the park. We usually got an ice cream in the park in the afternoon and were back to the motorhome for dinner.

not sure if you have an oven in your pop up, but I made a lasagna and froze it before we left.

Of course, we also had the usual camping fare for us, hot dogs, burgers and brauts.

My kids are big milk and juice drinkers. I bought it at home and froze it in my deep freeze. The last gallon of milk came out of the cooler on the way home and still had ice in it.

I'm a bit of an over planner so I actually planned all of dinners ahead of time and shopped for just what we would need.

 

[kmccain]

I'm not exactly sure of the kitchen set up in a pop-up but I'll share some of the ideas that worked for us in March. We are a family of five and are very budget concious (read: cheap )

What worked:
1 month ahead I made and froze: sloppy joe and pulled pork BBQ. I made enough to get two meals out of each as we had a total of 12 days away from home.

I brought enough frozen chicken breast for two meals. We marinated and grilled it all at once, saving half for a chicken ceasar salad two nights after having the grilled chicken.

I bought a large box (12 count, I think) of Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches from Costco. I think it was about $12 so not the cheapest breakfast I could have come up with but it sure was easy. (they do have to be microwaved)

I bought steaks, really good ones. My rationale was that if we had some really good meals at the motorhome we would be less likely to spend big at a table service meal. The steaks were $30, still way cheaper than a TS for a family of 5.

I found that we really ate very little lunch meat. I think I brought 2lbs., we maybe ate 1/2 lb. We ate breakfast at the motorhome. I packed a few small snacks and water bottles for the park. We usually got an ice cream in the park in the afternoon and were back to the motorhome for dinner.

not sure if you have an oven in your pop up, but I made a lasagna and froze it before we left.

Of course, we also had the usual camping fare for us, hot dogs, burgers and brauts.

My kids are big milk and juice drinkers. I bought it at home and froze it in my deep freeze. The last gallon of milk came out of the cooler on the way home and still had ice in it.

I'm a bit of an over planner so I actually planned all of dinners ahead of time and shopped for just what we would need.

mouseketeer_mom you are a woman after my own heart. This is what I was planning on doing too. So glad to hear what works.

Great idea freezing the milk!

I usually print off a meal planner spreadsheet :http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC010183031033.aspx?pid=CT101423511033
Plan all the meals and grocery list.

My problem is 12 days of food in the small freezer I have. I was thinking about having to resort to Tuna and Chicken Helper from canned meat.

Thanks so much for sharing!

 

[SunshineCamper]

I love these ideas! thanks...

 

[CottontailCurl]

I'm not exactly sure of the kitchen set up in a pop-up but I'll share some of the ideas that worked for us in March. We are a family of five and are very budget concious (read: cheap )

Of course, we also had the usual camping fare for us, hot dogs, burgers and brauts.

Is brauts a typo? Because that's a really good way to write brats with kraut! You must be my soul sister because it looks like you do things just like I do. I buy everything I need ahead of time and cook and freeze it before we leave. Here are the things we take:

Our stay is usually 5 or 6 days so I usually plan on eating at FW the first 3 or 4 and then the last day or two I'M ON VACATION!! Cooking things ahead of time means I'm on mini vacation for those eat-in days. I'll have to find my shopping lists, one year I spent $100 on groceries that covered 4 days of meals and snacks and then we ate at the Biergarten on the 5th day and it cost $80!

That year I bought a family pack of boneless/skinless chicken breasts and a family pack of chicken breast quarters. With the boneless/skinless, I cut them in long thin strips, then tossed with a small bit of oil and good-sized amount of smoky mesquite spices and grilled them. I bought a couple bags of shredded cheddar cheese, container of sour cream, salsa, couple tomatoes, and prepared lettuce ahead of time and stored it in a freezer bag with the air taken out. Oh yeah, a can of refried beans (or you can buy a can of black beans and add onion and tomatoes after you heat them up), flour tortillas and a bag of chips. This is enough stuff for one meal of fajitas and one of taco salad. When I cook at home I cut up the chicken breasts and divide into thirds and marinade in whatever combo of spices I have, grill them on my large sized electric grill and then freeze for use in the week. So one cooking session can get you fajita chicken, lemon/italian dressing chicken, soy sauce chicken for stir-fry, I've even used Canadian Steak seasonings and it was pretty good. That can be used to make a pretty good faux chick-fil-A sammich. Back to the list of things I took for the trip, I also froze hot dogs and already cooked hamburgers ahead of time (not as fun when camping but the point of that trip was to save time and money). Then the day before we leave I take the skin off of the breast quarters, put the 1/4s in a huge enamel baking pot (i.e. for making a turkey), dump some BBQ sauce over the whole lot, put the lid on and bake them for about an hour at 350. This has become our traditional first meal after we've set up camp, we have the BBQ chicken, a can of BBQ beans and chips. If I have time I've been known to make macaroni salad to go with it, but the main point of the BBQ chicken is the ease of cooking it the day before as I'm doing last minute things.

All of our cold beverages get frozen also, juice boxes, waters, cartons of OJ, with those things frozen and the foods frozen I feel the food stays good and cold for the first 3 or 4 days (we have a cooler that is a refrigerator with el/and adaptor for the car). I'll take enough un-frozen milk for our (read; the kids') traditional first morning breakfast of Magix (do they still make that? Couldn't find it for our last trip). For foods that don't need refrigeration for later in the trip you can take cans or pouches of chicken (found in the tuna section), a teeny tiny jar of mayo and make chicken salad sandwiches. This was a no-frills no refrig thing we did in Sept that I thought would not taste as good without the usual extras but it tasted pretty good. We also took pouches of Bear Creek tortilla soup and bought a bag of chips for breaking over the top of the soup and that was pretty good (big bag of chips at the meadows trading post was $3).

We've had differently budgeted trips throughout the years, usually we combine breakfasts/suppers at FW with lunches in the parks. Sometimes we've eaten in the parks more than the campground. Sometimes I've wanted to have as cost-free as possible trip (sneaking in a trip in between main trips because of annual passes burning a hole in the pocket thing) where I only wanted to spend $$ on the campsite, gas, and food prepared at the site.
That's one of the things I like about camping at Fort Wilderness, it's good for whatever budget you're planning for that trip.

 

[CottontailCurl]

Hey there Lori! Do you have younger kids that you'll be buying snacks for? Some of the things I've bought to have on hand for the kids' fanny packs were: pudding/fruit/applesauce cups, granola bars, baby carrots (divided into sandwich bags ahead of time), trail mix (mixed at home by buying large container of peanuts, raisins, dried bananas, dried apricots, pineapples whatever fun dried fruit I can find, cashews, ect. - we mix them all together and divide into sandwich bags ahead of time, too), small apples. Their fanny packs have a water bottle on the side that we kept filled with ice water from the fast food restaurants. They drank all day as we walked and had their snacks whenever they wanted. They had the same amount of snacks everyday whether we were eating in the parks or back at camp and I believe it kept them from getting droopy (nice way of saying no meltdowns!). Oh I almost forgot each fanny pack had a plastic spoon in it each day for the snack cup of their choice.

I'd laugh as I helped them put these fanny packs on, especially my youngest (you put one of each of those things in there with a water bottle and it gets heavy fast!). I'd ask if they wanted to take some things out, but I guess the thrill of being in charge of eating whatever they wanted when they wanted was too good to pass up! They were pretty good at making it last all day, too.

 

[SunshineCamper]

That's it I'm camping with all of you people then i don't have to plan any meals
this advice is GREAT-thanks for sharing. I'm taking notes!

 

[Swimnoid]

We stay in the cabins but I really think I am a camper at heart! We do most of the above mentioned things too. I dont like to eat out ALL the time and food is usually better anyway when we cook it even if it is cheap!

You all are getting me excited for our trip in 2 weeks! And reminded me its time to start stock piling. We always take a lot of frozen stuff and the one thing that is the biggest hit is spaghetti and meatballs. We usually have enough for two meals. You could do this in in the crockpot.

Some trips we grill a lot; steaks, chicken, dogs and burgs but if the parks are open late we find we eat lighter. Sometimes more of a dinner for lunch when we come back to the cabin for a break and then sandwiches or pizza when we get back from the parks late.

 

[christinou]

We love to make nachos when we camp, a microwave is handy then, we also cook a big steak one night, and have it with a salad a rice or potatoes, then use the left over to make fajitas a few days later.

 

[loriandmatt]

Hi! OP here.....thank you all so much for the great ideas.

i never thought to buy the juice and milk ahead of time and freeze them too. great idea.

I may just throw my office (small, but it will do) microwave in the car - popcorn for the outdoor movies, and i can make just about any type of potatoes in there. We are a spud family. DD is the only one of us 4 who HAS to have breadfast, so i will pack instant oatmeal and frozen precooked sausage links for her. i can nuke them and she can eat while the rest of us are getting ready for the parks.

great idea about the chicken breasts in the mexican spices cut for fajitas....that is a must. that could even be pre-cooked an refrozen.

i hear ya on the deli meat thing....i always buy it and put it on my list again below, but i have to tell you that we genrerally don't eat it. i may just get the deli cheese and use that for cheese burgers and toasted cheese sammies in our fire iron. if hauling to the parks, we prefer PB&Js. we could live off those for a while and not get tired of them.

thanks all of you. great ideas. i am off to re-work my list. (this trip isn't until Aug, but over planner that i am, i want to pick things up over the next few months and pack/freeze them. less of a punch in the wallet when the time comes for the vacation.)

 

[kitamom]

I am really enjoying the ideas here.

Here is one from me. I have seen where people are bring steaks to cook on grill. I do that but hubby loves twice baked potatoes. They are so much work that when I make them I make seveeral at a time and freeze them on a cookie sheet and then store them in a zip lock frezzer bag. They are great when we are on the road.

Reminds me I need to get stuff to make some for this trip.

 

[Disneefun]

I think those ready to serve meats in pouches are a great thing for us campers. They don't need refrigeration and are ready to serve. You can get chicken, tuna, salmon, etc. either chunk or as filet's. Love it. Just make a little rice or pasta and you've got dinner. I also love those vegetarian meat crumbles. They have to be frozen, but you can thaw them out, thrown them in spaghetti and instant meat sauce.

 

[Tent Camping Mom]

I also love those vegetarian meat crumbles. They have to be frozen, but you can thaw them out, thrown them in spaghetti and instant meat sauce.

These are great! And for the past couple of years I've made spaghetti at home using this instead of meat. Now DH and DS won't have it any other way, and they love meat.

 

[mouseketeer_mom]

I am really enjoying the ideas here.

Here is one from me. I have seen where people are bring steaks to cook on grill. I do that but hubby loves twice baked potatoes. They are so much work that when I make them I make seveeral at a time and freeze them on a cookie sheet and then store them in a zip lock frezzer bag. They are great when we are on the road.

Reminds me I need to get stuff to make some for this trip.

kitamom, would you be willing to share the recipe for those twice baked potatoes? I've never made them but DH always orders them from a local rest. and just loves them. And, how do you freeze them and how do you recommend reheating them?

I think they could be a big hit among my crew. I'd be willing do the work before hand, if they are good and easy to reheat. Thanks!

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Our last trip I made the following and froze it:

3 qts of sloppy joes
15# of grilled chicken breast
3 beef roast (one whole, one shredded for sandwiches, one in gravy for hot sandwiches.
2 qts of pulled BBQ chicken
2qts of pulled BBQ pork

I was surprised how many meals we got out of this. With 2 teenagers it can go quickly. This was on top of the hot dogs and hamburgers we also brought.

 

[dopeyprincesses]

Our last trip I made the following and froze it:

bigdisneydaddy - no one went hungry on that trip I bet!!! Trying to get an idea for that quantity of food how long was your last trip? And were you 4 adults? thank you

great ideas everyone, i'm taking notes too!!

OP - you forgot the most important item "Marshmallows" for campfire lol

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Our last trip I made the following and froze it:

bigdisneydaddy - no one went hungry on that trip I bet!!! Trying to get an idea for that quantity of food how long was your last trip? And were you 4 adults? thank you

great ideas everyone, i'm taking notes too!!

OP - you forgot the most important item "Marshmallows" for campfire lol

2 Adults and 2 teenagers, we were at FW for 11 days and on the road for a total of 15. This was just the food I prepared before hand, not counting the trips to Publix while we were there. We try to prepare enought food for the drive so that we dont have to purchase meals. I think the quality of food is better and the time and money savings are significant.
In the summer we do some "manifold" cooking on the engine. We wrap hot dogs, burrito's, pizza rolls and the small microwavable cups in heavy foil and then place them on the top of the engine. In about an hour you ahve a nice hot meal on the road.

Scott