What To Cook The Kids When Camping

Posted by Gareth Robinson

Camping’s popularity has been steadily increasing of late. Holiday-makers looking for a cheap getaway are starting to think less about last minute flights and two star hotels on the Costa Del Sol and more about guy ropes and camp fires. True, you might not want to be pitching your tent in the monsoon season we’ve been experiencing this summer, but it’s definitely a temptingly low budget break away.

Self sufficiency is one of the biggest parts of camping, so you’ll have to have a few simple recipes stashed up your chef’s sleeve. And if you’re camping with your kids, you’ll have to make sure those recipes are child-friendly. Ignore them while cooking at your peril – there are no Playstations or TVs about, you’ll be left with some seriously bored little tykes! So it’s best to get ‘em and keep ‘em involved. With that in mind, we’ve drawn together a few of our favourite rugrat-ready recipes. Bon appetit!

BBQ Kebabs

Don’t fret about the safety of meats or anything, just make sure you’ve kept your coolbox cool and everything should be fine. If you’re still worried, bring a thermometer. Get some long sturdy wooden kebab sticks and on them you can cook chicken, sausages, king prawns, peppers, cherry tomatoes, pineapples, you name it. Just skewer and cook! I might be a good ideas to use a spare one just to test all meats are cooked, through.

Quick pasta

Quick cook pasta can be brought to boil and added to warmed thorough condensed soup (tomato or chicken or mushroom – whatever your kids prefer). Throw in some bacon, onion and sweetcorn and serve with crusty bread.

Pancake breakfast

A small fire-proof frying pan, with a little heated oil. Add some of that pancake mix that’s pre-made and in bottles. Serve with a knob of butter and maple syrup. Or if you fancy being a bit Canadian about things, throw in some bacon too. If you fancy being very Canadian about things, shoot a moose and mispronounce vowels while you cooking them.

Baked potatoes

A camp fire classic. Wrap them in tin foil and throw them on the fire. To top, you can go for grated cheese, coleslaw, baked beans (another gassy camp fire favourite – see ‘Blazing Saddles’ for more info on that…), chilli con carne (you can cheat and bring pre-made CCC and just reheat) or just butter.

Popcorn