Dinner food ideas?

[Brittany Dogs]

When we do a weekend campout often times the Friday dinner has to be simple and quick. This is because we both put in a full day of work, then head off to the campground and by the time we set up and need to cook dinner, it is 8PM.

When we owned the Coleman tent camper which had no oven like we have now, our Friday meal was always the same. We would have a dozen paper thin slices of roast beef frozen in a Foodsaver vacuum pack, open up the pack and then just toss that into a pan with a the beef juice (au jus) and heat that up. We would also match that up with pre-made packs of Foodsaver vacuum packs of German potato salad mixed with canned corn for a starch and veggie. We would heat that up in a second pan.

So we would have roast beef sandwiches, the German potato salad / corn mix plus a salad-in-a-bag cold salad.

Then when we got the TrailManor unit, we just buy a quality frozen pizza and throw that into the oven as we do the final touches of setting up. After a day of work and setting up camp, that quick meal has really come in handy.

The rest of the meals we get a lot more fancy.

By the way, we gave up the zip lock bag with frozen foods thing a long time ago. I got tired of the bags getting a small hole in them when it contained frozen foods inside and being tossed around in the freezer. We would have a cooler of water-logged bags of food or the cooler would be contaminated with leaking raw meat juices.

I invested in a Cabela's vacuum food sealer which not only preserves the food better by pulling out all the air, the bags are 5mil thick and won't puncture even with rough handling inside the home freezer.

[jill4paws]

We use a Coleman Extreme cooler and dry ice which works well. Keeps food frozen for about 5 days. Pie irons work well also for making pizza, all types of grilled sandwiches etc. Have a wonderful trip!

Chocolate chip cookies to bake in the oven. Nothing like fresh baked cookies.

We almost always use an outdoor gas grille. Usually steak, tri-tip or chicken.

I am a little thin on confidence in storing ice cream in the freezer. However, I like the freezer to be full to the max, so I use Otter Pops. If they get soft or melt there is no mess.

Pre-made frozen lasagna would bake well, I would think. I am not sure if we ever tried that.

Meatloaf. Then you can have sandwiches the next day if there are any leftovers.

I don't do the cooking so I am having a hard time remembering what we ate.

Pizza!! It's quick and easy with a little advance prep. We don't like the frozen pizza's that we have tried, so we make our own.

-- Before leaving (BL) -get a good tasting pizza shell - we buy ours at Whole Foods - and a good pizza sauce - we use Ragu HomeStyle - small jar makes two 10 inch pizza.
--- BL - lightly toast the shell in home oven - cut in half -SZL.
--- BL - cut and SZL some sausage, SZL green peppers, SZL onion, and SZL shredded mozzarella cheese - takes less than 15 min for two people.
--- BL - put garlic powder and small amount of olive oil in lidded containers.

--- Easy quick Meal - (DW lets me do it) - Take 2 pizza shell slices and coat generously with olive oil, spoon less than half the pizza sauce jar over the two slices, dust the garlic powder over the sauce, stylishly heap the SZL ingredients, and toast in oven until cheese melts and crust lightly browned.

Note: We have the TM installed microwave, so we carry an old toaster oven which is not heavy and also is good for biscuit wrapped sausage snacks for the road and cheese toast.

Note 2: We use the pre-cooked Tofurky Italian sausage which is easily kept sufficiently cooled.

I love Stone Mountain!

Do you have an oven? Although it takes about an hour and a half and turning on an oven in the middle of a southern summer is against all that's sacred and holy, you cannot go wrong with Chicken and Rice.

* Family pack of chicken thighs - about 8 (that's the poultry version of bacon).
* Can of cream of mushroom soup (regular size).
* Can of cream of celery soup.
* Package of onion soup mix.
* 2 cups rice (uncooked, white is easiest; brown takes longer). No instant stuff.
* 2 cans worth of milk.
* A disposable foil casserole pan that will fit in the oven.
* Foil to cover while in the oven.

Mix all the ingredients together - it will be very wet in texture. Some pour the onion soup mix over the casserole but I think the flavors meld better by mixing.

Bake at 350 for about 90 min. Check it at about 60. The rice should be melt in your mouth, not very chewy at all or al dente. You can take the foil off at about the 60 or 70 min mark to crisp the top. Yum. Check it every 10 min until the 90 min mark.

Feeds about 3 people if they're insanely hungry, 4 easily, sometimes a bit more. Fold the casserole pan and cover with foil for refrigeration of leftovers.