10142012 414I am a big fan of menu-planning, it has made my life so much easier! There is less stress at dinner time and we are eating healthier too! Last week I was in a tizzy, I was planning a camping menu for our family of six and I was so worried about what to pack for meals. Everything else was sorted. I had even looked on sites like https://toiletreviewer.com/portable-camping-toilets/ to find a portable toilet! I don’t know why I worried so much, my husband and I have been camping since we were in college and I’ve never worried about it before. In fact, we were reminiscing while hiking about our college camping days…where we could decide on a Friday to go camping and spend about an hour packing and be on the road. I had some friends who did something similar, they would fill up their box trailer in an hour flat and off they’d go! Makes me think about looking at a box trailer for sale for our trips! Throw a couple of cans of soup in a bag with your sleeping bag, tent and water and you were good to go. Although we like camping out in our tents, our friends have got an RV. We were talking about it the other day and they said they got an amazing deal on their campervan insurance through a broker named Staveley Head. We’d love an RV of our own one day but I’d heard that they could be noisy, especially if they need a generator for power. I did some research using sites like Top 10 Quietest Portable Generators (Under 65dB) – Reviews though and now all I need to do is convince everyone else that an RV could change our lives for the better! For now though our tents will have to do… I’m packing for six people, and they are sort of picky eaters at that. I wanted to make the food at home and take it with us, but I ended up only making a few things and then buying a whole lot of canned goods & junk foods. I thought since we were camping we’d splurge and eat junk that I usually don’t buy them. They were in heaven! You can see more pix from our camping trip in this post: Red River Gorge ~ Fall Break 2012.

Here’s Our Camping Menu Plan:10142012 123

Truck Stop Chili (this is the BEST chili recipe ever…I promise) – I made this chili at home, and we took a bunch of it with us. It was perfect by itself, but also made good chili-dogs and Walking Tacos (yum!)
Hotdogs (of course…I get them from Trader Joe’s so they are nitrate and filler free)
Peanut Butter & Jelly (Sunbutter for Sam)
Pancakes (I bought a mix – the “complete” kind, where you just add water)
Bacon
Trail Mix (Sam made it all by himself!)
S’Mores
Bananas
Salad
Hot Chocolate (with Butterschotts for Mom & Dad)
We also had breakfast at the Natural Bridge State Park Lodge one morning (it was 40 degrees, and kids under 6 ate free – so we opted to dine in that morning). And we had lunch at Miguel’s Pizza one afternoon, because it’s so yummy.
For more menu-plan inspiration check out the OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday post!

Please leave me comments on this post with any of your own favorite foods for camping! I’m looking for inspiration for next year!