Camping And Hiking Gear

Sonny answers:

We usually take chips, beef jerkey, and other small snacks like that. Lunch meat, cheese, and rolls is always nice to have in order to make some sandwiches. Just make sure your ice chest can keep it cold. Always take a lot of water too.

Sonny answers:

Take some granola bars and beef jerky, if you get a chance to cook go fishing and cook up some good healthy food just be carefully with the wild creatures out their.

Sonny answers:

We like to make what we call tin foil dinners... Take a piece of tin foil (heavy duty is best) put in some baby carrots, diced potatoes, celery chunks, whatever other veggies you like, a hamburger patty (seasoned to taste). Fold up the tin foil around the contents, make sure you have plenty of overlap, and then throw it in the hot coals in the fire and let em cook. When they're done you just open them up and eat them. They're amazingly good and easy to make, cook, etc.

Another great one is to buy a pizza before you go, let it get cold, take two slices and place them cheese sides together (crust out), wrap in tin foil. Again, just throw it in the coals and heat it up, enjoy your pizza sandwich.

If you want to get a little more fancy you can try my personal fav... Get a salmon fillet with the skin and scales still on one side. Lay scale side down on a large piece of tin foil, spread plenty of butter on it, add lemon pepper, dill, and some lemon juice. Wrap the whole thing up in the tin foil and then cook. Goes good with a can of beans and/or baked potatoes. I would recommend using a grill for the salmon. This is really easy to prepare at home and makes an awesome first night meal.

Have a great time!

Sonny answers:

Big difference whether you are going backpacking or car camping. You need to describe more about your limitations. I doubt that you have "no cooking facilities" and "nothing to keep the food warm/cold." I can find cooking facilities and ways to keep food warm or cold in any wilderness area.

Take a walk down the aisles of any grocery store for ideas: packaged dry noodle and rice dishes; oatmeal; trail bars; jerky; dried fruits; dehydrated soups; cheeses; chips and crackers; coffees and teas; yogurt. The list is very long. If you are going camping for three days without potable water to boil for cooking, then you intend to be dead. If you have water to boil, then you can cook almost anything.

Sonny answers:

Foil dinners. Just put meat (any kind, but it has to be cut or broken up into small pieces), a spoon full each of canned peas, carrots, corn, potatoes, and/or tomatoes, and a little salt, pepper, and butter in the center of a square of aluminum foil. Seal the packet by bringing up opposite side of the foil and rolling them down, then rolling up the two remaining sides. Plop the packet in the hot coals for approximately 30-45 minutes until your meat is cooked all the way through. Delish!!

Also, you can make banana boats that way, too. Peel a banana and slice it length-wise and place it on a piece of foil. Add chocolate chips, marshmallows, brown sugar, and/or a scoop of peanut butter. Roll up the foil to seal the packet and pop in the fire for 30-45 minutes, until everything melts and it's all gooey. Unroll and eat with a spoon, right out of the foil!

Hope this helps.

Sonny answers:

What sort of cooking set up will you have? Potatoes and rice won't go bad if you can fry, boil, or steam in foil packets. Here is a simple recipe:

tin foil square sheets for as many packets as you want
head of cabbage
potatoes (red are too firm and take longer, use white)
bag of frozen veggies
chicken bullion granules (or cubes)
spices, salt & pepper
pack of smoked salmon- doesn't need refrigeration (or cans of tuna, dried salami)
can of cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup
add some water, 1/4c or less to packets

Line the foil with cabbage leaves, add an assortment of ingredients that you brought, like meat, frozen veggies, spices, chicken bouillon granules, tablespoon of canned soup, and water. Wrap them so they have room inside to steam, place over coals, cook for 20 min on one side and turn over for another 20 or so minutes. You can open and check carefully and put back on coals if you need to.

You'll need tongs to get them off of the coals and probably a can opener if the can doesn't have a pull-top. You can eat it right out of the foil making clean-up a snap.

Another favorite camp recipe is the dried pasta in a bag, ravioli types. You just need to boil them and add plastic jar sauce like Prego, ground beef optional. You could do this the first or second day if you're worried about the meat going bad. Or you could cook the ground meat ahead of time and freeze in a baggie then keep cool until you need it. In fact, preparing the meat ahead of time is smart. I like to marinate chicken and beef ahead of time then freeze solid so they'll keep longer.

Cruise the grocery store aisles, you'll find some interesting stuff that doesn't have to be refrigerated. Powered milk can be made drinkable.. Depends on what you're using it on. Just as milk, I hate it, but for cooking its fine. For chocolate milk in the morning, it might work for you. There is milk that Europeans use in box-like containers that are stored unrefrigerated, on the shelf until opened, it tastes fine to me, just more expensive. Use block ice, not the cubes to keep your food cold.

Lipton sells cheap noodles and rice mixes in a bag that just need water, and some margarine or just oil will do. You can toss in tuna or canned meat if you like. I could go on and on...