Making a good and nutritious breakfast while camping is not all that different than making breakfast at home. Although we have this notion that cooking when you are camping is “harder” and therefore we should make “easy” meals, this really doesn’t have to be the case. It does not have to be harder to cook while camping. It is possible to make good food while camping! Let me share with you my “easy camping breakfast that does not take long to get together (or make too many dishes).
Kitchen Logistics while camping
Cooking
To cook while camping is easier than one would think. Your gas burner replaces your stove, and your cast iron replaces your pan. The utensils and food stay the same.
The barriers that seemingly make it a laborious task is 1) the cleaning afterwards and 2) storing the food while camping without a fridge.
Cleaning dishes
Cleaning the dishes while camping is definitely not as easy as it at home. Running water and a sink that can that drain is quite a luxury when you think about not having one.
My secrets to easy camp dishwashing are:
- Take only 1 dish per person
- The magic food scraper!
Storing food
Storing food while camping is simple. The fridge and freezer becomes a portable cooler (usually on wheels). Our pantry items are housed in a large tote or bag depending on the length of the trip.
I usually pack extra food in Tupperware intentionally so that we can use the containers to store leftovers later in the trip. I also pack a few Zip Lock bags for additional storing options while we camp.
Camping equipment list
We travel with enough equipment to get the job done well, but I’m pleased to say that we have narrowed it down to the “most” essential. At least to my standards, my husband may say otherwise – haha!
Lately, my goal has been not to lug along equipment that we “may need” but rather having tools that could do multiple jobs or at least be a good stand in for another tool.
What helps us plan which tools and equipment to bring for cooking is to think through what I would need if I were making the meals at home. Then I think about items I can double up on (i.e. use for multiple things) and bring those.
For example: a knife is great for spreading butter, slicing or peeling food, and stirring a pot if it needs to. Ditch the stirring spoon.
Another example is finding a qualify multi-purpose knife-fork-spoon combo that replaces an array of kitchen tools. The only other kitchen utensil that you need to pack is a spatular for the eggs. I have not yet mastered dishing up eggs that are sunny side up with just a fork.
Cooking utensils
When we make meals at home, we use various utensils to make the job easier. While camping, we use less but stil bring the necessary tools to get the job done like:
Cooking equipment
- Stove
- Cutting board
- Pot
- Pan
- Lid (or makeshift plate, chopping board, etc.)
- Spatula
- Multi tool knife-spoon-fork tool
When we cook meals over the fire, we use:
- Grill
- Coals
- Fire starter
- Fire lighter
- Grabber
We don’t always cook over the fire, so we also pack:
- a Gas burner
- Propane
Food Storage equipment
As noted above, we keep fridge items in a cooler and others snacks and loose items in a bag or tote.
Other ideas for storing camp food:
- Laundry baskets
- Boxes
- Large Pot
- Bucket
- Coolers (remember the ice packs)
- Bags
- Totes
Easy camping breakfast
Our easy camping breakfast usually includes eggs. If we have leftover mini potatoes from the night before, I’ll turn these into hash browns with whatever vegetables we have.
After coffee, I will get the gear together and make our breakfast. It usually takes me no more than 15-20 minutes to get breakfast ready.
Cooking in cast iron over the propane stove makes cooking breakfast easy and enjoyable.
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How to cook breakfast camping
- Set up your gas burner and level it best as possible. Most of the time, we leave our camp table at home and are challenged to use whatever nature gives us. Sometimes there is a camping table if we are at a provincial park or regulated camp ground. Most often, we’re on the ground or tailgate.
- Light the burner and add a good helping of butter to the pan. Be bountiful! If you are using cast iron pans, even more bountiful.
- Once the butter has melted to coat the base of the pan, crack eggs into pan.
- Cover the pan and let the eggs cook to your liking.
- Prepare leftovers or accompanying vegetables. While the eggs are cooking, gather leftovers in another dish and/or chop, slice, or dice vegetables. To make an easy camping breakfast, we boil small potatoes on the first evening so that we can have leftovers for hash browns the following morning. I slice and diced some mushrooms to accompany our hash browns.
- Remove egg pan and heat up other food. When the eggs are about 90% finished, I remove the pan from the burner and replace it with my other pan to fry the mini-potatoes into hash browns.
- Dish and serve.
Other camping posts with tips:
Read about “Make ahead” camp food that can help you to you eat healthy while camping https://mountainvalleyrefuge.com/easy-camping-food/
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