Camping Food Hacks

I’m currently dreaming about campfires, sleeping under the stars, and getting out in the beautiful Pacific Northwest outdoors. It is camping season! Camping for me is really a great way to reset and get away from it all. Some years we get on more camping trips than other years, but each time we make the whole process more streamlined so that next time we camp it is even easier and more relaxing. We have spent a lot of time and effort making camping easy, affordable, and fun each and every time. Last September I had the opportunity to share some tips on making your next camping trip a breeze!

In my nearly 20 years of working, I’ve worked in several restaurants. I’ve worked in many of the different positions from prep cook to bartender. My time in restaurants has taught me so many lessons that I use every day. I especially utilize these skills when camping.

Camping Hacks Learned from Restaurants:

Use a double bin system to wash dishes. This hack is actually one that I’ve gotten from a brilliant friend of mine and it is so simple that I can’t believe EVERYONE doesn’t do this! Working at a restaurant you learn to have a double sink (triple sink for many restaurants… but, for camping, two suffices). Go to your local dollar store and pick up two medium sized plastic containers with lids. Prep one of these as your soap basin with soap and water. The other as your rinse basin. You may have to change out the water a couple of times, but this way you’re not being wasteful and you get your dishes done in one go!
Make a menu. Restaurants work off of menus so that they know what to buy and prep. When camping you usually don’t have the opportunity to just run to the store when you want an ingredient. Planning a menu for each meal and sticking to it is the best way to make sure you have bought, prepped, and packed enough… but not TOO much food items. Don’t forget to plan for snacking!
Prep, prep, prep. Anyone who has worked in the back of the house of a restaurant knows that much of the day is spent prepping ingredients to actually use during the meal times. One of my first jobs including coming in early in the morning before we opened so that I could prep our freshly prepared onion rings. If we ran out of the prepped ones in the middle of dinner rush… well, we were out! When prepping for a camping trip I take my menu and think about how I am going to cook each item. If something needs to be sliced or chopped, and it won’t compromise the item to be cut early, then I’ll go ahead and slice those items and put them in a labeled container. If I only need a couple of cups of an item, but it comes in a large bag, I’ll go ahead and measure that out early and put in a labeled container.
Label well. It is super important to label your prepped items well so that you can find what you need while cooking a meal. Restaurants label EVERYTHING with what is in the container, the date, and usually the use by date. I similarily prep my camping ingredients with labels of what is in there and sometimes what date that I need to use those items (using my menu as a reference). That way if someone else is helping me cook, they know which items to grab! Similarly, make sure you have aluminum foil, plastic bags, and masking tape to properly wrap and label any unused or leftover food items.
Plan for leftovers. I try my best to make sure that we have just enough food for our party, and not too much… but, I also don’t want anyone to go hungry so I often will have leftovers. Many restaurants will use unused prepped produce/meat in a staff meal. I typically plan for a breakfast hash on one of the last camping days. I bring enough eggs for the meal, but then use any unused prepped produce/meat (hotdogs/brats are fantastic additions to a breakfast!) to accompany those eggs.