Quick and Easy Campfire Cooking Tips

After a day hiking or other activities, the last thing a tired and hungry camper wants to do is spend whatever energy is left cooking and cleaning.

Here are some tips for keeping your campfire cooking quick and easy with minimal clean up:

Do as much preparatory work before leaving home as possible.

Pre-chopping onions, peppers, and other vegetables saves time later. Keep them in a plastic baggie in your cooler and then just take an appropriate portion as recipes require. Space is maximized because you don't need to pack a chef's knife and the chopped items are smaller in size and easier to transport.

Take aluminum foil instead of pots and pans.

Pots and pans are heavy and use precious packing space. Aluminum foil can be used for cooking and best of all requires almost no clean up. Just be sure to take tongs or find a long stick to retrieve your foil packets from the hot campfire.

There are an abundance of recipes that cook ingredients in foil. Just type 'camping recipes using foil' into your favorite search engine and see what you can find. Chuck Wagon Diner's site has lots of recipes from which to choose.

Use canned potatoes.

Lots of campfire recipes call for potatoes, as they are inexpensive, very filling, provide carbohydrate energy, and almost everyone likes them.

Canned potatoes have many good things going for them. They are already peeled, so you save time off the bat. As in the tips above, they can be cut and stored prior to leaving home, which eliminates carrying home a can for recycling and the need to tote a peeler and can opener around.

Since they are typically smaller than the mammoth baking potatoes found in the produce area of the grocery store, they cook much quicker.

For a great tasting side dish with dinner or breakfast, try the following recipe: At home, cut whole canned potatoes into cubes. Throw into a plastic baggie. Then drizzle some olive oil in with the potatoes and sprinkle in some salt, pepper, minced garlic (dried or regular), and onion powder. When you are ready to cook, dump the contents out on to a sheet of aluminum foil and wrap well. Place in campfire embers for about 15 minutes.

Try liquid egg substitutes.

Eggs and bacon are a traditional camping breakfast as they provide protein to gear you up for a day of activity.

Why bother worrying about transporting fragile eggs when you can purchase a carton of liquid egg substitute instead? Just look at the carton's chart to find the equivalent amount to use in your recipe.

With quick and easy campfire cooking, you have more time to enjoy your surroundings and recuperate after a day outdoors.