El Cheapo Camp Food :)

[Shortpants]

We will be headed on a tent camping trip at a State Park in a couple weeks and I was just wondering what others might have for ideas for super cheap meal ideas for a group (8-12 people). We will have the campfire, a Coleman 2 burner stove and a grill. Sausages and hot dogs are on the list already, of course. :P I was debating about beer can chicken, but I've never done that before, so a little worried about cook time on that one.

So what are your fave el cheapo meals?

[terasec]

Re: El Cheapo Camp Food

i would see whats on sale
currently around here chuck roast steaks have been on sale for $2.99/lb
i would season/marinade them in ziplock bags, this way they marinade the whole time until ready to cook,
beer can chicken? not sure how that would work on a campfire, usually thats done in the oven,
fire control will be key to that,
maybe see if you can configure a manual rotisserie and have people take turns,
i would season up some ground beef to use for hamburgers and chili,

[NYCgrrl]

Re: El Cheapo Camp Food

Another ardent sale shopper in the house. This weekend I planned 2 camping meals around Memorial Day food sales: lamb Porterhouse chops for Bastille Day @ 5.99/lb and beef Porterhouse steaks for 5.99/lb to be served on Independence Day; if I couldn't get them on sale 13-16 peeps would be eaten sumthin' else those days.

I think chicken is a luverly meal (also showing up on my 4th of July menu; it's a morning to night pigout fest fer us) and between now and your leave date will prolly be on sale again.

I've never made beer can chicken but have seen others pull it off on a grill:

http://youtu.be/xS6R2IzDI10

I'd prolly put a foil ring at the base of the cans to keep the bird(s) from falling over
Serve em with a big ol salad and all is well.

Now if chicky parts were on sale instead of whole birds, I'd make this TNT:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/fo...Chicken-108166

Choose whatever sauce you prefer. I'm partial to the "Medi" style(shown w/ recipe) but hey could just as well heat your fav ready made BBQ sauce and throw that on. Serve with pasta or potato salad and a green salad or grilled veggies and you are done.
HTH!

[NYCgrrl]

Re: El Cheapo Camp Food

Another budget helpful meal: chili served with rice and lots of toppings like sour cream, chopped onions, chopped parsley, sliced or chopped avocado, and/or cilantro; shredded cheese. You can make the entire meal at home and just reheat at the campsite. I've been known to add a bit of chopped kale into the chili to make it a balanced meal that no one really picks up on but I'm weird that way. Also means it's a one bowl meal which is nice for whoever has to wash dishes. You can also use burrito or tortillas to wrap instead of serving atop rice.

Sometimes I make the chili all beans; sometimes w/ chopped meat and sometimes with a cut up chuck roast; all depends on what's on sale and my mood.

Made this for the first time this winter for camping and at home; the house people were vewwy happy and it freezes nicely:

the video
http://www.nickstellino.com/TVShow/C...eo.aspx?v=304b

the written recipe

http://www.nickstellino.com/recipes/...men=20&rec=754

I had no spaghetti sauce on hand so just used a can of whole peeled tomatoes that I hand squished, removed the seeds and then drained. I added the drained juice as it cooked to get it to the consistency I wanted. As the sausage I'd on hand needed more seasoning, I added some hand crushed fennel seeds and a lil dried oregano just before adding the uncased sausage.

I'll be boiling the pasta 3/4's way thru, adding a lil' olive oil, cooling and refrigerating just before I go camping and finish cooking it on site. Uses less fuel and none of that hard to boil nonsense often associated with propane, campfire or white gas boiling.

[Shortpants]

Re: El Cheapo Camp Food

Mmmmmm, those all sound amazing, thank you! We're still unsure how many people are actually coming now, so the menu is unplanned. Two weeks to go and I don't have the menu planned yet... It's driving me batty! LOL!

I would normally do steaks, kebabs, sausages and dogs, but budget is pretty tight for a few of our fellow campers, so wanted to try to scale back our usual menus. I did the exhaustive Google search for group recipes but everything was "meh".

Thanks again!

[James.]

Re: El Cheapo Camp Food

Mmmmmm, those all sound amazing, thank you! We're still unsure how many people are actually coming now, so the menu is unplanned. Two weeks to go and I don't have the menu planned yet... It's driving me batty! LOL!

I would normally do steaks, kebabs, sausages and dogs, but budget is pretty tight for a few of our fellow campers, so wanted to try to scale back our usual menus. I did the exhaustive Google search for group recipes but everything was "meh".

Thanks again!

haha, the last time I went camping I just planned out a rough idea of what we were going to eat a couple days before and didn't finalize the plan until we were at the grocery store on our way out of town.