hello welcome to camp today i am excited to share with you some outdoor cooking tips for beginners
so if you're somewhat new to camp cooking there's a lot of tips in here that are going to help you
make the process really enjoyable and simple and fun i don't want you to go camping and be
all stressed about the food what to pack and how to cook it if you've maybe gone camping before
and you want to up your camp cooking game then there's going to be plenty of tips here for you
as well the first tip is to simply plan out and think through your meals at home before you get to
camp there's a lot of reasons that you want to be doing this one it's going to help you figure out
how much food you need to pack for the duration of your trip the people that are going
that type of thing and it will also help you pack for your trip to make sure that you actually bring
all the food and the ingredients that you're going to need so i have a nice little download to help
you do this this is my camp cooking starter kit i've talked about this before this is
just a free starter kit you can get and there's a gear checklist in here there's some recipes
and there is my camping meal planner and this is what i use so this is an example of what it is
and it's really simple this whole planning the meals thing at home is not complicated
on here i have the days breakfast lunch and dinner and i simply just write down what i'm gonna eat so
for lunch here i have tuna sandwiches and then in the side i use this as a shopping list or
a packing list and i've written tuna lettuce bread mustard mayo that type of thing so that
i can see a nice bird's eye view of how many dinners i need how many breakfasts
i need and make sure that i pack all the ingredients and the right amounts of food
for the trip again this does not need to be a super detailed elaborate thing unless you
want it to be but simply doing something like this just makes it so much easier when you actually get
to camp so if you're interested in this check the description box below another great thing
about planning and thinking through your meals at home is in some cases you can actually wash
and prep parts of meals at home to save yourself a step at camp and so in this video i'm going
to actually make some quesadillas with you and that's exactly what i did so in my cooler here
i have a little bag and i chopped the peppers and the onions and i'm just going to throw
these in my pan and saute it and put these in the quesadilla so i just did this at home
instead of having to take out the cutting board and the knife and do the whole thing here i can't
so this isn't gonna work for obviously every meal and this type of thing doesn't
last forever in the cooler so you gotta think through when you're gonna eat things and when
it makes sense to prep stuff at home but this is a really simple example of that in action
my next tip is to keep it simple so this is my really basic camp stove and when you're just
starting out cooking at camp using your camp stove is really i think the easiest way to go
you can just have a cast iron pan or a big pot and you can cook a lot of meals so keep it simple
think one pot meals one pan meals in this case i'm gonna make quesadillas all i need is my cast iron
pan super simple some other ideas for simple one pot or one pan meals would be ramen scrambled eggs
pancakes i have tons of one-pot recipes on my blog like the jambalaya or sloppy joes or tacos
so you can eat really good delicious food but also keep it really simple now if you want to get into
more campfire cooking there are also some really easy meals that you can do with the campfire such
as foil packet meals or even just simple grilling hamburgers and hot dogs keep it simple really is
key and today we're gonna do quesadillas my next tip is to get organized organization is going to
make or break your camp cooking experience it is the difference between really enjoying it having
fun around the campfire or the camp stove sharing meals with friends and family or being completely
frazzled and stressed running around trying to find things so the first part of this to unpack
is just making sure that your gear and your food are organized and stored well don't go camping
with like 20 grocery bags of things scattered all over your car and all over the picnic table that
type of thing i use a camping bin that stores most of my food and then of course i have the
cooler and then i have a little bin for my camp cooking gear so keeping everything organized will
just make the experience a lot better my next tip is to think through what you're going to
cook before you start cooking if you are making a particular recipe let's say you printed one of the
recipes off my blog read the recipe fully before you begin read the recipe actually at home before
you pack but then read it at camp before you start cooking so that you can get all of your supplies
and all of your ingredients organized before you start cooking i have not done this in the past and
what happens is i end up being completely frazzled like oh i need a fork and i gotta run over there
to get the fork and then oh can you get me this ingredient and it's over there so don't do that
just get everything laid out that you're going to need before you start cooking so that's what i've
done here from these quesadillas over the camp stove i'm just going to cook them in my cast iron
pan got my few ingredients and i'm organized and ready to go next if it's available set up a nice
workspace for yourself so this is an awesome big picnic table i can spread things out and i
can stay organized this is not always the case of course if i'm dispersed camping i don't have the
luxury of this nice big picnic table but if you do have something like this make sure you put it to
good use lastly on this organization make sure if you are campfire cooking that you just kind
of clear the area around the campfire make sure you don't have any tools laying around that you
could trip over kind of clear away any big rocks or sticks or things that could become a hazard
as you're working around the campfire so again just thinking about what you're gonna do where
you're gonna cook and making sure that you have a nice organized place and environment to do that
my next tip is simple but it is to cook meals that you're already familiar with
or even maybe do a trial run at home so quesadillas i've made these so many times
so i'm already kind of familiar with the process and what needs to be done if you're making a
recipe that you can cook on the camp stove you probably can also cook it on the stove at home and
just do a good trial run so that way when you get out to camp there's less hiccups and less bumps
in the road potentially because you've already sort of done the recipe so it's a simple tip but
it does make a difference if you're cooking a lot of stuff cook stuff you already know
all right my next tip is to really think about your workspace and make sure that
you keep it clean i know this is kind of obvious but when you're handling raw meat at camp that can
kind of be tricky because it can be difficult to clean your hands and to clean your workspace well
so this kind of goes back to planning your meals and knowing ahead of time what resources are going
to be available at the campground that you're going to some campgrounds have running water
and it's very easy to clean your hands and your dishes and it just makes it really easy
if you're dispersed camping it's going to be a little bit harder and maybe you want
to plan meals that don't have raw meat aspects to them so it's just something to think about
and again plan for at home i do have a separate video i will link to it in the description box
below which is all about how i clean my dishes at camp and i walk you through the entire process so
you can check that out if you want info on that my last tip is probably one of the most important
and it is to be patient especially when you're dealing with campfire cooking it takes some time
to really get a sense of how hot fire can be and how hot you need something when you're cooking
a particular meal especially with the fire so just be patient you know there's going to
be meals where you kind of just mess things up or you burn things or you forget an ingredient
but the more you do it the more intuitive it becomes and the easier it becomes and
once you develop a good organization and good systems about how you like to pack and cook it
really is so enjoyable this is one of my favorite aspects of camping is sharing meals with friends
and family in an undistracted environment it's just so special and i have so many memories
myself like from my childhood of when we would go camping i hope that this is helpful if you're
new to camping or you just want to up your camp cooking skills make sure to check some
of the additional resources below and subscribe to the channel i will see you in the next one
you