The best camping recipe is one that involves no cooking. How to do that? Make it at home, freeze it, toss it in the cooler to serve as ice pack on your way to the campground. At the camp site, wrap it in heavy-duty tin foil throw it on the fire, and unwrap for gourmet camping dining.

A perfect camping menu item for that strategy is meatloaf. The video below is from my friend Kathy Maister, who makes cooking videos for total kitchen klutz like me.

Make a couple of meatloaves. Don't know if it's the hiking, or the camping excitement or the late nights playing monopoly in the camping tent, but my kids appetites double when we go camping.

Related Article: 2-step Camping Recipes

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Technorati tags: foil cooking , campfire cooking, camping recipes
Somehow food is more delicious and satisfying outdoors. Maybe it’s the crisp and fresh air. Maybe I’m hungrier. Maybe it’s being able to eat without being interrupted by the phone!

The only drawback to camping cooking is preparing and cleaning up. I don't like cooking multi-step recipes when I can be watching the sunset or scrubbing smoke-stained dishes in less than adequate dishpans after the meal.

That is why my favorite cooking 'pot' is aluminum foil.

Foil cooking allows you to prepare marvelous meals in the coals of your campfire and have nothing to wash when dinner's over! Below are 7 of my favorite foil wrap recipes. Continue reading…

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I want to go camping, start a campfire, just to make these scrumptious melty, gooey, marshmallowy desserts… There's definitely more to campfire desserts than s'mores.

Here are the camping recipes for the four desserts in the video.
Continue reading…

camp cooking campfire campfire recipes camping recipes recipes camping s mores smores

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Reason #10. You have tried everything else to peel the kids (or the hubby?) away from the TV and Xbox. One thing I learn as a parent, when I yell, "Turn that TV off!" I need to provide an alternative. Kids can't substitute TV for vacuum. Gotta give them something to occupy their active minds like Surviving in the Wilderness.

Reason #9. You can't remember the last time you gazed at the stars. It's time to see the Big Dipper beyond the printed page.

Reason # 8. The only bird chirping you have ever woken up to is the cuckoo clock in the living room.

Reason # 7. Ten years from now, when your kids lament to their therapists that you were absent in their lives, you can show videos and pictures of your family camping experience.

Reason # 6. Food tastes better outdoors. I'll tell you about the Baby Weber Grill at another time.

Reason # 5. Its affordable. You can buy very nice camping gear with the equivalent of a couple nights hotel stay. And you get to keep the gear. (Its like owning your own home instead of renting).

Reason # 4. Enjoy the inheritance that was saved for you. In 1916, your grandparents and mine made a commitment to preserve, protect and share the natural beauty of this land through the National Park Service. When was the last time your eyes feasted on the natural beauty of our [tag/]national parks[/tag]?

Reason # 3. Camping is so easy today. Down-filled sleeping bags, 10-minute-set-up tents, instant fire starters, and yes, that Baby Weber Grill. Today's camping equipment is easy enough for the beginner campers.

Reason # 2. There are many ways to camp, so you can choose what suits you best. There's rustic cabin camping, car camping, luxury camping such as at the Adirondacks, RV camping and backpacking. Start with something you are comfortable with. Chances are, you'll explore other more adventurous camping with time.

Reason # 1. You have never gone camping before. Well, then you absolutely have to go camping this year. Do it before you are set in your ways. Do it before you take yourselves too seriously. Do it before the kids leave the nest. Do it before you can't do it. In other words, just do it.

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