Easy camping and caravan meal ideas

Camping and caravan holidays are all about embracing the outdoors, and what better way to do this than cooking at your campsite? While there will be plenty of opportunities to enjoy Cornish delicacies while on your Looe camping holiday, you may also want to try a few fun recipes to get the true camping experience.

At the end of a long day exploring and enjoying outdoor activities, some easy camping dinners and simple camp food will be just what is required. Family camping in particular can be made much easier with some super-easy camping meal ideas close at hand.

 Read on to discover our easy camping meal suggestions, whether you are pitching a tent or enjoying a caravan holiday. Go on, give them a go!

Easy to cook camping and caravan meals

• Greek Stifado
• Fresh pasta
• Buffet food
• Breakfast burritos
• Stir fry
• BBQ
• S’mores

Greek Stifado

While this is a recipe that you’ll want to pre-cook for your camping trip, it’s an easy meal to take with you and heat up on your camping stove upon arrival. Check out pukka chef Jamie Oliver’s take on the recipe here.

This camping recipe is a favourite and one that can be made before you leave for your camping trip. It’s a Greek stew called Stifado made with steak and a tomato-based sauce. Just add orzo pasta to the pan and heat it all up to turn it into a one-pot recipe, adding extra water if more moisture is needed.

“Once we’ve prepped, we’ll cook and freeze some dishes at home, such as a canvas casserole, for others, we’ll just pop the ingredients into food bags and plastic containers, ready to cook whilst we are away.” – Camping with Style

Fresh pasta

This may be considered a bit of a cop-out, but it’s almost impossible to go wrong with fresh pasta and sauce, and it’s a great dish to try for those who are new to camping. Here’s a BBC tomato and basil sauce recipe you can make from scratch.

It can be very helpful when camping to have something fast for the first night when you’ve just arrived and need to unpack. Pasta is perfect for this when combined with either a store-bought or pre-made sauce.

Buffet food

We think a buffet-style spread is a great idea for a camping trip, as there’s no cooking involved at all. Buffet food always goes down well with children too, as they’ll love picking and choosing what to put on their plate.

There is no end to the items that can be included in your camping lunch buffet, involving little to no preparation, such as crackers, bread sticks, cheese, dips and cakes. All of which makes for a tasty and easy meal.

Breakfast burritos

As the most important meal of the day, especially when you have a busy day of exploring Cornwall ahead, you’ll want to ensure that your breakfast is suitably filling. With ingredients that are all easy to fry in a pan, breakfast burritos are the perfect solution and will keep rumbling tummies full until lunchtime.

“Fill a tortilla with scrambled eggs, onion, mushrooms, bacon and season with plenty of black pepper” – Camping with Style

Stir-fry

This is one of the healthiest options on our list and will take just minutes to cook and prepare. Vegetables and noodles will do just fine, but adding a meat of your choice will enhance the flavour even more.

“Prawns, noodles, bean sprouts and veg with a stir through of sweet chilli, easy, quick and delicious!” – Camping with Style

BBQ

A camping holiday wouldn’t be complete without an obligatory barbecue for burgers, hot dogs, and other tasty treats. With disposable BBQs for sale in most shops, even if you haven’t brought catering equipment along, you can still get involved with some outdoorsy cooking!

Make sure you pack some BBQ essentials and then buy more of what you need when you arrive at your destination. This will help to save space and provides the opportunity to use a local butcher.

“Big, tasty chicken and salad burgers with homemade coleslaw are easy to do, plus, they’re filling and tasty too!” – Camping with Style

S’mores

There had to be at least one dessert on our list, but to mix it up a bit, we’ve picked this top American treat, as it may be one that you haven’t tried before.

Just three ingredients are needed to make a s’more. In the US, Graham crackers are used, but they are not readily available in the UK. The closest alternative is digestive biscuits. Next, you need chocolate and then marshmallows. In addition, you must light a fire and forage for a proper roasting stick; this will allow you to melt the marshmallows before sticking your ‘sandwich’ together.

Extra tips for easy camping meals

• Keep items cool by storing them under trailer tents and tent porches.
• Plan meals ahead of time.
• Invest in a good quality cool box.
• Do as much meal preparation as you can at home.

Of course, if you want to simplify things even further for a few of your meals, our Cornwall holiday park includes the lovely Castaways restaurant, serving up tasty meals.

Here at Tencreek Holiday Park, we do everything we can to make camping and caravan holidays as easy as possible. Book today and look forward to a holiday to remember.