Going out with friends and family on camping is the most wonderful feeling. However, planning everything for camping might be a daunting task for you. The reason is that you must pack everything to enjoy your vacation without worrying about anything.
When you camp with your friends and family in the form of a group, you might hike through forests, sing campfire songs beneath the sky, and eat your favorite food. However, traveling with the group requires additional planning compared to traveling alone.
You must coordinate schedules, identify journey logistics, and make plans so that you can enjoy yourself to your fullest. Another thing you can focus on while traveling is that you can prepare your meal plans. Preparing meal plans will allow you to save yourself a lot of time.
At first, the idea of coordinating meals for a big group might be overwhelming for you. However, you can ask yourself which food is the simplest to make, and you can cook using a campfire or extra rustic cooking equipment.
Fortunately, cooking for a large group is not that complicated if you follow certain rules. Here are a few suggestions that you can follow to have a lovely vacation.
Tip to Plan Camping Meal for A Group
Cooking for a big group might be a daunting task compared to preparing a meal for a few people. However, you can set yourself up to complete the cooking task by cautiously making plans, prepping, and taking suggestions. Let’s look at the tips that can help you in meal planning for group camping.
Decide Everything Beforehand
If you want to make everything as easy as possible for your camping trip, you should prepare your food in advance. You can ask everyone to give suggestions and help you prepare and pack all the food to bring with you most safely.
For example, if you want to eat pancakes for breakfast one morning, you can make the batter a few days earlier before leaving. After preparing the batter, you can pack the batter in a cooler and bring it with you to the camping. All you want to do during the camping is warm a pan and spoon out the batter. You and your friends and family will enjoy the food so much.
Confirm Everyone About their Food Allergies
Before preparing the meal, you should ask everyone about their food allergies. It is essential as if someone is allergic to something, they won’t be able to eat that dish, and preparing more than one thing at a time might become difficult for you.
Therefore, instead of tugging out your pre-made dinner and finding out that a person in your group can’t eat the meal, you should confirm everything beforehand. One more thing you can do is cook a meal without the basic ingredients like peanuts and soybeans that can cause an allergy to someone.
One more thing you can do is bring meal alternatives like gluten-free bread. This way, if anyone forgot to inform you about their allergy, you’ll have some alternatives for them to eat at that time.
Plan Meal for Every Day
While traveling with the group, you should remember that you can’t miss any mealtime. Therefore, while planning for the meal, ensure that you have planned meals at least three times a day. Camping with a group of people might become a restful experience if you don’t have enough food every time. Therefore, try to stay prepared beforehand. One thing you can do while preparing a meal is to ask for help from everyone to prepare the meal in less time.
You can simplify your journey by planning out day-by-day menus beforehand. Moreover, you can also think about what meals you’re ingesting on what days. It will assist you in streamlining the meal prep and cooking. Therefore, next time you go camping, you can have a proper solution for your meal problems.
Tell Everyone About the Food You Are Brining
As you plan your camping food, try to inquire about everyone’s preferences. You can ask everyone within your camping group to bring different food items for you. I will reduce your burden and aid in creating a collaborative environment for the journey. Check-in with those contributors a day or two before you leave to ensure they’re on track.
Don’t Forget Your Silverware
It’s a simple and common error that everyone arrives at the campsite, sets up the tents, and begins cooking supper, only to discover that no one remembers to bring dishes or utensils.
Ensure that you have enough cutlery for the entire group. Moreover, don’t forget to pack napkins, glasses, and plates. Overestimate the number of gadgets you think you’ll need.
Don’t Try New Recipes for Your Travel Food
There’s no need to try a brand-new recipe and complicate things. Try to keep things simple as everything will taste better when you’re tenting. Even a baked potato will feel good when you have it on camping.
Keep Everything Simple
Can you cook things with foil instead of using a pan for dinner? If you can, it will allow you to bring fewer utensils. Moreover, you can think about what you can pre-cook and pre-chop at home and have in the cooler.
Don’t Forget to Bring Soap
You can bring all-purpose liquid, Castile soap, or Coghlan’s Camp Soap for your camping. Moreover, you can find Soap suitable for you in various forms from the supermarket. You can also find soaps that are biodegradable, concentrated, and non-toxic.
Bottom Line
It isn’t easy to wing it when it comes to camp cooking—cooking while camping is a risk compared to indoor cooking because you can’t buy pizza if everything isn’t going well. Plan each meal and snack ahead of time for your camping trip to guarantee you don’t run out of food on the first night or be caught eating.