A Full Family Camping Meal Plan

Grocery List

• Brats, 1-2 per person (Friday)

• Hot dog buns (Friday)

• Brat condiments (Friday

• 1 stick of butter (for greasing up the pan!)

• ½ pound Italian sausage, no casings (Saturday AM)

• ½ cup chopped shallots (Saturday AM)

• 2 garlic cloves, minced (Saturday AM)

• ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (Saturday AM)

• 1 cup chopped broccoli (Saturday AM)

• 1 cup chopped spinach (Saturday AM)

• 3 large eggs (Saturday AM)

• 2 large egg yolks (Saturday AM)

• ½ cup half and half (Saturday AM)

• ½ cup whipping cream (Saturday AM)

• 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese (Saturday AM)

• 1 Mountain House food packet per person

• 1-2 bone in, skin on chicken thighs per person, ½ for super little ones (Saturday PM)

• 2 handfuls vegetables (I like green beans, carrots, and cauliflower) per person, ½ - 1 handful for littles (Saturday PM)

• Olive oil

• Salt

• Pepper

• Just-add-water pancake mix (Sunday AM)

• 4 bars of chocolate (I am very partial to dark chocolate, but choose your adventure here!)

• 1 bag marshmallows

• Graham crackers

Meal Plan Layout

Dinner Friday: Do something quick and easy, as you may be getting in just in time to set up your campsite before dark! This isn’t the night to try a brand-new recipe. I am a big fan of brats followed up by s’mores. The brats are a nice change from hot dogs, and I love the different flavors you can nab. I tend to gravitate toward the classic beer brat, but also love anything cheddar and with a spice. And honestly, if I could have s’mores every single night, I would (and when I am camping, I do).

Breakfast Saturday: This is the perfect day to try out a breakfast casserole! Breakfast casseroles are a favorite of mine, because I find that I can sneak in more vegetables with less complaint from my 3.5-year-old. This particular recipe is easy and can also be tweaked based on your personal likes and dislikes. It serves about 4 people.

Lunch Saturday: Mountain House food packs for the win. They are quick, easy and are basically no-mess. Grab a pack for each person in your family (just to be safe, especially since you most likely will be having an active day!), and all you need to add is hot water.

Dinner Saturday: Change Your Life Chicken… this recipe is from The Lazy Genius podcast, and it is fantastic, along with simple to cook in the Dutch oven. Plus, it is healthy, meaning that you can go hard in the dessert.

Dessert Saturday: S’mores Dip, because I told you I was obsessed with s’mores! And honestly… you could probably just skip dinner and jump straight to dessert, I wouldn’t judge (been there, done that).

Breakfast Sunday: Pancakes. PANCAKES. This is definitely our favorite breakfast, and if you make the right amount, it gives you leftovers to eat while you are driving home as well! If you have leftover chicken from the night before, try making pancake chicken burritos. Just like it sounds, roll the chicken into the pancake and have at it (it’s like a camping or on-the-go version of chicken and waffles). If you want to keep your sugar intake down, I love eating plain pancakes with some butter. Just butter them up as they come off the pan, and they are perfect hand-held eats for now OR later.

Recipes

Dinner Friday: No recipe needed, just cook those suckers over the fire. When you are making s’mores, be sure to save at least half of the s’mores supplies for Saturday night!

Breakfast Saturday: This recipe from Epicurious is delicious, and I have tweaked it a bit to fit what my family likes.

• Butter the Dutch oven

• Sauté the Italian sausage until brown and cooked through, breaking it up into small pieces

• Add broccoli, shallots and garlic, and sauté for about 3 more minute

• Add spinach and cilantro (save a small handful for garnish) and stir for another 2 minutes

• Spread mixture into the greased Dutch oven (and cover)

• Whisk eggs, egg yolks, half and half, whipping cream, 1 ½ cups of the cheese, about ½ teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon pepper in a large bowl

• Pour egg mixture over sausage mixture

• Sprinkle remaining ½ cup cheese and cilantro over

• Cook by placing the Dutch oven evenly over coals and piling coals on top until the top of the casserole is golden brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean

• Let stand for about 5 minutes before serving

Dinner Saturday: This chicken recipe from The Lazy Genius is awesome, since it is not only delicious, it is an easy one-pot meal!

• Cut veggies (carrots take longest to cook, so make those thinner cuts, and for the cauliflower, think large bite-sized) and toss with salt, pepper and olive oil

• Peel the skin back from the chicken and generously season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper, but season under the skin. So, pull back the skin, season, and fold the skin back over.

• Pat the chicken skin dry with paper towels. The best order is to place the chicken skin side down on the vegetables, season, flip, pull back the skin, season, put the skin back, and pat dry.

• Place the chicken skin side up directly on top of the vegetables.

• Put the lid on the Dutch oven and place over hot coals and cover the lid with hot coals. This sucker needs to be HOT (think 500° oven), so the more coals, the merrier!

• Cook until chicken is completely done (use a meat thermometer). Cook times vary based on how many coals are used, outside temperature affecting it, etc.

Dessert Saturday: This is easy peasy.

• Make sure you have some medium-hot coals ready for your cast iron skillet

• Layer chocolate, marshmallow, and a few more chocolate pieces into the skillet

• Place the skillet onto the coals and let everything melt down (be sure those coals aren’t too hot – you don’t want the chocolate to burn!)

• Grab those grahams and dig in!