Camping Food

This week we prepare for our one and only camping trip of the summer. We are headed to a favorite spot of my husband’s family in Northern Idaho. We all love our week at “the lake.” It’s a bit of an endeavor to get all packed up. Between my husband and I we have our unsaid list of tasks. He gets the boat and camper ready. I make the menu for the week and prep everything we will need to eat.

We have family favorites that I make every year. The RA Kitchen Chicken Salad is on the top of that list. I make a big batch and we eat it for lunch either with butter lettuce leaves or crackers. Chicken Salad also makes a great wrap so I bring flour tortillas for those who want to make a wrap. This batch usually gets us about halfway through the week for lunches. 

I also make a batch of “Pioneer Woman” salsa, my homemade ranch and pesto! These are easy to prepare ahead of time, and don’t take up a lot of space in my small fridge. We will use them for snacks all week.  All these recipes are on the RA Kitchen website and you too can use them for your summer outings!

Our tradition at the lake for dinners is each family takes a night to prepare dinner for the camp. We have an little open air cooking station with a BBQ and big gas burner.

Our dinner meals are:

• Flank steak salad with grilled ciabatta bread

• Ribs with blue cheese slaw and Yumi noodles

• Burgers with all the fixings and tater tots

• Pesto jumbo shrimp and caprese salad with BBQ flatbread

I chose these meals because they don’t take a lot of meal prep. As to not take away from my time on the lake. I will marinate the flank steak in advance and chop veggies for the salad while the steak is on the BBQ. For the ribs, I’ll put a rub on them and wrap them in foil to cook on the BBQ. I’ll make the blue cheese dressing and Yumi noodle sauce at home before we leave. And since I will have pesto anyway the shrimp are simple and cook quickly. They also can be served a room temperature. Easy peasy!!

I usually spend the week before the lake meal planning and prepping all the food. This keeps me organized for the week while we are at the lake and the kids will be able to grab lunch stuff easily and dinners will be mostly done. If I’m organized before we go and the food is accessible then my vacation is much easier and enjoyable.

If you have fun outdoor events this summer and need simple recipes that please a crowd head to the RA Kitchen website for recipes and inspiration! 

We will post our pictures from our trip in upcoming blogs!!

Enjoy!!