Easy clean up meals?

trae

Adventurer
Hey folks, what's your go to meals for car camping that don't require scrubbing or plenty of water?

I have a griddle/scottle and the requisite cast iron cookware. I'm not a big fan of super saucy dishes 'cause they take a while to clean.
 

cug

New member
One thing I like is fried rice with chicken or egg. Should be easy to make in a skottle. Depending on the number of people you are cooking for, you have to take the right amounts, for two people I use roughly this:

Ingredients:
  • Pre-cooked rice (I cook this at least 8 hours before so it's not wet and soggy), about 1.25 cups for my wife and me
  • Either one chicken breast (cut in fine strips) or two to three eggs
  • 1/2 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
  • Garlic (two to three cloves)
  • 1 large sized carrot, cut to 1/4" slices
  • About a cup of green peas or one green bell pepper (depends on what you like and/or can easily bring), bell pepper should be cut not too fine, but not too large either
  • Pepper, chili flakes
  • Soy sauce, I bring a small bottle
  • Some cooking oil
  • Green spring onion, chopped (add the white part to the other onion, keep the green part for later)
Fry the chicken or prepare the eggs (scrambled), put to the side (on a plate to the side or just to the side of the skottle/wok), fry onions until translucent, add carrots, fry for maybe two minutes, stir occasionally, add bell pepper (if you use bell pepper), add garlic, keep stirring, when it all looks good, add egg and chicken again, add pepper and chili flakes to taste, add the rice, about 2 to 3 table spoons of soy sauce (this also adds enough salt for the dish), if you use frozen peas, add them now, stir, give it maybe two to three minutes to heat the rice and peas, turn off heat, add the green part of the green onion over the dish, done.

We prepare this in a well seasoned carbon steel pan or a wok, times depend highly on how finely you cut/chop the ingredients and how hot your cooking surface is, you get it right after two or three tries ... ;-) It's healthy, easy, only requires a single pan (if you have pre-cooked rice), no scrubbing if your cooking surface is well seasoned or non-stick, and easy to eat from a bowl or plate.
 

cug

New member
Another simple option is a potato/veggie pan:

Depending on number of people, take some potatoes, cut to 1/2 inch cubes, cut whatever vegetables you like (we use bell pepper, mushrooms, zucchini, squash, etc) into similar sized cubes, roughly chopped onion, maybe a finger length of chorrizo sausage cut in small pieces, some fresh garlic.

Start with the potatoes in a hot pan with some oil, add the veggies depending on how fast they cook, I normally start with the potatoes, then one after the other onion, mushrooms, sausage, bell pepper, garlic, etc.; add some sweet paprica powder (stir right away), fry until mostly done, season with pepper and chili flakes, maybe add some dried herbs to taste (I use Italian Seasoning for simplicity). Mix well, let it cook maybe for another minute. Done.

This one requires more chopping and preparing, but it's simple enough and cleans up well.

If you have some sticking in the skottle or pan, just de-glaze with a bit of water and scrub quickly with a bamboo brush, done.

There is so much more that's easy ... I use mostly "one pan recipes", works great, not too much to clean up, and always tasty. I cook either in carbon steel or cast iron pans. Don't want to bring a skottle when I already need the stove anyways for coffee, noodles, rice, etc.
 
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cug

New member
For breakfast:

We bring oats, nuts, raisins, shredded coconut, and a bit of cocoa pre-mixed for muesli. We use simple steel cut oats, not oatmeal or so. At camp, put maybe six or seven normal table spoons of the pre-mix in a bowl. Add some fresh cut fruit (e.g. a banana, cut in slices), some yogurt (one small cup of yogurt is great for breakfast for two), add milk. Eat. The great thing here is that you could completely pre-mix this with dried fruit and milk powder, just add some water, stir, done. No need for heating up or cooking or such.

We make fresh coffee and also drink orange juice and or water.
 

cug

New member
Other simple food that requires only one pan (if some other stuff is prepared beforehand):

- Tacos
- Burritos
- Omelette or scrambled eggs with veggies
- Stews

If we go out for just one weekend, we often prepare most of the veggies at home and take it tupperware or ziplock bags. The muesli we used during a Grand Canyon hike as breakfast, pre-packaged in ziplock bags (1 bag per person per day).
 

cug

New member
Me making fried rice, it did stick a bit in the stainless steel pan, but a cup of water, heating up on the stove, then using the spatula solved that in about two minutes or so:

IMG_4140.jpeg
 

cug

New member
Interesting idea, but I don't find rice to be a big problem if I clean the pot right away when cooking while camping. But if you really want to avoid it, you can also buy pre-cooked rice (I have not tried this).
 

TwinStick

Explorer
Everyone has different ideas and comfort levels for camping. We usually use our 18' tow behind camper.

Our style is: I try hard to cook things at home when weather is nice. Then vacuum seal it & freeze it. It works great for us, especially during bad weather. It nice to make up a plate, microwave it, & have a hot meal in 2 minutes. We have an aux battery/inverter setup & a 700 watt microwave for truck camping without camper & using the tent. I do enjoy cooking outside if weather is good and we have nothing else going on. Just got a new Lodge cast iron griddle pan for steaks and such. I'll be trying that out tomorrow with prime rib.

We can have campfires here in Western Ny State, so we use paper plates and burn them when starting the campfire.
 

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