A Camper's Checklist: Choosing Your Meals

    

     Having previously noted that choosing the right camping destination in advance should be number one on a camper's checklist, it's time to move to a second important thing to consider - the camp meals.  Depending on how elaborate you wish to be with your campsite delicacies, I'll try to list some helpful tips for what is considered by many to be one of the most memorable times of a camping trip.  The following advice comes from our experiences, and if you have others, we'd be glad to hear about them.

    Pre-cook meals at home.  Quite frankly, this tip was introduced to us by my parents.  Up until we spent a weekend with them at Red Top Mountain State Park, GA., we had always prepared our meals at the campsite.  This time, however, my mother had cooked ribs at her house the day before our camping trip.  When we decided to eat them on a Saturday night, we simply threw them on the grill (still wrapped in foil) to heat them up, and then we served them with corn on the cob and baked beans.  From that time on, my wife has prepared a few of our favorite campsite meals such as stews and soups at home prior to our trip.  Though we aren't usually very elaborate with our meal planning, we definitely see the wisdom in pre-cooking our meals prior to our trip.  Besides, unless you simply finding meal prep at the campsite part of your relaxation, this will help you save time to do more exploring or relaxing.

     Buy your food at a local store convenient to where you are camping.  We used to buy all of our groceries at our local grocery store prior to going on our trips.  This usually involved bags of ice, coolers, and other measures to ensure our perishables did not perish.  Eventually, we decided that it was much more convenient to stop at a store in the area where will be camping.  Whether or not we do it before we get to our campsite, or after we set up, it doesn't really matter.  The point is that we no longer have to worry about all of the extra care involved with keeping things at proper temperature, unless of course you are preparing your meals in advance, as noted in the paragraph above.

     So there you have it - two simple tips that you may have never thought of.  Be sure to add these to your camping checklist and look for others to come soon.

    What is your favorite campsite meal?  How much time to like to spend in preparing meals at the campsite?  Do you find the meal prep work to be a relaxing part of a camping trip?  We'd like to know.  Please take the time to comment and let us know.

Thanks!