We all love a good outdoor dinner, right?! While sometimes we do put a lot of effort into our camping dinners, more often than not we aim to work smarter not harder! Which means simple and easy, but delicious and satisfying meals around a campfire!
Here are our favorite easy (and I mean easy!) outdoor dinners! These are great for camping, but also just for a backyard cookout or an evening in the woods!
1- Hot Dogs roasted over a fire. Bring pickles and Jdawgs sauce for some extra pizazz. Bring chips for a side as well as a salad kit! Last time we were camping, I just mixed the salad kit in the bag it came in! Less dishes for me!
2- Sloppy Joes. Grab some ground beef, hawaiian rolls, and a can of manwich. When we go camping, we always bring a cast iron skillet or dutch oven, as well as our Coleman propane foldable camping stove. To make sloppy joes, just brown the ground beef in a skillet, add the manwich, and spoon it onto a roll! Again, chips and a salad kit make great sides with this meal!
3- Tinfoil dinners! There are so many varieties of tinfoil dinners but here are my top 3:
- Hobo Dinner: Spray tin foil with cooking spray. Inside each tinfoil packet layer diced hash browns, salt, cream of mushroom soup, ground beef, seasoning (lawry’s seasoned salt or lipton onion soup packets are both great seasoning choices), green beans, and carrots. Cook the tin foil packets in a fire or over hot coals! Just check the temperature to make sure the ground beef is cooked through. Serve with ketchup!
- Salmon: In each tin foil packet layer lemon slices, salmon, slices of cold butter, salt and pepper, and asparagus. Wrap tightly and cook the packets in a fire or over hot coals until the salmon is cooked through.
- Pineapple pork chops: Spray each tin foil packet with cooking spray. In each tinfoil packet layer a boneless pork chop, salt & pepper, pineapple slices (fresh or canned), and sliced bell peppers. Wrap tightly and cook the packets in a fire or over hot coals until the salmon is cooked through.
4- Frito Pie. You’ll need a camp stove and skillet for this one too. Heat up a couple cans of your favorite chili. Then each person makes their own frito pie… frito lay chips as the base, topped with hot chili, shredded cheese, sour cream, shredded lettuce, and whatever other veggies you’d like to add!
5- Grilled cheese. Simple as it sounds! Bread + butter + cheese cooked on a camp stove. Tomato soup would be a great addition to this meal! Grilled cheese sandwiches might be my kids most favorite camping meal!
I would love to know what your favorite easy go-to outdoor meals are! Send me your suggestions!
