Pretty much anything tastes good when you've cooked it yourself over a campfire or a gas stove, so stick to easy, tasty meals.
Provided your trip doesn't last more than a few days, the best way to ensure a successful one is to plan your meals in advance. If heading for remote areas, it's better to take too much than too little. Remember that you will probably eat more than usual if you are bushwalking.
Your standard menu might read something like this:
Breakfast: porridge/cereal, milk and bread with jam/honey/Vegemite, fruit.
Lunch: sandwiches or noodles, fruit.
Dinner: easy dishes like sausages, rissoles or chops with a salad or cooked vegetables. Stews are good. It's also a good plan to bring prepared pasta sauces that just need heating.
Snacks: everyone seems to eat more on camping trips, so bring plenty of fruit, muesli/fruit bars, biscuits and sultanas.
Drinks: tea/coffee, cordial and plenty of water.
Your basic equipment should include:
A basic camp larder should include:
Porridge - add water to oats, boil for five minutes. Add honey or jam for flavouring.
Breakfast wrap-ups - fry eggs and sausages, insert in flour tortillas with lashings of tomato sauce. Minimises messy washing up.
Mess-free eggs on an open fire - cut an orange in half and eat the pulp. Then crack an egg into the orange skin and place it in the embers until the egg turns white. No mess to clear up after!
Pasta - cook the pasta, drain off the water, add a jar of pasta sauce and/or a can of tuna and heat through. Thin pasta cooks quicker than thicker varieties.
Quick mini-pizzas - spread tomato paste on a tortilla, add meat of your choice plus olives and sprinkle with cheese. Cook in a frying pan until the cheese melts.
Packet noodles - most supermarkets carry a range of flavoured noodles that just need water and heating up. Parmesan adds flavour.
Packet soups - add hot water, sprinkle with parmesan for extra oomph.
Baked potatoes (open fires) - pierce each potato three times with a fork, wrap in aluminum foil and cover in embers on edge of fire.
Fried rice - cook your rice in one pan, then in another pan lightly fry some chopped meat (for example, canned sausages, cold meat or meatballs) and an onion. Add the drained cooked rice, a seasoning for taste (for example, soy sauce, garlic, tomato sauce or dried herbs) and chopped vegetables, if available. Cook until evenly fried.
Banana boats - peel back a strip of banana skin about 1.5" wide. Scoop out a trench in the banana . Fill trench with marshmallows and milk chocolate squares. Fold the banana peel back and wrap in foil. Place on hot coals for about 10 minutes.
Yum sticks - make a basic dough (self-raising flour, water, a little butter). Mould dough around a stick that is about as thick as your finger to form a long test tube shape about 10 cm long. Cook slowly over coals. Slide bread off stick and fill with golden syrup.
4WD
