Ahhh, camping – a great way to get outside and practice your survival skills. Call me weird, but one of my favorite aspects about camping is cooking over a campfire. There’s something about it that feels simple about campfire cooking, and that it makes it easy to enjoy.

A great way of campfire cooking is by using Foil. Essentially, you wrap uncooked food in foil and place it over hot coals from your campfire where you let time and heat to do the rest.

What’s great about foil cooking is that you can prep it all at home before you leave with each meal already in its “pocket.” Once you get to the campsite, all you have to do is pop it over the coals and you’ll be good to go!

If you’re not too comfortable with it, you can try it out and practice at home on your backyard fire pit. That way, when it’s the real deal, you’ll be ready to go!

Here are some of my favorite recipes that will help you survive a camping trip. They are pretty simple to make and flexible so you can customize and use different ingredients if you don’t like what I use.

CAJUN SURF AND TURF IN FOIL

Who doesn’t love a good Cajun surf and turf? The great thing about this recipe is that you can easily replace the meats with your favorites, or just make it all meat or all seafood.

What You Will Need:

• Andouille sausages
• Shrimp (peeled and deveined)
• Corn (optional)
• Onions and bell pepper
• Cajun seasoning
• Lemon/lime juice

Using Andouille sausages gives the recipe a nice, spicy kick. But if you don’t like your surf and turf too spicy, you can always substitute it for regular sausages. Other meat options are steak or chicken.

Shrimps are the best to use in this recipe, but you can add other seafood such as squid, mussels, or Fish as well for a complete seafood fiesta.

How To Do It:
Thinly slice the onions and bell peppers. Chop the sausages into bite sizes about 1 inch thick, then peel and devein the shrimps if necessary. If you’ll be using corn, cut the corn into quarters or about 2 inches.

Lay out the foil and add the onion, bell pepper, shrimp, and sausages. Sprinkle some Cajun seasoning, a pinch of salt and pepper on top. Squeeze some lemon/lime juice over the ingredients and mix well until everything is coated with the Cajun seasoning. Fold the foil closed and cook over the coals of a campfire.

STUFFED FISH IN FOIL

This recipe is great if you have a fresh catch of fish from your trip. You can basically stuff the fish with anything you want but you can follow this recipe for a nice, light, and simple meal.

Be sure you know how to descale and clean the fish if you’ll be using a fresh catch, or else you can use fish that’s already prepared from supermarkets. You can’t stuff the other ingredients in the fish but you can still place the fish over the other ingredients so it absorbs all the flavors.

What You’ll Need:

• Whole fish
• Coarse salt and pepper
• Favorite herbs
• Onions and garlic
• Tomato
• Olive oil (or any oil will do)

If you have a specific herb you like, you can try it out with your fish. Some herbs that are great with fish are dill and tarragon so you can use that if you have no preference.

How To Do It:
For freshly caught fish, remove the scales. Slice the fish from the belly to clean it out thoroughly. Rub some coarse salt and pepper over the fish.

Dice the onions, garlic, and tomatoes and carefully stuff it into the fish along with your herbs of choice. Place your stuffed fish over the foil and drizzle it with some olive oil. Close the foil pack tightly and cook over the coals of a fire.

TACOS IN A BAG

This one is my younger son’s favorite camping meal, which he requests every single time we go out. It’s really quick and easy to make. You can do it either by cooking the meat using the foil method or simply cook it at home and then keep it in a zipper bag until you’re ready to use it.

What You Will Need:

• Ground beef
• Salt and pepper
• Lettuce
• Onions
• Tomatoes
• Shredded cheese
• A small bag of your favorite chips (per person, and corn-based is recommended such as Fritos or Doritos).

I advise that you keep each ingredient in separate zipper bags so that everyone can choose what mix-ins they want. You can also add other ingredients you like on your tacos like olives or capers.

When it comes to the small bag of chips, ideally, each person gets their own small bag. Each one can choose what flavor or type of Chip they like so your tacos in a bag becomes personal. I recommend using corn-based chips though, such as Fritos or Doritos because that is what will make it taste most like tacos.

How To Do It:
I suggest that you prep all of your ingredients at home so you won’t have to worry while you are out in the campsite. Chop all your toppings and place each ingredient in separate zipper bags.

If you want your meat to be cooked in the campsite, lay out the ground beef on the foil. Sprinkle with simple salt and pepper (not too much, since a lot of the flavor will come from the bag of chips) and then spread out evenly on the foil. Wrap it up and cook it.

Take your bag of chips and crush the chips until they are at your desired size. Keep the bag closed! Once the meat is ready, open it up and mix in your meat and all the topics you want. Eat directly from the bag!

CHOCOLATE MARSHMALLOW BANANA BOAT

This recipe is pretty popular, as I’ve seen it in a number of different places. You can make this as a sweet snack or eat it for dessert. Your kids will definitely enjoy eating this one. You can even ask them to prepare it with you because it’s super simple to make.

What You Will Need:

• Bananas
• Chocolate chips
• Small marshmallows
• Graham crackers (optional)

You can even use plantains instead of a regular banana. Plantains are softer and sweeter when cooked. You can also use different kinds of chocolate chips such as white chocolate chips, caramel chips, or even butterscotch chips.

How To Do It:
Place a peeled banana on foil and cut it in the center – don’t cut all the way through, make a type of slit like a hot dog bun.

Gently fill the center with chocolate chips and marshmallows until completely full. Wrap it up and place it over the campfire coals. Check every 5 minutes or so until the banana is soft and the marshmallows and chocolate have melted a bit. Once it’s cooked, you can top it with some crushed graham crackers for an extra bite or chocolate syrup for a chocolate overload!

QUICK TIPS FOR FOIL COOKING

Before you start wrapping and cooking, here are some quick tips to make sure that you have a successful cooking experience!

• Use heavy-duty foil. If you’re using regular foil, double it.
• Spray or coat the foil with some oil on the side where you’ll be placing your ingredients so nothing sticks.
• Put the foil on the coals, not the fire.
• Meats at the bottom – they take longer to cook than veggies.
• Flip the packets every so often.
• Open packets carefully! They are hot and full of steam.

GET COOKIN’!

These foil meals are really simple to make but pack a lot of flavors. You can virtually make any type of meal you want using this method. The fresh meals will keep you happy and satisfied during your adventures.

Of course, if you’re looking for a more survival prep option, you can always try no-cook meals that a lot of backpackers turn to during their adventures. But that is for another time!

Author Bio:
Rita Myers is the founder of Dating With Nature, where she writes about her outdoor experiences – both good and bad, as well as tips and ideas she’s learned along the way and wants to share. Dating With Nature has all kinds of articles and information about everything to do with camping, hiking, and being outdoors. She is also a wife and mother of two boys; balancing her passion for being outdoors and her family, who she considers are her biggest joys in life.

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