My husband has been WAY into camping since we met.
He’s a true outdoorsman: he loves his truck, doesn’t feel whole without an ATV, and hunting and fishing are his choice forms of entertainment.
Me, not so much.
During high school, we went on a couple of canoe trips into Canada, which I think may have given him the wrong impression about my feelings on camping. Sure, when you’re in high school, spending time with your boyfriend – even if it means not showering for an entire week, and canoeing 200 miles – sounds pretty dang awesome.
You can see how he would think I liked camping.
After we were married, he broached the subject of going camping with friends, and SURPRISE, I wasn’t into the idea. I put off going camping until our daughter was born, at which point I realized just how much I wanted our child to spend a lot of time outdoors, and just how frugal a vacation camping could be.
So I changed my stance on camping.
I embraced it, but cooking while camping still terrified me. I wasn’t good at grilling – much less over a campfire – and the 3 good grilling recipes I had couldn’t sustain us for a long trip.
My solution was to embrace my crock pot, which I realize isn’t exactly “embracing camping” but it was a gentle way of getting used to camping, greatly reducing the cooking workload while we were camping, and also enabled me to pack more shelf-stable items, thus reducing the amount of packing and planned needed before a trip.
I don’t cook entirely from a crock pot anymore, but if you’re just starting out camping, are camping with a new baby, or just need a little simplicity in your next trip, I’ve got the perfect meal plan for you:
3 Day Camping Crockpot Meal Plan
I’ve got enough meals lined up here for 3 days and 2 nights of meals, complete with the recipes, shopping list, and a preparation steps checklist that will help you do as much shopping, mixing, and packaging prior to roughing it in the woods.
You will need the following recipes to complete the meal plan:
- Easy Steak Marinade
- Mexican Campfire Street Corn
- Crockpot Hash Brown Casserole
- Barbecue Brisket Sliders with Coleslaw
Print them out to go along with the meal plan, and take them along on your trip so you’re prepared with a complete plan. If you really want to simplify, pick up a few extra things like crockpot liners, paper plates, and ziploc bags for mixing the marinade and storing leftovers.
Oh, and make sure you have a good, sturdy cooler too!
I promise, these meals are easy, tasty, and filling. They meet my 3 criteria for camping meals:
- It Must Be Easy: The fewer mixing bowls and utensils required, the better. No sense in lugging along more cooking equipment than is absolutely necessary!
- It Must Be Filling: Camping burns tons of calories! Our meals while we’re camping typically contain way more calories than normal meal at home would.
- It Must Be Simple: The fewer ingredient required, the better. Also, the more shelf-stable ingredients in a recipes, the more I like it.
It’s printable, it’s comprehensive, and it’s yours free!
Simply enter your email address below, and the printable meal plan + shopping list will be emailed to you.
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