Simple quick truck camping meals

gwl79902

WKR
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Sep 30, 2013
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This time of year I make quick tips to go turkey hunting, mushroom picking, maybe fishing. Usually sleeping in the bed of the truck and eat out of the cooler. When I was 20 I just heated some beans and weenies or some other can of soup. A cn of soup and a 6 pack of keystone light and I was good to go.

Now I am almost 50 and want a little more in my meals. I no longer drink keystone but do like to drink local craft beers. I live in Bend oregon so good beer is easy to find.

So what do you guys make for good camping meals?

I went for two nights this week and one night I had lasagna, that I put in a vacuumed bag and some green beans also in a vacuumed bag. I tossed those in some boiling water and reheated. That was a good meal. The other meal was elk stroganoff in a vacuumed bag, that was ok but I freezes it and the noodles were mush.
 

406

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Nov 28, 2016
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You're already on the right track. We do tons of boil in a bag meals. We bag and freeze most leftovers that I either eat at work or camping.

Pasta doesn't do great, but usually ok. One thing I've learned over the years is to let food completely cool before sealing the bag. Trapping all that steam turns stuff like pasta and tortillas to mush. But if you let the burritos completely cool off and offgas the steam they heat up and eat great.

Other options are pre making sauces and boiling the noodles on site. Egg noodles seem to cook the fastest. For backpacking we'll make sauce and then dehydrate it.

Another favorite is dehydrated taco meat. The day you want to eat it, throw the dried meat into a nalgene with enough water. That will either go in the bear bag or in my pack if I'm staying mobile. By dinner time you just warm it up and slop on a tortilla with some cheese (lasts amazingly well in the pack) and salsa of choice (can also be dehydrate, but I just steal handfuls of Cholula packets from any gas station I can find them in).
It's shocking how good that Backcountry burrito tastes on day 5 of a tough week in the woods.



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gwl79902

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Man that sounds good!!!!! I did some breakfast burrito's and they were great. By the time I finished my first cup of coffe at 430 AM the burritos were done. Good food!!!!!!!
 

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
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There's nothing quicker and easier than a Mountain House meal.

When I used to do some of those late season rifle hunts, I'd just about have gourmet meals up there. But on those hunts it's dark by 5:30 with nothing else to do. For archery, I'm hunting until dark which is usually somewhere around 8:00pm or so, then by the time I get back to camp it might be 9:30 and I'm ready for bed. So a quick MH and then I'm in bed. Also no mess to clean up, and no extra pots or pans.
 

gumbl3

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Nov 27, 2016
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Texas
A box of suddenly salad original mixed with a can of canned chicken. Sprinkle in some parmesan. It's good hot and even better the next day cold.
 

Zoo Keeper

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Nov 26, 2015
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Missouri
Also do the vacuum sealed meals & boil - lasagna, chili, mac cheese + meat, stews.

Quick, easy, taste


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5MilesBack

"DADDY"
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One thing I do for truck camping is grill up some marinated ribeyes at home beforehand. I then slice them up thin and put them in a container in the cooler and throw them on some ceasar salad for a quick healthy meal.
 
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Mostly cold stuff but I'll bring some leftovers that I know reheat well (like chili). I'll also make grilled cheese sandwiches or some breakfast wraps prepared at home. I'll stop at Subway and get a Veggie sub and then add my own smoked and cured meats.
 

406

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Mostly cold stuff but I'll bring some leftovers that I know reheat well (like chili). I'll also make grilled cheese sandwiches or some breakfast wraps prepared at home. I'll stop at Subway and get a Veggie sub and then add my own smoked and cured meats.
For quick 2-3 day backpack trips I've been known to buy a couple foot longs from Subway and just live on those. They keep well enough unless it's a thousand degrees. I've taken frozen burritos & aluminum foil on short trips too.

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Tsnider

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i do a lot of truck camping in the summer months. i cook on a Tembo Tusk "skottle" now, which makes cooking pretty fun and easy. As far as ready to go meals, we always do burritos. Ours are normally like cooked steak, corn, rice, cheeses (queso as well) avocado, and whatever else. wrap them in 2 wraps of aluminum foil and put them near the camp fire. after about 15-20 minutes flip it. thank me later.

aside from that you can get away with philly cheese steaks. prepare everything ahead of time if you dont have easy to cook with gear. i prefer making these from start to finish on my Tembo Tusk and i can get them done in about 20 minutes typically.

for breakfast stuff we like to do blueberry corn cakes. for me they do better than pancakes, as eating a giant chunk of flour just isnt my thing. we also do oatmeal sometimes, or breakfast burritos. eggs are always a quick deal too. if you want more protein without a hassle then do hard boiled.
 

Tsnider

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gwl79902

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Wow these are some great ideas thanks. We had tacos for dinner so i made a few extra burritos and vacuumed packed them
 
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Grand Junction, Colorado
Some of the heat-and-eat freezer bag meals are pretty good. All you need is a pan and a heat source. Hamburger Helper is quick and easy, plus it's one more way to use up last year's burger meat. Anything you make in a crock pot typically reheats well (chilli, pulled pork, stew). I hate doing dishes while camping but one pot/pan and serving spoon is a small price to pay for a decent, hearty meal.

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New Mexico
I'll buy a rice sides cheesy broccoli package (by Knorr, I think; about a buck) and a head of broccoli and a rotisserie chicken. Throw the broccoli in when you start the rice mix and while it's cooking piece out the chicken and add it to the mix near the end, just enough time for it to warm through. Obviously you can cut up the broccoli and portion out the chicken in your kitchen. I've never looked to see how much crap is in that Knorr packet, but it's pretty darn tasty after a day's hike.
 

406

WKR
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Oh, I forgot a simple one we used to use when I used to run experiential ed courses.

On travel days to Utah we would pull the van over at a rest stop and fire up a big pot of BBQ beef sandwiches. Literally just throw a bunch of roast beef lunch meat all chopped up into a pot with a bottle of BBQ sauce and simmer for a while. Serve on a bun.
It was an easy and cheap way to feed 8 teen aged boys and staff. The guys loved em, looked forward to them.

I got tired of how long it took and having to deal with a big nasty pot at a rest stop. So I started just doing it in a crock pot at home and vac sealing it. So much easier and tastes way better. We'd get two pots of water boiling. One for the bag o beef and set the other one up as a steamer. A couple minutes before the meat was ready we'd dump all the buns in the steamer pot. Then the big pot of hot water was used to wash plates. We'd be back in the van within 30 minutes.

These days I do a bbg pulled chicken in the crock pot and vac seal it for multi day river trips. Another vac bag with corn, peppers, butter, salt, & pepper goes in the pot as well. Usually a bag of cold pasta salad. Simple easy crowd pleaser, easy clean up.

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