Potluck Dinner for Upcoming Camping Trip

When I was a girl scout leader we always had campfire stew. It was easy for the girls to make and everyone liked it. Also another favorite was pots of gold.

Campfire stew
1 pound of ground beef
diced onion
1 can of tomato juice
1 large can of alphebet soup
1 large can of chili beans (optional)

brown the ground beef and onion together add the rest, salt and pepper as desired. A little garlic would add to it also. Cook in a dutch oven.

Pot of gold

Large can of tomato soup
Can of water (or milk)
refridgerator biscuts
velvetta cheese

Just make the tomato soup as you would at home, wrap chunks of cheese in the biscuts and drop in the boiling soup. Cook until the biscuts are cooked. For this reason, water is better then the milk, it won't need to be stirred as much.

We do this all the time at my parent's seasonal - Get one of those disposable tins, about 4 inches deep. take a bunch of potatos (any kind will do). Peal and cut into bite sized pieces. Add any kind of sliced veggies that you have on hand. (Carrots and green peppers, work nicely) Throw them in the tin with the potatos. Add a bunch of butter and maybe some salt, pepper, lawry's, etc. cover with tin foil and place on the grill. Let cook on medium heat until the potatos are soft. (Probably 1 -1 1/2 hours).

They are super easy and yummy! You could even add sliced smoked sausage or cubed beef if you want to make it a whole meal in one...

One of our family favourites would be perfect for camping since you grill the food in packets on the BBQ (or you can use a casserole dish at home). You could prepare the veggies in advance and put them in baggies until you're ready to assemble the packets.

Campfire Bundles:
1 large sweet onion, sliced
1 each large green, red, and yellow pepper
4 medium potatoes, cut into 1/4 inch slices
6 medium carrots, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 small head cabbage, sliced
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 to 1-1/2 pounds smoked Polish sausage, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Place the vegetables in order listed on three pieces of double-layered heavy-duty foil (about 18 inch square). Top with sausage; dot with butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Fold foil around mixture and seal tightly.

Grill, covered, over medium heat for 30 minutes. Turn and grill 30 minutes longer or until vegetables are tender.

Yield: 6 servings

How about a pot of chili? We also just did this and someone made lasagna in a crockpot - sorry, I don't have the recipe though. Do you have a camper with a stove? If you do, you could make hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll dough to make them look like mummys (to go with the Halloween weekend). To finish them off, you put on mustard eyes. Have fun!!!!!

I love to make Taco Salad. You can cook the meat up at home with the seasoning and keep it in a ziplock in the cooler. Then just mix it with the lettuce, beans, chips and dressing. Delicious and easy.

macaroni and cheese
Cook your pasta a day ahead of time and keep refrigerated in pastic bag. Make cheese sauce a head of time and refrigerate. Do not mix together. At camp site use a large cake pan and slowly warm the cheese mix over the fire pit (that has a grate on it) stir often! Add macaroni mix well and often. Warm the cold macaroni before adding to cheese sauce. Do this by either holding the bag in warm water or in pot with with warm water before mixing with cheese sauce. You can also do this with the cheese sauce before putting into the pan. Top with shredded cheese. Go to allrecipes.com to get some awesome mac and cheese recipes.

Here are two of my favorite camping recipes for you to consider; Taco in a bag and Gypsy Gumbo - A popular Girl Scout recipe if you don't mind!

Both are Frito chips based recipes, take minutes to prepare, use limited ingredients, and really minimize left overs down to very little or nothing at all, yet can be adapted to serve many. I've provided links for both recipes;

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Taco-in-a-Bag/Detail.aspx

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1626,159189-240192,00.html

V.,
We had great luck with "roast wraps". I made up a pork roast ahead of time and shredded it up. Season it as you like - you could do southwestern, bbq or just regular onion/garlic type. All you have to do is heat it up at the site. If you have electricity, you can put it in a crock pot and let it heat up for a few hours. If not, you can put it in a pan on the stove to warm. Then everyone serves up a helping into a tortilla with the appropriate fixings. If you do southwestern, you can do sourcream, onions, bell peppers, cheese, (like fajitas). IF you do bbq, maybe some pickles? Regular seasoning is best with just sour cream, I think. Whatever you like - its really easy since the cooking is done ahead of time and it serves a crowd.
Have fun.

Hi V.

Go to the Google search engine and type in "hotdish recipe for camping".

Good luck and Have fun.

Taco Salad is always a hit!! Brown 2 # hamb. Season with onion salt, garlic salt, seasoning salt, pepper, & taco seasoning. When you assemble before eating just add lettuce, cheese, crushed doritos, and western dressing. Stir well.

Special K bars go well also. Plus they stay fresh for a couple days. In kettle add 1 cup corn syrup and 1 cup sugar. Mix until first signs of bubbles. (DO NOT OVER COOK OTHERWISE THEY WILL NOT STAY FRESH!!!) Take off burner. Add 1 1/2 cups pb. Mix well. Stir in 6 cups special k. Press intp greased 12*18 sheet pan. Melt 1 bag choc. chips and spread over tpo.