Below is a list of some of our go-to meals on the road. In addition to these main courses, we’ll often include additional sides/snacks like grapes, apples, clementines, carrot sticks, snap peas, pretzels, or chips. Typically, we like to keep it easy and do as much prep work as possible at home. To read more about our tips and tricks for handling food on the road, click here.
Lasagna
One of our go-to’s for an easy meal on the road is lasagna. It’s hearty, it’s delicious, it’s easy to make (after some prep work at home). We took our favorite lasagna recipe and made it in four individual serving-sized aluminum foil pans. We freeze them at home and transfer them to the camper freezer. Then we move them to the camper fridge the day before we plan to eat them. All we have to do at mealtime is heat them up in the oven. Then we have a tasty, filling meal.
Tacos in a Bag
Even though we could eat this at home, we only eat it when we’re camping. Take an individual-serving bag of Doritos, smash the chips inside the bag, drop in some taco meat, add any additional toppings you would like (e.g. shredded cheese, sour cream, diced tomatoes). We prepare the taco meat ahead of time at home. Depending on whether we have hookups, we’ll heat it up in the microwave or on the stove. If you’re tent camping, you can heat the meat on a camp stove or over a campfire. Then we mix it all together, grab a spoon, and dig in. This is an easy meal to eat while sitting around a campfire.
Hot Dogs
This is so basic, I almost didn’t list it. Roasting hot dogs over a campfire is a classic, easy, fun camping meal. Since you already have your roasting sticks out, you might as well finish up with S’mores, right? That’s usually our plan!
Chicken Burritos/Bowls
We prepare chicken, rice, and beans at home and bring any additional toppings we might want (shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, etc.). We heat up the chicken, rice, and beans in the microwave or on the stove and then add in the additional toppings. This meal has more “parts” than a lot of our other options, but we do throw it in every once and a while to mix things up. We were big into some variety of this for tent-camping trips. We would heat the chicken, rice, and beans on our camp stove and then pull the other chilled toppings out of the cooler for a delicious meal. You can make this meal as basic or as elaborate as you would like depending on how many toppings you choose to bring.
Pasta Salad
I know this one may seem a little random, but here’s the thought: Prepare the chilled pasta salad at home. Then grab it from your fridge or cooler and eat it with little to no additional work. I have a recipe for pasta salad made with taco meat, spiral noodles, olives, ranch dressing, tomatoes, and cheese. Usually, I make up a few individual servings at home, leaving out the tomatoes and cheese. Then I’ll add chopped tomatoes and cheese before I eat it on the road. You can add all the ingredients at home, but I’ve found that the tomatoes sometimes make it a little soggy and the cheese can get a little slimy if sitting for days.
Pasta and Meat Sauce
We’ll usually make the meat sauce at home and then we’ll boil the pasta, heat the meat sauce, and then pour it on top for a meal on the road. This one does require a decent-sized pot (depending on how much pasta you are preparing) and a strainer.
Hamburgers
We prepare the hamburger meat at home, but wait to cook it till we’re on the road. If you’re going on a long trip, you can freeze the individual hamburger patties and pull them out later into the trip. Instead of buying buns, we usually just use the bread we bring for sandwiches. Like the chicken burritos, this can be as basic or as complicated as you like depending on how many additional toppings you want to bring.
Other Meal Ideas
Especially for lunches on the road, sandwiches are a great option. We’ll have meat and cheese sandwiches or peanut butter and jelly. For peanut butter and jelly, we usually buy easy squeeze containers, so we don’t have to get a bunch of utensils dirty.
For longer travel days, we’ll often plan something quick and easy like french bread pizzas. We usually buy these pre-made and frozen. We keep them in the camper freezer, pull them out, and put them in the oven right before mealtime.
Sometimes meat, cheese, and crackers are enough for the main part of a meal. As with all these meals, we’ll add additional sides like carrots, grapes, etc.