I'm going to be honest.

There aren't many gourmet camping recipes coming from me just yet.

I've made food while camping. Plenty of it. But so far, my camping cooking has been more about getting everyone fed than creating incredible outdoor meals.

Noodles.

Hot dogs.

Pasta.

Pre-packaged meals.

And the usual camping breakfast of bacon, eggs and sausages.

Nothing fancy.

But that's about to change.

Learning as I go

One of the things I want to do with Wildly Wandering is start experimenting with cooking proper meals while we're camping.

I'm still learning, so I'm not going to pretend that I have all the answers or that every meal is going to be a success.

I'm going to try things.

Some will work.

Some probably won't.

And that's part of the fun.

I want to try making more one-pot recipes because they're practical when you're camping, especially when you're cooking with limited equipment and trying to keep washing up to a minimum.

I may even need to invest in a second gas stove as some of the meals I want to try will be easier with more than one burner.

What I've cooked so far

I've already made a few simple meals while camping.

  • Spaghetti bolognese
  • Macaroni cheese
  • Hot dogs
  • Bacon, eggs and sausages
  • Noodles
  • Pasta dishes

I've also experimented with something slightly more inventive.

I've made my own little camping oven using a pot, a wire rack and my gas stove.

It isn't exactly a professional outdoor oven, but it worked!

I've used it a couple of times to heat up pizza while camping, and it has made me realise that there are probably a lot more things I can cook outdoors than I originally thought.

Why I want to cook more while camping

There's another reason I want to get better at camping food, and that's the cost.

Food can become one of the biggest expenses on a trip, especially when eating out, ordering takeaways or stopping somewhere because you're too tired to cook.

And when you're travelling with children, those costs can add up incredibly quickly.

One meal out becomes another.

Then there's lunch.

Then snacks.

Then another takeaway because everyone is tired and nobody wants to cook.

Before you know it, you've spent a significant amount of your holiday budget on food.

I'm not saying I'll never eat out while travelling. Of course we will.

But if I can reduce how often we rely on takeaways and restaurants, that means more money available for the actual adventure.

It could mean staying an extra night.

It could mean visiting another attraction.

It could mean taking another ferry.

Or simply having a little more breathing room in the budget.

Sometimes cooking your own food is one of the easiest ways to make a trip last a little longer.

Food the kids will actually eat

There's another rule I'm going to follow with these recipes.

The food has to actually work for my family.

I'm not interested in creating complicated recipes that look amazing in photographs but aren't practical when you're standing beside a TentBox trying to feed hungry children.

These recipes will be meals that I've actually made while camping.

Meals that I've successfully cooked with camping equipment.

Meals that my children have actually eaten.

And, most importantly, meals that we've actually enjoyed.

Because there's no point calling something a camping recipe if everyone sits there staring at it thinking, "I'm not eating that!"

The successes and the disasters

As I experiment more, there are going to be successes.

There are also almost certainly going to be disasters.

Something will burn.

Something won't cook properly.

I'll probably underestimate how long something takes.

And I'm sure there will be meals that sounded like a brilliant idea when I planned them but turn out to be absolutely terrible when I'm actually standing at the stove.

But I'm not going to pretend those things don't happen.

The recipes that work will live here in Camping Recipes.

The things that go spectacularly wrong will have their own place in Wildly Wandering Stories.

Because sometimes the disasters make the best stories.

What I want to learn

My aim isn't to become a gourmet camping chef.

I want to become better at making simple, tasty meals outdoors without needing a fully equipped kitchen.

I want to learn what can be cooked on one gas burner.

I want to experiment with one-pot meals.

I want to see what I can make with a second stove.

I want to get better at using my little homemade camping oven.

And I want to find meals that work for real family camping trips.

Meals that are filling.

Meals that aren't ridiculously expensive.

Meals that don't create mountains of washing up.

And meals that the kids will actually eat.

So, this is where I'm starting

I'm not an expert.

I'm learning.

And that's exactly what I want this section of Wildly Wandering to be about.

I'll share the recipes I've actually made successfully while camping, along with what equipment I used, what worked, what I'd change and whether the kids actually enjoyed them.

There won't be perfect restaurant-style meals every time.

There will be simple food.

There will be experiments.

There will probably be a few questionable creations.

But hopefully, over time, there will be a growing collection of genuinely useful camping recipes that other families can try too.

Because sometimes camping food doesn't need to be fancy.

It just needs to be easy, affordable, filling and good enough that everyone asks for it again.

And I'm looking forward to finding out just how much I can actually cook from a little gas stove beside the TentBox.