Camping Food: Where is it?
Coming up in roughly three and a half weeks is the trip that I have been waiting for for a very long time: our cross country trip! We are doing extremely well with planning, and we have ourselves at least all the way to the west coast. If you take the time to google maps it, which I did, you would know that it is 2,717 miles from where I live to San Francisco. And then back again.
I am already straying from my point. My mom charged me to try my best to find multiple recipes that would be quick and easy to make at a campsite. My immediate thought was something along the lines of "how the heck do I find things like that," but then I realized that I have Pinterest. No big deal, right? This would be easy.
Not exactly. I clicked on the first article I saw, something about 16 quick and easy camping meals. Scrolling through the post, I saw barely anything that was palatable to me - or most likely my brother and sister. I do eat a LOT of different foods, but some of the dinners I saw in the article were immediately registered in my brain as things I would not like.
I was already getting frustrated with the grownup-centered camping dishes that Pinterest had to offer (I do NOT like stir fry) and I was only one article in. I clicked on the next post, "Cast Iron Camping Recipes." I do have a skillet - maybe this one will be ok?
*Insert slow and sleepy scrolling here.*
"Oh, they mentioned grilled cheese."
"Mmm...bacon..."
*Slow realizing that I will be 50 pounds heavier when I get back home*
"Yes! We have a pie iron!!"
Ok, no real recipes here. Just an advertisement for a book about what the title claims. The only ideas I got were bacon, grilled cheese, and instant mashed potatoes. Ok, I definitely will be obese if I eat that all the way out and all the way back. But they would taste good...
During my Pinterest browsing, I kept seeing the same few articles over and over. But once opened, all they had were a few stir fries and beef stroganoffs that we are supposed to buy freeze dried. You'd think that people actually wanted a varying dinner sometimes. And why doesn't Pinterest understand that I will be cooking these halfway through Yellowstone National Park with no refrigerator or Wegmans to go to if I don't have an ingredient? Why can't they get the fact that I am not going to be cooking these over my stove in my lovely cozy little home?!?
Excuse my annoyance, but I hope you understand my frustration. I challenge you to go to Pinterest (if you have one) and type in "easy camping dinners cast iron skillet." Almost all of the pictures there are taken inside a house. I thought I typed in camping?
If you have any easy camping dinners that you love, PLEASE send them to me! I am desperate. While mashed potatoes are good, I can't eat them every day for four weeks.
Wish me luck!
~Catharine
