Pineapple Chicken Bake

Ingredients

1/4 c flour
2/3 c light molasses
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2-1/2-3 lb fryer chicken
1 tbs prepared mustard
2 tbs oil
1 tbs cider vinegar
1 can (8 oz) Sliced pineapple
1 can (16 oz) sweet potatoes, drained

Directions
Combine flour, salt and pepper. Coat chicken pieces in flour mixture. Brown in hot oil. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Combine juice, molasses, mustard, and vinegar, mix well. Place chicken in Dutch oven, arrange potatoes around chicken. Brush with half of the sauce. Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Top with pineapple, brush with remaining sauce, cook 30 min more.

Tags: dinner, dutch oven, dutch oven cooking

Easy Beef Pot Roast

One of the easiest and yet very tasty pot roasts we have made while camping.

Ingredients

3-4 lb rump roast or pot roast
6 medium potatoes, pared and halved
6 medium carrots, cut into 2" pieces
3 medium onions, halved

3 garlic cloves minced
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 c water or beef broth

Directions
Brown roast in oven on all sides in small amount of oil. Remove meat, salt and pepper. Place half of vegetables in bottom of oven, return meat to oven and add remaining vegetables and liquid. Cover and cook at 300 for 3-5 hours depending upon size of roast and degree of doneness desired. Remove meat and vegetables carefully and place on serving platter. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Tags: dinner, dutch oven, dutch oven cooking

If someone in your camping group is a vegetarian, it doesn’t mean they have to suffer.  Below are several great vegetarian recipes for main dishes both at base camp and on the trail.

Black Bean Burritos

Backpacking: Yes
Effort: easy
Serves: 1-2
Prep time: 1-30m

Ingredients:
tortilla shells – I like the soft taco size which pack easier package of Fantastic Foods dried Black Beans packets of taco sauce
cheddar cheese, diced peppers (if in first 2 days on trail) (a dinner for 2 uses 1/2 package beans and 6-8 tortillas)

How to Prepare:
Boil water for beans according to package Add beans, stirring well, and turn off burner*
Cover and let sit 5 minutes
Warm shells if desired (makes folding easier)
Make burritos and enjoy
*do not cook the beans – just let them sit, or else you will have a very messy pan.  Use an extra tortilla to wipe leftover beans from pan.
You can also make the beans, and then make quesadillas if you have a big enough fry pan.

Angel Hair with Fresh Vegetables

Rating:N/A
Backpacking: No
Effort: easy
Serves: any
Prep time: 1-30m

Ingredients:
Angel Hair Pasta
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Fresh Garlic
Fresh Tomatoes
Broccoli
Basil
Shallots

How to Prepare:
Simple dish with no set quantities.  Cook enough pasta for the number of people in your group and eyeball the rest to your liking. Prepare the pasta al dente.  In a separate pan, heat the olive oil and add minced garlic, and shallots.  Remove the pan from heat and toss oil mixture into pasta.  Add finely chopped basil, tomatoes, and broccoli.  We like to find fresh vegetables for our camping meals at roadside farm stands.  Easy and filling.  Enjoy!

Cream of Vegetable Casserole

Rating: 9.5
Backpacking: Yes
Effort: average
Serves: 1-2
Prep time: 1-30m

Ingredients:
1/4 C dehydrated broccoli
1/4 C dehydrated shredded carrots
1 (0.6 oz) package Creamy broccoli soup mix
1/2 C herb stuffing mix
2 Tbsp margarine/oil (opt.)

How to Prepare:
Rehydrate the broccoli and carrots in 1 1/2 C water.  Stir in the soup mix and margarine/oil.  Bring to boil, and then remove from heat.

Add the stuffing mix.  Toss lightly, cover and let stand 5-10 minutes.

You will find that in most cases any vegetarian dish you cook at home can be easily converted to a camping or backpacking dish and many dishes in which you include meat can be easily modified with the addition of tasty seasonal vegetables.
 

Tags: camping recipe, dinner

Bread is always a great addition to any camp meal and baking your own bread doesn’t always require having some kind of camp oven.  You can always use your campfire to prepare that bread and have fun in the process. 

An easy and fun way to cook bread over coals or a fire is making breadsticks with bread on a stick.  This camp treat may be cooked while other food is cooking so it is ready at the same time as the main meal.

The basic and easiest method uses dough rolled into a long thin rope that is wrapped around a stick.  The stick is held over the coals and rotated until brown on all sides.  It requires a little patience to get the inside done at the same time as the outside.

To start, take some type of bread dough and roll it between your hands, forming a long piece (like making a snake or rope out of clay).  Don't leave it too thick, which will make it harder to cook all the way through.

Next, select your cooking stick.  This should be heavy enough to support the dough but not to thick.  Be sure the stick is free of dirt, debris and any other loose particles.  Take the dough and wind it around the stick in a spiral, pressing the ends to the dough so that it does not fall off.

Place the stick over the coals.  It is much easier to cook breadsticks using coals than fire, since they give off a better heat.  It may be helpful to prop the stick up over the coals with a couple of rocks, or pile a couple of rocks on either side and lay the stick across the coals so you don't have to hold it during the entire cooking process.  Occasionally rotate the stick so that the bread gets brown on all sides.  Patience is helpful here, to ensure that the bread is cooked through.

You can use a thicker, longer stick laid horizontally above the coals to make several at one time.  This will save time if you need to cook for a larger group. 

A variety of dough can be used.  Try various kinds to see which one you like best keeping in mind convenience as well as taste.  The easiest is tube biscuits, which come in a number of types and prices.  Take one or more biscuits and roll between your hands to form the rope of dough to be wrapped on the stick.  Other possibilities include Bisquick (don't make the dough too wet), bread dough (if frozen, let it thaw and rise a little), and scone dough (sometimes available at the bakery or deli in your local supermarket).

Fur traders from Scotland, who trapped and explored all across North America in the 1800's, couldn't bake regular breads in the regular way because ovens were just too big for their canoes.

Instead, they put concocted a mixture of flour, water and fat from hunted animals, put it on a stick, and baked it over their campfires.  They called this "bannock" which means bread in the Scots Gaelic language.

Hence, the Scots showed Native peoples like the Eastern Canadian Micmacs, Great Plains Ojibways, and Northwest Coast Haida, how to make this bread and even today bannock is enjoyed as a favorite traditional food wherever Native people gather.  Bannock can be fried, deep-fried, barbecued, cooked over an open fire, or baked in an oven.  Over the years, people have added baking soda, oatmeal, raisins, eggs, or sugar to the basic dough.

Ingredients
5 ¼ cups flour
12 tsp baking powder
¼ cup sugar
2 cups water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3-4 teaspoons animal fat (lard) or shortening (butter)

In large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.  At this time you can add something extra if you choose – ½ cup raisins, for instance.  In a medium bowl, beat together the water, eggs and oil and then add to the dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Fry, barbecue, bake or cook over fire coals as mentioned above.  
After cooking, serve with butter, jams, jellies, or honey.  This is sure to be a family or group favorite!
 

Tags: bread, dinner, dutch oven, dutch oven cooking

Kids love to cook while camping, and a humble box of aluminum foil, some non-stick cooking spray and you’re ready to go.  No other gear is necessary.  And the kids are involved and therefore more apt to eat since they had a hand in the preparation.

The beauty of foil cooking is that kids literally just have to spray with non-stick spray (or you can use non-stick aluminum foil), assemble the package and fold it closed.  You can cut up the ingredients at the campground or even before you leave home and keep them all in separate containers in the cooler.  It's also ideal to let each child create his or her own foil food, so that each one can get in on the fun and create a meal designed to their specific taste.  For larger groups or the family a large foil package may be made. 

Foil cooking should be done on coals, not on an open flame.  Start your campfire early and let it burn down to a nice bed of coals.  The coals will hold their heat long enough to allow for the entire cooking process.  Another method that can be used is to place some charcoal briquettes in your campfire.  Once they are started, spread them out and use them as the base for your foil cooking.

A classic recipe for a foil meal is to flatten a portion of hamburger, add some sliced potatoes and onions, double wrap it in foil and lay it on the coals of your campfire. Cook for about 7 minutes on each side.

Remember, when using these recipes with children, always help them turn the foil packet while it’s on the fire and take care when removing it from the fire.  A long set of tongs can be helpful in safely accomplishing this task.  Also, be careful when you unwrap the packet as hot juices may run out and these can cause burns.
 

Foil Roasted Veggies
If you think kids won't eat vegetables, you might be surprised how they change their minds when the fun of some foil and a campfire are involved.  Pick their favorites (they must like a couple, right?) and add a couple others.  Give them the diced veggies and the foil, and let them have fun.  Place closed foil wrap onto campfire or camping stove, and cook for 30-45 minutes.

Campfire Foil Fries
Spray foil liberally, and spray cut potatoes lightly.  Place in center of large piece of foil, and sprinkle seasoning like Old Bay on top.  Close and roast over fire or stove for 45 minutes.

Foil Apple Cobbler
Take sheet of foil and spray.  Place several diced apples inside, and add granola.  For fun, toss in some caramel or peanut butter chips.  Close and roast for 20-30 minutes.

Foil Family Pot Roast Dinner
Take a much-needed break from making dinner, and let the kids take charge.  Brown some diced beef for them in a pan first, and then let the spread out a couple large aluminum foil squares.  Add the beef, some small roasting potatoes and mini carrots. Toss a packet of Lipton onion soup mix, and close.  Roast over strong camp fire or stove for 1.5 hours.

Tags: camping recipe, dinner

4 cups Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Stuffing
Paprika
margarine
6 Skinless Boneless chicken breast halves
1/3 cup milk
1 can Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup
1 tbs. Chopped parsley

Mix stuffing with 1 cup boiling water and 1 tbs. Margarine. Spoon the stuffing across the center of 4 qt. Dutch oven. Place the chicken on each side of stuffing. Sprinkle the chicken with paprika. Mix soup, milk and parsley and pour over the chicken. Bake at 400 degree heat for 20 minutes and then open top a bit and bake additional 10 minutes. Serves 6.

Tags: camping recipe, dinner, dutch oven, fall camping

3-4 lb rump roast or pot roast
3 medium potatoes, pared and halved
3 medium carrots, cut into 2" pieces
2 medium onions, halved
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 c water or beef broth

Brown roast in oven on all sides in small amount of oil. Remove meat, salt and pepper. Place half of vegetables in bottom of oven, return meat to oven and add remaining vegetables and liquid. Cover and cook with 8 coals on bottom and 4 coals on top for 3-5 hours depending upon size of roast and degree of doneness desired. You will have to add coals to keep this temperature fairly steady. Remove meat and vegetables carefully and place on serving platter.

Tags: dinner, dutch oven

If you can remember the number "2" you can enjoy this recipe!

2 lb. Ground Beef
2 Potatoes
2 Onions
2 Bell Peppers
2 cans Green Peas or other vegetables
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup of other creamed soup
2 soup cans Water – not from the ditch

Brown the ground beef in a Dutch oven. Retain all the drippings.
Thinly slice the potatoes into circles. Layer onto the top of the meat
Thinly slice the onions. Layer onto the potatoes
Add a layer of bell peppers
Add a layer of green peas
Add a layer of creamed soup and water mixture.
Cook for 30-40 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
To serve, spoon down through all layers – serves 8-10

Tags: dinner, dutch oven, dutch oven cooking