You could have prepared shish kabobs of meat and veggies. Sirloin cubes or chicken breast, green peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, and onion. Some people like to marinate them before grilling.

Skewer of shrimp.

Skewers of just veggies.

Baked potato.

Corn on the cob.

Salmon either directly on the grill, or in aluminum foil cooked with salt and sliced tomatoes on top.

Will you want to actually use the stove? If so, then it’s basically like being at home. You can boil and cook anything you do on a stove top. One hinder acne might be the availability of water. Rice, hashbrowns, eggs, pasta, grilled cheese, etc.

I remember once reading you can make cakes and muffins in hollowed out orange “cups.” Maybe some experienced camping jellies will know how that’s done.

If it were me I’d bring prepared fried chicken and have hot dogs/sausages and buns for easy meals to prepare if I’m exhausted. I’d also bring fruit like watermelon, which is always a treat when I’m hot. Also, mixed greens and salad dressing or lemon and salt. I wouldn’t want to be cleaning pots and pans much.

Don’t forget aluminum foil.

I like making things like chili ahead of time and freezing it. Then you can make rice there on the stove and serve it over for a hearty meal.

One more thing came to mind. I used to buy a cornbread mix that was for the skillet. You add canned creamed corn and water I think. It was rather sweet and more of a spoon cornbread than cake like. I don’t remember the brand, but if you like the idea you could look through the mixes in the baking section, or the Mexican section, in the supermarket. Try to get corn that has a peel back top so you don’t need a can opener. That would go well with @janbb‘s chili.

On scout camp we had tortilla wraps filled with cheese ham peppers mushrooms onions etc wrapped in foil and put into the fire for 5–10 minutes. The cheese melts and it all tastes really good and just a little bit smokey. For pudding, a wafer cone that you would use for ice cream filled with layers of chocolate banana mini marshmallows sweets etc. Wrap in foil and into the fire again. So nice!

Tortillas are great because they are versatile. Cheese, meat, even you can put on cinnamon and sugar for a dessert, or do a portable smore with marshmallows and chocolate.

How about some potatoes? Also versatile and portable.

Don’t forget coffee and milk, cereal for breakfast, bananas.

As others have mentioned, you can do so much with foil. When I was a Boy Scout, we used to cook whole meals in foil—chicken, potatoes, vegetables. Each person would get one and it was very filling.

I 2nd @dxs I used to dice up potatoes, onions and sliced polish sausage and wrap in foil and bake on in the fire pit or camp stove. Don’t forget hot dogs and baked beans, another easy one.
You can also whip up a bunch of egg salad, tuna salad or chciken salad and take that along too with some good breads.

I would avoid @Coloma‘s suggestion of egg salad, tuna salad, chicken salad or any other salad that requires mayo.

Mayo is the Devil’s Lubricant. Can’t stand the stuff.

I have already purchased some shelf-stable milk for morning cereal. The camp kettle and the French press are coming along, too, because coffee.

@dxs – You’re speaking my language now. I’m thinking of chunking up some beef and chicken and making the packets up ahead of time and freezing them

@jca As long as it is kept iced in an ice chest, it is fine if eaten in the first couple days, never had a problem.

@Seek What is the water supply like on the site? Will you need to bring your own for cooking/drinking?

There is limited water access, and I have no way of knowing ahead of time whether my site will be conveniently close to a water source, so I’m planning to pack in what I need.

Then I would pass on pasta or rice probably. Unless you make it ahead of time. You can bring already prepared race and then make stir fry at the site. Cut up veggies that you have with you anyway for snacks, or a small bag of frozen veggies, and three packets of soy sauce leftover from Chinese takeout. Add whatever meat you prefer.

@Coloma: I’ve eaten bad mayo, and the resulting illness made me really think death would have been a better alternative. All I’m saying is keeping a mayo dish on ice in the hot Florida heat is a big risk and not one I’d be willing to take. It’s a gamble and I don’t usually gamble.

@jca I hear you, but I’ve camped in 100 degree heat in the hills of CA. here and never had an issue. I put the salads in small containers and ket them buried in ice and ate them in the first couple days. Better safe than sorry sure but just relaying I have never fallen ill from well iced camping foods with mayo. I also made potato salad a lot too. Of course the ice chest needs to be about 16 inches deep in ice not just sticking containers on top.

Heck Yeah! 7 years in the Boy Scouts taught me you can eat almost gourmet for cheap and easy to prepare meals. The best are boil a big pot of water crack a couple eggs in a ziplock baggie add in cheese, diced ham, whatever else you like in your eggs….spinach, onions, mushrooms…..mush it all up and toss it in the boiling water for 7 minutes and you have the best scrambled eggs ever….bonus no dishes to clean.

Another easy meal is foil packs. Take 2 sheets of heavy tin foil fill with a ground beef patty, onions, diced potatoes, fresh corn niblets, diced tomatoes, mushrooms fold over seal the edges and place foil pack directly on white hot coals. after 10 mins flip and cook another 10 mins and you have a hearty lunch or dinner. You can do the same procedure with any combo of protein and starch/veggies.

Here is a Link to more scout campout meals. The desserts are some of the best you will get off a camp fire. If you don’t have one invest in a good dutch oven and you will be golden.

Do you have a cast iron Dutch oven? One of my favorite recipes when I was a Campfire Girl was to put some butter and a can of peaches on the bottom of a Dutch Oven then put a prepared cake mix on top of it and put it on the coals until it’s cooked.
I also like to make hobo stew. People have mentioned various incarnations of it here. My favorite was always hamburger meat, vegetables including potatoes and Catsup in foil. Put it on the coal and flip it a few times.

Fresh bacon and eggs fried in copious amounts of bacon grease, hash browns, pancakes with real butter and maple syrup, skim milk and coffee.
Johnsonville cheese brauts with mustard and sour kraut on a bun of your choice.
Hamburgers with fresh buns, mustard, ketchup, mayo, lettuce, onion slices, tomato slices, dill pickle slices. Potato chips, cottage cheese on the side.
What more could you need???
(Don’t say beer because beer is a gimme.)

I’m with seek on the mayo thing.

I always get a fresh jar of mayo for camping trips, keep it in the cooler on ice, and make sure it doesn’t come into contact with other foods, which creates the problems with it.

Whenever we venture into the murky world of camping we take our chef & butler, so i’m afraid you shall have to ask them, an email should be good.
Does a barbecue on the grounds, neath a gazebo in the maze even count as camping?

The OP has already stated a strong antipathy for mayo, which is why she’s boycotting that disgusting clinic in Minnesota. ;-)

@Brian1946 and the county in Ireland, as well.

And that Academy-award-losing actor, who was in a movie about a horseradish sauce and HELLman’s concoction titled White Heat.

Yeah, one doesn’t HAVE to have mayo on one’s burger…

What is this blasphemy?

No mayo, surely you jest! Ketchup and mayo are burger must haves.

No!! Tomato slices and mustard.

^ Haha I like tomato too but no mustard!
What about pickles and onions?

All over that. I prefer the onions grilled or caramelized, but I’ll take raw in a pinch.

Can you fish? Out here on the best coast where we camp we get a big trout from river and gut the thing and toss some butter and lemon in aluminum foil with the fish and let it cook. Delicious.

And I am not a big fish person unless the fish is is in stick/finger form.

Grilled or pan-fried fresh fish would have been my suggestion, too. When I was young and used to fish most summer days, my favorite breakfast was a pan-fried perch or bass that I had just caught. And cleaned, but we won’t go into that.

@CWOTUS how can you clean it if you won’t go into it?

I’ve never been to this camp before, so I’m not sure what the fishing availability is like. Frankly I think it would be an unnecessary distraction from the music fest. Also, I don’t have a current fishing license.

Are you ruling out bringing scuba gear and spearguns? ;-0

Did you know that many parts of a pine cone are edible? lol

Hahahaha

OK, we’ll revisit this question when I go For Real camping, and not “there’s a food truck selling tacos 25 feet away” camping.

I just pitch somewhere near a chip shop…and take a few tins of all day breakfast and plenty of beer…lol

@barney22 Welcome to the pod, sooo, what is an all day tin of breakfast? Is this some mysterious Bristish thing? The beer is universal, no need to explain that. lol

@barney22 my husband has taken those camping too. Pretty disgusting though and I would want to be in a tent with someone after they have had a few days on them…

@Coloma It’s this

@Cruiser Breakfast maybe – but all day??

@Cruiser . Spotted Dick and beer, I dunno about that. haha

It’s my understanding that too much beer occasionally leads to spotted dick anyway.

^ LOL..yeah, too much beer and a lot of guys don’t remember where they slipped their dick.

Coffee, Baileys, Jameson

@Coloma…all day breakfast is like beans , sausages and scrambled egg in a tin

British All Day Breakfast in a tin.

Great ideas guys! I love the scrambled eggs one, @Cruiser. I’m going to remember that!