With summer coming to an end in a few short weeks, it’s time to soak up all the outdoors time you can before it’s back to freezing temperatures and snowy days that will be here before we know it. Soaking up time outside means different things to different people. For some of us, it means laying as still as possible by the pool with an iced black coffee pretending that you are relaxed and not at all bothered my the sweat dripping down your back. For the more adventurous, it means leaving your home and exploring nature by camping. If you are part of the latter pack and are looking for recipes to make for your trip — since everything is always about food — here are a few of my favorite campfire recipes:
Sheepherder’s Breakfast {via taste of home}
Don’t think you could get more rustic or campfire than this name, right? Eating something called a “sheepherder’s breakfast” while you’re in the forest will get your mind into the camping zone first thing in the morning. This breakfast is ideal if you are serving a crowd — it’s pretty much an egg, bacon & hash brown casserole that you serve with toast. Very easy to throw together and very filling if you are off to do some hiking afterwards.
Image Credit: emily trudeau
Breakfast Potatoes {via dirty gourmet}
Being totally honest, breakfast potatoes are one of my favorite foods in world. When they are done right, they are the perfect amount of crispy outside & soft insides and I’m pretty sure that I could survive on them alone for the rest of my life. Lucky for me, and you if you are like me, they translate extremely well to campfire cooking. You’ll have to remember to pack a skillet which might be something extra depending on how you camp, but other than that it’s business as usual. The only suggestion I would make to this recipe is to add some cheese at the very end. Cheesy breakfast potatoes? Yes please.
Grilled Pasta Packets {via eat 80/20}
Did you just make a weird face when you saw the word pasta? Pasta and camping — what?! But it works. And once you take a look at this recipe, you’ll see it’s not as odd as it seems. If you are a camping purist maybe this isn’t for you, but for the rest of us who are just looking for something good to eat, this is it. The pasta and flavorings are all prepared at your home and then put into the foil packets to be placed on the flame at a later time. In just about 10 minutes you will be eating a complete dinner at your campsite just as you would at home.
BBQ Chicken & Potato Foil Packets {via jamie cooks it up}
An entire dinner right in a foil packet. Like the pasta, these are prepared ahead of time in your kitchen and then heated up on the fire, so be sure to plan that out. You cook the chicken and potatoes on a skillet at home as if you were making a regular dinner but then you portion out the meal into foil packets instead of onto plates. They are kept in the fridge until it’s time to go, transferred into a cooler for traveling, and all you have to do is heat them up once you are ready to eat. It’s fast food campfire style.
Orange Cinnamon Rolls {via oleander and palm}
When you are camping and away from your usual conveniences, you have to get a little creative and improvise. For snacks, it’d be easy to stick to store bought ones but why not take this opportunity to try something a little more interesting? These orange cinnamon rolls are cooked on the flame right in a hollowed out orange. Because you are using store bought cinnamon roll dough (now is not the time for from scratch recipes, even if that’s usually your style) they come together quickly, with the hardest & messiest part being getting the insides out of the orange.
Image Credit: lindsay kordick
S’mores {via kevin & amanda}
Here’s one thing that I know – it is illegal to go camping or be around a controlled flame and not have a s’more. They’re so easy & delicious why would you even want to risk it? While I don’t think there is anything wrong with a classic s’more made with just graham crackers, milk chocolate, and marshmallows this recipe gives you so many more options. Why not use Ritz crackers instead of graham? Or melt a Reese’s instead of plain chocolate? There are truly a million different ways to go with this so while the s’more might be the traditional campfire treat, you can totally twist it up.
Campire Banana Boats {via ree drummond}
If you are interested in something sweet but would rather have a dessert that isn’t as messy as a s’more, then I would suggest these. They are pretty self contained – made in the banana peel itself plus wrapped in foil – so you won’t have to worry about all the stickiness that comes with eating s’mores. You are essentially taking the traditional ingredients that you use for s’mores, sticking them instead a split banana, wrapping it in foil, and putting it over the fire. Just wait for everything to melt and then you have yourself dessert.
What do you eat on your camping trips?
Featured image is from Gullherme Pedroso .
The Hudsucker 
Wish was summer here as well..great recipe to be remembered anyway