These Cottage and Camping Food Ideas are inspired by my family’s last trip up north. These are my recommendations for some breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack ideas to put on your next cottage and camping list.
Cottage and Camping Food Ideas
When I go up to the cottage I have to keep in mind several things. 1) transportation time (I don’t want things to spoil on the road). 2) water (or lack there of at the cottage — drinking water is what you can carry in).
Thus, this list has some notes on what to freeze, keep cold, and make ahead.
Breakfast
Water, Coffee, Tea, Hot chocolate, Milk, Juice, Pancakes (syrup too obviously), Eggs (transport in egg carton for protection), Bacon, Toast, English muffins, butter, Jam, Nut butter (as long as no one has allergies), Oatmeal (great to warm you up on a cool morning), Cereal, French Toast, Muffins (make ahead), Scones (make ahead), Sausage.
Lunch
Sandwiches are always our go to for cottage lunch. It’s quick, easy, and filling. However, this year I switched it up a bit and prepared ahead to have Cobb salad for lunch. Pre-wash lettuce greens, boil eggs, cook bacon – store all in reusable containers. And then assemble with avocado, tomato, and onions for lunch. Bonus, if you cook extra chicken the night before to add to your salad!
Dinner
As usable water is at a premium, I pre-cooked many side dishes which required water and transported them cooked. For example: at home I made rice (cooked in chicken broth for extra flavour) – put it into reusable containers. And assembled my easy rice salad at the cottage. I also made pasta at home (both wheat and gluten free respectively so that everyone with food sensitives had pasta options). Again, I put the cooked pasta with some olive oil in reusable containers for easy transportation.
Snacks
Chocolate
Granola (I have a 5 minute microwave chocolate chip granola recipe in my book Boredom Busters which is AWESOME to take to the cottage or camping. It’s a great snack or can be an easy & healthy breakfast)
Trail mix (again – my microwave granola can be used as trail mix!)
Cookies (pre-made or store bought)
Popcorn
Marshmallows (because s’mores!)
Graham crackers
Muffins (search Parent Club for some easy muffin recipes)
Scones (yum)
Cinnamon buns
Pretzels
Chips
For transport — you will want a cooler with freezer packs for your dairy and meats (even fruits). I took our pre-cooked food ideas (rice, pasta, granola) in plastic containers. I hard boiled several eggs and also took raw eggs; carrying both in the cardboard carton they came in for safe arrival.
I also put the food up high (as you should when you are camping and at the cottage) to ensure no critters get into your food (that includes children looking for chocolate when you are not looking).
SHARE: What are your food ideas for cottage and camping?…
Perfect timing! I am going camping for the FIRST TIME in a few weeks. This is so handy 🙂
Hope it’s helpful!
Some great ideas for food when camping and there’s a wide range of choices so everyone can pick what they’d like to make 🙂
And it’s fun to have things you don’t usually have at home (so it feels like a true vacation)
Great lists and ideas, we camp regularly throughout the summer so this will come in very handy indeed!
Great basic list of ingredients that can be combined for a myriad number of different meals and recipes.
Nice list! We also like to take summer sausage, as it doesn’t need to be refrigerated until you unwrap and cut into it.
My favorite thing about camping or staying at a cabin is the food! There’s something so fun about living off of sandwiches, tacos, snacks, and simple stuff for a solid three or four days.
SHOOT! This is a great thing to just keep on hand for camping or any trip. Circle what you need to have your husband pick up from the store! Done!
We are hoping to get in a camping trip before school starts back up. This is a great list of foods to keep in mind.
These are all some great ideas. I love going camping. It’s nice to see this list for some good foods.
I never know what to pack for food when we go camping. This is a great list. Meal planning for a trip is a great idea.
Thank you for so many food ideas! Lots of variety and they all seem pretty much “no fuss”, which is perfect for us!
Very informative read. It’s so good to know this when camping.
These are great ideas! I love that they’re fun but easy foods so you still have plenty of time to relax.
What great ideas!! We do lots of camping with cub scouts and we recently purchased an RV so these ideas would be great for in the RV too.
We go camping quite often and I never thought of pre cooking some rice and pasta to add to the menu. That’s a game changer, thanks a ton Caroline
I’m always looking for ideas for camping food. Even though we usually camp at KOA (we’re not wilderness campers!), it’s still a lot easier to have things premade, since we camp in a tent. We probably won’t go camping this year, but I pinned this for our next camping trip!
Camping food is my favourite & I love the variety you have planned out here.
Such great ideas!
Going camping is one of my favorite things and thank you for providing so many camping food ideas, which will make camping perfect.
That is a great list to help get ready for the cabin visit.
I am terrible at camping packing when it comes to food! I worry so much about items spoiling without proper refrigeration!