Do you pre cook meals and freeze them for camping meals?

GETnBYE

Well-known member
If so, I would love to know what you are cooking.

I have found myself cooking double of everything these days and freezing to put in the camper fridge before we head out on trips. I seal and freeze everything in a vacuum sealer.

BACON: I always cook extra bacon and freeze in on paper towels in the sealer bags, then it's ready to snip the end open and heat in microwave. Bacon with no grease smell in the camper. It's too easy.

CHICKEN FAJITAS:It's an easy meal to heat in the micro, just add some chips and salsa, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, etc.

GROUND BEEF: Easy to thaw and put in chili, soup, pasta.......you know the drill.

BOILED CHICKEN: Chic/Broccoli & cheese crescent rolls.
1. Chop, Boil, and freeze chicken.
Recipe: Chicken-Broccoli & cheese baked over cresent rolls. *I cut, boil and freeze the chicken. Then line a 9x9 pan with foil, spray with Pam, lay cresent rolls in with small ends laying out over the sides. Place thawed chicken pieces, broccoli (steamed and drained) onto dough, sprinkle with tons of garlic and parsley salt, add a layer of colby-jack cheese and pull up ends of rolls across top. It does not matter how it looks on the top. and Bake just long enough to get it all heated and for the bread to get lightly browned.
Easy clean up too!
Like I always say, if you can't go camping..........plan for camping!!
Nita
 

RollingHome

Well-known member
Wayne, Please keep Nita away from the computer around diner time ! Patti won't be home for another hour and I'm already salivating after reading her recipe... This is cruel and unusual punishment for a cooking dummy like me ! No Nita, we don't do this (pre-cook, freeze and eat stuff) because we're both still working. It sounds like a Nita MRE to me. I married the best cook in PA and my waistline is a testament to that. We never fully converted from "Camping" to RV'ing and believe it or not we STILL cook over an open camp fire some nights. I even built a grill to roast a rotating turkey (Rotisserie style) over the camp fire. It's so much fun when other campers say "excuse me, I couldn't help wonder, what you're cooking over the fire ? We often camp near the ocean so I respond "Oh that's just seagull, have you ever tried it ?" They usually don't ask any more questions and leave us alone the rest of the trip. Seriously, your idea is a good one, when we retire, we're gonna... You know the rest. Thanks for the idea and for sharing. T&P
 

ziggy

Retired Oregon HOC
I don't pre-cook per se, but we have bought quarts of our favorite marinara or meat sauce from a restaurant to pair with pre packaged raviolis I keep in the freezer. Everything reheats fast and it goes together fresh so it doesn't taste like TV dinner. We buy racks of pre-cooked pork ribs in BBQ sauce and freeze those to thaw, wrap in foil and warm up on the grill along with some grilled asparagus. There are lots of ways to "cheat" and have food while camping that isn't always just grilled meat and salad.

Kristy
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
We bought a 5 CU Ft upright Sears freezer. Removed the table and chairs. Put the freezer and a custom built cabinet in it's place. We have purchased some food from Schwan's Food truck and kept it in the freezer. I make some extra breakfast burritos and freeze them. I bought some fresh fish while here in Rockport and froze it. Some we cook and some we don't. However we don't use the Vacuum Sealer anymore. We just use the Glad ziplock bags. Quart and gallon. The Vacuum Sealer you have to watch out for liquid. Yes there are ways to get around some of the liquid that would be in the bag, but putting it in a Glad Ziplock bag, press out all the air you can and it does real well. I will buy extra ground turkey and freeze it. We take frozen uncooked chicken breasts and keep them in the freezer. When we want one we take it out and put it in a Glad plastic bowl and put it iin the Microwave for about 8 minutes.

That's what we do.
BC
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
I have a couple of favorites. #1 - When traveling I will make spaghetti as it will last several days when on the road. It is easy to heat up and to me it tastes better the 2nd and 3rd day. #2 - I will take a skirt steak and remove the fat, cut it into small pieces and put it into a zip-lock freezer back. Then sprinkle fajita seasoning into the bag and pop it in the freezer. Then all I have to do is take it out, put it into the pan to cook and my fajita meat is ready to go. I will sometimes do it with chicken also. Beef and chicken fajitas, yum yum....with skillet fried potatoes or spainish rice. #3 - Sloppy joes cooked before you travel. A quick easy meal when you are tired after your arrival.
 

GETnBYE

Well-known member
RollingHome (Tom), LOL, so sorry for making you so hungry, but I'll take it as a compliment for my recipe. Wayne does get some meals cooked fresh, not all MRE's, but I might be willing to try some seagull if I got to camp on the beach.
Ziggy, the pasta and marinara sauce sounds like a good one to try.
Jmgratz, I always wondered what the skirt steak was for, I didn't think of the sloppy joe's either.
Thanks all, hope we can get more ideas for fast easy meals.
Don't get me wrong, I love to cook outside either on the grill or over the fire, but I like sittin by the fire better than cook'n and do'in dishes!!
 

Draco Dog

Well-known member
I don't do much freezing for future meals, except maybe for things like spaghetti.

But I do like my salads, and with lots of veggies in them. So I prepare about 7 salads in small bowls. I put a wet paper towel over the salad and then saran wrap tightly over the salad bowl and stick it in the fridge. They will last and stay fresh for several days.

I have never used Schwan's products. Are they any good and are they very spendy?
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
We bought some Schwan's food from a truck that came into the campground in Mission, TX. They have a website that you can order from and have sent to your trailer in a campground.

The Meatloaf is good. Fully cooked and you pop it into the MW and have a meal or meatloaf sandwich.

Steaks are good but smaller than I thought. 4 6oz steaks. Price might be more than you pay at Wal-Mart but the meat is good. Of course it is not cooked.

We have a 5 Cu Ft. freezer and buy enough so we don't have to go shopping as often for some of food.

BC
 
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