Easy Camping Meals for Families
Camp cooking does not need to be complicated. In fact, the best easy camping meals for family are the ones that are simple, filling, and do not require a sink full of washing up at the end.
I have made the mistake of being too ambitious on a camping trip.
Elaborate recipes that work perfectly at home fall apart when you are working with a two-ring stove, fading daylight, and two hungry children asking when dinner will be ready. Simple is nearly always better.
Easy Camping Meals for Families in the UK
UK camping comes with its own quirks, unpredictable weather, campsite shops that stock the basics, and a reliance on the humble camping stove.
These easy camping meals for family in the UK are designed with British supermarkets and campsites in mind.
The meals below work perfectly for a British camping trip, whether you’re in the Lakes, on a Welsh farm, or down on the Cornish coast.
Before diving into specific meals, it helps to think in categories.
Easy camping food ideas for families generally fall into three types: one-pot hot meals, no-cook assembly jobs, and campfire classics.
Having a few options from each category means you’re covered whatever the weather throws at you.
The Golden Rules of Camp Cooking
The key to success with easy camping meals for family UK trips is all about following the golden rules.
Prep at home
Anything you can chop, marinate, or measure out before you leave makes life significantly easier on site.
Decant spices into small containers. Pre-mix sauces in zip-lock bags. Chop onions and keep them in a sealed tub.
One pot is your best friend
The fewer things you need to wash up, the better. One-pot meals are the cornerstone of good camp cooking.
Keep it familiar
Children are often less adventurous when tired and in an unfamiliar environment.
Camping is not the time to introduce new foods. Stick to things they already love.
Pack more than you think you need
Fresh air and exercise make children hungrier than usual. Running out of food at a campsite is miserable.
Quick Easy Camping Meals for the Family
Quick easy camping meals for the whole family are all about speed without sacrifice, food that’s ready in under 15 minutes and that everyone actually wants to eat.
Pasta with a jar sauce
The unsung hero of camping food. A bag of pasta, a jar of good pasta sauce, and some grated cheese packed in a tub.
Done in 12 minutes with one pan. Add tinned tuna or pre-cooked chicken if you want protein.
Sausages and beans
Sausages on the camp stove, tin of baked beans heated in a pan.
Bread to mop it up. Children universally love this, it costs next to nothing, and it is ready in ten minutes. A proper camping classic for a reason.
Jacket potatoes
Wrap potatoes in foil and put them in the embers of a campfire, or cook them on the stove. Fill with cheese, beans, or tuna mayo.
Prep time is minimal, children can help with the fillings, and everyone is happy.
Fried egg sandwiches
For breakfast or a quick lunch. Eggs travel well, cook in minutes, and need nothing more than butter, a pan, and bread.
Add bacon if you have a cool box.
Noodle stir fry
Dried noodles drained, then stir-fried with whatever vegetables you have packed, soy sauce, and sesame oil.
Ready in under ten minutes and endlessly adaptable.
Easy Camping Meals for Family on a Budget
Easy camping meals for family on a budget don’t mean boring food, they mean smart shopping, tins, and keeping things simple.
Rice and curry from a pouch
Microwave rice pouches heated in boiling water still in the packet. Pair with a jar of curry sauce and tinned chickpeas.
A filling meal for a family of four for well under a fiver.
Tinned soup with bread
A good tinned soup — tomato, vegetable, lentil, heated in a pan and served with a crusty loaf from a local bakery near the site.
Warming, simple, and very cheap.
Pasta pesto
Pesto from a jar keeps well without refrigeration once opened for a day or two.
Cooked pasta, a generous spoonful of pesto, a handful of pine nuts. Children love it and it takes five minutes.
Beans on toast
Do not underestimate this one.
On a cold evening after a day outdoors, beans on toast with a bit of grated cheese is exactly what children want. And it costs pennies.
No Cook Camping Meals for the Family
No cook camping meals for the family are a genuine lifesaver, especially on arrival day when the tent isn’t up yet and no one has the energy to light the stove.
Wraps and fillings
Pack a bag of wraps and a selection of fillings, hummus, sliced cucumber, grated carrot, cheese, ham, or leftover chicken.
Let children make their own. Zero cooking, zero washing up.
Pitta and dips
Pitta bread, hummus, tzatziki, and whatever salad vegetables you have.
Works brilliantly for lunch and can be prepared in seconds.
Cheese and crackers
A proper selection of crackers, a chunk of good cheddar, some grapes and apple slices.
Fine for lunch, great for a campfire snack.
For more inspiration, visit our full camping recipes for families section.
And for tips on making your whole camping trip run smoothly, head to Camping With Kids.
