Cook And Eat Outdoors
In Australia eating outdoors or ‘alfresco’ is the norm. They have the ideal climate most of the year but there is no reason why we shouldn’t all dine outside.
It makes eating fun for the kids, brings families together and makes meal times more of an event than something that needs to be done.
Barbecues, picnics, self service salads, finger buffets some of the favourites but why not eat your breakfast outside, especially on a lovely summers morning.
The first thing to consider of course must be the weather, some of us are lucky enough to have a quite consistent climate while others might have the risk of getting a bit wet.
Food For Camping – To Cook Or Not to Cook!
When selecting food for camping, you have one main advantage over backpackers, and that is that you will have more space. So therefore you have more options open to you, when planning your trip. There are two trains of thought when planning meals for a camping trip, and they are, to cook or not to cook!
If you wanted some easy good food for camping without having to cook, then you might want to go down the dehydrated/freeze dried meal route. There are companies (such as Mountain House) who produce these meals and can be ordered online. They offer a wide variety of choice to the consumer from main courses to desserts that are very calorie controlled, nutritious, and filling at the same time. So these would fit the bill perfectly. The downside is that they are quite expensive to buy and if you were planning a lengthy trip, then you would probably need to take out a small mortgage to purchase the food.
Another alternative for not cooking when camping are MRE´s (meals ready to eat) these are rations pioneered by the American Army, and can be purchased at most Army Surplus Stores. They consist of a case of 12 meals, (one for each day containing main meal and dessert). They come with their own heating source and spoon with each meal. They are literally “ready to eat” and are reasonably cheap to buy. The downsides are that they come in cans, so they are quite bulky to carry, and there isn’t a great deal of choice. However there are vegetarian options available.