Step 1:
Planning and Packing the Food

Everyone is going to be a little different, but let me share some of the things I do when camping to make planning meals easy.

• Count how many meals of each breakfast, lunch, and dinner you are going to provide. For a typical 2 1/2 day, long weekend that is usually two breakfasts, two lunches and two or three dinners plus snacks and treats.
• Do write down some sort of menu/ list. It will help, trust me. See what we use.
• Develop camping favorites that you only have when you are camping or traveling. That way after a few times, menu preparation and packing becomes simple.
• Make everyone agree on the basics.  Everyone can bend a little and agree on one or two breakfast cereals and sandwiches so you don’t have to haul a special meal for everyone.
• Plan simple foods especially when traveling and augment with the occasional special item.  Our treats are powdered donuts, potato chips, fruit bars, and juice boxes.
• I do take the time to take and eat fresh fruits and veggies.  A fresh tomato and carrots can save even peanut butter and Jelly

For packing here are a few of my tricks:

• I pack three Boxes:  They are all either small critter proof or easy to bring in at night.
• Box One I call my camper box it has silver, plates, cooking utensils, and basic food staples, tea, canned soup drink mix, etc. 
• Box two my pantry box, It has cereal, crackers, bread, vegetables
• The cooler in the camper.  If the trip is long, we will take a second cooler.
• I have a cabinet in the trailer that has a variety of cooking pots and utensils but what I really need is the 2-quart pot with lid, 4-quart pot with lid and frying pan.
• Do not bother with ice packs. They thaw and then are a pain to store.  Instead, freeze water in Ziploc bags.  Then you can dump the water, dry and reuse.
• Freeze everything you can.  If the days and nights are going to be warm I freeze everything I won’t need in the first 12 hours or so.  If it is going to be cooler weather, I will watch this or things won’t thaw in enough time to cook.
• Keep in mind that when the ice in the cooler melts, it turns to water, and that will soak everything that isn’t sealed really well.  Wet cheese is gross! 
• Eat by the weather, this means eat the hamburger first and the peanut butter last.
• When the weather is warm, I stop at the store often for perishables and ice. 

Next Step: Your first trip