14 day meal planning

I am another devotee of freezing ahead of time. At least one casserole, pre-marinaded chicken, cooked flank steak, spaghetti sauce or jarred, frozen vegetables.

Also make chicken salad and /or tuna from cans for lunches.

MoRookie wrote:
We are leaving for a 14 day trip to Yellowstone just wanting to get some meal planning ideas for this many nights. Will be staying in Devils Tower first night Cody 3 nights, Yellowstone for 6 nights and Tetons for 4 nights. Any help would be great.

I don't recall if you claried further on if you had children or if it is just two adults. I don't have any meal planning, but I do have some suggestions based on what we experienced and our week long visit to Yellowstone.

Devil's Tower: I suggest that you stay within the park's campground. Very nice and quiet. Great view of the tower itself. No hookups, but you can handle that for a night. I suggest that you use this opportunity to cook a nice meal. The Tower and hikes won't take you all day and you will have time to do some nice meal preparation and cooking. They have fire grates that you can use as well. I would NOT stay at the KOA campground just outside of the park entrance unless you absolutely must have hookups. They also have the worst coffee I ever tasted in their camp store.

Cody: You will easily fill three days in Cody. Lots to do. And several private campgrounds to stay at. Again, you can plan more complex and detailed meals here, as you will be able to return to your camp ground when you want. You might also consider eating out at a restaurant while in Cody. There are a few, but nothing we considered great.

Yellowstone Here is where I have my key advice. Your days at Yellowstone will be LONG. The park is HUGE and travel times are great.
BreakfastYou may want to get up early and get going on your way each day. So you probably don't want to be cooking breakfast and doing dishes. We had cold cereal, yogurt, juice and coffee for our breakfast. That allowed us to get on the road without much meal prep.
Lunch You will be on the road, at an attraction, and away from your camper. So you should either pack a lunch to take with you, or plan to eat at one of the many lodges or restaurants at Yellowstone. I would strongly suggest that you plan at least one or two lunches at one of the lodges. Lunch at the Old Faithful Inn Dining room is fantastic. They have a buffet.
Supper Again, your days will be long. In order to really see the sights and get the travel to the sites in, you will get back to your campsite later than you might think. Also you may well encounter wildlife traffic jams, which can tie you up for 1/2 to 1 hour. You will also probably be both tired and hungry when you finally get back to your camper and likely not in the mood to do a lot of cooking and cleaning dishes so late. So we planned pretty simple supper meals. Also at most of the larger concession-run campgrounds in the park there are restaurants, so you may consider one or two evening meals at a restaurant.

Tetons: Four days in the Tetons will probably be enough, unless you plan to do a lot of hiking. A couple of nice lodges with restaurants, so that is still an option. Depending on your daily itinerary your meals can be simple or complex. I don't have any specific recommendations.

Of course, your experience may vary from ours. We love to do a lot of cooking outside and inside when we do our regular leisure camping. But there was so much to see and do at Yellowstone that we decided to spend our time enjoying the park and saved our more involved cooking and meal prep for other days.

Enjoy your trip.

When we go on on that kind of trip we take more canned food than we would usually take. Things might have changed in the last few years but the Yellowstone stores were not great places to buy food to prepare meals. As we stayed two weeks we really had to plan ahead.

While reading this thread, I couldn't help but think of a PBS show I saw on the USN submarine service. When prepping for a 6-month voyage, they stow food EVERYWHERE! With no planned ports of call in that time, they have to be very creative with their meal planning.

We have 2 boys and when we go camping, even for a weekend, I make a daily meal plan for all 3 meals. It started mainly because we wanted to save money by not eating out and also to have the proper foods to feed the little ones. Now that they're older (11 & 13) I don't worry as much but still do the planning anyway. The reason for the menu now is so I can plan what's for dinner based upon what's in the RV. At home I (or the wife) can just pull things out of the cupboard or freezer and go with it but we don't have that luxury in the RV. Keep in mind, we sometimes punt on dinner because we don't want what's on the menu!

I try to get the 1st weeks worth of food and many of the staples and non-perishables in the RV to start with. I also don't mind shopping while camping since stores are usually close enough (or along the way) and I might as well try and spread some money around. If nobody ever shopped around, the small shops won't survive. We're by no means rich but I'm visiting, why not help out the local towns?

I use our Weber Q200 grill for almost all of our dinners while camping. I also really like cooking while camping and at home. To me there is nothing better than silence while the meal you just cooked is getting devoured!

This summers trip (3.5 wks) from Rochester, NY to the Black Hills with a round about way back home will be a little different since we'll be hitting some restaurants but I'll still plan ahead so I know what's coming and when we'll need to go shopping.

BTW: Lunch is almost always cheeses, cured meats (salami, pepperoni, ham, etc), crackers, apples and such stuff ... if we even have lunch.

Another BTW: I think of the menu as a "living" plan. Meaning, it's a menu plan can be changed to fit your needs/wants at that point in time. If you don't want the chicken for dinner tonight, have it tomorrow ... as long as it's not going to spoil - then ya got to eat it!

Wavesprite wrote:
We use our foodsaver and do some prep work first. We freeze in marinade chicken breasts, we buy bulk hamburger from our butcher and then we freeze them very flat in the the foodsaver bags (they defrost quick then). We also premake burgers and foodsaver them. We marinade a tritip or two, and the becomes dinner one night and leftovers for tacos or sandwiches the next. We take lunch meat, hot dogs, sausages, eggs, etc...

The hardest part for us is veggies, we love a salad and obviously that can't last forever, so we end up buying a head of lettuce at an expensive market if we can.

When you are in Yellowstone, I would suggest a quick drive out to West Yellowstone, such a cute place and they have the Grizzly / Wolf discovery center...you could get groceries there for sure.

I'm warming up to the beauty of salad mixes found in the refrigerated section of the produce aisle. As long as I wash and re-dry it myself I feel comfy from a health stance.

Just as a prep head's up, peppers and onions flash freeze nicely. For some trips I put up a quart or Ziploc gallon bag of each to travel with.
Great for stir frys, stews, to enrich soup bases whether homemade or store bought or really wherever your imagination takes you. No need to discuss how much time it saves you.

We use our foodsaver and do some prep work first. We freeze in marinade chicken breasts, we buy bulk hamburger from our butcher and then we freeze them very flat in the the foodsaver bags (they defrost quick then). We also premake burgers and foodsaver them. We marinade a tritip or two, and the becomes dinner one night and leftovers for tacos or sandwiches the next. We take lunch meat, hot dogs, sausages, eggs, etc...

The hardest part for us is veggies, we love a salad and obviously that can't last forever, so we end up buying a head of lettuce at an expensive market if we can.

When you are in Yellowstone, I would suggest a quick drive out to West Yellowstone, such a cute place and they have the Grizzly / Wolf discovery center...you could get groceries there for sure.

I have the large double door Norcold fridge/freezer. I hit up Costco for ribs, chops and brats, then use my vacuum bagger and load up the freezer. Also usually have a big bag of frozen chicken breasts, frozen burgers, veggies, and a couple all-in-one meals in there too. I carry canned chili, soups, spagetti sauces, pastas, Ramen noodles, and several Knorr instant pasta side dishes in the pantry. Also always have burger and hot dog buns on hand. I always have a package of good ole hot dogs in the fridge as my go-to emergency food, as well as various shredded and whole cheeses. I buy hamburger and produce locally.

I carry two grills - a small Weber charcoal grill and a Green Mountain Grills Davy Crockett pellet grill/smoker. I think having a good grill is KEY.

Good restaurants can be found everywhere - that's why I like to carry frozen food as opposed to multiple days of fresh food. And 24 hour Walmarts are everywhere too.

You will be several miles from anywhere at Devil's Tower so definitely need to have meals with you, but Cody has everything (gateway to Yellowstone). I would not do the major provisioning till I got to Cody. It's been a while since I was at the Tetons, but know Jackson is close enough for re-provisioning or for a restaurant break.

I full time so YMMV.

Why we plan: To avoid days like today's "Garfield" comic strip menu offering of toothpaste on a saltine. :-)

Naio wrote:
I cook and freeze stuff. 2 weeks of food in the freezer is normal for me when camping. I agree with the person who said it makes more time for fun!

x3!
One of the first changes I had the manufacturer make on my ordered TT was an all freezer unit instead of a refrigerator. I figure a Yeti or similar cooler will do fine for foods that need refrigerating.

rexlion- my DGD will clean her room/do her homework w/ no shilly shallying if I offer her a second glass of gazpacho:W. She's also a merciless critic if I don't put enough tomatoes in the ratatouille:o.
Conversely, her father, claims I made it too often when he was a kiddo. Told him I'm proud to have been able to scar his childhood properly....

I should be making both dishes in the coming weeks so will post the recipes then. Been making em so long I've really no printed recipe.