Campfire meals for kids ~ Ideas please :)

Quickie pie makers are always a hit.

Toasted cheese, pizza, grilled pb&J, real pies, etc, etc...

Smax

Pigs in a blanket - put those smores sticks to more use.
Inside-out cheeseburgers (just 2 thin patties with cheese sealed between them).
A bit more complicated, but meatball subs - brown the meatballs in a disposable foil pan with green/red peppers and onions. Dump some spaghetti sauce in there, let everything warm up and you are set to spoon it on to rolls and add some provolone. Those that don't like peppers or onions just don't need to take any.

Foil packs would be a good one. Let them pick ingredients and if you use smoked sausage or something similar you don't need to worry about them not getting done. My personal touch is to sprinkle dry beef broth powder or Liptons soup mix on everything.
I agree, pigs in a blanket. Refrigerated biscuit dough wrapped around a hot dog on a stick and put to fire.

I bought a cheap replacememnt grill grate, one of the round styles. I will prop it over the fire and will cook anything I would grill at home. Our favorite, and has become a tradition, is get a pork loin and slice it in about 1/2 inch slices. Marinated in a gallon ziplock with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and sometimes oregano. Grill about 5-10 minutes a side, the kids love them.

Oh.... some very good ideas!!!

With the pig in the blankets... Do you use a hotdog (cut in half maybe) and wrap a raw biscuit around it and cook it with a smore stick? Does the dough cook? Does it take forever?

SMAX.... what is a quickie pie maker?

Dessert- wrap canned biscuits around a one inch piece of wood dowling (wipe the dowel with vegetable oil or spray with Pam before wrapping the biscuit). Cook the biscuit until golden brown over the campfire. Sprinkle with a cinnamon sugar mix and serve with berries and ice cream.

Or you can use the cooked biscuit like a bun around a cooked hotdog.

Rather than using the hot dog stick (fork type) for a hot dog, you can also use them for link sausages, summer sausage, pork chops (you have to hook the pork chop several times like a sewing needle through the meet .... but it works), same with steaks (beef), and even chicken legs-wings-thighs can be poked with a hot-dog fork and cooked over a fire. Then you can get a popcorn popper for fires also. If you use a wire basket (for fires), you can cook hamburgers, although the handles can get hot. You can also foil wrap potatoes (whole) and toss them in the fire and bake them, or put them on top of a grill over the fire, or use that wire basket. Then there's an unlimited items of food that can be cooked in a foil wrap. Add lots and lots of butter and keep turning it over and over ... works wonderful for sliced potatoes, carrots, any other vegetable you slice, boil, or steam! Then, with that same hot dog fork, you can teach them to toast bread (poke the bread so it's flat and won't fall off). Don't forget about corn on the cob. Leave ALL the husks on the corn, soak the corn in a bucket of water a couple hours before cooking, then simply put the corn (with the husks) over the fire. The edges will turn brown and even burn some, but inside the husks ... oh hum! You can also husk the corn and wrap the cob in aluminum, but it's just not the same, the corn has a tendency to burn.

Anything that can be fixed over a stove can be fixed over a fire, and can easily be fixed using a hotdog fork. That's still my most favorite way to fix food when camping.

Important note: Remember, anything other than a hot dog takes time to cook completely. So you'll have to really teach the kids patients and that it takes TIME when they are holding those forks! Chicken and pork is not something that can be heated in 30 seconds when its raw.

OnceUponAtrip wrote:
With the pig in the blankets... Do you use a hotdog (cut in half maybe) and wrap a raw biscuit around it and cook it with a smore stick? Does the dough cook? Does it take forever?

I have always used Nathans hot dogs - the plump when you cook 'em kind (Ballpark) don't work well. Yes, Crescent roll dough wrapped around it - takes less than 10 minutes for dough to get golden, crispy brown and the dog nice and hot. We have 5 or 6 smores sticks with 3 prongs on them...makes it much easier to manage getting the entree together. Most hotdogs are already fully cooked by the manufacturer - concern thus only needs to be on heating it up, which definitely happens by the time the dough gets browned.

If you don't have any pie irons get some. Great to cook campfire meals for kids and adults alike. Link. I recommend the double aluminum as a minimum (#1200-T). The site also has recipe ideas for the irons...just about anything in them is good. My faves are grilled cheese and pizza.

Pizza

1. Butter both sides of the iron.

2. Lay two triangles of crecent rolls in each side of the iron. The two triangles will make a rectangle. Pinch any perforations closed.

3. Put pepperoni, cheese sauce, etc on one side of the crecent rolls.

4. Close iron.

5 Hand Iron to kid, help kid hold and rotate over campfire till golden brown. About 5 mins. Check frequently by opening iron and peeking.

6. Enjoy.

We make pizzas over the grill....use Chef Boyardee mix. We also do "bag dinners" making bags out of aluminum foil and putting our ingredients in, then cooking in the fire or on the grill. Use beef tips, chicken chunks, onions, garlic, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms and whatever else I have left over from any previous meal.

I don't know the age of the kids, but I have a 5th and 6th grade Sunday School class that I take camping a couple times each year and we always make "STEW". They love it and they cook it in the dutch oven. They cut up all the ingredients, they stir, then they serve and do cleanup. They thoroughly enjoy it. I use chunked chicken, andouille sausage slices, onions, carrots, celery, potatoes in chicken broth. Cook until done, then add cream of chicken soup after it's taken from the fire. Wonderful.

We also do "spider weenees". Take a sharp knife and cut the end into 4ths, going almost to the center. Turn the weenee around and do the other end, leaving at least an inch in the middle uncut. Roast and the ends curl like a spider (8 legs).

Also, we use our pie irons and make manwich pies. Make some manwich meat and refrigerate. When ready to use, spray pie irons with oil, put a piece of bread on one side, add some manwich meat, cheese if desired and another piece of bread. Close iron and toast until the bread is toasty and manwich meat warms.

We also do grilled cheese and grilled ham and cheese this way, too.