Dinner is good for your body and can be a great social event at the end of the day – it can be really nice to share a meal and reflect on the day’s adventures. For an evening meal, time usually isn’t the limiting factor, but rather, the amount of energy you’ve got left! If it’s been a big day or you’ve got into camp later than expected, cooking an extravagant meal is just about the last thing you probably want to do. So it’s worth being a bit realistic here with how gourmet and complex your evening menu is.

The easiest dinners are those that just mean adding water. The quick pasta/rice and sauce range in all supermarkets are a good starting point for pasta and rice meals. Another option is couscous (e.g. spicy Moroccan style) or quick-cooking noodles. With these easy to cook dishes, you can consider bulking them up with additional dehydrated vegetables (e.g. dried peas, or potato) and fish (e.g. Salmon).
These instant meals can be great options for when you’re really tired. If you are on a 3-4 day trip, you may include a few of these dinners and select which meal you end up cooking depending on how tired you feel (i.e.If day 2 is a really long day, then cook up your big meal on day 1 and have your easy meal for day 2).
It’s also worth considering your backup plan in case you can’t cook. What if there is a total fire ban? Or if your stove breaks? You may be able to share a friend’s stove, or on big trips, you might consider carrying a backup stove among the group, or enough backup food that doesn’t need cooking (e.g. muesli bars, canned fish). Some foods like couscous or instant rice actually don’t need cooking, as long as the grain is soaked in water for long enough.
During summer, cold dinners are another option for reducing the time and energy in preparing an evening meal. However, in cooler climates (and particularly wet or alpine conditions), a hot meal is a really good idea to boost morale, warm you up and keep your body well fueled for the night and next day. You might like a cold dinner with a hot soup or other drink.
Lastly, desserts are great to share with the group together in the evening. Even the simple act of sharing a chocolate bar can really boost morale, as well as doing something fun like toasting marshmallows over the campfire. Simple desserts can be just adding water (e.g. instant vanilla pudding) right through to gourmet cakes in a camp oven. A fun dessert for kids (and adults!) is stuffed roasted bananas cooked on the campfire. You could also cook up a custard powder mix and pour it over some dried fruit – yum.

Here are some dinner ideas to get started.