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This past weekend, our entire church family went camping just like we did last year and the year before and the year before that! Wifi was limited and even went down one night which meant I took a vacation from social media for 4 days and it was liberating! I mean, I honestly missed you all but I sure enjoyed being in the moment with my family.
We camp once a year and rent the entire campground for our enormous group. The food was fantastic this year and I’m sharing our camping recipes and ideas below along with family photos from our long weekend.
I hope you find some great inspiration for your next trip, smile while browsing the pictures, and are encouraged to go on your own adventure and make some happy memories!
Camping Recipes:
Lets get on to the best part of camping; food! This can also be the hardest part of camping, especially when cooking for a group. This year we had a really fun variety of camping recipes. Most of the camping recipes are on my blog already and I’ll link up the new ones as I post them in the future.
1. Classic Burgers! To feed a crowd, we bought the organic 1/3 pound patties at Costco and they were really good!
2. Fresh Cucumber and Tomato Salad
3. Parsley Potatoes (aka Company Potatoes)
4. One-Pan Breakfast Sandwiches
5. Mom’s Buttermilk Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs, Hash browns, Fresh Cucumbers and Tomatoes, Thick Sliced Bacon and Breakfast Sausages.
6. Ridiculously flavorful and tender beef kabobs (I’ll get the recipe from my sister Sveta, but here are more kabobs to try: pork kabobs, chicken and veggie kabobs, and garlic chicken skewers.
7. Spaghetti and Meat Sauce (big win with the kiddos and I’ll get the recipe from my sis)
8. Fish tacos (I already have the recipe and just need to re-make it!)
9. Mom’s meatball Soup with Salami Sandwiches
10. Cheese Crepes served with berries (perfect make-ahead breakfast)
It was great that everyone helped out with the food because the two toddlers in our group needed constant attention.
Around the Campfire
New Tent
We purchased this new tent this year. After alot of research and Amazon shopping, we decided on this one. It was very spacious with enough head room for my tall 6’4″ hubby to walk around comfortably. We do camp with a tent heater and bought an adapter hose kit to connect the tent heater to the propane tank outside the tent, which is so much better than the tiny propane tanks that go out and need refilling in the middle of the night.
Oh and this new little $10 LED lantern that adjust light output was a perfect tent light, just in case someone is looking for a good one!
Camping Fun
My parents brought this baby swing that our baby girl enjoyed every day. Swinging high through the fresh air and trees in the forest; it doesn’t get any better!
This little lady stayed busy exploring as much as humanly possible and she kept me busy chasing after her. As soon as she even senses me coming, she switches into second gear and bolts in the opposite direction. It’s hilarious and exhausting and so cute!
I’m so glad we brought the bike trailer with us. The babies had a good time in there and it was great exercise and exploring for us.
This camping trip was definitely all about the kids having fun. I got alot of enjoyment watching them have an awesome time at camp and that makes it all worthwhile. See all those colorful glowsticks on the kids? Every night! 😉
for the love of awkward photos. Ha ha!!
Vadim is definitely more outdoorsy than I am. He does the whole mountain biking bit and he’s so adventurous. He constantly pushes me out of my bubble and I have a more adventurous life because of it.
The fishing at the lake was very good. My parents brought back the limit in trout several times!
Why are campfire stories always the funniest? Maybe because it’s late and we’ve all had too many marshmallows? It was fun to stay up with this little guy who really tells the best stories!
Thanks for sharing in our memories! I feel like you’re part of the Natasha’s Kitchen family – our kitchen is always open for you :).
What are your favorite camping recipes? Let me know in a comment below. 🙂
Hi Natasha,
Thank you for all your great recipes!
Were you able to get the kabob recipe from your sister?
Thanks again,
Walter
Hi Walter, yes, I published the recipe for steak kabobs here.
This is a recipe I used to make often for camping because you can let it marinate for up to 3 days.
Curry Marinated Chicken Breasts
serves 8
4 boneless chicken breasts (8 halves skin removed)
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 t salt
1 t ground ginger
1 t ground pepper
1 t ground cumin
2 t curry powder
1 t dried oregano leaves
4 T soy sauce
4 T vegetable oil
1 T lemon juice
Place chicken in a ziploc freezer bag. In a small bowl, combine remaining ingredients and mix well. Poor over chicken, seal, and refrigerate 3 hours or as long as 3 days. Place on a BBQ for 7 minutes on each side or until done. This works great for camping.
Thank you for sharing, Glenda!
I love your vlog Natasha! It’s about food and family!
I’m so happy you’re enjoying our content! Thank you for that wonderful feedback!
We have that tent too! We love it!
Oh that is awesome!! 🙂
Hi Natasha, as we are preparing for the camp, I’ve searched your blog as usual for inspiration and ideas, and there are plenty!!! Thank you for hard&nice job! Reading trough the post I’ve come across spaghetti and meat sauce, do you have that recipe already? I think it’s another quick dish to serve, but I don’t know how to make it… would appreciate your help!
Thanks
Hi Nataly, you could make a meat sauce like this one in the slow cooker or you can do a shortcut version an sauté/season ground beef until browned then add your favorite store-bought marinara and season with salt, pepper, sugar and basil to taste, press in some garlic and you have a quick and easy meat sauce 🙂 Serve over pasta with parmesan cheese 🙂
I love reading your posts, whether it’s a recipe or daily life posts. You’re a charming young lady, and I feel like I can relate to you by being a Ukrainian, an RN, and love of my family:) Keep up good work and press on! God bless.
Thank you so much Anna! Your comment really means alot to me 🙂 God bless you also!
Wooww….you all are looking great together and thanks for these awesome recipes.
Thank you Alin and you are welcome 😀.
Hi Natasha,
Love to see pictures of and read about your family ) Always warms my heart as well as giving me lots of new great family ideas!
Thank you Galina 😀.
Lovely family
God bless all your family
Fatty
Sounds like you had a super time. Glad you could get away and relax, sort of, when not chasing kids. They grow up so fast and all the time you spend will create such wonderful memories for you as parents and them too. I am not into camping. Been there, done it. It is a lot of work especially with young children.
It sure is a lot of work but worth it 😄. We make some great memories.
Oh my, Natasha! What a wonderful camping trip with your family! I am so glad that this has become a yearly tradition for all of you. From the lovely pictures, I would say that everyone had a delightful time. Enjoying each others’ company, delicious meals, campfires, fishing…..awesome memories made for sure! And I also liked how you posted a picture from the last two years of your own little family. It’s fun to see how the children grow, as well as the family! Lol. I’m looking forward to experimenting with more of your recipes!
Thank you for the sweet comment, we sure had a great time 😄.
WOW! Looks like you guys had one DELICIOUS camp!!! Yumm, all of the food look so scrumptious! Love all of the pictures specially those night lights on the kids:) SO MUCH FUN!
Thank you so much and I’m so happy you were able to make it to camp. I hope you guys had a great time! 🙂
Same here! We sure had a great time:)
lol, just on time… we’re going camping this coming weekends.
Have a great time and I hope this post will give you some ideas 😄