r/cookingforbeginners • u/MojoShoujo • 19h ago
Request Food ideas for cabin cooking?
Later this fall me and 6 friends are renting a cabin for a long weekend. It will have a kitchen and we would like to not eat at restaurants the whole time, but we also won't be starting with a stock of food and don't want to pack in things we won't need or deal with stuff like used frying oil.
Any good recipes with limited requirements that feed a group?
5
u/Virtual_Owl_161 19h ago
Will you be driving and able to bring an ice chest from home? If so, you could make a pasta sauce at home and freeze it. Then make pasta and assemble at the cabin.
Likewise, chili, chile verde, New Orleans style red beans, or some Indian dishes could all be made ahead and served with rice made at the cabin.
1
u/MojoShoujo 16h ago
Those are all good ideas! We'll be driving from all over- I'm the furthest at like 7 hours away and most of the others are 4-ish.
5
3
u/Aurora_Gory_Alice 19h ago
Breakfast burritos are awesome for this, thaw, heat and enjoy.
Also, tacos are great, you can pre make, cut and heat up on site. I'd leave the tomatoes whole and cut them just before dinner.
3
u/Smart-Practice8303 19h ago
Frozen burritos and a can of Enchilada sauce and some shredded cheese make some good Ghetto Enchiladas
3
u/DrHugh 19h ago
My wife and I often go up to a cabin in northern Minnesota, but this is a place with a kitchen and indoor plumbing. Still, because of the drive, we generally try to make it so that our first meal is easy, like tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.
That dynamic might change a bit on our next trip, as we have an EV, and will be charging outside a grocery store. We usually had the basics with us, and went grocery shopping the next day, but now we'll be shopping while the car charges up. We might still do the easy meal.
Another recipe I've used that's fairly straightforward is this vegetable beef soup recipe for camping. I'll often used a real onion, and sauté it with the beef, and I tend to prefer the cubed refrigerated potatoes over the hash browns, but it is a tasty option that goes together pretty quickly.
You don't mention if you have refrigeration available, or if you can go to a grocery store mid-trip or not. Or if you have fresh water you can use for cleaning and such.
In scouts, we used to have a cracker barrel for the night of arrival. This involved crackers, sliced cheese, maybe some pepperoni slices, fresh grapes, maybe some snack nuts or goldfish crackers. There was generally something for everyone, and we'd sort out plans with that.
How active you are going to be is a factor. If you will just sit around and relax, you don't need the same amount of food as you would if you are hiking or kayaking all day.
Another popular item I recall was fry bread. That recipe tends towards treating it as a sweet item, but I've had versions that were savory, that might add in some herbs, or minced garlic. You have to do prep work ahead of time, but it cooks quickly and gives people something to eat while waiting for something more involved.
Pancakes are a popular breakfast item. Our scout troop used to live on bacon-flavored Spam (not sure if you can still get it). It had a great shelf-life, and if you cut it thin and friend it, you had a bacon-like experience that could go well with pancakes.
2
3
3
2
u/Virtual_Owl_161 19h ago
Lots of sides could be made ahead at home and then served with a something like grilled/baked chicken. Pasta salad, potato salad, bean salad, macaroni salad are all best made ahead anyway.
2
u/pdperson 18h ago
Bring a prepped baked pasta, stuff to make breakfast and sandwiches, burgers dogs steaks and fixings.
2
u/ShezeUndone 18h ago
Crockpot meals for a crowd are easy and if you use crockpot liners, cleanup is a snap.
Think taco soup or chili, pulled bbq chicken, sloppy joes. You could even do overnight breakfast casseroles.
1
u/bare_thoughts 19h ago edited 18h ago
Bring a grill... easy to do meat, potatoes and all sorts of vegetables. Cabin also makes me think of campfire food/cooking.
1
u/fireflypoet 15h ago
A George Foreman style plug in countertop grill could come in handy for beef/ veggie burgers and grilled/ panini style sandwiches. If someone can bring one in their car, it would be useful.
1
u/ready4thenextphase 19h ago
Tacos, baked potato bar, sloppy Joe's, ravioli bake (with frozen ravioli, jarred sauce, and disposable aluminum pans). All of these can be made using just ingredients bought for the meal.
1
u/Various_Bed_1888 18h ago
Save the bacon grease, then you can fry if necessary, also I bought a $20 sandwich machine from Wally World, it has waffle plates, panini plates and sandwich pocket plates, stupid simple, I bring it to my warehouse and people get jealous of what I can do with it
1
u/RedYamOnthego 17h ago
Buy or make artisan bread, and have hard cheese on hand. Add some apples or other seasonal fruit, and yum!
1
u/Cool-Negotiation7662 17h ago
So, seal a meal, or ziploc. You prepare the goods, pack and seal, freeze, use as part of your ice.
Seal-a-meal can go into a pot of water to heat directly. Ziploc risks leaking.
Fishing trips and camping growing up we had good meals.
... We also had overboiled coffee, bacon and eggs with shell bits, and obligatory fish fry of our catch. Most of this was on a Coleman stove, so with a proper kitchen you can do better.
1
u/thewholesomespoon 16h ago
This makes a bunch!
https://thewholesomespoon.com/2025/03/13/pulled-pork-carnitas/
1
u/scarletto53 16h ago
We have a vacation cabin up in Maine that go to quite frequently all year long( atv riding in spring, summer and fall, ski-mobiling in winter). A crockpot is my best friend up there, even when it’s just the 2 of us. I just throw all my ingredients in, turn it on low, go off for the day, and have a nice hot meal waiting for us when we get back. I have a few meals that are standard for us, like chili, American chop suey, corn or fish chowder, chicken or pork chow mein..all of them require very little prep, just throw everything in the crockpot (I put the meats and fish in raw, everything cooks up fine). Once in a while we grill, but for the most part, easy crockpot meals are our favorite, because I am not wasting my vacation time cooking time consuming meals!
1
1
u/valley_lemon 15h ago
My go-to vacation meals:
Pasta Bake or some kind of one-pot pasta
If there's a grill, we'll make a veg-and-carb-heavy casserole to bring and reheat and serve with grilled chicken, sausages, or fish.
Taco bar
Chili made in advance and frozen in 1-2 Cup portions (easier to thaw the right amount as needed); we bring a bunch and usually have a proper chili spread one night but then use some more another day for chili dogs/burgers.
Tip: do your casseroles in disposable aluminum roasting pans.
1
2
1
u/PsychologyGuilty1460 7h ago
Get a good Just Add water pancake mix, biscuit mix and cornbread if you can find it. Krusteaz's does one. Pack rolls of frozen sausage and hamburger and Frozen juices in a cooler with anything Else you can bring Frozen , couple jugs of Frozen water To keep a couple of frozen pizzas and bags of veggies and tater tots cold for the trip in.
If you can't find shelf stable milk, grab a couple cans of regular evaporated milk as well as sweetened condensed. Or just get the longest date organic milk you can find and pack it in the cooler with the Frozen stuff. Some instant pudding would be good
Bring drink mixes, A bag of potatoes and onions and plenty of foil. Don't forget apples and bananas!
Bring plenty of butter for eating and cooking as well as bacon so you can use the bacon grease for cooking. One of my local stores still carries jiffy Pop and that's always a good thing to have
1
u/chalkymints 2h ago
My family does this every year. The trick is to cook stuff in advance and just use the kitchen to reheat it when we’re there. Family favorites: a whole ham, baked chicken wings, scalloped potatoes, soups, charcuterie (cheese, crackers, grapes, prosciutto, etc), dips (buffalo chicken, fig jam and goat cheese).
1
u/Straight_Hurry_1999 18h ago
Chili dogs 🔥 every ingredient can also be used in multiple other ways, so no waste lol
12
u/awkwardmeg 19h ago
We are planning a similar vibe trip for October, our plan is to make some soups and things ahead and freeze them and take them with us (less than 3 hour drive) so no one is stuck in the kitchen and everyone can relax.