Campfire Cooking With Kids in British Columbia

Campfire Cooking with Kids

Looking for some fun and delicious ways to get your kids excited about cooking over a campfire? These are some of the best ways to have awesome meals camping out with kids. Choose these campfire cooking classics to keep your cookout fare simple yet delicious and appealing to your campers of all ages.

Orange peel bakes on the campfire

Orange peel bakes on the campfire

You’re already eating oranges or drinking juice, so add some “wow!” into the mix and use the orange peels for baking over the campfire. Bonus: no pans to clean and your kids will love the novelty of eating their treats out of the peel!

Use a muffin, brownie, or blondie mix*** to keep things simple, fast, and portable. Then choose six oranges. Slice them in half and scoop out the middles to eat (or juice the oranges and reserve the peels). Now you have twelve ready-made “muffin cups” made out of orange peels.

If you’re making muffins, fill each peel/cup about 2/3 full with your batter. Wrap the bottoms of the oranges in foil and bake in the coals of your campfire for 10 to 15 minutes.

For brownies, fill half of the peels to the top. Cover those six with the six empty peels and wrap the spheres in three layers of foil so they don’t ooze out. Bake in the fire for 25 to 35 minutes.

Campfire Spiderdogs

Cooking spiderdogs on the campfire

There’s just something fun about shoving a stick into your food and cooking it over a fire—especially when doing so turns it into a spider!

You’ll need a knife for slicing the dogs and some sticks or forks for roasting. Cut the hot dogs into quarters lengthwise on each end leaving about 2 inches in the middle solid. This solid portion is where the fork will go in, so make sure you leave enough space. Roast the dogs over the fire and watch the “legs” curl as they cook.

For grownups looking to avoid hot dogs, try this (with or without the legs!) using brats or high-quality sausages.

Campfire quesadillas

Quesadilla by Paul Goyette

If you’re looking for more ways to get your kids to eat fresh veggies, a nice, cheesy quesadilla is a great option—and it tastes even better cooked over a campfire. For a more adult option, dress these up with a sharper cheese and a more sophisticated veggie mix.

Prep veggies at home. Slice them thin and roast them in advance in your oven at home or keep them in a baggie to cook over the fire in a foil packet or cast iron skillet. Shred cheese at home and bring camping in baggies.

When you’re ready to cook, place tortillas on foil or in skillet. Top with shredded cheeses and veggies to taste. Season with salt and pepper or get creative with cumin, smoked paprika, or cilantro. Fold tortillas to close and wrap in foil if you’re cooking without a skillet. Cook until crisp on both sides.

Pie iron fun

Pie irons are cheap—about $10 to $12 ordered online—and they are tons of fun for kids and adults alike. If you haven’t used one, think campfire meets panini and you’re pretty much there. You can use a pie iron to make lots of fun camping food:

• Hot sandwiches like grilled cheese, ham and cheese, caprese, you name it.
• Pizza, any toppings you like.
• Desserts, too! They’re a lot like turnovers. Try cinnamon, raisin, or other sweet bread, fruit pie filling, fresh fruit, jams, lemon curd, Nutella, marshmallows, whatever you like.

To make anything in a pie iron:

• Choose bread that isn’t so soft that it falls apart, and make sure it fits.
• Butter the slices generously so they end up crisp.
• Place slices butter side out in the pie iron.
• Stack fillings on slices and close iron.
• Put iron in hot coals for about 1 minute on each side.

Remove and open carefully!

Cinnamon sugar bis-sticks on the campfire

Baking camp bread on sticks over an open campfire

If you think eating some cinnamon rolls on sticks over a campfire sounds like something your kids would like, we should all go camping together sometime. These are fun and easy, and kids can do most of the prep themselves.

Separate 1 can of refrigerator biscuit dough*** into the cut pieces and make each into a rope about 5 inches long. Spiral wrap the dough around sticks for cooking and bake over the fire until golden brown and firm (about 8 to 10 minutes). Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Variation: Skewer hot dogs, brats, or sausages on sticks and wrap in dough. Cook over the fire.

***Note on mixes: If you’re like me and the thought of muffin mixes and refrigerator dough gives you the vapors, no problem. For muffins, brownies, or biscuits you can measure out your dry ingredients in advance and keep them in a baggie for ease. Measure out wet ingredients like oil, milk, and water and keep them the same way. Cut the butter you might need in advance so it’s ready in the right amount in your cooler when you need it. For biscuits, you can also make your biscuit dough in advance and keep it in the cooler.

It wasn’t easy narrowing down this list of campfire favorites for kids! We have so many around here that we love making again and again. Camping is fun no matter what, but adding some extra pizzazz with fun camping fare that kids love makes it even better.