Camping Food

Recently we went to Ramblewood Campgrounds in Maryland for a camping trip and to help weed their Labyrinth.  I don't have pictures of the cabins but they are really nice.  Full bathrooms and beds with memory foam mattresses.

The site has a restaurant, but with the meals being $8 for breakfast($11 for Sunday brunch), $10 for lunch and $12 for dinner...We decided to bring most of our own food.  So we opted for oatmeal and croissants for breakfast, and backpacking food for the rest of the meals, since it's light and only requires either hot or cold water to make it.  So this is a list of what we took and how I think it rated.  We were told by several friends stay away from the Mountain House brand.  That it was over priced and not very good so we bought Backpacker's Pantry and Alpine Air Foods brand food.

Wednesday Dinner

The Alfredo was absolutely perfect.  The chicken didn't have a weird texture.  The sauce actually tasted like my own recipe.  The pepper's in the dish even had a roasted flavor to them.  I would give it 5 out of 5 stars.

As for the Creme Brulee the taste was spot on and the burnt sugar to sprinkle on the top gave it the right touch to finish the dish.  I would give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Thursday Lunch

We had this with fuji apples and whole pita bread.  I was worried about this one, seems like in the past beef doesn't rehydrate well.  The beef in this dish was fine and so were the other vegetables.  The lime packet you add after it rehydrates was spot on.  Though be careful with the Sriracha packet...it rehydrates to a lot more than I thought it would and it ended up making the soup on the verge of being too spicy.  Also it is missing the basil flavor that I love about the soup.  Thankfully I always put basil in my camping box.  I would rate this soup 4 out of 5 stars.

Thursday Dinner

AlpineAire Foods Mesquite BBQ Seasoned Chicken with Beans & Rice - 2 Servings

AlpineAire Foods Cinnamon Apple Crisp - 2 Servings

This one is the only meal I was a little disappointed in.  The rice and beans didn't hydrate all the way so it was a little crunchy.  The bbq sauce was actually really good and so was the chicken.  I don't usually put bbq sauce on rice so I found that a little odd.  I would rate this 3 out of 5 stars.  I probably wouldn't get this one again.

 The apple crisp rehydrated nicely.  The only issue I would say is it might not be as sweet as some people like it.  I personally liked it the way it was.  The crunchy oatmeal topping was perfect.  I would rate this 4 out of 5 stars.  Only because this isn't one of my favorite desserts.

Friday Lunch - we ate ramen, apples and oatmeal cookies.

Friday Dinner

This was perfect.  The rice and chicken in this hydrated perfectly and the flavor was spot on.  I liked the addition of roasted jalapeno peppers to it.  I would rate the flavor 5 out of 5 stars.  We had it with the Late July Jalapeno Lime chips which were the perfect complement. 

Saturday - lunch we had whole wheat pita, beef jerky, fuji apples and oatmeal cookies

Saturday Dinner - we ate in the restaurant they had roast beef, fresh green beans that were steamed, roasted red potatoes with olive oil and rosemary, a vegan vegetable pie that was really yummy and cinnamon chocolate cake.  Everything was really good.

Sunday Brunch - We ate in the restaurant they had fresh melon, eggs, bacon, tortillas and all the toppings(cheese, sour cream, and salsa) to make everything into a breakfast burrito.

Over all I really liked the restaurant and would have eaten there more if the food had been cheaper.  We will definitely buy most of this food again and I will definitely rate more of it as we try it.

We had purchased this to have with Friday's meal but ended up being too full to try it.  I will rate it when we do.

In a well-organized universe...camping would take place indoors.

-- Morgan Matson