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Anyone who knows me knows that camping is one of my all time favorite things to do in this world.
We used to go camping all the time with good friends of ours every May.
We’d meet up at a mutually convenient campground – 45 minutes away for us, 1 hour away for them – and set up camp for a long weekend. We’d usually stay Thursday night thru Sunday morning.
We took our oldest camping when she was 6 months old…
We set up a portable crib beside our bed in the tent, and we were all snug as bugs!
Then we went when she was 1.5 and again when she was 2.5with our second little nugget in tow.
We’d set up a makeshift barrier between the babies and the open fire – we used our heavy duty plastic play fencing for this!
I can’t believe we did this looking back on it.
Seems so dangerous, but someone was watching the kids at all times – either us, our friends, or any grandparents we had with us (their parents and my parents would always come to, because they’re friends as well).
When I got pregnant with my third child, we gave up on camping for a few years. I was plain ol’ tired and couldn’t imagine making surethree kids under the age of 5didn’t fall into the campfire all weekend long!
While we were taking a break because of our growing family, our friends had a third child as well, so that added to our break!
But now that everyone in both families is at least 3 years old, we are ready to resume the fun!
Recently we went for a long weekend trip together, and it was so much fun! We just hung out and caught up on old times.
Now we’re planning our next annual trip like old times! 🙂
Today I wanted to show you something cool we made for dinner one evening.
I like to keep things SIMPLE when camping. Nothing fancy. If it’s filling, that’s all that matters. You can get hungry playing outside all day long!
Simple to Make Campfire Nachos
So here’s the thing with these – you may notice they are NOT cooking on the campfire.
That’s because I was ready to put them on the fire when my husband showed me this handy propane stove he wanted to use, so I let him cook them on here. But these are totally doable on the fire!
That’s how we cook the majority of our camping meals.
We used cast iron skillets like the ones below. They’re really easy to use and clean and it’s tough to burn your food through the pan because they’re so thick.
We used shallow pans, although I can see how a dutch oven would be easier because then you don’t have to get creative with how to put the foil on without having the cheese stick to it!
Easy Campfire Nachos – List of Ingredients
These nachos couldn’t be ANY simpler.
The key to making them awesome is in the cheese. Because our daughter is lactose intolerant, we used Cabot brand cheese (which is naturally lactose free). But you can use any kind of shredded cheese. Get more cheese than you think you’ll need because a fire cooks pretty hot and if you don’t have a lot of cheese, things could get crispy. lol
Complete list of ingredients:
- shredded cheese
- tortilla chips
- canned beans (we used black beans AND kidney beans)
- green onions
Optional:
- sour cream
- guacamole
And technically I think you could make this an entire dinner by just adding chicken to the nachos recipe.
To make the nachos, simply layer on the ingredients with the goal of getting the cheese mixed in there pretty well and beans sprinkled around. Otherwise the first few people to take some will grab all the good stuff and everyone else will be left with a pile of chips! 🙂
I layered them like this: thin layer of tortillas, sprinkle of beans, layer of cheese, then repeat.
Finally, top with extra cheese and green onions! Put them on the stove/fire and then put some foil on top to magnify the heat for melting the cheese on top.
They literally take like 5 minutes if you put them on a hot fire. Remember – you’re not cooking anything, just pretty much melting the cheese and warming up the beans!
They were DELICIOUS and a real crowd pleaser. I highly recommend them for any camping trip.
Just don’t forget a can opener! lol (we almost did, but luckily my mom is always prepared with everything and had one with her! ha)
RELATED CAMPING POSTS
- 10 Easy Camping Recipes You Can Cook Over the Fire and/or Make Ahead
- All the Essentials You Need on a Family Camping Trip
- Easy Way to Build a Campfire (video tutorial)
- FREE PRINTABLE Camping Packing Checklist
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Lena Gott
I'm a CPA turned SAHM of 3 little ones ages 4, 6, and 9. I'm a mommy by day, blogger by night. Join me as I write about fun kids activities, family finances, and losing 50 lbs after baby #3.
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