I love a hot breakfast after a chilly night sleeping in our tent. On our recent trip to the Smoky Mountains, we made pie iron breakfast sandwiches. They were sooo good.

These breakfast sandwiches are filled with egg, cheese and sausage. You don’t pre-cook the egg, so it kind of coats the bread and tastes a bit like french toast. Yum.

Even this guy stopped by to beg for one. Sorry Mr. Squirrel, we don’t give handouts.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe over at Pocket Change Gourmet. Her recipe didn’t quite fit in our Original 1960′s design Rome Pie Iron, so I made a few changes.

Start by melting butter in a pre-warmed pie iron.

Place two slices of bread in the pie iron and squish down the middle of both slices to make room for the fillings. Pour egg into one of the slices of bread, being careful to not overfill it (I forgot to snap a photo of this step).

Cover the egg with a slice of cheese and put a sausage in the other side of the pie iron.

Cook over a fire, turning every few minutes until the egg is set and the cheese is melted. Enjoy with a mug of hot coffee!

Pie Iron Breakfast Sandwiches
Makes 6, Vegetarian (or not)

Ingredients

• butter
• 12 slices sandwich bread
• 4 eggs
• 6 defrosted vegetarian sausages (or pre-cooked sausages)
• 6 slices sharp cheddar

Supplies

• pie iron
• bowl
• fork
• butter knife

Directions

1. Preheat pie iron over fire.
2. Meanwhile, lightly beat eggs.
3. Coat inside of the pie iron with butter.
4. Fill both sides of pie iron with bread. Squish down the middle of the bread to make room for the filling.
5. Pour egg into the indentation in one of the slices of bread. Do not overfill. Top egg with cheese. Put sausage on other slice of bread.
6. Close pie iron. Cook over fire, turning frequently, until the egg is set and the cheese is melted.

Without a doubt, fall is my favorite time of year to camp. I love sitting by a campfire bundled in a wool blanket on a crisp fall evening.

Here are some great looking recipes that I’m planning on making this fall.

1. Campfire Baked Apples

Bake up Family Spice’s campfire apples for a fall treat.

2. Dutch Oven Pumpkin Corn Bread

Nothing says fall like pumpkin. Try this dutch oven pumpkin cornbread from Overland Trailer.

3. Veggie Chili

My veggie chili is the perfect meal to warm you up on a crisp fall day.

4. Salted Carmel Hot Chocolate

Check out this Salted Carmel Hot Chocolate from one of my favorite blogs, A Beautiful Mess.

5. Apple Cider Toddy

Try an Apple Cider Toddy from The Boys Club as you sit around the campfire.

My southern Grandma’s veggie chili is my all time favorite. It’s got tons of healthy stuff in it: zucchini, squash, peppers, tomatoes and beans.

Chili is perfect fall camping food, especially when there’s a chill in the air.

Maybe that’s why they call it ‘chili.’ Or maybe not.

I made a batch of chili and dehydrated half of it for our recent camping trip on the Wisconsin River. Dehydrating is a great way to go, but if you’re planning on car camping you can freeze the chili instead. It freezes well and it’ll keep your cooler cold until you’re ready to thaw it.

To make dehydrated chili, start by cooking up a batch of chili at home. Then leave it in your dehydrator overnight.

At camp start by covering the dehydrated chili with water. Let it soak for about 15 minutes. Lay in the sand, recline in a camp chair, etc.

Then heat it over a stove or fire. So easy!

Dehydrated Veggie Chili
Vegan

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
28 oz can crushed or diced tomatoes
2/3 cup salsa
2 teaspoons chili powder
pinch of crushed red pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cans (15 oz each) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 large red bell pepper cut into 1/2″ chunks
1 large zucchini cut into 1/2″ chunks
1 medium yellow squash cut into 1/2″ chunks

At Home:

1. Sauté onion. Add tomatoes, salsa, chili powder, crushed red pepper and salt. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes
2. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer 50 – 60 minutes.
3. Let chili cool slightly and then spread over solid ‘fruit roll’ dehydrator trays. I dehydrated half of a batch of chili, but if you have enough trays you could dehydrate a full batch of chili. Set dehydrator to 135 degrees. Once chili is dry (about 8 hours), put it in an air-tight container or zip top bag.

At Camp:

1. Cover chili with water and let sit 15 minutes, or until it’s nearly rehydrated. 
2. Heat and serve.

Billy and I are planning a camping trip to Yatesville Lake in Kentucky. Our site is a boat-in site, so we’re bringing our kayaks. We’ll need to pack light so we can fit everything into our kayaks’ hatches. There is an access trail to our site, but we think it would be more fun to boat-in with all our gear. Our campsite is primitive, but within the state park there are also sites with RV hookups, hot showers and even a golf course. I keep joking that I am going to sneak off and take hot shower while Billy is roughing it.

If you’re headed out to the backcountry or you just want to pack light, dehydrated meals are the way to go. I am planning on bringing an assortment of dehydrated meals for our trip. I don’t want to weigh our kayaks down with heavy cans and jars of food. I’m dehydrating a jar of our favorite spaghetti sauce right now. It’s really easy, and when it’s done dehydrating, it will be small enough to fit in my pocket.

You don’t even need a dehydrator to make dehydrated foods. You can just use your oven on its lowest setting, with the door cracked slightly. If you don’t mind spending a little more, REI has some freeze-dried meals that are pretty good, though I tend to prefer my own cooking. I think the Mountain House meals are the best of the bunch. I really enjoyed their dehydrated eggs when I went backpacking in Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks. I just topped the eggs with some Taco Bell taco sauce and they were awesome. The Mountain House Pasta Primavera was decent as well. Another option is to find dried foods at the supermarket or bulk food store.

Readily Available Supermarket Dried Foods

• dried tortellini
• soup packets
• dehydrated chili mix
• ramen noodles
• sun-dried tomatoes
• wasabi peas
• dehydrated onions (spice aisle)
• dried fruit
• oatmeal
• cous cous
• minute rice

If you decide to dehydrate foods at home, there are three rules you should follow.

3 Rules of Dehydrating

1. Prevent Spoilage: Keep all dehydrated foods in the freezer until you are ready to head out. Oil causes dehydrated foods to quickly become rancid. Try to cook with a minimal amount of oil. Rinse greasy foods like ground beef with water before you dehydrate them.
2. Don’t Mix Flavors: For example, don’t dehydrate bananas at the same time as onions – you’ll end up with banana-y onions and onion-y bananas. Nasty!
3. Use the Right Temperature: Foods like meats have to be dehydrated at a higher temperature to make them safe to eat. Other foods like fruits and vegetables can be dehydrated at a lower temperature. Refer to the manual that came with your dehydrator for the exact settings.

Hungry yet? Here are some recipes that look especially tasty.

Dirty Gourmet has a lot of really good recipes for dehydrated meals and snacks including this Coconut Curry Soup.

Ramen noodles aren’t just for broke college students. Check out Dirty Gourmet’s Not Your Average Ramen.

These Maple Olive Oil Apple Chips look delicious as well.

Dehydrated Bushwalking Food has some great dinner ideas, including this Tikka Masala.

Check out this savory Roasted Red Pepper, Garlic, and Goat Cheese Rotini from Happy Tramper.

Or try this healthy Lentil Soup from Powered by Plantz.

Laurie Ann March authored two backpacking cookbooks. Take a look at her recipe for Sunny Garlic Hummus.

Backpacker’s Packable Dehydrated Salads look great if you can’t live without salad when you’re on the trail .

Their Spicy Curry Noodles look great as well!

This One Pot Vegetarian Chili mixes wet and dried ingredients and looks incredibly healthy.

Check out YouTube for tons of step-by-step videos on food dehydration.

Do you have any go-to recipes for packing light? I’d love to try them out on our trip!

Campfire baked potatoes are one of the easiest meals to make when you’re camping. Add a few toppings to a campfire baked potato and you’ve got a satisfying dinner.  Billy and I made campfire baked potatoes a few weekends ago while camping in Blackhawk Memorial Park.

We topped our potatoes with chili, cheddar and chives from our garden.

Begin by wrapping your potatoes in two layers of heavy-duty aluminium foil. Seal both layers well. Any gaps could lead to burning.

Then, place the potatoes over warm coals but not directly in the fire. As the potatoes cooked, our fire got bigger and hotter. Every once in a while we moved our potatoes so they were in the heat, but not in the flames.

After an hour or so has passed, check the potatoes for doneness.

Add some heated chili, cheddar and chives and dinner’s ready!

Campfire Chili Cheese Baked Potatoes

Serves 3

Ingredients:

• 3 russet potatoes
• 3 ounces cheddar cheese
• small bunch chives or scallions
• 15 oz can chili (I used Amy’s Organic Spicy Chili)

Cookware & tools:

• heavy-duty aluminum foil
• tongs
• saucepan
• ladle or large spoon

Directions:

At home

1. Scrub and dry potatoes.
2. Shred cheddar cheese. Place in a storage container.
3. Using scissors, cut chives into 1/2″ pieces. Place in a plastic bag with a piece of paper towel.

At the campsite

1. Wrap the potatoes tightly in two layers of aluminum foil. Be sure to seal any gaps.
2. Place potatoes in the coals of a campfire, but not directly in the flames. Allow to cook for one hour.
3. When potatoes are nearly done, warm the chili over the campfire or a camp stove.
4. When one hour is up, use tongs to carefully remove a potato from the campfire. Use a fork to check the potato for doneness. If the first potato is done, remove the other potatoes from the campfire.
5. Spoon chili over potatoes. Top with cheddar cheese and chives. Enjoy!

Here are some other easy baked potato topping ideas:

• Broccoli & swiss cheese
• Baked beans
• Greek yogurt & chives
• Salsa, monterey jack cheese & cilantro

If you’re like us, you probably don’t arrive at your campsite until late Friday evening. This vegetarian meatloaf is the perfect meal to make ahead of time at home.

Once you set up camp, you can serve these amazing vegetarian meatloaf sandwiches. Yum!

This recipe has some unusual ingredients including onion soup mix, corn flakes and cottage cheese. Despite the strange ingredients, it really does taste like meatloaf. It’s definitely a favorite comfort food at our house.

It only takes five minutes to measure and mix the ingredients, so you’ll have plenty of time to pack for your camping trip.

Once you arrive at your campsite, just heat and serve your meatloaf sandwiches.

Vegetarian Meatloaf Sandwiches
Serves 6-8
Meatloaf adapted from Food.com

Ingredients:

Vegetarian meatloaf

• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 ounce envelope dry onion soup mix (check the ingredients to make sure it’s vegetarian)
• 16 ounce container small curd cottage cheese (you can use low-fat 2% or 4%)
• 2 cups corn flakes
• 1 cup finely chopped walnuts*
• 1/4 cup chopped onion*

* I use a food processor for the onions and the walnuts to save time. There’s plenty of time for dishes once the loaf is in the oven.

Sandwich fixings

• Loaf of bread
• Ketchup
• Jar pickle slices

Directions:

At home

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a loaf pan.
3. In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs.
4. Using a spatula, mix in remaining ingredients.
5. Spoon into prepared pan.
6. Bake for 70 minutes until top is golden brown.
7. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then turn onto a serving platter.
8. Slice into 6-8 slices and cool in refrigerator. Keep cool until ready to serve.

At the campsite

1. Warm the bread and meatloaf slices in a skillet.
2. Top the warm bread with a slice of meatloaf, pickles and ketchup.