Our family has been enjoying some camping trips this month, so I thought I would devote my posts this week to sharing some of our favourite camping food recipes.
Let’s start off with one of our all-time yummy-always-a-hit picnic sandwich.
This recipes comes from a little fundraising cookbook project done by my daughter’s Grade 1 class in 2003.
I love it because not only is it a fabulous sandwich, but it is the ultimate in ‘make ahead’ food.
It tastes better the day after it’s made….after the flavours have had time to mingle.
This sandwich is the perfect lunch for the first day of camping. After arriving at the campsite and spending a few hours putting up tents, inflating mattresses and getting things in order, everyone is usuallly tired and hungry. That’s when I am so happy to pull out the picnic sandwich for an instant lunch. It makes 8 sandwich wedges and each piece is very filling and satisfying.
This sandwich requires a filling, some meat & cheeses and a round loaf.
First step.
The filling.
5 seeded & chopped plum tomatoes
1 cup chopped red, orange or yellow peppers
1/4 cup chopped pitted black olives (I use kalamata olives)
1/4 cup chopped red onion ( I increase this to 1/2 cup)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil. Do not skip this ingredient!
2 tsp. balsamic or red wine vinegar
drizzle of olive oil
Mix all of these things together.
The tomato mixture is similar to a brushchetta topping. You can adapt the filling to your own tastes by adding grilled vegetables with hummus or pesto.
The filling will look like this:
Next step is to scoop out the round loaf to get ready for stuffing.
Scoop out the loaf so that you have about 1 inch of bread all around. Keep the ‘hat’ of the loaf for the finished sandwich.
Brush the inside of the loaf with olive oil.
This step prevents the bread from going soggy.
Now spoon half of the filling into the bottom of the bread and press down with spoon.
Then layer in half of the sliced meats.
You can use different salami, ham, turkey or even eggplant if you want to keep it vegetarian.
In this sandwich, I used sliced turkey & ham.
Then layer in cheese slices. I used havarti slices. Again, any favourite cheese can be used.
After the cheese layer, layer the remaining meat and spoon in the other half of the filling.
Place the ‘hat’ back on the loaf. Press firmly. You are done!
Wrap sandwich tightly in saran wrap.
Then I also wrap in tin foil.
Place sandwich in large bowl with some soup cans on top for weight to help “press” the sandwich.
(This step can be skipped, especially if you don’t have room in your fridge for the big bowl).
Place sandwich in fridge overnight.
I usually slice my sandwich in the morning with an electric knife into 8 wedges.
Then I re-wrap the sandwich in plastic wrap and tin foil and place in the cooler until lunch time.
This sandwich doesn’t take long to make. Once you chop up the ingredients for the filling, the rest only takes a few minutes. My 13 yr. old daughter actually made this sandwich while I was working on the prep for other meals for our camping trip.
There you have it…..a super scrumptious sandwich for camping!
Menu Plan for our Camping Week:
Monday: Picnic Sandwich
Tuesday: Chicks on Sticks
Wednesday: For Goodness Steak: Steak & caesar salad.
Thursday: The Loin King: Pork Loin with potatoes
Friday: When you teach a man to fish: A campsite Fish Fry.
To read Part 2 of Camping Cuisine: Chicks on Sticks, click here.
To read Part 3 of Camping Cuisine: For Goodness Steak, click here.
To read Part 4 of Camping Cuisine: Blueberry & Cream Cheese Dessert, click here.
To read Part 5 of Camping Cuisine: Eat Your Veggies, click here.
Share the Love!
9
wow, that sandwich looks amazing…it is so pretty sliced. What a great idea for camping!! I'll have to remember this!
That sandwich looks fantastic!!
I can tell you love to cook…I do too!
Great photos of the food by the way!
Pamela xo
I'm a new follower. http://moogieland.blogspot.com/
This looks fabulous!!!! YUM
Ooooh, looks great! I'll have to try it. You may like this recipe:
http://plumslife.blogspot.com/2010/03/meatless-monday-california-grilled.html
We've had this one on our camping menu a time or two.
Hi Angie – Your sandwich looks amazing! I wish I could reach out and grab a piece through the computer! I'm definitely bookmarking this and trying it soon.
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and becoming a follower – I really appreciate it! Looking forward to following along with you too.
Alissa
That looks fantastic!
Thanks for linking up!
~Liz
I have this one squished down in my fridge right now. Can't wait to try it tomorrow! Thanks!
This looks great! Going to have to make some changes, as we don't eat peppers, onions or basil (I know, I know…) but the basic idea itself is fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing!
Made this for lunch Sunday of Memorial Weekend, was delicious and such a great break from normal camping food! Thanks!
Looks similar to a Muffolata we eat in Louisiana.
Found you on Pinterest! Made the sandwich for camping last weekend. Not sure what I did wrong, but my sandwich fell apart. It didn't look half as great as yours! So sad!
You are so sweet. Thanks for the reply and tips! I think I didn't add enough meat and cheese and I think I overdid it scooping out the bread! I will definitely try it again and just to be safe I will either use less of the bruschetta or maybe even try your pesto idea! Love your blog and all the camping tips! We even did the chicken kebabs! Big hit!
This sandwich is suh-weet. I've made it for all my beach party gatherings throughout this past year and everyone is like, "whaaaaaaaaat is this yumminess?"
Just made this sandwich for the second time for our hiking day while camping and I must say, it truly is the Perfect Picnic Sandwich! Last time I used the same idea with small rolls for the kids and filled them with egg salad and tuna salad – they were perfect too! This time I included a chicken salad one and again, perfect!! None of them beat the original though, the flavors are amazing! Thank you for the idea and great recipe!
Looks amazing! Thinking about trying this one out this weekend for our camping trip, but I was wondering if you thought this would keep for two days instead of just one? Thanks!
Hi Lindsay,
I am sure that it would keep for two days wrapped in tin foil and keep in the fridge or a very cold cooler. Happy Camping!