I like to camp a lot more than my wife does. I don’t mind pit toilets, she would rather not think about them.
Thus I need two versions of the car camping kitchen. This is the solo but easily expanded to a duo.
The heart of this is a collapsible silicone picnic basket. Accompanying this is collapsible cooler. We have a few and they all work okay. I used 6 reusable ice packs as ice and I would use ice as needed. On this trip I had access to a basic freezer that would hold one of my packs per day. If I didn’t have access to a freezer and a ready supply of ice, I would use my vintage igloo cooler. A key aspect to this trip was that I was only cooking in the AM and occasionally in the evening.
For the solo trip:
- Spork
- Assorted cooking utensils from DollarTree- silicone spatula, wooden scraper, whisk, paring knife with cover, measuring spoons, etc…
- Small cook pot set
- Fry pan, cutting board, and kettle from this set
- Collapsible silicone bowl with lid walmart sells a version without a lid that is slightly smaller
- Coffee cup with lid
- Pour Over set 1, Pour Over Set 2
- Coffee Grinder
- DIY Spice set using Dollar Tree small glass jars- 10 different savory and sweet spices for cooking many meals
- Water jug and water bottles
- Two alcohol stoves Red Camp and DIY
- Two stove stands
- Titanium Windscreen
- Heat shield made of a piece of heavy aluminum cut to size and shape
- Tea cup
- Alcohol fuel bottle with dispensing lid
- small steel hiking cup for brewing water for tea
- Collapsible wash bin and drying rack
- Unscented soap for dishes
If my wife were camping with me I’d bring one larger pot and another collapsible bowl or some sort of plate situation. I’d add in additional cutlery, another coffee cup, and possibly another type of way to heat water, like a canister stove. While I really prefer alcohol stoves and could easily have 2 going at once in the AM, I think a canister stove makes more sense for boiling more than one cup of water. I’d also opt for a larger cooler.
Much of this stuff I have purchased over the years. I will admit that I went a little wild and bought the fuel bottle knowing this trip was coming up. I also purchased a titanium alcohol burner from a brand call Lixada but it didn’t arrive in time for the trip. What a bummer. That said a lot of this stuff was really affordable and alternatives can easily be found at Walmart and even at a thrift store. I ate out of the small pot of the small cook pot set and used the collapsible bowl and lid to store leftover food in my cooler over night, and either ate it the next morning for breakfast or took it with me to work to eat.
The picnic basket contains everything with some room to grow. It was very effective and made it easy to get my cooking stuff all gathered together for storage in the bear vault. The collapsible wash basin kept my scrubbies and soap together for trips to the sink area and then stashing in the bear vault to dry.
This worked really well for my basic cooking needs while at camp.