Cooking Outdoors: Grilling on the Go

Barbecues are usually associated with sunny, summer days in the garden, the whole family playing games while one person stands over the grill turning the sausages and flipping the burgers. The smell of grilled food fills the air and before you know it you’ve invited friends over and you’ve got a party in the garden until the early hours or you’ve started a craze on the street with all the neighbours firing up their grills too!

Cooking Outdoors: Grilling on the Go

But barbecues don’t have to be simply associated with the home. Many take barbecues away with them on camping trips with owners packing up the disposable or even the gas BBQ along with the tent and essentials to ensure that they get an amazing meal wherever they may lay their head.

Campsites and “stay-cations” have proved to be particularly popular with people looking for ways of saving money but still enjoying well-earned holidays. While expensive and exotic trips may be a thing of the past for many people due to the current state of the global economy, trips to the coast, country or city are proving to be just as popular as trips to the Caribbean or safaris were five to ten years ago.

In such cases people are looking for ways to experience the great outdoors and cooking on a barbecue allows them to do that, and also means that they don’t have to pay for meals at hotels or restaurants.

Cooking Outdoors: Grilling on the Go

At family camping trips, barbecuing isn’t just an effective way of cooking but it’s a practical one too. Without access to electricity and therefore ovens and refrigeration in most sites, it’s snacks-to-go or cook-your-own. Grilling sausages, burgers, chicken and vegetables is a great way of feeding the family and provides that real sense of being out in the wilderness and survival – think Bear Grylls without the scorpions and other creepy crawlies!

Down on the coast you get an extra opportunity to test those survival skills with fresh seafood. If you venture out into the water and catch your own fish, crabs and alike, you can cook them up on the barbecue and enjoy food caught on the same day with your own hands – you don’t get much fresher than that! Wrap them in some tin foil, crank up the grill and enjoy!

Fresh vegetables can also be cooked on a barbecue meaning you can still get all of your necessary nutrition and healthy foods. When you say the word barbecue you think of meat and unhealthy products, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Cooking vegetables inside foil wrapping will do them in a similar way to steaming veg at home so even on the road you can get your five a day.

To conclude, cooking on the go doesn’t have to mean just burgers, hot dogs and bags of crisps. If you’re a whizz in the kitchen, you can whip up just about any meal on a barbecue – or the bulk of one at least! Meat, vegetables, even fruit, all cook perfectly on a grill when done correctly, helping to provide a nutritious and appetizing meal that even ensures you get the majority of your five a day.

Happy grilling!

This guest post was written by Matt Rawlings. Matt is an experienced blogger who has covered a variety of topics relating to food, from the best table sauces to restaurant reviews. He is a freelance writer currently working with The Gas BBQ Company in the UK.