Simple Camp Pancakes That You Should Prep Ahead

When I was a kid, my father made pancakes for us every Sunday morning. And they were the real deal! No store bought mix. No container that you just add water to. He made them from scratch. As I’ve aged, I tried to make them from scratch too. There are a gazillion recipes. They only need a few ingredients. You know what the ingredients are. Why not make them from scratch? So I did.

Then we started camping. Not the camper camping we do now. But tent camping, with maybe an occasional lean-to. With that, I wanted to pack light and make things easy. I didn’t want a dozen dirty dishes. I didn’t want to bring a bunch of ingredients. I wanted it to be easy from start to finish. So I began buying the container mix. Just add water – easy, right? Sure was easy. Didn’t need a bowl or measuring spoons or stirring spoons. Just needed to add water to the container, put the lid back on and shake.

Sometime in my ease of pancake making, I took a look at the nutrition facts on the back of that yellow container, and it was not pretty. A lot of carbs and sugar, and very little fiber or any vitamins. An important thing to also look at is the first three items on the ingredient list as that will tell you what’s mostly in the product. For this: enriched flour bleached, sugar, and defatted soy flour. Hmm. I mean it sounds great.

So I decided to never buy that again and take the easy way out. Only I am taking the easy way out! I am making our pancake batter at home before we even go camping! Genius! I make them from scratch at home, put them in a container, and pop them in our camper fridge. No having to eat “just add water” pancakes that realistically serve about 2 people. No having to bring flour, sugar, baking soda, etc. with us in the camper (Think: Mess – every single bag of flour leaks out the corners).

When I first thought about preparing the batter at home, I added just the dry ingredients to a container and brough it with us in the pantry. It didn’t yet have anything in it that needed to be refrigerated. Then on Sunday morning, I’d add the egg, oil and milk – all pretty standard things we’d bring in the camper anyway. Wasn’t easy enough for me. Still had to pour my mix into a bigger bowl in the camper so I could mix it properly. Then it hit me – prepare the whole mix at once and bring the whole thing with us! Bingo! The mix is all ready to go, you just have to swirl it around a little. You can double or triple it if you want and have it all ready to go. You don’t have to cook it all at once, just as much as you are gonna eat that day. Although the squirrels around us usually do like the leftovers when no one else has eaten them for a few days!

I encourage you to make this pancake mix at home, pack it in a sealable container, and cook them when the mood strikes at camp for some fresh, healthy pancakes. Serve with maple syrup, fresh fruit or maybe even some cool whip. Comment below with how they came out. Enjoy!