Some people relish the art of food preparation and are infinitely curious to explore different methods and techniques to create the final dish. I am not one of those people. For me, cooking is a necessary means to an end, and the logistics of preparing food for six people can be suboptimal on smaller propane burners. Nowadays, my food prep is generally limited to one of three options.
Fully prepare ahead of time and freeze. The caveat here is to freeze the food in a Tupperware container that will easily fit into the pot you intend to reheat the meal in. After experiencing this mismatch in the picture below, I've changed to using freezer bags which thaw a little faster and can be broken up more easily to then dump out of the bag.
Empower the kids to pick out their own soups. Soups are great in that they will generally fit in any pot, whether you bring one from home or are using a fancy folding aluminum backpacking pot. If I'm camping with only one of my kids, I'll take them to the soup aisle at the grocery store and let them know they can pic anything they want. After about 5 minutes of perusing, they select one or two cans that they're really excited about eating later.
Lastly, when I ask my oldest what he wants to eat, carte blanche, he almost universally asks for ramen. There are many options for "elevated" instant noodles, and the just-add-water dehydrated meals available now are really palatable if you absolutely do not want to be bothered by making dinner. The freeze-dried meals can be a little pricy so be mindful of the economics of $15 meals times the number of campers.
At the very least, prepping food at home ahead of time makes camping evenings more enjoyable and reduces the amount of cooler storage required for the raw ingredients. If you're new to camping, try to resist the temptation to make an Etsy-inspired campfire cuisine de resistance and instead defer to a low-stress easy win.
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