Food tastes better around the campfire. Breakfast is often coined as being the most important meal of the day but is especially true when you’re camping and spending your days exploring and being active in the great outdoors!
Whether you’re in the woods, glamping, or camping in the backyard, this selection of sweet and savory camping breakfast ideas is the perfect inspiration for when you want a simple, delicious meal to start the day but are short on resources and pans.
While you’re reading through and taking notes, we’ll be daydreaming about sitting in a camping chair, basking in the sun, and sipping on our morning coffee while breakfast is sizzling away over a nearby fire.
1. Breakfast Burritos
Burritos are a favorite at any time of the day, but there’s something really comforting about a pillowy tortilla stuffed with all of our favorite features of a big brekky.
The best thing about this camping breakfast recipe is that while it recommends ingredients such as bacon, eggs, bell peppers, and Monterey Jack cheese, you can switch any one of these ingredients out, depending on your or your family’s preferences.
Tomatoes, hash browns, green onions, and sausage in place of the bacon would all work well!
2. Cheesy Western Skillet with Hash Browns and Ham Breakfast Casserole
For a dish with a tongue twister of a title, this casserole is surprisingly simple and easy to make and is great for making with kids, too.
For this cowboy-style comforting skillet recipe, you’ll need to combine frozen, ready-made hash browns, cheese, ham, eggs, and bell pepper and leave everything to bubble away in the skillet for around 40 minutes.
Our top tip would be to ensure your skillet is well greased with oil or butter, as without, the ingredients will stick!
3. Freezer Breakfast Sandwiches
This ridiculously easy camping breakfast can be made ahead and so is great for relaxed mornings on your next camping trip.
Even better, they’re reminiscent of the well-known and loved egg McMuffin but slightly healthier and a lot more cost-effective for feeding the family.
You’ll need to thaw the sandwiches overnight in a cooler box from frozen and cook them over the campfire for around 5 minutes while they’re still in their foil wrapping.
4. Breakfast Skillet
This is one of the simpler camping breakfast ideas, but it’s a real crowd-pleaser that will fuel up the whole gang before an action-packed day of exploring.
Does it get any better with all your favorite breakfast suspects like bacon, potatoes, and eggs?
Topped with cheese, this melty and gooey skillet is a dish that’s sure to keep you full throughout the day and takes just 30 minutes to pull together!
5. Banana Bread Pancakes
It’s a beautiful thing when two favorite desserts come together in breakfast form.
With the addition of banana, brown sugar, and walnuts, this pancake mixture is transformed into a banana bread-pancake hybrid, and we’re here for it, honestly.
We know that when it comes to campfire cooking, the fewer the ingredients, the better, but to really amp up the banana bread flavor, we would recommend adding in some ground cinnamon and nutmeg!
6. Campfire Cinnamon Rolls
These gooey, gooey cinnamon rolls are made within one skillet, and so is the perfect camping breakfast recipe for feeding (and impressing a crowd).
It probably isn’t advisable to have this much sugar for breakfast. Still, we would recommend going the full country mile with the desserty-ness of this cinnamon roll skillet by topping them with marshmallows and chocolate chips to get a cinnamon roll-smores hybrid. We know…genius.
7. Dutch Oven Dutch Baby
Dutch babies are essentially just pancakes made in a cast iron pan. Still, with the addition of sweet vanilla and lemon-flavored berry topping and skipping on time by pouring the pancake batter into the pan in one go, this is a ridiculously easy, simple, and delicious camping breakfast idea with a scent that is sure to make any neighboring campers green with jealousy.
8. Dutch Oven French Toast
French toast is something we all know and love, but when it comes to feeding a crowd, it can be pretty slow on the production front with individually dipping, flipping, transferring, toasting slices of bread.
The solution? Ditch the individual slices, break the bread into chunks, coat in the sweet mixture, and bake in a pan.
It’s sort of like a French toast casserole which sounds all kinds of wrong but all kinds of right, right?
9. Toasted Oats Cereal
If we’re honest, this really pans toasted muesli, which, although not having quite the same ring to it as ‘toasted oats cereal,’ is a delicious and hearty camping breakfast that requires very little preparation.
The recipe calls for rolled oats, chopped nuts, dried cranberries, and raisins, but these are all adaptable and can be switched out for any dried fruits, nuts, and seeds of your choice.
Personally, we love the idea of chopped roasted hazelnuts and chocolate chips for a healthier take on that hazelnut spread that isn’t so nutritious.
10. Bacon and Pepper Quesadillas
Quick, flavor-packed, and easy to make, these breakfast quesadillas are easy to prepare in advance and can be easily thrown onto hot coals while they’re in foil wrapping for a quick breakfast.
If you wanted an even quicker option (and why wouldn’t you), you could pour the mixture over a skillet full of tortilla chips and toast over the fire until hot for speedy breakfast nachos.
Top with avocado, and you can even pretend for a moment that it’s healthy…ish.
11. Campfire Cinnamon Rolls
These are a little more time-consuming than the aforementioned cinnamon roll skillet dish. Still, the individual rolls are toasted on a stick over the fire and are a great interactive option for both kids and adults.
To cut back on time, we recommend opting for store-bought dough and filling these with your own sugar-laden spiced mixture.
Perfect for fall, these rolls are fun, easy to make, and enjoyed as breakfast, a snack, or dessert.
12. Omelet-in-a-bag
Granted, this doesn’t sound as delicious or appetizing as it tastes. Still, we’re big believers that substance outshines style any time, particularly when you’re camping in the great outdoors and don’t have the resources to allow your presentation skills to shine.
Just combine eggs, grated potatoes, cheese, ham, and a splash of milk, mix, place onto squares of foil before sealing them shut and leave to cook over the fire for around 10 minutes. What could be easier?
13. Breakfast Hobo Pies
A hobo pie is a fun, albeit fancy, the name for a grilled sandwich.
Regardless, this is one of the quickest camping breakfast ideas out there and is as satisfying and delicious as it sounds.
They take around twelve minutes to prepare and are a great way to start the day around a campfire from start to finish.
If you fancy a sweet breakfast, try replacing the suggested savory innards here for cream cheese and fresh berries to make a fancy kind of pop tart.
14. Campfire Donuts
With absolute and unwavering confidence, we can say that these will be a big hit with anyone and everyone you serve at your next morning camping cookout.
Who would have imagined you could easily and effectively deep fry donuts in the great outdoors?
The recipe suggests a traditional cinnamon sugar coating; however, you could experiment with a glaze or top with sprinkles to add to the childlike charm and fun.
15. French Toast Sticks
Why is it that miniature versions of classic dishes are so irresistible?
These French toast fingers are a perfect camping breakfast option for little ones as they’re the perfect finger food and are great for smaller appetites.
For even more interactive fun, you could put on a spread of various toppings for the kids to choose from and to keep them busy. Chocolate spread, yogurt, berries, and sprinkles are all options that are sure to go down well.
16. Skillet Biscuits
These biscuits are perfect for when you’re roughing it in the woods and missing the comforts of home.
The recipe calls for just two ingredients as it utilizes a can of ready-made biscuit dough and can be served with either sweet or savory toppings.
They’re great served with syrup, or if you’re in a savory mood, they work well on the side of creamy scrambled eggs and fried tomatoes.
17. Loaded Breakfast Biscuits
These savory biscuits are a meal in themselves and are loaded with bacon, shredded cheese, and garlic powder but could be adapted to suit your cravings.
To save on time, you could make these in a large batch and keep them in a cooler box ready for throwing straight over the fire when you’re feeling peckish.
Serve with lashings of hot butter spread over them while they’re still piping hot and fluffy in the center.
18. Campfire Egg and Ham Cups
If you want an easy and simple breakfast idea that involves minimal cleanup, these cups are for you.
If you have anyone around the campfire following a keto diet, these cups will be a welcome breakfast option as the cup itself is fashioned from a slice of ham.
For the carb-loving campers, a slice (or few) of hot buttered toast will make these cups go further and will provide more energy for a day of exploring the wilderness.
19. Campfire Burritos
These breakfast burritos are designed to be made ahead and so are ridiculously easy to prepare for those times where you don’t want your time cradling a hot cup of Joe and enjoying a sunrise to be interrupted.
Loaded with frozen tater tots, ground sausage, spicy shredded Mexican cheese, eggs, and salsa, these burritos are flavor-packed, ridiculously easy to make, and also double up as a great brunch or lunch option.
20. Breakfast Skillet
Nothing says ‘cozy campfire breakfast’ quite like a skillet filled with cheesy potatoes, crisp bacon, and eggs is a well-loved and frequented camping breakfast option.
It’s also a one-pot meal – what’s not to love? To cut through the richness, we love topping this skillet with acidic and spicy ingredients such as jalapeno peppers, green onions, and tabasco sauce.
Whatever you choose to top it with, this skillet is a perfect breakfast option for warming up a crisp morning.
21. Cinnamon Apple Pancakes
We would happily devour these pancakes all year round, but if you happen to find yourself camping in fall this year, these cinnamon apple pancakes are the ultimate fall weather camping breakfast.
Flavored with spiced apple cider and shredded apple and layered with a quick cinnamon butter apple compote (at this point, we’re salivating), these pancakes are warming, delicious, and surprisingly easy to make.
Top with lashings of maple syrup, and you’ll be one happy camper (sorry).
22. Quick & Easy Campfire Apple Crisp
This makeshift, simplified version of an apple crumbles what we fondly think of as an afterthought dessert.
Those times following a hearty dinner where you fancy something sweet but don’t have the energy or will to put much effort in or think outside the box call for a pud like this one.
And because the ‘crisp’ element is made with granola, it makes for a great breakfast option, too. Just top with yogurt, and this is the ultimate hearty, comforting camping breakfast option.
23. Campfire Skillet Breakfast
You’d be hard pushed to find someone who wouldn’t rise from their tent in a hurry once the aroma from this all-in-one breakfast skillet reaches them.
It takes all of the work out of a big breakfast but delivers all the delicious flavor with additions of sweet peppers, ham, eggs, potatoes, and onion.
If you need this to go further, we recommend adding a can of pinto beans or your beans of choice.
24. Granola & Yogurt Bowls (4 ways)
We like to call this one ‘campfire continental breakfast’ as the selection of four different toppings reminds us of the sweet breakfast buffets you often see in hotels or on vacation.
The toppings for the humble granola and yogurt combo include:
- Raspberry & chocolate syrup
- Cantaloupe, goji berries, and coconut shavings
- Raspberries, blackberries & strawberries
- Peanut butter, jelly & strawberries
This is a fun one regardless of age, but for kids, this is a great way of creating excitement with a relatively healthy camping breakfast option.
25. Apple & Seed Oatmeal
This oatmeal may not be as fancy as the other camping breakfast options in this post, but sometimes we need a reminder of how reliable the humble oat is.
Economical, versatile, and nourishing, oatmeal really is the unsung hero of the breakfast spread.
The addition of seeds and grated apple brings sweetness and crunch to this comforting bowl of oats, and if you’re in a pinch or want a taste of home, this creamy oatmeal is sure to hit the spot.
25 Easy Camping Breakfast Ideas
Ingredients
- 1. Breakfast Burritos
- 2. Cheesy Western Skillet with Hash Browns and Ham Breakfast Casserole
- 3. Freezer Breakfast Sandwiches
- 4. Breakfast Skillet
- 5. Banana Bread Pancakes
- 6. Campfire Cinnamon Rolls
- 7. Dutch Oven Dutch Baby
- 8. Dutch Oven French Toast
- 9. Toasted Oats Cereal
- 10. Bacon and Pepper Quesadillas
- 11. Campfire Cinnamon Rolls
- 12. Omelet-in-a-bag
- 13. Breakfast Hobo Pies
- 14. Campfire Donuts
- 15. French Toast Sticks
- 16. Skillet Biscuits
- 17. Loaded Breakfast Biscuits
- 18. Campfire Egg and Ham Cups
- 19. Campfire Burritos
- 20. Breakfast Skillet
- 21. Cinnamon Apple Pancakes
- 22. Quick & Easy Campfire Apple Crisp
- 23. Campfire Skillet Breakfast
- 24. Granola & Yogurt Bowls (4 ways)
- 25. Apple & Seed Oatmeal
Instructions
- Choose your favorite Breakfast dish!
- Prepare ingredients according to the recipe.
- Be ready in 30 minutes or less!