I'd go for premade stew but I always go for stew when camping so I can feel like I'm in Red Dead 2
As others have said, make a batch of chilli, stew or gumbo ahead of time and then just heat it up.
I’ve also had luck with bringing precooked rice and then steaming it over a pot of boiling water to reheat.
Happy camping
If money is no object just get freeze dried backpacking food. Shit is actually very very good and very easy to make. It's expensive as fuck though.
The food is alright. I wouldn't say it's the best thing ever
a fun thing i've done camping is just freeze a bunch of meals (like beef stroganoff) in individually wrapped tin foil. then just throw them on the coals to heat em up. easy camping meal.
maybe since you have a cooler cook shit ahead of time so it just needs to be reheated
Premade chili, or a thick lentil curry, will be your best bet if you're doing anything active on this camping trip. Cook it ahead of time, throw it in the cooler, and heat it up. You may want to add a grain if you don't want to do rice before or after on the same burner (minute rice will be easy though).
I personally love to dehydrate the above but that tends to be for backcountry canoe camping and hiking, where weight and volume matter a lot.
I camp cook a lot and have a few different setups for situations like this.
Build yourself a twig stove out of soup cans! Progresso or those other ready to eat cans fit a normal size soup cans in them and they rest on the inner lip so it suspends the inner can. Drill holes at in a pattern that does the same function as a solo stove. You can look up tutorials on it easily. Fashion a primitive grate from something from the hardware store and you have a second burner! Shouldn't cost more than $5 and it gives a nice rustic feel. You have to feed them twigs so flame control is a little annoying, but it's perfect for boiling water, which is exactly what you're going to want to do because pasta is your best friend when you're cooking for a group! Pre make your own pasta sauce and meat balls, sear them in the pan and dump the sauce in and let it all come up to temp. A little fresh parsley and parm on top and you're golden.
Do you know how to parcook?
Just par cook everything to like ten minutes to done ness and then do your final assembly on site with the tiny burner.
pot of beans?
