When we first began camping, we got into a bit of a rut with food. We stuck with classic camping faire - BBQ food! But we realised, since we were going often and are trying to eat healthier, we needed to branch out. So, we bought a basic campstove and some gas and away we have gone!

The trouble with cooking campside is that you don't have access to your usual array of spices and flavourings, so you have to adapt and plan ahead to ensure your meals are packed full of flavour. I also tend to avoid things which are a bit iffy cooking through properly, such as chicken and fish. I do this because with cooking outside, the wind blows the flame and means that it doesn't always cook evenly. We tried doing burgers on our stove and ended up with half burnt burgers - nightmare!

1. Tacos

Tacos are easy to do on a campstove. Minced beef, a packet of taco seasoning, some fresh salad and taco shells are all you need! 

2. The Classic Bacon or Sausage Sandwich

This one is obvious - you can't go wrong with a classic bacon or sausage sandwich can you!? Little hack we have found is taking small butter portions to use if you don't have access to a fridge and then refillable bottles for ketchup and brown sauce.

3. Risotto

Risotto is another easy one pan meal. All you need is onion, some fresh peas, some chopped ham, arborio rice and chicken stock and it makes a  healthy and tasty meal.

4. Peri Peri Halloumi Pittas

An easy lunch and easy to add a pop of flavour. I tend to take a bottle of nandos peri peri garlic sauce. Usually I chuck a bit over my halloumi, add salad and throw it in a pitta. Delish!

5. 5 Bean Chilli

A good option for something which is warming and healthy. Needed for a rainy day to warm up. At home, I'd mix up my own spices and seasonings but I do cheat whilst camping with a packet mix as it's easier not to take a million spices or if I'm prepared enough, I mix it up in advance.

What kind of food do you opt for when camping?

Molly

I'm going to start off by saying I love this tent. The Quechua Arpenaz 4 Man Tent is from Decathlon and is one of the easiest tents I've ever used and a perfect beginners tent.

Last year I borrow my sister's 3 man pop up Quechua tent (can't remember the exact name of it but it was a limited edition 90s tent) so when buying a tent for our first proper camping season, I knew I wanted a Quechua tent.

The tent itself has a bedroom and a small seated living room area. As with all 4 man tents, you can comfortably fit 3 full sized humans in, but I think you'd struggle with 4. If you have kids, two adults and two small kids would probably fit comfortably. With this tent, there is a fair bit of ventilation with a covered vent above the living room. I also like the window feature which allows you to do a classic bit of people watching, however there is a flap which covers up the window should you want the privacy.

It's a poled tent, so think traditional assembly. There are 3 main poles which are colour coded, and adjustable guy ropes. The tent comes with heaps of pegs, so you'll never be without. It takes roughly 10-15 minutes for the two of us to pitch the tent. We also have never struggled getting the tent back into the bag which is a massive win for me.

The only main issue I have with this tent is that you can't fully stand up, you're always hunched over which can be a little tiring on the back. If you have a table and 2 chairs, you can just about fit in the living area sat down. Another thing to note is there is no ground sheet in the living area.

As for price, it's a really decently priced tent, retailing for £99.99. It is a really good tent and worth every penny.

We recently upgraded to a slightly larger 4 man Quechua tent, which features a stand up living room and fresh and black technology in the bedroom. Watch this space for the review!

Molly

A couple of weekends ago we stayed at New Lodge Farm, in Bulwick, Northamptonshire. Find my full review of the campsite below:

Pros

- Great, super clean facilities. Lot's of stand pipes for water, multiple recycle points, flushing loos and hot showers. There was a small issue with the boiler on one of the days of our stay but that was rectified by 10.30am and I found the cooler water really refreshing. Something I found really interesting was that all the hot water and lighting is produced by renewable energy sources.

- Quiet and Peaceful. This was really important to me as it was the weekend before my Grandad's funeral and I just wanted a lovely and chilled experience where I could zone out and read my book in peace.

- Adults only. I've mentioned previously that sometimes I enjoy staying on an adults only campsite, and for reasons outlined above, I needed some chill time and a quiet atmosphere to reflect in.

- Friendly and Insightful Wardens. Both wardens were super friendly, they took turns on shift. They explained the site rules to us well and showed us how to find the electrical hook up etc. It was a lovely friendly campsite.

- Can park next to pitch. Always a must for me and we now filter by this when looking for a campsite to book.

- Electric security barriers. This was a great safety feature and I felt really safe leaving our stuff on site when going exploring.

- Ground is good for tent pitching. We've been to a couple of campsites which have had super hard ground or really stony ground. The ground at New Lodge Farm was perfect and the pegs went in easily despite not having rain for weeks.

- On site Farm Shop & Cafe, which means if you can't be bothered to cook you can pop along and grab breakfast or lunch. Or if you're cooking, you can grab some fresh ingredients. They also do Friday night supper club, a takeaway pizza pop up appears on Saturday evenings and roasts on Sunday!

- Electric to all tent pitches - we've recently invested in an electrical hook up and we've realised it's an absolute godsend, so having electric directly on our pitch was fabulous.

            

          

Cons

- Relatively near a main road and whilst it wasn't exactly noisy noisy, you just got the odd rumble of a lorry every so often. No big deal really! We struggled to think of cons for New Lodge Farm.

- No shade for tent pitches, which, like I've said in previous posts, whilst usually not an issue because English weather, it happened to be very sunny the weekend we visited New Lodge Farm. We used our windbreak to fashion a sun shade. 

Overall

I absolutely loved our stay at New Lodge Farm campsite and would definitely return. I would return just for their farm shop sausages, they're TDF.

Also, all the pitches are great, but the best pitch by far is Pitch K (nearest the loos!).

Overall, I award New Lodge Farm campsite, 5 tents out of 5 (my first full tent award!!)

1. Parking next your pitch is the one

There's no way in hell that I will be lugging our huge amount of equipment across fields etc. It's not practical. I only look for campsites which allow you to park next to your pitch. Pitch Up has the option to filter your results and you can filter by this requirement.

2. Eco Loos are to be avoided at all costs

If you've not already read about my experience with eco loos. Read about it here. This is all that needs to be said. Period. Me and Eco Loo's are not a match made in heaven!

3. Review your campsite and location before booking - you'll thank yourself

So firstly, check the reviews on the campsite - that will expose grotty facilities, any other flaws and any additional equipment you may need. For example, I recently booked a campsite which said it's based on a hill facing the coast so is particularly windy, therefore I've made a note to remember my windbreaker. Although I would also like to add that I'd take a small pinch of salt with some reviews as the lower rated reviews often are written in anger over one small tiny minute detail or issue.

With regards to location, it's best to research places to go as often when you're camping you're in the middle of nowhere with no wifi and little to no signal. It's best to have a bit of an idea of what you plan to do and a general idea of how to get to places. As a modern day gal who relies on Google Maps, when you have no signal/ wifi, you become a little unstuck quickly.

4. Live by the Packing List

I am an overpacker, and proud. Buuuut, camping leaves no space to be an overpacker, especially if you're travelling in a small Ford Fiesta/ Vauxhall Corsa. So I've learnt to make lists, and live by the lists. Each time we go camping we also re-evaluate the list and for things we've not used we cross them off. I think this streamlines the packing process each time aswell.

5. Citronella Candles are your new bestie

Bugs come with the territory of camping. We all know that! I have a particular penchant for campsites with bodies of water aka Ponds, Lakes etc so mozzies are rife. Don't forget your citronella candles!

6. Arrive in daylight or face the perils of dark tent setting up

There is nothing worse than arriving late at a campsite and fighting the dying sun to try and get your tent up before you can't see 1m ahead of you. There are no street lights camping, it gets SUPER dark. Make sure to arrive with plenty of sunlight time ahead of you, or let the arguments ensue. You could always turn on your car headlights but this isn't very considerate of your fellow campers and you end up fighting shadows!

7. Your meal plan mantra should be quick & easy

There is nothing worse than wanting to create a gourmet meal with 1000 different ingredients/ herbs/ spices on the fly. It takes up room and 9/10 you don't have a fridge to keep food cool. Prep, prep and more prep is key. I'm not saying your food should be flavourless either, it just needs prepping. I tend to put my most complicated meal for when we arrive as I can pre chop/ pre season before we go and just throw it in the pan. For the other days, I go basic, salad, cous cous/ rice and then either burgers/ lamb koftas/ halloumi. We also bought an ingenious toaster pan for our hob which means we can just have some toast for breakfast! You can purchase this on Amazon.

Molly

We decided to take a quick trip to the Jurassic Coast and wanted to visit Lyme Regis, so we hopped onto our fave website to scope out campsites, Pitch Up, and we found Hobby Farm. Find my full review of the campsite below:

Pros

- Great Facilities. Once again, another campsite with fab facilities. I rejoiced that this campsite had a proper flushing loo after the great loo-scapade at Bramble Meadows. The showers were hot and had a little built in changing area too. Also, they have a fridge - a massive camping win!

- Place to dispose of rubbish & gas canisters. Although every campsite we've been to have had a proper recycling/ rubbish disposal area, I love the additional touch of a place to get rid of your empty gas canisters.

- Pond setting. I love a lake/ pond. It just feels so serene and adds a fab touch to a campsite Just don't forget your citronella candles!

- Great proximity to Lyme Regis. This was the whole reason we went to the Jurassic coast, and it's a short 16 minute drive from Lyme Regis. We went for an early morning stroll and a lovely lunch on the coast... aswell as paddling our feet in the sea! There are also loads of scenic walks about, we walked the golden cap which was amazing.

- Mown Pitches and lots of shade. I'm a big fan of a mown pitch, it spaces you and your fellow campers out nicely and you don't have people camping on top of you. People were encouraged to pitch around the sides of the field offering much needed shade from the sun (again, we went on a super sunny weekend!) and also a bit of privacy.

- Flexibility. We decided it might be quite nice to head up on a Thursday evening as we both had the Friday off. We contacted Tom (the owner) and asked if we could camp and additional evening and he was totally flexible. We just gave him the money whilst on site.

- Low Cost. At a mere £20 a night, I thought it was totally respectable especially for the facilities provided.

           

Cons

- Logs. Not a major thing, but we really enjoy a campside fire in the evenings to keep us toasty and provide some much required light. It was advertised that logs would be available to buy, but unfortunately there was an issue with supply (absolutely no fault of Tom's!) and this wasn't communicated until I chased my text asking to buy some logs with a call. I'm almost certain the supply issue would have been sorted if you do plan to book Hobby Farm!

- Bottom of the field is a little boggy. It meant that the bottom of our tent was really quite wet when packing down, and we noticed hundreds (ok, maybe 20-50) of tiny frogs hopping round the bottom of our tent. We went early June, so that was in their post hatching phase. If you camped at the top of sides of the field, you'd be fine. Frogs freak me out, hence making the cons list!

Overall

I really enjoyed camping at Hobby Farm, and it's proximity to Lyme Regis. We had such a good time!! The only downsides were the frog situation at the end and lack of communication on the logs for the fire. Next time I'd camp at the top of the field or on the left hand side. I also liked that they had the Shepherd Hut option if you wanted something a bit more glam. I'd definitely be up for exploring their Shepherd's Huts!

Overall, I award Hobby Farm Camping, 4 tents out of 5.

1. A decent tent

This is probably a ridiculously obvious suggestion, but honestly, do not scrimp on your tent. You need something to protect you if you come up against unexpected adverse conditions.

We invested in a Quechua 4 Man tent and it really has protected us and is a good quality tent. We are looking to upgrade though and will probably go with a blackout tent with a living space to stand up in. We will be buying another Quechua though as I properly rate them.

2. A windbreaker

This also sounds like a ridiculous suggestion however, campers are known for their people watching prowess and a windbreaker provides much needed protection from prying eyes.

Other benefits include, shade from the sun and also it's original purpose, to provide a much needed break from the wind.

3. Pegs

Pegs are a vital part of your camping kit. They are sooo useful. Whether it's for pegging out wet towels, or pegging your tent door open, or pegging open food packets, or even fixing something which needs closing, they are vital... Do not forget!

4. A washing up bowl

Easy to collect all your dirty dishes/ cutlery/ pans etc and maneuver over to the washing up area and also a easy place to store stuff in the car. We store all our kitchen equipment in the washing up bowl whilst in transit. 

5. Baby Wipes

Baby wipes are perfect for any spillages, bird shit landing on the tent or (if the showers are questionable) a quick festival - esque wash/ freshen up alongside any other surprising quick clean ups. Again, another must for our camping kit.

6. Portable Battery Packs

What kind of blogger would I be if I let my phone die?! If you are opting for a non electrical pitch, portable battery packs are a must to give your phone that juice to keep them going. Don't rely on finding plug points, as these can be far and few between. I recommend the Pebble, which can be bought here.

Molly

Sundays are made for brunch right? I took Matt to meet the family a few months ago, and my sister, Matt and I decided to head to The Salisbury Orangery on the Sunday for brunch.

I'd not been before, but heard loads of amazing things, so off we went. We got there at 10.20am and they only had one table for two left, but they asked if we'd be okay with a pulled up chair and we agreed. One thing I would mention is that the Salisbury Orangery do not take bookings, so it's first come first serve, so if you do want one of their nice comfy booths, I'd get there for opening. The table was a little cramped but I'm glad they accommodated us. The decor was lovely, and I liked the greenery under the tabletops.

We were served quickly and our waitress was really lovely. I ordered an apple juice, Ella ordered a mocha and Matt had a latte. All were really delicious. The hot drinks were as hot as you'd expect and I loved my apple juice. We originally only had two water glasses on our table, but I asked for an additional glass and it was quickly brought over.

Now onto the main event, the food! I had the Crushed Avocado on Toast (pictured above), classic me. The avocado on toast was also served with refried beans, poached eggs, chilli and vine tomatoes. So firstly, the dish was INSANE. It also was so aesthetically pleasing, with the edible flowers on top. The serving of avocado was so generous - I don't think I've ever been served so much avo in a restaurant in my life! All the flavours melded together so well, and I loved the addition of the balsamic glaze. I will admit though, I did fall foul to the toasted sourdough curse, and the bread was a litttttttle tough to cut.

Matt had the Full Orangery, which is a generous helping of bacon, sausage, eggs, black pudding, patatas bravas, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans and toast. Ella had the Full Vegan Orangery which is, vegan sausages, mushrooms, patatas bravas, tomatoes, harissa beans and chilli avocado toast. Both of them said that they really enjoyed their breakfasts and that they felt the ingredients were of a really high quality. Matt gave me a bit of his sausage (wahey! Not like that), and it was really tasty.

Prices were mid-range for brunch. Matt's Full Orangery topped the prices at £12, Ella's Full Vegan Orangery came to £11 and my Crushed Avo on Toast came in at least expensive at £9.75.

Overall, I'd really recommend going to the Salisbury Orangery if you're ever in Salisbury, or if you happen to be in the idyllic Winchester, you could always pop into their flagship location.

Molly