If you follow me on social media, you’ll know that “eating out” for us is very literal – we live by the beach and take full advantage of the free BBQs to get some outside time for breakfast (and occasionally dinner).

 

Since we do this pretty often, I have a system that I use to pretty much grab and go. Last weekend I finally snapped a few photos so I could blog it!

 

So, without further ado:

 

Easy DIY BBQ Kit

 

 

Bag 1: The Cooler Bag

The cooler bag (which I won a few years back and freaking love because I love Ben & Jerry’s) is where all the food and any usually-refrigerated items go. A breakfast BBQ is most common for us, so that is what I have photographed and will be listing here. The food is obviously just what we tend to take and eat and can be made up of whatever quantities and types of food your family eat. I tend to have a few staples then grab anything else from the fridge that needs using up and can be easily cooked on a BBQ.

 

• The bag: because you have to carry things somehow
• Water/drinks: I filled up a spare water bottle with our preferred brand and flavour of sugar free cordial. Sometimes we just take water.
• BBQ sauce: I don’t always bring this because we don’t use much sauce on breakfast food because it’s pretty flavourful in its own right
• Eggs: You can’t have bacon and eggs without the eggs! The eggs are in the blue-lidded container in front of the cordial. I’ve found this particular container works really well for keeping them uncracked.
• Hash Browns: If we have them in the freezer, I defrost a little and put them in a container (the clear one in the photo). Hash browns come up great on a BBQ!
• Bacon: Um, because.
• Sausages: Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t.
• Cheese: In the Sistema container at the front right – pre sliced at home

 

Tip: If you live further away from the beach, consider ice packs and defrosting appropriate to your needs. A BBQ is spoiled by spoiled food!

 

 

 

Bag 2: The Other Bag

This was photographed in a few parts… Firstly we’ll go with what’s in the photo below.

• Oil: for cooking
• Paper Towels: for cleaning BBQ and humans
• Salt: for cleaning BBQ
• Plates: for eating off of
• Cutlery: there are two of us so we take 2x forks, 1x butter knife, 1x sharp knife, 1x tongs & 1x flipper
• Plastic bag: do not skip this! This is a tip that will save mess! (Plus I never remember to take green bags shopping with me, so I always have an excess of these.) Placing your plates and cutlery into a plastic bag keeps them together for any travel time – but most importantly when you are taking greasy plates home, it won’t spread the grease in the bag or car!

 

Tip: We used to have separate plates & cutlery for BBQ’s, but found they just mixed in with our regular stuff anyway, so gave up. Consider how this would work in your house.

 

 

The other items in the “other” bag are:

• A second plastic bag: this is your rubbish bin at the BBQ itself. In my experience, bins are usually near BBQ sites but not close enough for fly-away plastic and egg shells. This way, you can be sure you aren’t littering and can put everything in the bin in one step. It also stops you having to touch a bin lid multiple times while cooking – fewer germs!
• Spreads & toppings: our basics are salt and pepper grinders and Vegemite. I looooove Vegemite on hash browns.

 

 

 

The only other thing I bring is a towel. I don’t really like table cloths and I usually keep a towel in the car at all times for drying off from summer storms, impromptu beach walks and the like; so I just use a towel as a table cloth if need be. Plus, the one that’s usually in my car also has snakes and ladders printed on it, so keep a dice and something to use as tokens in the car too and you have a built in game!

 

Now, I realise plastic bags are an unpopular and not environmentally friendly thing – and I’ve included two in this post! Look, do what works for you but frankly I always have them on hand and find that the entire BBQ goes a lot smoother if I have them on me.

 

What do you take to BBQs? Do you have a system that really works for you?