April 8, 2017 by caracastson
Have you ever done the cooking at camp?
When you’re first asked about being cook (or, if you’re like me, you’ve coveted the job for years) you think, “hey, I’m a good cook. I can do this!”
But then reality hits you… you don’t just have to cook it, you have to figure out how much to buy, what to make (you want good food that is both healthy and palatable for kids), how to prepare it safely, and how much time you’ll need to make it happen.
- Friday Leader Supper – Home made chicken noodle soup with crusty buns and butter. Served as soon as it is done (30-60 minutes before camp).
- Friday evening mug up – Remaining chicken noodle soup from leader supper with cheese and crackers. (8PMish). Toast up any remaining crusty buns from Guider supper.
- Saturday Breakfast
- Pan-fried green eggs — 28 eggs with about a tablespoon of green food colouring, some milk and salt
- Pan fried or oven warmed ham – 2-3 lb ham cut up into slices.
- Oven toasted english muffins with butter
- Fruit or berries – we had pineapple, strawberries and bananas
- Girl Task – using crinkle cutters or small sharp knives, cut bananas in half, remove strawberry leaves and cut in half, and cut up pineapple chunks. Divide fruit onto four plates — one for each table. Wash apples for snack time. Crinkle cutters are easier for little hands to manage independently.
- Milk to drink
- Saturday Snack – packaged granola bars, apples and oranges
- Saturday Lunch – Taco salad served family style on four tables. Needs a LOT of bowls, plates and containers. It is a lot of work, but the girls get healthy food and choice. Everyone is happy. Easily converted to walking tacos – put the whole thing in a zip bag.
- Taco meat – 3 lbs ground beef, 2 cans pureed red kidney beans, 3 packets taco seasoning, 2 zucchini cut up small. Adult to cook.
- Shredded iceberg lettuce – girl task to cut up – adult to pre-wash – mostly for time because the campers are out for a walk.
- Grated cheese – if time, girls to grate cheese. divide into serving bowls – remember though that you need cheese for evening. Once served it must be thrown out so keep refilling serving bowls.
- Sour cream – girls to divide into four bowls
- Salsa – girls to divide into four bowls
- Canned corn drained and rinsed – girls to divide into bowls
- Tortilla chips – crushed and divided up into four bowls by girls
- Guacamole – girls to divide into bowls
- Chick peas – girls to divide into bowls
- Afternoon snack – Supper prep patrol to cut up vegetables and put out hummus to dip. Carrots, celery, cukes, mushrooms, beans… Suggest crinkle cutters.
- Supper – Pasta bake with pureed tomato sauce (image is before it went through the blender) and sausage in three (9×12) pans. All components prepared separately and then combined in a pan for baking. Served with Garlic Bread and Caesar Salad.
- 1500g of fusili pasta. We used green spinach pasta.
- 2-3 lbs sausage (roasted at lunch),
- Sauce: Onion diced small, 3-4 garlic cloves, 3 cans pasta sauce (680 ml x 3), 1 can diced tomato, big bag of fresh spinach, leftover veg from afternoon snack all washed, zucchini, leftover unused chick peas from lunch, 1 can tomato paste. All run through the immersion blender so there are no fights about mushrooms, etc.
- Grated cheese (leftover from lunch – keeping in mind that once served you have to throw it out – see note about cheese above)
- Salad (girls prepare) — Romaine lettuce (cut up by girls), salad dressing, Parmesan cheese, croutons, and bacon.
- Garlic bread – girls to butter baguettes and to sprinkle the garlic
- Milk to drink
- Leftover veg from lunch snack as alternative veg instead of salad.
- Evening snack – Blue jello with jelly fish
- Breakfast
- Pumpkin Muffins (double batch) use muffin papers or lots of cooking spray. (recipe in file)
- Yogurt
- Grapes (girls to wash), and any leftover milk, fruit, cheese and ham.
Post-camp menu review... this went very well and we threw out very little food in the end. In fact, we ran out of salad! One recent revelation was to have girls serve themselves at camp. They are required to eat what they take and they’ve really taken that to heart. I was impressed.
- Disposable Pans? As you can see from the image of the serving table, we used a bunch of disposable baking pans (we got a set of 10 9×12 pans for just under $10 from Walmart). These are great serving options for when you’re using an unfamiliar kitchen with unknown serving/baking options. They were also used a lot for food prep and girl tasks because you could give them all of the tools and whatever food they were preparing in one pan. And, while not entirely green – they are recyclable and 8/10 of them survived and will be used again.
The link to my camp menu is at the top of this page. Email me at brownowlcara at gmail dot com if you have any questions. Happy Camping!!!
I’ve been writing this blog since January 2011 and it started as a way for our little group to keep track of the things we do year to year. We consult the blog often and walk the line between repeating the same things because they worked and introducing new things because they sound fun.
