More camping ideas....so much family fun!

Camping can be such a fun family vacation, and generally very affordable too. My family loves to camp and like every activity we have as a family, the food is one of the key things to consider when preparing for the trip.

Do your kids like to get in on the cooking? Including them in the prep work and even in the actual cooking while camping can be fun. The best part about letting your kids cook when you are camping is that making a mess is not a huge deal. You are working outside after all, in most cases.

Breakfast is a great meal to get them involved in. If you are making a breakfast skillet with chopped potatoes, onions, peppers, sausage or whatever, this is the perfect time to get some extra help. In my last blog, I talked about prepping your food. If you’ve baked or steamed some potatoes ahead of time, your kids can easily cut the potatoes into cubes for you. Even little kids can help here, give them a butter knife and let them go to work.

Have all of your ingredients out for them to assemble their own skillet breakfast. Give each child a zip top bag and let them add the ingredients they want. Some ideas are chopped potato, pre-cooked sausage, onions, peppers, olives, mushrooms, cheese....whatever they would enjoy. Once they have their veggies and/or meats, crack a couple of eggs into the bags and let them go to town squishing it all together. I know, most of us would think this is less than desirable, most kids (especially boys) will think this is great fun!

Once their skillet ingredients are ready, they can help you pour the contents into the pan and watch their creation cook to perfection. You never know, your kids may discover that they actually like mushrooms, zucchini or some other dreaded veggie.

Another dish that works well with this “squishing” method is pancakes. If you’ve made up bags of dry ingredients, simply beat the wet ingredients in a bowl and then pour into the zip top bag for your kids to finish “mixing” for you. The batter is then easily transferred to a bowl or pitcher to pour onto the griddle.

How about lunch? Letting your kids roast their own hot dogs over the fire or even a camp stove is always fun! How many of you have memories from childhood of skewering a hot dog on a stick and watching it cook to perfection over a camp fire? Do you remember how much fun that was? Let your kids experiment with other items to roast...peppers, mushrooms, pineapple...the list goes on. Have fun with it. Obviously, your kids will need to be careful and have close supervision when working with a fire, but this can be a fun learning and memory making time for you and your kids!

Snacks can be a fun “meal” to prepare too. Bring along some bananas, granola, peanut butter, cream cheese, celery, dried fruit and anything else that a kid would love. Maybe some gummy fruit snacks or gluten-free licorice ropes cut into small lengths. Put everything out buffet style and let them create something amazing.

Preparing dinner while camping can be a fun family activity as well. Use the “squish” (perhaps shaking would be best, but you get the idea) method to let your kids throw together a pasta salad. If you’ve done all of your prep work ahead of time, this will be an easy thing for them to do on their own. Just make sure you remind them that you want your pasta whole and not completely unrecognizable. :)

No matter how you get your kids involved in the cooking process, I encourage you to have fun! Our kids learn good eating habits from us, and getting them involved in the cooking process may help them to get past some of their food “phobias”, not to mention teach them to feed themselves later in life. Teach your kids where their food comes from, let them get involved in choosing some of the foods they want to eat. Guide them in a healthy direction, but let them experiment with flavors and foods. This is when “playing with food” is not a bad thing. :)

Enjoy your summer camp outs. Make some memories with your kids. They are only kids for a short time...enjoy it!