CPP - Part 2

Always be prepared… Last week I prepared for our three day camping trip in the Camping Preparedness Program post. Here is what I did with that advice.

The Meal Plan:

Dinner 1:              Hot Dogs, Apple Sauce, coleslaw

                            Smores for desert

Breakfast:             Eggs, sausage

Lunch:                  PB and J or Egg salad sandwiches, fruit, chips

Dinner 2:              Hamburgers, Beans, Corn

Breakfast:           Bagels, fruit

Lunch:                BLT sandwiches, carrot sticks, and leftovers

Snacks:                

The Chef

Chips, salsa, bean dip, cottage cheese, pretzels, grapes, apples, granola bars, cheese sticks, graham crackers, popcorn

When I put together the meal plan, I went shopping in my pantry first and decided what I needed from there. Which was basically—hamburger buns, begals, fruit and smore fixin’s.

I wanted to bring just the right amount of food, but it’s better to have too much rather than not enough. We also invited some friends with kids to join us for a day or night, so I wanted to have enough snacks in case we had company.

What I made ahead:

-         Stuck fresh gapes, hot dogs, and hamburger patties in the freezer. They should be thawed in time to use them.

-          Hard boiled eggs and made egg salad

-          PB & J sandwiches

-          Lightly cook bacon

-          Make Coleslaw

-          Cut up carrot sticks

We are staying at a campsite that does not allow wood fires, so I packed some charcoal and durmaflame logs to cook our food and enjoy. It is a hot summer, so we would only have a fire at night.

Cooking/Dish washing station.
This camp did have a place to wash dishes by the bathroom, but I like my set up better.
Boil water and add it to tubs of water then put soap in 1 tub. 

For the kids I made sure to have bicycles and sand toys. I also bought them new flashlights (they love these things!) and light sticks to play with at night.

Because we weren’t going far or staying a long time our campsite was very simple. The more people the more complex, but not much. With more campers you basically, you need more chairs, food, and tent space. Which translates to the same amount of preparation. Ever notice that a party takes just as much work for 10 people as it does for 20?

We opted not to put up a shade since there were some nice trees. And our family of four fit nicely in one tent. We might need another in the future, but this works great for now—I might even splurge on one of those 10 man 2 room tents when the kids are older.  

Tired kids enjoying the outdoors before dinner time.
Not a great picture, but you can see the tent in the background and their little table.

What do you do when camping?