Muffin or Cupcake?

I know. I’ve been awful. Is it really the middle of September already?

Although our planned camping trips for the year are over, I seem to still have camping on the brain. Like today – I was packing lunch for my new kindergartener and I thought – these muffins would be delicious on a hike (and there is nothing like chocolate to motivate my little slowpokes).

The five year old was a little dubious of the green flecks of zucchini but was brought over when I split the muffin open and pointed out the hunks of chocolate in the middle. Of course if you have a ‘will not eat green stuff even if it’s dipped in chocolate’ kind of kid you could peel the zukes first. I replaced 1/2 cup of white with whole wheat pastry flour and added a couple of tablespoons of wheat germ too - ‘cause that’s just the kind of sneaky mom i am.

Thanks Epicurious for this surprisingly easy recipe!

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcakes

Make ahead camping food

 

We embark on our final big trip today and I'm trying something new – a no cook camping trip (except coffee and marshmallows of course).  I was thinking of making a bunch of stuff ahead like salads and snacks. So far I’ve only gotten a few things made like the roast peppers and the raspberry oat bars.  The bars don’t look like much but yum they taste fab – kinda breakfasty – i suspect they’ll get gobbled up with coffee in the morning.

If i actually get to it my make ahead menu would look something like:

Dinners : (1) chef salad with rustic bread; (2) tortellini, pesto, cherry tomatoes, and mozzarella salad

Lunch: (1) croissants with roast vegetables (2) anything left in the cooler or peanut butter and jam 

Breakfast: (2) cereal with berries

Snacks: apples, raspberry oat bars, chips, carrots

A Few Links: Family Friendly Camping Food

Lots of great and easy ideas for campfire cooking from Kids cooking Activities.com 

Camping Meals for Kids from Trails.com

• Fun camping recipes from About.com

 

Technorati Tags: camping,food,kids

Banana Boat Recipe

My chef friend Georgia shares her “all time favorite” camping recipe, the classic Banana Boat:

1. Slice one banana through the center, lengthwise, skin on.
2. Pry banana apart and place torn chunks of marshmallow and dark chocolate chunks down the center of it.
3. Wrap in foil and place on the coals in the fire.
4. When you hear the banana sizzle, turn it over and repeat...
5. Open up banana and eat the gooey center with graham cracker fingers...

Easy camping menu v.2

I’ve amended the Spencer Spit menu to something that at first seemed simpler.  The menu itself seems a bit more streamlined but my shopping list is still out of control.  I suspect this is in part due to some misguided instinct to bring enough snacks to survive the apocalypse.  Is this a mom thing? Probably just a me thing…

Basic Weekend Camping Menu

	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Dinner:	Pasta + salad: lett, tom, avo	Hot dogs and beans (carrots and peas)	Left-overs!
Lunch:	Sack lunch: PB+J sandwiches (fruit)	Croissants and cheese (fruit)	Left-overs!
Breakfast:	At home	Pancakes and bacon (yogurt)	Scrambled eggs with chopped bacon

Shopping list

Fruit and Veg	Dairy and Meat
Bananas Apples Grapes Blueberries Carrots Snap Peas Tomato Avocado Lettuce	UHT milk Vanilla yogurt Cheese slices Hummus Eggs Bacon Butter Fresh pasta
Dry Goods and snacks	Condiments and staples
pancake mix croissants bread hotdog buns potato chips coffee hot chocolate marshmallows cookies granola bars baked beans pasta sauce	ketchup mustard jam peanut butter syrup Green and Black’s Almond Milk Chocolate sugar salt pepper vegetable oil balsamic

One more thing – this menu is for feeding 6 adults and two kids.

Bacon – the camping wonder food

So if you’re wondering - what we ate at Spencer Spit was somewhat different than what I actually planned. This wasn’t entirely unexpected and in practice the menu kinda’ streamlined itself.

The trick is knowing what you can cook once but use for more than one meal and this takes some experience. I’m happy to say my camp cooking revelation this trip was bacon. I only grabbed a package at the last minute but it turned out to be a staple food on the weekend.

Use 1: Saturday breakfast: Pancakes and bacon. OK so I kinda love bacon with maple syrup – I think it was one of those pancake breakfast fundraisers in my youth where they slop it all on your plate and pour the syrup over everything…mmmm

Use 2: Saturday lunch: Bacon sarnies. This is just an English way of saying bacon sandwich. I suppose you could add some lettuce and tomatoes….

Use 3: Sunday breakfast: Scrambled eggs with chopped bacon and whatever else you have left and don’t want to pack home

One ingredient – three meals! Camping food perfection.

Technorati Tags: bacon,camping,food

Easy-Peasy Camping Menu

Here it is Wednesday and we leave tomorrow for our first trip of the summer, a four day trip to the San Juans. I, of course, have been focusing on the food aspect of the trip. Planning wise I have completed the menu and my husband has pulled out most of the gear. I hit Whole Foods this morning and now just need to do the hard part – fit it all into the cooler!

Breakfast x 3: I can only really bring myself to do one cooked breakfast a trip – it’s not so much the cooking, it’s the cleanup I can’t deal with.

1. Bacon, Eggs, Fruit – i may substitute pancakes for the eggs – I was seduced at whole foods by the simplicity of the organic pancake batter in a can – however having not used it before I’m making sure i have a back-up – i suspect the ‘batter blaster’ will be a hit with the kids
2. Croissants and Yogurt
3. Granola

Lunch x 4: We usually do packed lunches so we can eat on the trail or at the beach – again minimal clean-up!

1. Mini-Bagels: cream cheese, ham, peanut butter and jam, avocado
2. Left-over Pasta

Dinner x 3: Most of this is done on our trusty Coleman stove, but this time I’ve planned one dinner for over the campfire. Can you guess which one?

1. Tortellini with pesto and ricotta cheese; tomato/arugula/parmesan salad
2. Hot (Hebrew National) and Veggie (Yves) dogs; corn on the cob; baked beans
3. Grilled cheese and tomato soup

Snacks, treats and extra stuff

Fresh stuff: mini-carrots, snap peas, grapes, blueberries, apples, bananas, tomatoes, hummus, juice, chee

Treats: Oatmeal banana mini-muffins, Green and Black’s Almond Milk Chocolate (see my other post about this heavenly stuff), marshmallows, graham crackers, fig newtons

Dry snacks: cashews, fish crackers, trail mix

All of this is in addition to the basic kitchen staples that are packed away in a camping box downstairs. Now – time to check on that….

Sweet Survival

I have to admit I have been accused of being a bit compulsive about planning the menu for our camping trips. I tend to get ‘gourmet’ with ingredients like pesto, prosciutto, brie. Still I never realised that the key ingredient, the one thing that I now cannot imagine a camping trip without…chocolate. Not just any chocolate but Green and Black’s Milk Chocolate with Almonds. I was introduced to it on a camping trip with my friend P. I’ve had to force myself to allow it only on camping trips (don’t ask me how that is going).