Preparation For Your Camp Out - The Menu

There is much do be done before heading out on a weekend adventure. Be it by your self, with the family or with a Boy Scout Troop, you need to plan ahead. Both with the equipment and the meals. Planning each meal and knowing how much of what to take will save both time a headache down the road. No one wants to leave the rest and comfort of there camp site to run into town for the loaf of bread you forgot.

One thing to keep in mind is that for anything longer then a weekend trip, get as close to well rounded meals as possible each day. Trips planned just for a weekend would not need to be all that detailed.

When camping with family or a group of younger children ( i.e. youth group or Scout Troop ), A good place to start would be to schedule who will be cooking what for what meal. Now you know the limitations of tools used or needed. Maybe even limiting the choices for that meal. At the same time, make sure that each cook has an assistant. This would be for safety reasons, an opportunity to teach, and for bonding. The way we do it with my Boy Scout Troop is to pick a team, a main cook and a dishwasher. Then put them together again in switched rolls later in the trip.

So now you should have your teams, decided what each meal will be, using your handy dandy camping cookbook you can start your shopping list. Break down each meal into the individual ingredients and how much you will need. ( per meal ) On a piece of paper, write down your ingredients up and down in the left margin. Across the top right out breakfast, lunch, ( snack ), dinner, breakfast, lunch, etc... Break down how much you will need for each meal. In the first place rationing might be a good idea when you are out in the middle of now where. But secondly, it is easier to add up the total amounts needed by working with several smaller amounts. If you plan on using bread or carrots, or salad dressing several times - only list it once on the left and show your duplication in the columns.

By breaking it down this way, you can also take note of other items needed to make the meal go off with out a hitch... Like measuring spoons, paper plates, the amount of ice needed, so on and so forth.

There is to much fun to be had while camping and getting off on the right foot makes it all that much better. Get more tips and advice at my website "Camping and More".