Cub Scout Camping Dinner

[SeattlePioneer]

My pack does an overnight camp June 2-3.

 

I have a bias towards Cub Scouts cooking their own meals. For breakfast boys cook hotcakes and sausage for themselves and their parents.

 

Last year we baked potatoes in a Dutch Oven and Scouts cut open their baked potato and added the topping they wanted.

 

The year before we made tacos with Scouts frying up the shell and then making up their tacos.

 

Those all work well.

 

I'm not a big fan of foil pouches on campfires --- they tend to come out raw or burned unless you've practiced and learned the skill.

 

Also, folding pouches from foil takes more skill than a lot of new Tiger Cub and Wolves are likely to have.

 

But I'm willing to listen to advocates of foil dinners, should you wish to make a case for this method.

 

Other ideas for dinner menu items are solicited.

[ForTheBoys]

I just took my Webelos on an overnighter this past weekend where they did the foil dinner themselves and every meal turned out great. We have a Den Chief who actually used EDGE to teach them.

 

Some ideas that I think helped was to slice the potatoes to about a quarter of an inch and we encourage the boys to put everything in even if they didn't want to eat it (ground beef, potato, carrots & onion). That way the pouch had the moisture and the meal had the taste even if the boys didn't realize it. I think the most important part was to double wrap the foil with a damp/wet paper towel between the layers. That way the meal actually gets steamed and is better protected from burning.

 

Could the younger Cubs have done as well? Probably. We set it up as an assembly line and could have easily had a parent assisting 1 on 1. Of course the parents wouldn't be allowed to make the silly faces with the beef, carrot eyes & onion smiles!

 

Now we'll have to try something different at the next campout!

[Basementdweller]

Spagetti, Walking tacos, hot dogs on a stick, Burgers,

 

foil packs don't work well with a large group.....

 

I don't like the burger ones, but we have made some with fish onions and peppers that were outstanding.

[Brewmeister]

As far as cooking things individually, how about kebabs? Cut up pieces of chicken and potatoes. Beef also works well but you may bust your budget buying a cut that will taste good grilled. We did sirloin kebabs, sprinkle on some season salt, our fire was the envy of the camp.

 

We have found luck with adding variety to the typical foil pouch fare. Chicken, soup, vegetables, and minute rice rather than the standard burger stew. To help with it getting done without being burnt you can dice and cook the chicken beforehand.

 

If your goal is to have the boys cook individually, the only ways I know are in a pouch or on a stick.

[dg98adams]

Put a twist on easy favorites...

 

Sloppy Jose's (Sloppy Joes - replace bun with large flour tortilla) I personally like the corn over flour but it's easy and you can eat it like a burrito, sans the napkin/foil.

 

French toast with a twist... literally make a peanut butter (jelly optional) sandwich, then dip in eggs & fry like french toast.

Warning - 2 pieces of bread & peanut butter go really far this way.

 

Spider Dogs - split 1/3 of each end of a hot dog into quarters lenth-wise. Roast with the unsliced center 3rd, use a bun or it looks weird enough to eat off the stick!

 

Box-Oven brownies - premix brownies & eggs/oil in 1 gallon bag (yeah I know what it looks like, so will the boys), cut a corner of the bag and "squirt out" individual brownies or a spiral to bake.

 

With Cubs in big groups 1-2 step foods are good, with Webelos, get 'em started with "trail cooking", "or 1-pots".

 

[blw2]

I like the idea of getting the cubs active. Our pack usually provides the food for a nominal 'per family' fee, and some of the leaders do the cooking, usually on a large tow behind grille.

 

At one campout where that grille wasn't allowed, we did the foil packet meals. Basically set up

a cafeteria style line with adults inserting what ingrediants the cubs wanted.... think Morrison's Cafeteria on a pic-nic table.... An adult did all of the assembly and folding of the pouches. Then some of the leaders threw them on some small grilles to cook.

 

It was a good idea, but due to activity schedules we got started on it after dark (it was winter, so not hard to do...), then they took forever to cook, burned and stuck inside the foil.... They ate just fine, but it didn't go all that smooth as I'll bet it could.

[DLChris71]

If you have a skillet you can easily do chicken fajitas...you can get fajita flavoring in foil packs, start off with some oil, slice onions, chicken, and green peppers. Scoop into a flour tortilla. You can also marinate the ingredients in italian dressing and go without the fajita flavoring.

[ScoutWolf]

Long time lurker, First Post

 

Saw something neat at a BALOO session.

 

Get a bag small snack size bag of doritos

Brown up some meat and have lettuce, cheese (onions-peppers if daring) and salsa

 

add those ingredients to a doritos bag with chips in.

 

Shake or crush vigorously.

 

Boom. Taco Salad. Heard that kids eat that stuff up. Its not the "healthiest," but hey its camping.

 

[Basementdweller]

wolf that is what we call a walking taco.

[shortridge]

Pshaw! Foil cooking is easy and simple. The trick is having a good (adult, of course) fire-tender who keeps close track of times, and having an adult watch the food prep area like a hawk. If you don't want hobo dinners, do pita pizzas in foil. Just use the pitas like the pizza dough.

 

If you want individual dishes, your options are by necessity limited. But if you're willing to do a group dish (and that will depend largely on your group size), just do a giant one-pot meal of any variety, served with fresh fruit and bread. (The bread could even be the individual part - dough wrapped around clean sticks over the fire.)

[Shilue]

Our pack divided up the meals. The Webelos I's did Saturday breakfast, the Tigers did lunch, the Bears did Saturday supper, and the Wolves did Sunday breakfast.

 

Saturday breakfast was eggs, bacon, and pancakes, Sat. lunch was sandwiches, Saturday supper was often BBQ, chicken, hamburgers, or various things like that. The boys generally did the cooking, with help from parents. The tigers had it easy, only having to hand out lunch meat, tomatos, lettuce, etc. Saturday breakfast was the more extreme, hence the Webelos doing that. Sunday breakfast was cereal and muffins, not too difficult to do.

 

The kids enjoyed it because they got to help do the cooking, but with plenty of adult supervision.

[DLChris71]

With one son headed into Webelos and both sons being picky eaters I felt it was time for them to get skin in the game. So the whole family is on a schedule for cooking meals (with dad as advisor). So Sunday my oldest made pancakes and bacon for breakfast, cold cuts for lunch, etc. Last night my youngest wanted to make steaks, mac and cheese, and salad. So I'm letting them hit the stove now.

 

Anyway its a process and it'll take a while to get them to be attentive to things and realize the steps but they should be able to make anything. The most important thing is that we are really paying attention to the food pyramid (food plate now ugh!) and portion size. Hopefully by the end of the year they'll be into comparing prices and shopping at the grocery store. For now they are still bouncing off displays.