Burn Ban S'mores

We are in the state of Texas, which means we are currently camping under a burn ban.  This means we have to get slightly creative when it comes to cooking.  We will be staying in a dorm for our first Girl Scout camp campout of the year, which gives us access to a kitchen, but for most of our campouts this year, we will have to be creative.  The ban has gotten so severe lately, because the ground is so dry here, that even propane stoves are being banned in some places.

Traditional S'Mores require a fire.

You can't have a Girl Scout Campout without S'Mores.

Not when the girls outnumber you 4 to 1.

Hence, I had to come up with Burn Ban S'Mores.  They are actually a godsend for our troop.  We have a few very strict vegetarian girls, and some mostly vegetarian girls, and I really try to accommodate this, just  as I do the girls who cannot eat pork and the girl with a peanut allergy.  But have you ever priced vegetarian marshmallows?  Don't get me wrong, they are the most delicious marshmallows anyone in my troop has ever eaten, and the carnivores were begging for them; but a package that is a third the size of the regular $1.99 JetPuff (or whatever) costs about $8 and can only be found at Whole Paycheck.  The halal/kosher marshmallows (guaranteed to be made using beef gelatin, not pork) are within 10% of the regular marshmallows.  

And yes, I have brought 3 separate bags of marshmallows to a campout before.

So, what are Burn Ban S'Mores?  Simple.  Instead of using marshmallows, grab a jar of marshmallow Fluff (name brand or not).  It can be smeared onto graham crackers (or tortillas!), it can be dipped into like S'More fondue, and it is vegetarian (made with egg whites, so not vegan)!  If the day is warm enough, leave the chocolate in the sun for a few minutes, or use a pizza box solar cooker, and you have ooey-gooey S'Mores without risking burning down the forest you're camping in. 

Camping with Dietary Restrictions

As my troop embarks on our year o' camping, it occurs to me that food is a difficult topic when you are talking about kids.  Some kids are adventurous eaters, but let's face it - those are few and far between.  I still remember the shocked looks I would get when my son would request a salad for lunch.  He was 3 at the time.  Most kids enjoy the familiar, comfort food they get at home.  And some would prefer even more comfortable comfort food than they get at home.

Add to that the complication of having multiple dietary restrictions within a single troop (I have vegetarians, semi-vegetarians, girls who do not eat pork, and girls with food allergies in my troop), and it can make a camp cook go crazy.  Especially if you are trying to make sure they get healthy food, and learn the principles of the Leave No Trace philosophy when it comes to eating in the woods.  No bags of stuff filled with chemicals to keep them "fresh" for years, and something other than starch and dairy with a side of starch and fat that can be the staple of a camping trip.

One of my biggest successes is couscous.  It sounds really scary to 8 year olds.  Say it with me, "couscous".  If you've never had it, you can't even begin to guess what it is.  However, explain to the girls that it is a teeny tiny form of pasta (completely true, by the way), and that you're going to make macaroni and cheese with it, and you have a winner!  I love Sarah's site, by the way.  Lots of great recipes, and she's a label reader.

I have also discovered that you can get veggies into the picky girls by serving them with ranch.  Offering a choice of green salad or just dipping veggies (a salad without lettuce) with ranch seems to do the trick.

So, periodically, I think I will post recipes or links to recipes here and how my girls liked them.  Some recipes I am thinking my girls will like: pizza couscous (couscous with spaghetti sauce and cheese, have turkey pepperoni slices on hand for the meat eaters, extra cheese for the vegetarians, sneak some freeze dried veggies into the sauce to boost the veggie content); hot dogs for all (how to not go crazy when you have to serve 2 or 3 different kinds of hot dogs);and a  sandwich bar (like a salad bar, only with bread - good for burn bans).

Convention was AWESOME!

Wow.  What a week! I didn't end up getting to listen in on the Board Governance session at GSU while I was volunteering as a teacher's aide.  There was a miscommunication back in the planning stages, and GSUSA didn't realize our Council was going to be supplying volunteers  for that, so they brought their own.  :( But, I certainly didn't get sent home!  Instead I was directing traffic, stuffing tote bags (I did a lot of that), and then acting as a bodyguard - for the bags!  On another shift, I acted as a bodyguard for food and books.  There was a lot of guarding and bag stuffing for me. ;)

I got to work a shift with our Council's camp Rangers and the Salt Lake City team, along with staff members from the National office, and local troop leaders.  Since we were just stuffing tote bags, we did a lot of chatting and having fun.  I really enjoyed it, and enjoyed watching the George R. Brown being transformed from the Quilt Festival to the GS Convention.

Then it was time to actually go visit the Hall of Exhibits with my daughter, as a sneak peek for our troop's visit.  I am SO glad I went.  The GS Shop Megastore had ALL of the skill building activity sets for sale!  So I was able to grab all of the Junior sets.

My Girl's Guide is now packed full, seriously full.  With all three sets of skill builder packs, I can barely turn the pages.  This makes me glad that each badge has its own little packet of information.  Once we have finished a badge, I can remove it from the Guide binder.  I finally feel like I can start planning the rest of the year.

Now, what badge to work on when we go camping at the beach? . . . 

Hiatus-ish

So, in case you missed it, I have been less than prompt about posting things lately.  Unfortunately, I have been super busy getting ready for National Convention (I'll post a pic of the uniform I am sewing! *grin*), and taking care of my Service Unit's Fall Product Sale.  Well, and with non-GS stuff like family and a new job.

I will be back to more regular posting after Convention (November 8-13).  You can look forward to posts about what I did and saw and Convention, Texas-themed SWAPs my troop is making to swap at Convention, and discussion about the awards and badges available in the new Girl's Guide.  I will be looking specifically at the Junior Guide, but because of the new more progression-based badge system, this will be similar to the other levels.  Perhaps if YOU have one of the other levels, you can comment and talk about the differences! :)

Got my Girl's Guide!

Well, we got the first batch of the new handbooks for our troop this week.  Our Council wasn't sure how many to order, so they just started ordering as soon as they were allowed and kept ordering every time National offered them, starting back in the Spring.  So our books are coming in waves, and we just finished the second wave.  Unfortunately, it turns out that the very first order I made was for 2 Brownie Handbooks. Gahhhh . . . Luckily, I made my second order for 5 books almost immediately after that.  I will have to wait until the last shipment for the rest of the books for my troop.

So, first impressions (second actually): They look really empty without the additional modules in them. But, I do like the modular concept.  I don't like the art, and I don't like all the purple, but I'm not really the target audience. :)  The art is similar to the art in the Journey books, and they are brought up all over the place in the Handbook.  For those of you who are hoping the Journeys are simply a phase, I think these books are a pretty definitive "no" to that.

First impressions from my daughter: She liked it.  She loved the stickers in the back and immediately wanted to stick them everywhere.  I couldn't see whether they were "supposed" to be used for something in particular, but I stopped her anyway.  Just in case. :)  I do like the fact that the first thing she commented on after looking through it and reading through some of the awards was, "I wanna be a Junior Aide".  She explained the steps, and told me she wanted to do this because she enjoyed working with little kids.  She came up with several different ideas on how to help out at a Daisy meeting, and asked if I would help her get in contact with a Daisy Troop.  

This is exactly what I want to start seeing during the Junior years - my girls start initiating projects that are actually doable for them.  They have such good hearts and high expectations of themselves that they think they can cure cancer, save the whales, and stop water waste all before dinnertime. :)  I would like to see them thinking more critically of themselves, not in a negative way ("I can't do that!") but in a realistic way ("I don't think I can do this by myself, or even with the help of my troop, but maybe we can talk to some adults in our community to find a way . . .").  It seems like a hard task, helping girls to grow into good strong women.  You want them to strive, to try, to reach for the stars.  You don't want to tell them a task is impossible, even when it is.  

You even want them to fail.  

At least I do.  I want my girls to learn that failing doesn't make you a failure.  It means you have another chance at completing the task, but that you need to come up with a different strategy.  It astonished me when I heard a Leader talk about NOT wanting to let her troop have a chance at failing.  Nobody learns from being successful all the time.  Failing is not a problem.  Having the wrong attitude about failing is a problem.

Training

Check out all the SWAPs I got! :)

Last weekend, I got to go to Girl Scout Training! ^.^ Now in my Council, they firmly believe that no Leader should walk into a situation feeling unprepared. We have trainings for EVERYTHING. We train you to be a Leader, to be a First Aider, to be a Troop Camper, to be a hiker, to be an archer, to ride horses, to sail ships, to sell cookies, to do arts and crafts, to sing songs, to cook over a fire, to cook when you can't light a fire. We even have training to train you how to train people!

I have talked to guys who volunteer with the local Boy Scout Troop and had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I heard that they don't really do training. Unless they want to go camping. Or become the head Scoutmaster. O.O

Yeah, that's not our way. Sometimes, the training is just stuff that NEEDS to get done. You NEED to know which forms you must have filled out every year by your troop's parents. You NEED to know how to run a meeting. You NEED to know different ways to try to build a young girl's confidence. You NEED to know what a SWAP is. :) Well, you do if you are in Girl Scouts for very long. . .

But then there's the fun trainings. This was what I did last weekend. I and 250 of my fellow Girl Scout Leaders and Volunteers met up at our Council's best camp and spent the weekend pretending we were girls. We didn't have to organize the activities, or come up with the crafts, and plan the meals, or even COOK the meals. I had a camp kaper to do, sang songs, and performed skits with my new friends around a fluttery fabric "campfire". I got to sleep in one of the tall cabin "treehouses" so coveted in our Council, and got swayed to sleep in the most perfect camping weather I have ever experienced.

And I got overloaded with information. It will take me months to digest all that I learned, and I only took about 10% of the trainings offered! I took trainings geared towards my troop's level: Bronze Award information, Field Trips, Extended Troop Travel, Geacaching (more on this next week), and a fun Texas-themed arts and crafts session.

I think that the information I gained is almost as important as the feeling of community I shared with all of these women (and 2 men).  I spent the weekend feeling like I was included in everything, like I was among friends.  It didn't matter that I had never met any of these people before in my life.  We were Girl Scouts.

I can't wait for the National Convention! :)

aMuse FC Red Carpet SWAPs

For the Final Celebration, our little divas will be walking the red carpet and celebrating all that they have accomplished during this Journey. Here's a SWAP to commemorate their celebration.

This is a simple SWAP, but it will still tickle your girls. Using sticky back felt makes this more expensive, but soooooo much easier and faster. Use the picture from the Leader's Guide as a guide for your trapezoid. Using the self adhesive felt, you could probably make about 24 out of a single sheet of felt, which puts each SWAP at about 5 cents each (including a scrap of paper and a safety pin).

Here's your recipe card: