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? . . .