Thursday, May 29, 2014

Four Star Menu

I’ve been camping with my hubby, kids and another family for about two years. I always thought, the menu when camping, would be limited to hotdogs and S’mores.
I still feel that I’m a novice at the whole thing but I did feel brave enough to suggest a few menu choices for this past trip.
We’re usually out on an adventure during the day, so lunch happens away from camp. Here’s what we had for our dinners and breakfasts this time around.


Friday Dinner: Chicken tenders, Mac-n-cheese and veggies.
Sat Breakfast: Sausage, eggs and cheese on an English muffin.
Sat Dinner: Pizza Roll.
Sunday Breakfast: Pancakes and Bacon.
Sunday Dinner: Lasagna and Salad.


I’m still amazed. Our menu at home doesn’t always look this appetizing.
Before we left for the camping trip, I made a few things ahead. The mac n cheese recipe I found here.

I altered it slightly, here’s what I did...

More than a half of a box of elbow macaroni; cooked.
An 8 oz. block of white cheddar shredded.
About a ¼ cup of parmesan cheese.
2 T. of milk (could have used a little more I think)
And 2-3 T. of butter.

In a bowl, combine the cooked macaroni and the shredded cheese. Transfer this into a foil pie pan then place pads of butter all around the top and poured the milk over. Then I sprinkled a little extra cheese over the top and covered with tin foil.

 
When ready to cook, place on fire or hot grill. We put ours into a Dutch oven and used the hot coals to heat.
 
It was really good! I think next time maybe a little more cheese and maybe some more milk to give added creaminess. With the chicken tenders (Fully cooked, bread, frozen- they just need to be heated through) some cut veggies and t6here was plenty to feed the 9 of us.


For the pizza roll I used this recipe. It is also was made in advance and frozen to be cooked on a campfire. I made two rolls and we finished the cut veggies left from the first night.
The lasagna was made in the Dutch oven with no-boil noodles (the kind that doesn’t need to be boiled ahead of time). That with a bag of spring mix salad and we had another balanced meal. Yummy!!!
Another successful camping trip full of wonderful memories for the kiddos!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

A Snowman in Summer

As the school year comes to an end, our schedules are filled with talent shows and other school performances. They really are one of my favorite things. What could be more adorable than lining a bunch of little kiddos up in their homemade costumes? Oh, put them on stage, giving them music and a few cute gestures! Adorable!
I’ve been to two such shows so far this month and there are two more to go still.
When my middle child started planning her performance, I was all too happy to help out with some matching shirts for her and her buddies. While they planned a riveting, show-stopping hula-hoop routine to the song “Summer” (made famous by our favorite snowman) I went into action planning their shirts.
After finding a cute image of Olaf, I printed out 3 copies. I grabbed 3 T-shirts for about 3.50 each and a couple of paint pens and was able to make them matching Olaf shirts for less than if I had bought just one shirt at a Disney store.
 



 
Here’s the easy “how to”…

1.   Pre-wash your shirt
2.   Place a plastic covered piece of cardboard inside the shirt to prevent the paint from going through. (I taped my shirts to the table too so they didn't shift while I was working)
3.   Slid the image inside the shirt and trace.



Ta-da! Three happy hula-hooping little girls! Life is good!!