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Recently i have become a scout leader and this coming weekend will be our first "wilderness" camp. Essentially they are on their own for everything. If they don't bring it they don't have it. My question is, what are some good idea for meals that are light and easy. I don't want them to go to MEC to get the ration packs either. We are trying to get them to be self sufficient.
Bannock:
Flour salt and lard.
Put on a stick and roast over coals of a fire.
Add a wee bit of baking powder if you want it puffier.
Yup keep it simple, Cowboy meals..beans and weiners heated over a campfire. Once you start to look at recipes, your looking at bringing in bags of groceries. Depending on how long your out there, a few days of canned food isn't going to hurt them.
When I was in Scouts (many years ago). We brought everything we needed in a backpack. I usually brought eggs, bacon, beans, sandwich meat, bread, juice, milk, snacks and what ever else. I also brought my fishing pole and caught some trout. We also all had our mess kits.
Get the kids to make a good dose of "bean hole beans". An absolute Scout classic. Go online and look up a good baked bean recipe. Bring all the ingredients with you, as well as a cast iron Dutch oven crock (big pot with lid). Get the kids to soak the white beans in a pot of water before they hit the hay at night. In the morning, get the punks to get a fire going, and burn down a good bed of hardwood coals. Get another kid to dig a hole that is a bit wider than the cast crock. A 24" deep hole works fine. Mix up your bean recipe (usually mustard, molasses, soaked beans, salt, etc) and throw it in the crock. Spread 3"deep of glowing hardwood coals on bottom of hole. Put crock in hole and add 4-6"of hot coals on top of crock. Cover hole with dirt. Let it perk for 8-10 hrs during the day when you're off fishing. You cannot over-cook it. Dig it out and you're knees will go weak when you smell and taste those crock beans. The farting that will occur about two hours later will be your entertainment when you're all sitting around the fire. Even better - plan an entire "hole feed" for the boys. Do it on the 2nd day when you're camping, so you can bring in fresh meat. Do one hole with crock beans, and the second hole with the meat. Can be pork shoulder roast, beef roast, venison, whole chicken, etc. Put roast, with a bit of onions, salt, pepper, I like a dash of Montreal steak spice, 1 clove garlic, cubed potatoes and some diced carrot, plus a few cups of water. Same coal deal as the crock beans, and let it sit all day. You can make a gravy if you bring some flour and cornstarch mixed. Pre-mix with COLD water and the flour/cornstarch mix, then use this to thicken your gravy. You'll have one heck of a feed - crock hole beans, meat and potatoes. Let the punks make bisquick bread for an appetizer. Just add water to the mix and roll out a long tube maybe 1"thick. Cut a green stick and wrap the dough around the stick like a snake. Brown it up and cook it by holding the stick over some coals. Get another kid to get some bannock going. Bannock is good for mopping up the bean sauce. Make the basic bannock mix before hand and have it in ziplock baggies. Kids just have to add water, grease a fry pan, and cook them babies over some coals. Lard is best for cooking bannock. Best thing about this is it teaches the kids to use an axe, bowsaw, pocket knife, and how to build a fire and cook over it. Ahhhhh.........to be a kid again!!
Thanks for the ideas. So far i was thinking to do a cake in my dutch oven and making pogo's with bannock bread and hotdogs. Hopefully it doesn't get too messy