10 Great Camping Recipes & Tips To Get You Through Camping Season...

With camping season upon us, I thought I would share 10 recipes & tips to help make your camping excursions easier.

We love camping! It is one of the rights of passage of summer for us! 

We are campers in the true sense of the word.... we sleep in sleeping bags in a tent under the stars {or rain} to the sounds of nature's music.

Our camping kitchen is outside...it consists of a picnic table, a campfire, a table top barbeque & portable kitchen set-up with a sink and the our cooler of food.

I find one of the things that make our camping trips go just peachy keen is if I have the a food plan ready to go.

So here are some tips to help make your camping season as super fun as the toy department at Christmas!

1. Plan The Meals. Write out all the of the meals you are going to need for your camping trip and write a menu plan for it...however simple or elaborate you want it to be. Add in snacks that your family will be looking for and use this information to create your packing/grocery list. Don't forget to include the condiments you will need like bbq sauce, ketchup, etc.

2. Wash & Prep Healthy Snacks Ahead of Time. I always find it easier to have snacks such as fruit & vegetables washed & cut up before I leave home. I pack everything in ziploc bags or containers and into the cooler it goes. This way when the kids are looking for a snack...I can do my mom duty and say "Eat some fruit! Have some vegetables!".

3. Containerize Condiments.  Save yourself time & money by packing small containers of condiments made up from the bigger sizes you already have in your fridge. This saves you from having to buy small sizes of condiments...saving you money. The smaller sized containers from home also fit into a cooler better. I like these little Tupperware containers.

4. Label, Label, Label Your Food Ingredients. This makes it much easier when rooting around the cooler looking for certain things! I like these containers from Ikea...they are so sturdy!

5. Have Side Dishes Ready to Go. I like having our little sides ready to go on the barbeque. These are mushrooms & onions washed & sliced  for our steak night.

6. Have Lunch Ready For  Set-Up Day.  I like having this SPECIAL PICNIC SANDWICH ready for us on the first day of camping when we are busy setting up tents, inflating mattresses, making beds and setting up. It's busy for the first few hours and it is so nice to not have to stop and make lunch.  I make the sandwich the day before we leave for our trip and wrap it in plastic wrap, then tin foil and tuck it into the cooler. You just need to add drinks, veggies & fruit and presto....lunch is ready! You can find the recipe for this PICNIC SANDWICH HERE.

7. Recipe Share: Chicks on Sticks. This is one of my favourite recipes for camping....chicken kabobs. I cut & marinate the chicken at home, freeze it and place it in the cooler for a meal. On the day we are eating this, I take it out of the cooler to thaw for a few hours. We just need to thread the chicken on skewers with veggies and bbq. You can find the recipe for 'Chicks on Sticks' here.

8. Marinade & Freeze Your Meats.  If you like to switch it up from the ususal hot dogs, hamburgers and beans....... simple marinade recipes for meat... prepared at home, tossed in the freezer and taken on your trip for meal are just the ticket. Just take the meat out of the cooler to thaw on the morning of the day you plan to serve it.

For  a recipe for delicous steak marinade, click here.

9. Pack A Salad That Is A Travel Trooper. It's always handy to have a make -ahead salad ready to eat with hamburgers, hotdogs, steak or chicken. One salad that travels really well is this bean salad which  is full of healthy ingredients and tastes better as it ages.It doesn't get soggy like a lettuce salad would. For this bean salad recipe, click here.

10. Try Camp Cookers For Quick Meals & Desserts. Last summer we purchased some camp cookers from Canadian Tire and we had a blast using them at night time for snacks & desserts. They are perfect for grilled cheese, pocket pizzas or toasted s'more sandwiches.Just simply butter 2 slices of bread, add whatever you like inside and toast in the camp cooker over a fire.We tried: pizza sauce with ham, pineapple & cheese.Desserts combinations are endless. My daughter's fav was blueberry jam with cream cheese, but we also made nutella with banana slices and lots of other gooey stuff.

It usually takes me a few hours to prep and prepare all the food for our camping trip, but once we arrive at the camp site, all my efforts are so worth it....as I have more time to sit & relax without feeling like I'm

'in the kitchen' all the time!

What tips do you have to make your camping trips easier?

And don't forget to see how I organize my camping kitchen!

If you liked this post, be sure to check out these other popular CAMPING POSTS of mine:
11 Best Camping Ideas
Potato Boat Dinners in Tin Foil
Warm & Melty Cheese Dip in Tin Foil
Lumberjack Breakfast in Tin Foil
Tortilla Dessert in Tin Foil
Easy Upside Down Pineapple Cake in Tin Foil
Awesome Vegetable Salad That Travels Well For Camping

You might also love these boards on Pinterest:
Camping Recipes & Food To Love
Vintage Campers To Love
Cottages To Love
Summer Ideas To Love

Reviving a Kitchen with Paint & Decor...

I have shared on this blog before how my husband & I purchased our home on a short 5 day house hunting trip.

It was stressful to say the least, and we ended up buying a house that was our 3rd choice.

Below is the kitchen on the day we purchased the house.

It is not a big or remarkable kitchen.

Just a normal run-of-the-mill kitchen...nothing fancy schmancy.

Take note of:

The boring colour on the walls.

The lack of personality.

The dumpy appliances...{the appliances were included but we said no thank you}.

The vinyl floor coverings.

Not very inspirational at all.

Because of our big move across the country...we did not have a budget for renovations or huge decorating projects.

I began with the cheapest transformational tool out there.....paint!

 I chose a very warm yellow-y colour...Benjamin Moore's Gingerroot.

For years I have decorated with blue & white because it is a colour scheme that I love and this colour makes a wonderful backdrop for blue & white.

Gingerroot on the walls made the kitchen feel instantly warm & inviting.

It makes a nice contrast to the white cabinets.

We painted, painted, painted.

Added a new stainless steel sink.

New stainless steel appliances.

And after 2 years, we added a medium brown laminate floor.

I thought the kitchen looked so much better for not a lot of money.

 Then I set to work organizing my kitchen into 'zones'.

This is my baking corner...everything I need is within reach.

{I do bake a lot...my flour & sugar canisters are looking sort of empty!}

 This is our food prep & plate zone.

And yes...there is real butter in the butter dish....Julia Child lived to be 92 years old and she ate pounds of butter...so that's what I am going with!

 The small counter by the fridge makes a perfect coffee corner.

Anyone can help themselves to coffee, tea or hot chocolate without having to go into the work zones.

The cabinet above holds all of our coffee & tea cups.

 I decorated the top of the cabinets with things we already had...it is a great storage spot for things not used very often.

 This kitchen is a great 1 person kitchen. Everything is within easy reach.

It is small & humble...but it works for me.

There are a lot of things on the counter...but I cook every day and  all of those items are used and needed

Before:

After:

Yes.... I still dream of a custom designed kitchen with white cabinets, subway tile and marble counters with some gleaming chandeliers, but for now...this feels great!

And you know the best part about a small kitchen?

Cleanup is a breeze.

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Before & After Party @

Using the Breadmaker: A Great Rainy Day Dinner...

Can I just say first...oh my word Blogger...have you been giving me headaches over the past 2 weeks!

There were some days that I couldn't even log into my blog and post...it reduced me to tears of frustration!

And I couldn't  comment on many of the blogs I love because it kept saying "anonymous" or wouldn't register my comment at all!

And some days my followers list would not show.

I know lots of others have been having the same problems... so I know that  it is a blogger problem.

 But jeepers!

It was raining here yesterday and I really wanted something simple to make for dinner.

My husband usually cooks on Saturday night, but he was away this weekend for work

I decided to get out my bread maker and load in some stuff for pizza dough for dinner.

I love this recipe...it tastes so good and it has healthy ingredients, so I thought I would share.

Look at this beautiful dough rising out of the breakmaker after 2 hours:

 I then turned that dough into this pizza crust.

The dough could have made 2 pizzas, but I decided to go with a 'deep' dish pizza this time.

 One of my favourite pizzas is the Chicken Club from Panago Pizza, so I decided to re-create it at home.

I used Kraft  Bacon Ranch dressing with some added garlic for the sauce.

It worked out perfectly!

 I used my Black & Decker breadmaker which makes a 2 lb. loaf or a large dough.

Here is the recipe for the dough:

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough:

Place in breakmaker in order listed:

13 oz. water

2 1/2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

2 cups white flour

2 cups + 4 Tbsp. whole wheat flour

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp bread machine yeast.

This makes enough for 2- 12"-14" pizzas or one large deep dish pizza.

For the toppings for Mediterranean Chicken Club:

3/4 cup Kraft Bacon Ranch Dressing with 1 clove crushed garlic added

1 large chicken breast, cooked & cubed

2 tomatoes diced

1/2 red onion diced

1/4 cup kalamata olives

Sprinkle with fresh cilantro & shredded cheese.

It was a super easy supper...just add a green salad and a bottle of white wine.

Yummy!

Perfect for a rainy day!

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Strut Your Stuff Saturday at Six Sisters Stuff

Sundae Scoop @ I {heart} Naptime

I {heart} this frame from Pier 1 Imports...

This frame at Pier 1 Imports had me at "hello".

I  love how it has a real crafty aspect with the clothespins and wire.

I have seen lots of these around blogland made by talented bloggers, but I already have a long list of projects I am working on, so I chose to purchase this instead.

It was 35% off when I picked it up... which was really helpful.

Since I picked up this frame back in March and Easter was around the corner, I decided to fill it with pictures from Easter from 2003 when my kids were much smaller.

I used my scrapbook skills to make a little title for the center slot in the frame.

And I added some tied ribbons for a little more hit of colour.

This has been really fun to look at for 2 months.

However, I am getting ready to switch it out to pictures from our recent vacation to Florida.

I really love that the fact that it is so easy to switch pictures in and out with a simple clothespin.

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