Camping With 5 Small Kids

Camping With 5 Small Kids FARM HOME Miscellaneous How do you take a 6-day camping trip with 4 boys ages 2 to 10 and a 3-month-old baby daughter? The answer according to Jennifer Murck Smail is to make up 2 coolers of frozen meals in advance All she needed to prepare them was a small microwave and an electric frying pan in their pop-up camper The Maple Lake Minn mom had some experience She always prepared extra food at the end of each of her pregnancies to make it easier when she came home with the newborn She regularly makes and freezes homemade breakfast burritos ù which were a staple breakfast item on the trip For breakfast variety on the trip Smail packed plenty of frozen triple-berry muffins and mini quiches Evening meals included five-bean chili frozen in individual serving containers and cabbage/meatball soup ù using veggies from the garden Smail also got her oldest two sons involved planning the menu chopping vegetables and making foil wrapped dinners to cook in a campfire: raw hamburgers topped with parboiled potatoes and frozen mixed vegetables well seasoned and wrapped in aluminum foil smeared with coconut oil It was fun for the boys because they helped plan the menus and helped me prepare the food Smail says Lunches were lighter meals with beef and cheese sticks fruit and homemade 5-grain granola and energy bars The kids even snacked on fresh raw green beans picked from the garden Smail figures they saved about $700 on food during the trip to the Black Hills They only ate out one time Organization helped too Smail printed out each day s menu and packed the last meal at the bottom of the second cooler She froze a case of water and mixed it in with the meals The water helped keep the food cold and provided cold beverages Meals stayed frozen for most of the trip Because everything was in a disposable container we literally didn t do dishes just a few serving utensils and I had Clorox wipes for the cutting board Smail says Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Jennifer Murck Smail 10611 Grunwald Ave N W Maple Lake Minn 55358 ph 320 963-2123; jenniferrosesmail@yahoo com

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