I wouldn't blame you if the thought of involving your kiddos in cooking outdoors made you want to curl up and take a nap. And you wouldn't be alone in feeling that way. Last summer when I told people that I was teaching 3-4 year-olds how to cook outside at summer camp on a camp stove, the overwhelming response I got was "Ummm...why?" or "Yikes...that sounds dangerous". I'm here to tell you that culinary adventures with little ones are, in fact, a uniquely rewarding and valuable way to spend a few hours outdoors. They impart an early love of food, bring the family together, broaden senses of taste and smell and the vocabulary surrounding them, and better yet, these activities help everyone involved appreciate the outdoors in an entirely new light.
Creating a meal in the natural elements provides an opportunity to help kids hone a slew of practical skills and develop some seriously useful qualities that aren’t available in the comforts of your home kitchen: resourcefulness, flexibility, creativity and problem-solving, to name a few. Even when you think you've planned to the very last teaspoon of oil, bowls of carefully grated cheese become a snack for the ants and spoonfuls of flour become one with the dirt.
Yes, this may be a tricky endeavor at first, I will give you that. The first time you ask your little one to take on just about any task in the camp kitchen will be a learning experience for everyone. They will likely surprise you with what they can do on their own, though. My advice to anyone who has yet to take on this unique outdoor venture is to keep it simple, at least to start. Make recipes that you are comfortable with yourself and have had success with in the past. Use foods that you know your children like so that they are bought-in to the activity and want to be involved. Once they begin to develop ownership – and they will! – over meals they have helped create, you can start to add in new ingredients that they may have been less than enthused about on previous occasions. In my experience, most kiddos are inherently curious about food and want to show off their chopping skills (even if they don’t have any yet) or expert mixing abilities. This innate enthusiasm is not only a joy to watch but, once everyone gets the hang of things, it can also take some of the stress out of meal planning and prep during an outdoor adventure.
Cooking outside taps into an entirely different part of the brain then learning a new summer sport, while still offering some positive risk taking. I would encourage you to choose your own adventure and give it a try. Whether you decide to compose a batch of skillet nachos, or bake a quick bread on the camp stove, your kiddos will likely appreciate that you are entrusting them with important culinary tasks, and I would venture that you might just be pleasantly surprised to see them rise to the challenge. It may even benefit your kid's health down the road! Bon appétit!
Ingredients:
~1 tbsp oil
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 sweet potato
Red bell pepper
Green bell pepper
Handful cherry tomatoes
Onion flakes
Garlic powder
Cumin
Chili powder
Salt and pepper
Cheese
Cilantro for topping
Items You’ll Need:
Large pot
Camp stove
Mixing spoon
Grater (if your cheese is in block form)
Knives and cutting board
To Do:
Ingredients:
One banana per dessert-eater
A few handfuls of chocolate chips
Nut/seed butter (peanut, almond, sunflower)
Other toppings: craisins, raisins, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, coconut flakes…
Items You’ll Need:
Tin foil
Spoons and knives
Heat source (camp stove or a fire pit)
To Do:
*A Note About these recipes:
You might notice a few things about these recipes. There aren’t fixed quantities, for one thing. Vegetables are measured in handfuls, for another. That’s because, even more than cooking on an average occasion, camp cooking is all about making it work for you. If your family doesn’t like pinto beans, try kidney beans instead. If you’re not cilantro people, no problem. The best thing about these dishes is that you don’t have to worry about measuring items correctly, or printing out a recipe before you leave for your trip. You might even say, there’s almost no way to go wrong. Just make whatever concoction suits you best, embrace the unpredictability that is cooking in the outdoors, and enjoy!
For confidence-building summer activities for kids, check out Avid4 Adventure summer camps in California, Colorado and Oregon. Kids from pre k - 12th grade experience outdoor adventures like survival skills, mountain biking, rock climbing, kayaking, backpacking and more (even outdoor cooking!). Click the link below to learn more.