One reason I should at least consider getting a dog

It's usually pretty apparent if you've swept the floor after dinner in our house or not.

Packing light(er)

We don't ever approach packing light with 3 little kids and all the stuff that goes with that, but there are 2 helpful things that helped us save a little room and be a bit more organized on our last camping trip.

I have my mom to thank for the first tip: Take things out of their original packages. The oatmeal photo shown here illustrates why.

The second tip I learned from a parent of triplets: Pack a complete outfit for each child in a gallon ziplock bag for each day. It was a lot of plastic bags, but they compressed really nicely, helped us be ultra-organized when grabbing clothes in the tent, and are reusable for our next trip.

Anyone else have good space-saving tips for our next camping trip? We're toying with an overnight bike-camping idea. For one night, we might even skip the whole cooking thing. A guaranteed space-saver.

God Bless America my cooking dreams have come true

Husband found this product on the Sam's Club website. It's food for a year. Sure, it's supposed to be an emergency supply, but I'm thinking what a beautiful thing! Cheap, and little menu planning required. Even comes with a wheat grinder! Customer reviews are, uh, interesting. Makes me want to watch The Road again.

Here's what you get for your $887.00:

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Total of 85 #10 (institutional size) cans, which are: 

Grains, Oats & Rice

3 Long Grain White Rice (47 servings per can)

9 Hard White Wheat (54 servings per can)

2 Quick Rolled Oats (25 servings per can)

3 Elbow Macaroni (23 servings per can)

Vegetables

6 Dehydrated Potato Dices (22 servings per can)

3 Freeze Dried Sweet Corn (15 servings per can)

3 Dehydrated Sweet Peas (13 servings per can)

2 Dehydrated Chopped Onions (653 servings per can)

1 Freeze Dried Broccoli Florets & Stems (20 servings per can)

3 Pinto Beans (47 servings per can)

3 Lentils (49 servings per can)

1 Dehydrated Diced Red & Green Bell Peppers (141 servings per can)

1 Dehydrated Cross Cut Celery (42 servings per can)

1 Dehydrated Carrot Dices (27 servings per can)

Fruits

3 Freeze Dried Apple Dices (11 servings per can)

3 Freeze Dried Whole Strawberries (22 servings per can)

1 Freeze Dried Whole Raspberries (20 servings per can)

3 Honey Coated Banana Slices (21 servings per can)

Dairy

3 100% Country Fresh Instant Milk (39 servings per can)

3 Chocolate Morning Moo’s® Low Fat Milk Alternative (61 servings per can)

3 Cheese Blend Powder (45 servings per can)

Proteins

6 Vegetarian Meat Substitute Bacon (flavored) (188 servings per can)

3 Vegetarian Meat Substitute Beef (flavored) (40 servings per can)

3 Vegetarian Meat Substitute Chicken (flavored) (45 servings per can)

3 Vegetarian Meat Substitute Taco (flavored) (33 servings per can)

6 Dried Whole Eggs (56 servings per can)



Desserts

1 Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix (52 servings per can)

1 Blueberry Muffin Mix (48 servings per can)

2 Buttermilk Pancake Mix (24 servings per can)

Misc Item

Wheat Grinder

Week 93—Camping, cont.

Mon – Stir-fry

Tues –  Burgers 

Weds – Dogs/Brats

Thurs – Turkey sausage foil-packs (w/potatoes, peas, etc) my favorite camping meal

Fri – eat out/toss in a pizza

Alts – free dinner for kids this week at IKEA! (through July 4)

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So it's partially laziness, partially just hot weather cooking, but the theme this week is certainly MEAT + GRILL.

I should circle back to my brilliant camping scheme of cooking everything on a stick/hot-pot/foil pack too. Had I carried that plan out, we would have starved. Husband 1, wife, well, 1 for at least listening and packing the campstove. A) no fires allowed when camping in the Badlands and B) not much wood to be found in some of those desert-like areas of western N Dakota. Besides the fact that handy-man husband spent nearly 5 hours completely rebuilding the camp stove so it would work like new, which it did.

Happy cooking.

Boiling water in a paper cup

I've never tried boiling water in a paper cup, but just might, after hearing about this new book:
http://www.fiftydangerousthings.com/
Fifty Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do

I think most of us parents balance the danger-safety-(trust?) factor throughout our kids' days. Tonight, I watched the thrill my 1-year-old got from figuring out how to use a step stool to create "stairs" up to a children's table in our kitchen while I cooked. Up and down he went, saying "tr! tr!" (stair! stair!). And of course, he had a micro-tumble during one up-down session. Risk factor? 3 out of 10.

That said, he's probably not ready to man the grill yet. Or boil water in a paper cup.