PLANNING--ADULT LEADERS A) WEATHER: What type of weather will you be camping in? This will affect the type of menu you plan. In warm weather, sandwiches and other non-cooked items are okay; but in cold weather, meals should be hot. I. PLANNING--ADULT LEADERS A) WEATHER: What type of weather will you be camping in? This will affect the type of menu you plan. In warm weather, sandwiches and other non-cooked items are okay; but in cold weather, meals should be hot. Also, calories should be increased in the cold to provide the extra energy a body needs to keep warm. A good example of this is the campfire snack: warm weather = S'MORES--lots of sugar and instant energy that the body burns off fast; cold weather = hot cocoa with a pat of butter in it and nuts to snack on--this provides a lot of calories that are released slowly to the body, giving it the energy necessary to stay warm all night.
B) TIME LIMITS: How much time do you have to cook, eat and cleanup? If you have a full schedule, don’t plan a stew that needs to simmer for an hour; a better option might be a foil meal where most of the cleanup can be done while the meal cooks, and afterwards, all you have is forks to wash and foil to throw away. You should also consider that most CUBS are not experienced chefs and it will take them a little bit longer to prepare and cook a meal. C) NUMBER OF PEOPLE, MEALS AND QUANTITY: The number of people going on the outing and how many meals you plan to have is fairly easy to figure out--the hard part is how much. The CUB that will be satisfied with a glass of milk and a sandwich at home might turn into a bottomless pit after a day in the woods. The only help I can give you on this is to plan on more than you think you will need. This may seem wasteful, but I always thought it better to have leftovers than not enough. Also, accidents do happen--those extra hamburgers could quickly turn into mud burgers--and then the thought of wasting food will quickly be replaced with relief that there is enough to go around. I like to take peanut butter and jelly along just in case someone needs a little extra to top them off (you won't remember a full stomach, but you will remember being hungry).
