Menu cards are an easy way for scouts to pick out meals for camping trips with directions, photo, and ingredients designed for a 6-person patrol.
Show Notes:
- Menu Cards referenced in the video.
Transcript:
Back when I was completing my woodbadge ticket I wanted to find a way to give the scouts an easy way to create, plan and cook meals that were both a little bit different then the hamburgers and hot dogs but still scout friendly.
The solution I came up with was to produce a series of menu cards that could be laminated and kept in each patrol’s patrol box.
Each set of menu cards has a series of recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner to choose from, and is written in simple easy to understand steps, in the order that the steps need to be completed.
I designed each of the recipes to be patrol sized, about 6 people, and have a list of ingredients.
I did this quite a number of years ago, and it’s worked out pretty well. If a patrol is having a problem coming up with a menu, we have them pull out the cards and use them to decide on their menu and to build their shopping list.
There are some challenging options in the cards, and some easy ones.
Looking at the breakfast options we have simple, bacon and eggs, pancakes and sausage, and French toast. Then you have some more complicated ones that require the scout to do more than manage one task. Breakfast burritos, has some assembly, skillet breakfast is a multipart process and finally the eggs on potato chips which is much more adventurous.
Lunch and dinner follow the same theme.
Staples like grilled cheese and tomato soup are staples that scouts cook from infancy, and mac and cheese are great lunch comfort foods, but the Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce are an adventurous option.
Dinner ranges from Tacos, and spaghetti with meat sauce are great options, but the most surprising was how much they enjoyed the Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowl.
We actually used this one to introduce the menu cards, and ran a troop event where we provided the ingredients and had each patrol prepare it, as the leaders supervised the event.
In total there are 22 recipes to help the scouts prep meals and take charge of their food options.
Take what you like and leave the rest, and as we say in Woodbadge, feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments, with the hope we can all learn together.
I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this was cooking menu cards.
