Calling all Cub/Scout camp cooks!

[Flangeosaurus]

I’m cooking at camp in a few weeks time for 110

We've got a mix of beavers, cubs and scouts and obviously some leaders. I think I’ve mostly got it nailed down from a menu point of view but I’m stuck on a few bits if anyone can help please!

I’m doing pasta bolognese on the Saturday night with a quorn alternative. Do I need another alternative like a cheese sauce or shall I just keep some plain pasta back and offer it with grated cheese to anyone who won’t eat the bolognaise? I’m a bit worried plain pasta will just stick together in a big clump so any tips for avoiding this gratefully received!

I also need some kind of supper for Saturday night. It doesn’t need to be too much, ideally something which won’t generate a lot of washing up but I think the kids will need a bit of something before bed because tea is quite early on. Any ideas?

I’m absolutely here for any and all cooking for a camp-crowd tips please

Not much help I'm afraid but your post brought back many happy memories of Guide camp for me. I am not sure what cooking facilities you will have, but could you perhaps do jacket potatoes with cheese or beans for the ones who refuse bolognaise? Perhaps hot chocolate with a couple of biscuits might be enough for supper or squash for those who don't like hot chocolate. We used to be asked to bring a cake to camp either bought or home made. My mum made one of her awesome chocolate cakes which the leaders kept for themselves! Camp food always tastes much better than food at home, so I am sure that the starving hoards will be happy with whatever you serve. Have a great camp 😀

Sorry not a camp cook but you need butter on plain pasta to stop it clumping. My daughters very favourite meal, over and above anything else is pasta with butter and cheese. She doesn't get it often but when she does she is very happy.

Same as pp I was going to suggest cocoa & biscuits. Or soup & bread and butter depending how big a supper.

I've helped out at a cub camp several times and they always do plain pasta, cheese, sausages, peas and sweet corn. Cubs come up with their plates and can choose what elements of the meal they want. This works well for fussy eaters. Something for everyone.
For lunch they always do self serve sandwiches which the cubs make themselves.
Breakfast is a fry up which is a bit of a nightmare to get ready for those in the kitchen

When I cook for camp, it’s usually a meal where the kids and pick and mix… so

pasta, separate sauce, separate grated cheese, separate salad/veges, maybe garlic bread?

is there pudding?

depends on cooking facilities

agree hot choc and biscuits for later,

Things with elements work well. I think on our group camps years ago we'd have "fajitas". Wraps, chicken chunks (sometimes a spicy one and a plain one, sometimes just plain), grated cheese, lettuce, cucumber, salsa and guac from a tub. Worked well for everyone from the fussiest of Beavers who could have a plain cheese wrap and a token piece of cucumber, to the hungriest of Explorers. I don't remember there being any vegetarians (rural farming area a decade ago!), but if there were you could easily do a pan of fake chicken.

Sorry I realise that wasn't really what you asked! But wraps mean the carb part doesn't need to be cooked or worried about sticking together/going cold, all you have to do is cook the chicken (buy pre-diced) and you can enlist some willing (or not) Scouts to grate the catering block of cheese.

Supper a couple of biscuits and a hot chocolate works well. We used to cut up apples into bowls of water for our Beavers which was surprisingly popular (much more so than whole fruit), but nobody's going to do that for 110 at once

I was a Cub leader for 5 years... now Explorers.

Pasta - serve plain, choice of meat or veg sauce, or butter/plain. Grated cheese. Garlic bread?

Supper - YY to hot choc and biscuits. Chuck in a few marshmallows if funds allow!

For supper we always had hot dogs in a roll (the cheap tinned ones) with tomato sauce in a bun, I remember at age ten thinking that it was the coolest thing ever eating a hot dog at half 9 at night. Plus hot chocolate (the cheap kind made with water, not made with milk, for speed).

Snacks we got pancakes with jam/butter, and orange/apple slices.

I think main meals we had pasta mostly. Tuna pasta was a good one I remember, literally just hot pasta mixed with tuna mayo and onions. Or mince… and I vaguely remember once making curry on a fire outdoors too.

I miss Guides…

Pasta bol always goes down well with us. We like to make it at home and blend all the veg so even fussy is eat it. Can freeze to help with food storage and temperatures. Ditto chilli and rice. Often do all quorn then everybody eats the same.

It really is one of the best things to do for a big group and when the kids are not involved in coming their own food. We have some that eat plain pasta or just with cheese.

Supper, agree with hot chocolate and biscuit or slice of cake. A load of Swiss roll cakes are a bit of a camp staple. My lot recently did a twist on smores and filled an ice cream cone with chocolate and mini marshmallows, wrapped in foil and did in the embers though I wouldn't suggest doing that with 100 kids!

For dessert for 110 I remember going to a camp for 250 and they got desserts from Costco … like massive cheesecakes … worked well - I still remember one of those cheesecakes 20 years on.

I have a certificate somewhere saying I was awarded ‘best eater at camp’ … this is bringing back happy memories for mum.

For me, not mum!

This is all excellent thank you! Cooking facilities are ok, we’re in a kitchen we have to build in a marquee but we’ve got a big 6 burner catering style oven and some insulated boxes to keep trays of food warm.

Supper I’m definitely leaning towards something more substantial than a couple of biscuits, they’ll have their tea and there’s another 2 hours of activities so I’m trying to think of something which will meet the holy grail of quick (for them, we’ve got a bit of time to prep), no plate needed. Cake might be good, I’m doing school cake with custard after tea so would more cake be too much cake? Or can there never be too much cake

My thought was to mix the sauce with the pasta and then stick the trays in the insulated boxes so it’s not just a massive clump of pasta with sauce on top. I know some kids are Weird About Sauce but hopefully a try of plain pasta (which I’ll keep hidden until needed) with some grated cheese will do them

Just thinking of some of the snacks they do at DDs school mid morning and would any of these work for supper

Half a bagel with either butter and jam or cream cheese
Mini wrap with cheese or ham
Crumpets with butter
Banana sandwich

Definitely hot dogs for the supper. They are boiled I think?

For vegetarians I’m not sure if they do a vege version that is as quick? But there must be something out there!!

On our group camps, we ask each beaver/cub/scout to bring one cake that can be shared eg. Swiss roll. We then use this as additional snacks and supper each evening - usually with custard.

Don't know if this is an option, but we also ask for parent helpers over mealtimes to speed up serving/washing up.

There is never too much cake on camp.

I've also noticed that tired, hungry kids m, surrounded by peers, will eat anything, even if they are usual weird about it.

Just make sure the child with a nut allergy doesn't help themselves to the crunchy nut cornflakes.

Pudding. Cake and custard
massive cheap cakes sliced up. Costco do them. Although, lidl etc might be cheaper.

you can do hot chocolate in a slow cooker. You can also cook rice and porridge in them.

cheese toasties on the camp fire for tea? Wrapped in foil, Chuck them on?

another vote for serving separately

I don’t have any nut allergies thank god, that sort of scenario was giving me the horrors.

There’s no parent volunteers, as nobody has volunteered except muggins here and 2 other victims

We’re doing hot dogs on the Friday night but again I suppose the kids will really not care about a weekend containing double hotdogs. Probably be absolutely delighted if my 6yo is anything to go by

Ds scout ask each scout to bring a cake to share (I usually send a giant Swiss roll) and they share it out between them for suppers and sometimes add custard for a pudding.
Dds guides usually do hot chocolate and biscuits.

I would definitely say not to hot chocolate etc as supper for beavers & cubs, we’ve had a few who have then been sick in the tents later on.. hence we no longer serve hot chocolate.
We use a que system for them to line up and collect their breakfast/ lunch / dinner (like the school dinner system). (They also have to say good morning “leader name” at breakfast while collecting food and Thankyou to cook dishing up..
we serve pasta plain, then they choose wether to have spag bog or plain pasta as they move along and then add cheese themselves. At a recent camp we had uproar as none of them liked spag bog.. where as other years it’s been the most popular choice (pre covid).
if you have access to electricity we take slow cookers too to help cook and keep everything warm.
good old school dinner deserts go down well with children and leaders, such as chocolate crunch, cornflake tart..
as well as cereal and fruit breakfast could be bacon sandwiches or eggy bread, scrambled eggs etc.
lunch can be DIY wraps / sandwiches, fruit crisps, biscuit bar.
in the evening leaders have cheese and biscuits while waiting for scouts to go to sleep.
If your also sleeping over, be prepared for little sleep, take a hot water bottle to bed and some ear plugs. Thankyou for Volunteering

I put a dollop of olive oil, another leader does butter, to keep pasta from sticking.

Our tried and tested method is to do the big pot of plain pasta with the big pot of sauce next to it. Have grated cheese in a big bowl after both pots, and a tub of pesto and tub of butter in pain sight.

With larger numbers, perhaps a couple of tubs of pesto in a larger bowl. (We usually serve roughly 30, just from big IKEA stock pots).

Almost all Cubs happy with pasta, most want sauce but those who don't, is a mix of just butter or just cheese or some want pesto. Any not wanting pasta, there's always bread and some sandwich fillings.

For suppers, we do Mr Kipling or Lidl version of individual apple pies in tin foil wrappers. If organised, we also have a jug of hot custard that we can pour over.

Or slice up Swiss roll with custard over it.

Or Arctic bars (Lidl version of penguins) and hot chocolate. They do plain choc or mint versions so we usually have a choice available.

Don't forget some extra biscuits and gallons of tea for Leaders waiting for Cubs and Scouts to settle down at night...

Check for dairy sllergies/intolerances before putting butter on the pasta. Also kids don't care about clumpy pasta.

Are you having a campfire? Baked bananas with chocolate is filling and an activity in itself. Or there's a dough you wrap round a stick and cook over a fire.

Used to be in scouts a long time ago, a favourite was sweet and sour chicken/ sweet and sour veggie option..