Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Camp Food for 100, part 1

I just returned home from an overnight trip to a YMCA camp with our school's 7th graders. It was freezing but I bet the kids had a blast!
Unfortunately, the food(if you can call it that), left ALOT to be desired. I am challenging myself to replace what they served as food, with real, healthy food that would be similar in cost to what they probably spent.
I am going to list what was served and then show a "better" alternative and then a "best" alternative. The better list will probably be mostly expensive, but already made foods like what they served us. I think this will be helpful to alot of people to see that you can substitute that canned pasta sauce for jarred pasta sauce and it will be more expensive. BUT, if you sub in homemade pasta sauce, the cost will surprise you, as well as the nutrition. So, I expect the "best" list will be mostly homemade foods that will be similar in cost to the original. This will not be something I can complete today, but, I hope to have it completed soon.

So, here is the original food list.
Dinner: Meatballs in pasta sauce(premade store meatballs with canned pasta sauce), macaroni and cheese(white noodles with velveeta), chicken in gravy(I think this was canned chicken in canned gravy), enriched wheat bread, butter, salad, salad dressings(bulk and store bought), cottage cheese, canned mixed fruit(in syrup), canned peaches(in syrup), whole fruit with skins, chocolate milk cartons, water. *We ran out of cottage cheese and chocolate milk and all the canned fruit in syrup

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs(powdered mixed with water), english muffins(white), hot chocolate(instant made with water), oatmeal(instant made with water), brown sugar, butter, tutti fruity cereal, white milk, whole fruit, raisin bran cereal(I think). *Didn't run out of anything

I will find out what lunch was when Andi gets home. I left after breakfast. :)

So, in my opinion, here is what they did right(So these are things I won't be changing):
At dinner we had real butter(I'm pretty sure), salad(probably not organic, but at least it was real food!), cottage cheese(lots of protein, if you can have dairy), whole fruit(yay!)

At breakfast we had real butter, white milk, whole fruit.

*I think its important to note what foods were limited supply and which ones appeared to be unlimited. My chart will reflect serving 100 people, not being unlimited servings. If you are serving real, honest to goodness, homemade foods, there is no need for it to be unlimited! My daughter could probably eat unlimited servings of mac and cheese made with white noodles and velveeta. However, if you move that to a SIDE dish and make it with high fiber noodles and real cheese, a heaping 1/2 cup serving is PLENTY! That's about what you would get with one serving spoon full.

I would LOVE to hear ideas and suggestions from my foodie friends! I am not going to go full out organic. I don't think that is realistic for a camp like this. However, I AM going to use farm fresh foods and at least free range meats.

PS. I forgot about our nighttime snack of chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies(store bought, prepackaged, tray like Keebler) and lemonade ice tea(powdered mixed with water). *We ran out of chocolate chip cookies.

1 comment:

  1. Lunch was pizza, probably Chef Boyardee boxed pizzas.
    My questions:
    1. If you have a kitchen crew, why cant these things all be made by hand?
    2. If you are making them by hand, why cant they be made with healthy ingredients?

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