The Camping Chef Goes to School

The Camping Chef has noticed that most of the recipes for cold picnic meals are the same as the recipes that are showing up on “back-to-school” lunch tips. There are so many reasons for bringing your lunch that you don’t have to be a student to find it appealing. As a slight departure from our usual postings of recipes, in today’s post we offer a number of tips and reminders to help you plan efficiently.

A week’s worth of lunches can be prepared ahead of time if you know the rules of freezing:

• Bread freezes really well in its plastic bag and individual slices defrost quickly.
• Pita bread is an excellent and tasty alternative to yeast breads.
• Peanut butter freezes well.
• Spread peanut butter on frozen bread and wrap tightly for the freshest sandwich.
• Sliced luncheon meats freeze well, especially if the bread is already frozen.
• Prepared tuna and chicken salads freeze well ONLY if they are NOT made with mayonnaise.
• Berries freeze well and make great finger foods.
• Finger foods are great for younger kids because you don’t need to include a utensil that may not make it home.
• Nuts are another great finger food and can be combined with any other ingredient like raisins or dry cereal for your favorite “trail mix”.
• Using cookie cutters makes sandwiches and fruits more fun and appealing to kids.
• Fresh apples can be stored in a combination of orange and lemon juice to prevent the browning.

DO NOT FREEZE

• Mayonnaise
• Celery
• Tomatoes

Use these efficiency short-cuts and with all that extra time you can …

REMEMBER THE GREAT OUTDOORS!