Last week was a BIG week for me. It’s one of those “when it rains, it pours” weeks. Like my mama said, “And this too shall pass.” It’s soooo true and that is what I was thinking about all last week ha!! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want life to pass me by and not enjoy it, but there are those times that are just not fun, but we just have to dig in and get things done.

We have a Young Women’s organization in our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and the lady who was in charge of Girls Camp that is held each year, asked me to be the cook or maybe I volunteered because I love girls camp 😝. Of course, I’ve done this before several times, but this year in particular, I felt more pressure. From menu planning to grocery shopping and figuring out just the right amount of food, without too much wasted, were all concerns of mine. I hate wasting food, especially when it’s not mine to waste. Yikes! Needless to say, much thought and prayer went into planning the menu, purchasing the food and actually making the food, and it was a hit. I was so very grateful to my loving Father in Heaven for helping me.  A special thank you to all of my awesome photographers and the leaders of this Young Women’s organization–Megan Johnson, Brooke Wamsley, Kathy Spendlove, Sharon Sumner and Berkley Sumner. You may hear from some of these awesome gals again on a guest post soon :).

So some tips I have learned through the years of being Girls Camp cook…………….

1.  Do as much prep as you can before camping. I like to do all of the major meat prep before hand and also you can cut up produce. Think of everything you could possibly do before hand and just do it. It just makes life so much more enjoyable for EVERYONE :).
2. Write out a menu for everyone to see for each meal. That way you don’t have to answer the question of the day, “What’s for dinner (breakfast or lunch)?” You get the picture. Ha.
3. Make a shopping trip to Costco 2 days before leaving for camp. Part of the items you can get on this shopping trip is the meat to prepare. You could also do this the weekend before leaving and freeze the meat or put it in the refrigerator, depending on how far in advance you’re making it.
4. The day before leaving, make a trip to your local grocery store to get other needed items and don’t forget ice. I like buying blocks of ice and also crushed ice for drinks and such. Also, get the stuff to make s’mores. Yum!
5. The morning you leave, load up those coolers!!

Here’s just a sampler of some of the food that we ate.  We were all so stuffed by the time we went home.  I mean, really, who eats 3 huge meals a day any more :). I must be getting old.

One of my favorite recipes that I made for Girl’s Camp was Teriyaki Chicken Thighs.  I love it.

This is one of the recipes that I prepped before camp.

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken Thighs

Combine all ingredients except chicken and green onions in a large bowl or leak-proof plastic resealable bag. Add chicken to marinade.

Marinate at least 4 hours; overnight is best. Place chicken in a single layer and brown in a multi-pot or brown in a large pan on the stove and transfer to a slow cooker. Pour marinade over the chicken in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours. At the end of cooking time, remove chicken and bring sauce to a boil and make the cornstarch mixture.

Whisk mixture to boiling water slowly until thickened slightly.  Add chicken to pot again and sprinkle with green onion. Serve with rice.

DELICIOUS 🙂