Continuing with the brainstorming theme: Fate leads me often to just the right phrase in the hundreds of websites I read – which are all about Girl Scouts these evenings. From a Swift Water Girl Scout council girl-planning patch booklet:

"When we speak about girl decision-making/girl-planning, we are speaking about two different concepts. Allowing girls to make decisions about their activities is different than allowing them to plan their activities. Girl decision-making begins on the first step of our steps of planning. Girl Planning is the ultimate goal for experienced girls."

A continuum! First and second graders get a choice of what to cook and eat on our camping trip: soup and sandwiches or macaroni and cheese with hot dogs - simple!

I have collections of recipes, but my daughter’s STUDIO 2B troop sticks to their favorite: Tacos in a bag. My older one mixes it up a bit with baked tortilla chips in a Ziploc over which she’ll put the taco elements, but the rest of them love the tried-and-true Doritos.

One time some marinated and grilled chicken breast got added as a topping - only once. You can still mix it up time after time too, by having cheese tacos now, the meat later - just the veggies when you get a little full.

I find a lot of recipes on the Internet - I am entertained thusly every evening, and I have moved on from the nesting pots to “easy, tasty camping recipes” that the Brownie girls would eat and have the skills to cook (“no skills” is the level).

Looking through recipes for the trip, I found http://desertcandy.blogspot.com with tasty pictures, like Coconut-Mango-Lime Parfaits desert..., yummy! This recipe is hostile to first graders though, and one of my Brownies is allergic to mango, so I thought I would make up my own recipe and call it "Camouflage Pudding" by matching the colors of the parfaits, layering the puddings in more haphazardly than the recipe. I thought vanilla, butterscotch, and chocolate puddings – which can all be purchased as little boxes of Jell-O – and then whipped cream.

If I actually get to this I’ll post a picture.