Our trips may be transitioning from extended camping trips to shorter, more spontaneous day trips, but including healthy and satisfying meals is still an essential. Wes and I recently became certified foster parents, and we’re excited to include kids in our near-future adventures. We don’t have any kids in the house yet, so we are using this time to do any last minute preparations we can think of. This includes figuring out how to streamline our normal routines so we can spend more free time playing with kids. It also includes figuring out some easy kid-friendly outdoor recipes.

We’ve started leaning back into the idea of portable foods wrapped in baked bready things. Most of our recent trips have included standard pigs in a blanket (hot dogs and cheddar cheese rolled in crescent rolls from the can). I highly recommend these, but if you swap crescent rolls for frozen puff pastry and hot dogs for buffalo chicken, you up your fancy game significantly.

The toughest part of this recipe is remembering to thaw your puff pastry in time to bake it (I prefer to stick it in the fridge the night before if I think of it), and deciding on your favorite shape to form it into. As you can see, I’m not great at picking a favorite shape (they’re all so fun!).

Everyone will love this recipe and it tastes just fine out of a cooler or even at room temperature. Feel free to swap the chicken with veggie chicken strips or baked marinated tofu to make it vegetarian and less perishable.

This attitude is very common among outdoorspeople. Most of us have been going out there to find seclusion and ourselves for a long time. We all want others to experience this, in theory, but not in the same place we’re doing it. Wes and I had this discussion as we slowly trolled through the first-come, first-serve campgrounds looking for a place to sleep. It is often hard to find a site, but it was ridiculous this time. And the worst part of it was that some of the people we spoke to were actually quite rude. We witnessed arguments, park rangers regulating improper parking, wildflower crushing, and frowny faces. Camping is supposed to bring out good vibes and connection! What was this all about? Don’t these people know the rules??

We ended up backcountry camping, which is an option most people don’t know about (or maybe aren’t comfortable with), and it was one of the most relaxing nights we’ve had in the park. Sunset fading to a full moon, quiet, and our own personal field of untrampled wildflowers. We cooked these hearty mushroom french dip sandwiches, adapted from this recipe, on the grill at a day use area before heading out so we didn’t have to carry much with us (since we didn’t even bring real packs).

When more people want to spend time outdoors, the need to protect more places for all of us to fit in will increase. This is a good thing! But let’s all do our best to communicate the important outdoor ethics that we know, and learn the ones that we don’t so we can keep these places wild. They belong to us all.

Have you ever tried Kombucha? It is supposed to be extremely healthy, (claiming to cure all sorts of illnesses and even reverse gray hair, according to it’s Wikipedia page), but it’s a rough one flavor-wise. It pretty much tastes like flavored vinegar to me.

So when Aimee suggested making a cocktail out of it over the holidays, I was skeptical. She left the job in the hands of our resident bartender, Wes, though, who made up this truly fabulous drink.

If you’ve ever had a shrub, this is very similar. It’s only slightly sweet, and a little sparkly. It’s a refreshing daytime type of drink. Perfect for an afternoon picnic or an afternoon relaxing in your hammock at camp. It’s a great drink to include in your January activities. You know- because January is when we’re all out there getting healthier.

Cheers! We’ll see you in 2016!

We highly recommend using park rangers to your advantage when planning a backpacking trip. They always know the best places to go. The ranger sent us over to Yoho National Park onto the Iceline Trail, stopping at Yoho Lake for the night.

It was only a few kilometers (less than 5 miles American), but still deep enough into the woods to be surprised to see Adirondack chairs, picnic tables, and tent platforms when we arrived in camp. They don’t require bear canisters there because they’ve installed huge poles with cables for hanging bags. No need to worry that you may be doing it wrong. They do, however, require that you carry bear spray with you in many areas, and travel in groups of at least 4 (or sometimes 6!) to keep yourself safe from large mammal encounters. Yoho was one of the few places we went that wasn’t as strict with these rules, helping us feel more at ease.

The campground was right on the beautiful little glacial blue Yoho Lake. We threw our beers into the water (you can bring beer when it’s less than 5 miles) and the boys jumped in behind them. We ate jerky and licorice, and played cards until dinner. It started raining just as we started cooking, but we found a perfect little hideaway among a trio of douglas firs.

It really felt like summer by 9pm when there was plenty of daylight left. Even though it was raining, we decided to take a short little hike to look for wildlife. We found none, but it was good to play before bed.

The next day, we hiked up to Iceline Summit on the Iceline Trail. From here, you can see the icefields and glaciers that are completely hidden from the trailhead. It always feels so satisfying to see stunning views that you know you could never see without walking yourself there to see them. The trail continues to several other lakes and falls, but we headed back down to Takakkaw where we started to continue our adventure back in Banff the next day.

You don’t have to go far into the backcountry to experience the incredible sites that Banff National Park has to offer. Yoho Lake is a perfect destination for balancing easy access with getting a little off the beaten path.

We started planning last winter. Everyone had grand ideas of the activities we should include in our week. Climbing in the Bugaboos, backpacking, peak bagging, and paddleboard camping in Banff National Park, roadtripping up to Jasper National Park on the Icefields Parkway, and hot springs of course! Planning as a group of 4 (our husbands got to come) ain’t usually easy, because people aren’t often on the same page. It was only hard for us because we were all into cramming in everything!

When the trip finally happened, we decided officially on “the no plan plan,” which worked out very well. Though some of our activities were thwarted or cut short due to constant rainstorms or long drives, we did mostly everything on the list! Except see a moose. Still waiting for that one…

I was responsible for all the camping food for the trip, so I spent a month or so dehydrating things. Probably the best thing we ate was this Backpacking French Toast. I dehydrated my own eggs at home (here’s how), and we simply dipped fresh Canadian bread in them, fried the bread up, and smothered it with local Canadian maple syrup. It was a perfect mix of lightweight, hearty, locally sourced, and rustic.

It was wonderful to finally get to spend a whole week with my Anne and Drew, especially in such an incredible place. It’s rare to find people you get along with so easily that you can all truly go where the adventure is, but these people are those people for us. I can’t wait to plan another adventure in another new amazing location. The world has a lot of them!

Adan is a pro fly fisherman (we’ll be demanding lessons soon), and he doesn’t just cook his trout- he smokes it. When I was growing up in Florida, I had a few lucky New Year’s parties where my best friend would show up with her family’s smoked mackerel. That was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten. I haven’t even had Adan’s smoked trout, but I’m sure it’s just as delicious.

Where are you going to camp with your ENTIRE family and all your friends next year? Now’s the time to start planning (especially since the planning process requires a BBQ!) Let us know so we can be your neighbors!

It’s always motivating to have a trip coming up. We’ve been hiking and running pretty consistently to get in shape for all the activities we plan to cram into one little week. This week, we spent a morning running in the local mountains, and we stumbled upon blackberry bushes growing right up against the trail. We ate a few on the way out, and I focused on finishing my water bottle so I’d have storage for more on the way out. It was a perfect running morning, because it was gray and rainy. We rarely get these, so I was really excited to take advantage of it. It’s amazing how much less whiny I am on cool days.

Though we sacrificed a bit of fitness to stop (for a while!) and pick a whole bunch of blackberries, it was worth it. We got back to the car stained red, scratched up, and quite happy. The day stayed rainy, so we stayed in the kitchen. I taught Dutch Oven Cooking basics at REI the night before, and had overpurchased peaches for the cobbler I made, so I pureed them with the blackberries, and dried the whole thing into a big roll of fruit leather.

It was very easy to make fruit leather, but I did make a small mistake. I wanted to show off the contrast between peaches and blackberries, so I swirled the two purees together without mixing them fully. This turned out beautiful, but created inconsistencies in the thickness of the puree while in the dehydrator. It dried unevenly, so I had to peel chunks out as they dried and leave the rest to continue. I think the swirl would still be pretty if I’d done a bit better job of evenly distributing the puree.

I’m going to try to get this fruit leather to last until Canada (August 1), but I don’t see how that’s going to be possible. If it does, I’ll give you a full report about the perishability of the product.

We kept the food really simple because when you have five picky kids, a vegan, and a meat and potatoes kind of guy, nobody can agree on anything. The one thing everyone can agree on is dessert! These Campfire Cones were a hit.

The idea is to take an ice cream cone and fill it with different things like marshmallows, fruit, and chocolate. Then wrap the filled cone in foil and toss it in the campfire until everything is hot and melted. You kind of can’t go wrong.

A while back, Emily, Mai-yan and I went out with our friend Ryan to test some recipes we had made at home and photograph them for future blog posts. I’ve been wanting to post a dutch oven cinnamon roll recipe for quite some time, and I was excited to make them on this trip. I made the dough at home so it was all ready to go at camp, but when we got to camp, we found out that campfires weren’t allowed! Without a campfire, it seemed like my dutch oven cinnamon rolls weren’t happening.

I couldn’t let that dough go to waste though, so we got creative. We had a waffle pie iron and decided to try putting the dough in it and cook it over my camp stove. I had a feeling it would work since I’ve successfully made things in my pie iron on my stove at home (yes, I might be a little pie iron obsessed). It did work, and it was perfect!

A spread of cream cheese frosting is essential for the top of these waffles. We made the frosting at camp with just a whisk, but you can make it at home with an electric mixer so you don’t have to work so hard.

All photos by the talented Ryan Robert Miller. Follow him on Instagram @ryanrobertmiller.

Step 1: Collect

As you’re grouping things together in your sleeping and kitchen area, you’ll come across the fun stuff. This includes chairs, fire making supplies, lighting, games, and music. Gather all of that together where you plan to have a fire. If there is no fire ring, imagine where a fire would go best in your location. This may just be whatever space is leftover in your campsite, but if you have a choice, look for:

stable ground
clear of brush or low hanging tree branches
shelter from the wind (ideal: a tall boulder to bounce fire light off of)

Do this even if you don’t plan to have a fire.

Step 2: Build Your Campfire (or “Campfire”)

A campfire provides warmth and light in the evening, but it also creates the iconic camping experience that leads to bonding, sharing and true relaxation. Even if you’re camping in an area where you cannot have a fire, you can create the same central experience for your group.

Here’s a link to a cute infographic that makes it easy to remember how to properly start a campfire.

How To Build a Campfire Infographic

It’s shockingly easy to create a similar ambiance to a campfire without the real deal. Truly any light source will do. I often carry LED tea light candles with me backpacking, and I recently fell in love with these ENO Lights. Even a headlamp or two, strapped around a water bottle or simply thrown on the ground (maybe under a white bandana for a softer glow) will do the trick.

Your people may scoff at the idea at first, explaining that it’s just not the same. But once there is a light source to hover around, they’ll find themselves entranced, chairs will form a circle, and the storytelling will begin. Do not skip this.

Step 3: Make it Feel Like Home

Cozy up the place and pull out all the luxury items. Place chairs in a circle. Hang any extra lighting around the outside, such as twinkly lights or a lantern in a nearby tree. If you brought music, set up the speaker in a location where it’s not likely to be knocked over. If possible, direct the music towards your group and away from others. Any games or toys should be gathered in one central location for easy finding whenever the time is right. If you have a spare table, set it up near the games. Some items we like to bring are:

hacky sack
playing cards
tiny instruments to share, like a harmonica, nose flute, jaw harp, and egg shaker
blankets
an extra cooler for drinks

Any little extra will make a big impact if you pull it out at the right time.

Campfire Cooking

Often, you’ll have some intermingling of the cooking and hangout areas if you plan to use the campfire to cook. Make sure to leave a clear path between the kitchen area and the fire, for ease of rushing back and forth. If you plan to make dessert over the fire, prepare it while you prepare dinner so you can move seamlessly to it when you’re ready. Set up the cleaning space close to the campfire if possible. This will encourage helpers without seemingly banishing them from the fun or warmth during their shift. As night falls, cold and tiredness set in, making everything more of an effort as it gets later, but it’s still very important to do a thorough job of buttoning camp up before bed.