5 Camping Foods To Make

Hi Foxy Friends! Happy Monday! Hope you are all having a great start to your week. This is another short week for me, so I'm happy about that (off Friday for me this week). Anyway, today on The Blended Blog, we are talking more summer things, but this time camping food. So Mr. and I have been camping a few times...the first few times we did the same things, and then this last time in Yosemite, we really stepped up our game. I'll break it down for you, before 2017 and after...

| ONE | Frozen Steak

This is also a good tip. I freeze a steak before we leave, so it acts like both a block of ice and then while we were driving and eating other stuff it would thaw out (we usually eat this on the second or third day). Add some

| TWO | Potato, Onion and Steak and/or Bean Burritos

Cook some potatoes in the microwave before you leave, and put in foil to bring with you. Then you can make a yummy potato breakfast (since you are just cutting and heating the potatoes, you don't have to wait for them to cook). We usually add in some onions and either do a bean/cheese and potato burrito or add some eggs and have a breakfast burrito. Sorry the picture quality is so poor, had to screen shoot from Costco website, I seem to have misplaced these photos...oops!

I can't remember what was mixed with this, bean or steak...but I can tell you it was delicious taco. we added some pico de gallo.

| THREE | Dutch Oven BBQ Chicken, Bacon and Potatoes

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page. 

Dutch oven cooking for camping...have you heard of it? When we went to Sequoia last year, we were on a bus with this other family that introduced us to dutch oven cooking in the fire pit...life changing I tell ya!

So here is what we bought, a large dutch oven I duh, I bought this one. And then I also realized, how are we going to get this hot thing out of the fire pit...so then I bought this. And for easy clean up, because you're camping, and doing dishes while camping sucks...so I bought these liners to go into our dutch oven, heck ya, they did tear a little bit, but that little bit of mess was WAY easier to clean up than if we didn't use them at all!

We followed this recipe...she has better pictures.

Dutch Oven / Dutch Oven Foil Liner / Dutch Oven Lid Lifter / Gloves

Bonus, you cook the hot dogs for the kids while you are making your fancy Dutch Oven recipes.

Hot off/in the fire pit.

And the finished product, it looks burnt, but tastes delicious!

There was none left over.

Some tips if you make this: rotate the pot in the fire pit, as one side is going to be closer to the fire than the rest...so you'll want to rotate it so that one side isn't burnt.

| FOUR | Dutch Oven Lasanga

I know sounds crazy right?! But it was so dang good! We followed this recipe. Of course she has better pictures then I took. But here is what it looks like in the fire, see how  one side is close to the fire? Don't forget to rotate.

This is what the large lid lifter looks like, makes it super easy to get out of the fire.

I think we had too many coals on the lid and it got too hot...next time  I would use less on the lid. All of our wonderful cheese on the top burnt...darn! Or maybe put a layer of foil in the top? Not sure how that would work.

But here's what it looked like under the layer of burnt stuff.

There was none of this left over either...

Tip 1: This take a while to cook, like 2 hours...about 45 minutes to get the coals hot enough another another 45 minutes or so cooking...so be prepared for that.

Tip 2: After you get your coals nice and hot, don't add more firewood to the fire pit...I know you'll want to, but I think it makes the fire way too hot, unless you have a big fire pit.

Tip 3: Don't be afraid to do this! Seriously, we were super nervous, but in the end it was so dang good, and I think worth the effort.  The people we went with said they usually do super easy dinners, but having a nice dinner like these, makes camping way more fun, and it's in one pot over the fire.

| FIVE | S'mores

Obviously, you have to make tons and tons of S'mores. We like to give the kids hersey's chocolate and then the adults step it up a notch with the fancy chocolate...

| Bonus |

I know our friends buy the kabobs from the meat section of the super market, and cook those up, that's always easy and delicious. What are some of your go to camping foods?

Head on over to The Blended Blog to link up your camping foods.

Linking up here

Friday Favorites #168

Hi Foxy Friends! Just getting back from Great Wolf Lodge and we had a fantastic time! Will do a post on that sometime soon. In the meantime, here are some of my favorites from the week

In case you missed it this week:

Monday: Summer Plans
Tuesday: 5 Ways To Make New Mom Friends
Wednesday: Favorite Summer Dress
Thursday: 10 Life Changing Hair Products

I also posted to my YouTube channel Mini Fox's 2 hour birth story....if you are more of a reader, find that here.

We had some friends passing through, so they stopped to and spent the night to break up their drive. The kids always have a blast when they are together.

How awesome is this shot?

The girls play so nicely together too.

Kids wiped out from swimming.

Saturday I went to our intern from work graduation lunch. It was nice and Mini Fox got to come with me.

Then I head home for a double date...we had so much fun. First dinner.

Then what do you do when dinner finishes too early and you need to waste some more time? Go to Pier 1 of course.

Then hit up Trader Joe's.

Then finish off the night with ice cream...but the kids like different flavors than us...we got our own cone of course...these are my people. I knew I liked them.

We did give the kids some. The older boys ate theirs too fast for me to get a picture.

Sunday was Father's day. We went to church. Then went to my parents to watch The Incredibles so we could watch the second movie this weekend...hopefully it works out!

What else do you do with your family, but a blind taste test of yellow watermelon vs. red. No one got it right.

Forgot to take a picture of all of us, but here is our little family of 4. Love these people.

I bought this dress on a complete whim without doing any research...I might regret it...since the reviews are either really raving or horrible. I'm nervous. I might get it in 2 weeks or 2 months...but either way fingers crossed, it's SOO cute, I really hope it is what it looks like. This could be what I wear for our family photos this year? Yep I plan this far in advance!

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page. 

Some other things that I have bought this week...I'm on a roll.

This bikini top, and these bottoms, currently all swim suits are buy one get one 50% off, so buy a bikini top, get the bottoms for half off.

This ruffle blouse, I bought it in Medium a few weeks ago and it didn't work out, so I got a small this time, fingers crossed it's as cute on as it is in the picture. The medium wasn't so hot being so big.

I also bought some new nail colors. Have you heard of Color Street? It's an awesome new to me company, that sells nail colors, but instead of having to heat them onto your nails, it'a actual nail polish in sticker form. Stick on nails, put top coat on, and then take off with regular nail polish. It's amazing, and my friend just started selling it so I bought 6 more colors. They have designs, glitter, solid...they are my new best friend. Oh and did I mention they last for a solid 2 weeks? I ended up having to take them off because I didn't think this design was appropriate for the event I was going to, but I probably could have gotten away with another week.

Tonight Mr. is going to a poker night with the guys, so the woman are doing a night out on their own too :)

Linking up here

10 Life Changing Hair Products

I am linking back up with Lizzie , Sierra , Danielle , Emily, and Lindsay for Girl Chat. This month we're talking our favorite hair products. I never get tired of talking about this, that and make up. So here we go.

Back in 2016 I decided to intentionally learn how to do my hair. I tried some pretty awesome hair styles during the year long challenge. 

But what I bought a lot of, was hair products, I needed to figure out what the best was for everything. So here are my favorite products to date.

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page. 

Best Shampoo:

I have found that this shampoo works best with my dry shampoo, because we all know that dry shampoo is life. I've tried different combos of shampoo with dry shampoo to find the most effective way to extend between washings and this is it, right here. I love this stuff!

Best Dry Shampoo: 

Hands down best dry shampoo is Amika brand.

A close second would be Living Proof Dry Shampoo, but I prefer the Amika one, but this one works too.

Related: How To Use Dry Shampoo

Best Hair Mask:

This is a new category, I had tried this one, but didn't feel like it worked all that great. So after finishing that container (which took forever when you only wash your hair once or twice a week) I wanted to try something else. I needed to get to free shipping, and got this hair mask and oh my goodness, so awesome! It makes my hair so soft and shiny. You won't regret this purchase either.

Best Hair Oil:

I don't even know if I can make this a category, and I, myself have to get better about using this product, but I do find that it works pretty well for dry hair. I'm busy and sometimes can't get to a hair cut as often as I would like, so I try to use this on my hair each day, to try and give my hair some moisture. And it smells really good too. If you want to try it out first, buy the mini, that's what I did, and quite frankly am still using it a year later. 

Best Products for Doing Your Hair:

I know strange category, but if you are wanting to do your hair, these products I found to be the best. 

First thing...if you want to do hair, you HAVE to get better bobby pins. The ones from the store don't even come close to as awesome as these are. And they aren't too expensive. I started trying to do my hair in 2016 and 2.5 years later I'm still using the same tub of bobby pins. The come in bronze, silver and black. I'm sure you can get quality bobby pins at Sally Beauty Supply too, so bottom line...drop the drug store bobby pins and get something better.

Related: How To Use A Bobby Pin

Next thing is dry wax...this is so important for taming those fly aways. Seriously, I don't know what I did before this discovering this stuff. I have to admit, I haven't tried any other dry wax, spray. I also have a dry wax gel, which I use for doing braids, I put on braids, so those little hairs don't fly out, but the dry wax is great for when you're done and you have those fly aways...spray this on, and you're good to go.

Related: How to French Braid Your Own Hair

When you're too lazy to actually really do anything to your hair, and you just want some fun curls? I found that if I use this on my hair first, then curl, my curls last longer. What I do is use the heat protectant, curl my hair, hair spray it and leave it to completely cool. Usually I do my make up, then the last step after my make up is done, I come my fingers through, spray with a little more hair spray and I'm done. 

What do you do if you are wanting to do your hair but your hair is too clean. Or if you have thin hair...and want some volume, what do you use?  Amika Un.Done Texture Spray! This stuff is the best, it gives you that grit without feeling heavy or grimmy, if that makes sense. It just gives you hair a little bit of texture, so when you're trying those hair styles out, it's not slipping all over the place.

And I think the last favorite hair product is my curling wand. I was using a regular curling iron and nothing made my curls last, but after using this, I can go between washes and have the curls last up to 5 days! There is almost always a coupon code out there to get them, and you don't need to get that set, I just got it because it was on sale, and I don't even use two of the barrels...

Related: How To Curl Your Hair

What is doing your hair without your favorite hair spray. In 2 years I've gone through 2 bottles already....I've tried so many, and this one is my absolute favorite.

Here is a video where I describe everything with a little more detail.

So those are all of my favorite hair products. What is something you love that I have to try?

Linking up here