Stanthorpe scheming ...

Our November anniversary celebrations were originally planned for Stanthorpe but wet weather meant we travelled to Tin Can Bay instead.

We decided to use our Stanthorpe booking credit for one of Nick's roster breaks.  

I had a rough menu plan, which helped my meal prepping and packing for our four-night holiday.

Space is limited in our 38-litre Engels and we only planned to take one fridge with us, so I packed butter, olive oil spread and some shredded cheese into small containers.

I made a half quantity of my usual pikelet mix, using milk powder and stored in a plastic bottle. It needed water, an egg and some golden syrup on-site.  

After some good shakes, I could pour into the pan. (I've used the same dry mix previously but not thought to mix in a bottle).

Salad isn't my best thing, so I tried the mason jar method.  I made two versions to try. (We took three jars with us and left two at home).  

While away, we found a couple of opshop bargains. My heavy glass salad bowl was just $3.00 and looked a bit flash on the camp dining table! 

We had BBQ chicken and salad wraps for a picnic lunches on first two days.

There is no photo but I froze some Mexican mince to take with us.  I cooked rice before leaving home.  Our first night's dinner was super easy!

Breakfast was cereal, toasted muffins, fruit portions - with tea and coffee.  I cooked the pikelets on our last day, before packing up to head home.  

We had a cheese platter picnic on our third day, splurged on wood-fired pizza at a winery the next day - and then lunched at home on our last day, cos we weren't hungry before then!

The jar salads worked pretty well, with only minimal freezing.  I'll try some other combinations but liked how easy it was to tip the jar into a bowl and serve.  All dinners were simple.  We used the camp kitchen several nights as it had plenty of hotplates under cover.  It rained at times during our stay and there was wind, also.

Nick cooked BBQed chicken fillets with Morrocan seasoning for our second night.  I did steaks with garlic butter the third night - and we shared the final night's cooking.  Nick BBQed  lamb sausages and zucchini/ herb parcels, while I made up a packet pasta dish.  

I brought the chicken fillets from home.  We picked up other provisions from Stanthorpe Woolies on Saturday morning.  On Monday afternoon we called into the local IGA for some dessert provisions.  We had meringue nests with thick custard and berries for dessert - yum!

The Spacevan's gas burners didn't cope well in the wind so we used our butane stove on a few occasions, set up on the kitchen slide or on the table, inside our screened gazebo.