Activity: Learning to Cook Outdoors

Outdoor cooking can make being outdoors more fun. It can also help you learn to be more self-reliant.

In an outdoor setting, invite a knowledgeable person to teach the group useful skills for outdoor cooking, such as how to build a safe cooking fire or how to cook on a portable stove, with Dutch oven, or with a cooking fire. Use what you have learned to prepare a meal or treat for the group.

As you plan, please follow the counsel given in chapter 13 of Handbook 2: Administering the Church (2010) and review “Safety Recommendations for Church Activities.” Make sure you find out about any group members’ food allergies before beginning the activity.

Please adapt activities as necessary to ensure all individuals are able to participate, belong, and contribute.

• Try cooking outdoors without using any cookware. For example, you could make foil dinners or food roasted on a stick.
• Learn about food safety, water purification, and the proper way to handle and store food outdoors. Think of creative ways to use natural resources, like tying a drink on string and allowing it to chill in a river.
• For more experienced groups, invite youth to participate in a cook-off competition to see who can create the best dish. Consider giving awards for best flavor, most creative, and so on.

Encourage youth to talk about how what they are learning can help them and others grow closer to Jesus Christ. Discussions can take place before, during, or after the activity and should last just a few minutes. You could ask questions like the following:

What do you like about outdoor cooking?

Why do you think it is important to learn about outdoor cooking?

What other outdoor skills would you like to learn?

How could these skills help you?

• “What does it mean to be self-reliant?” (Come, Follow Me—For Aaronic Priesthood; Come, Follow Me—For Young Women)
• “Why is work an important gospel principle?” (Come, Follow Me—For Aaronic Priesthood; Come, Follow Me—For Young Women)
• Youth, Work and Self-Reliance
• Outdoor Cooking, Friend, August 2000, 27
• Outdoor Cooking, Friend, August 1997, 19

• Protecting and Preserving the Environment
• Go on a Hike
• Outdoor Survival Skills
• Exploring Plant and Animal Life