outdoor camping, outdoors sportIt's time to get ready for outdoor camping in the mountains as soon as the weather heats up here in Phoenix and last weekend I went through the camping gear to see what we needed for the new season. I took a look at our dishes and decided we needed newer, lighter plates for outdoor camping and was thrilled when I searched online to see what our options were. I found these GSI X2 Plates that are square, so won't take up as much space as our round glass plates did. And since these are Lexan, they won't break, either, if they fall to the ground.

These plates for outdoor camping are a little over 8" square which is just perfect. We aren't big eaters to start with and one way we control our weight at home is to use our salad plates for the entree and the dinner plates for the salad. I started that about 10 years ago, and the kids have grown up eating that way, and we don't make any exceptions for outdoor camping. There are four of us, so I ordered eight plates, one for the main meal and the other for the salad.

I didn't have to search long to find these sensible, attractive plates at Olis Outdoors at http://www.route66megamall.com/, a site with a lot of great products for outdoor camping and outdoors sports, too. I think the plates make perfect sense so when I get them, I'll wash them up and get them placed in the camping gear. The dinnerware box will be lighter and there will be more room in it, so I might tuck a candle holder or two in the space that we save with the square plates so we can have candlelight dinners, too. We had been using a camping lantern to illuminate the table, but candles are much more inviting.

I have ordered many of our necessities for outdoor camping online and have enjoyed the savings and the ease of finding what we need. We go to big box stores for our groceries, but that's about all. Once in a while they have promotions on dinnerware but I've never seen anything this perfect for outdoor camping. They'll be easy to wash, lightweight to handle, and I love the color, too. It's fun to get new camping gear once in a while and we are looking forward to a wonderful summer in the tall pines of Arizona's mountains where we will be spending many a fun weekend escaping the heat of Phoenix in the summer.