Fancy Camp Food #5

So here's what happened...I actually made a REAL camp breakfast...and didn't take pictures.  I meant to, but everything just happened so fast and I chose to avoid burning eggs rather than getting the picture.  Here is the "prep" set up as proof!

As always we made awesome coffee in our camping french press.  It really does come out the best coffee we ever make.  And while waiting for the water to boil, the eggs to cook, and any other waiting "opportunity" we munched on donut holes.  It's not camping without them.

So breakfast itself was simply breakfast burritos with goat cheese and basil (left over from last night's caprese bites!)  I scrambled the eggs and just before they were done, scooped some soft goat cheese in and sprinkled with sliced basil.  Wrap that baby in a tortilla, and eat!

Just after breakfast we headed down to the lake so the kids could fish, play in the water, ride in the kayak, and bask in the sun!  It was a great way to spend the morning.  The dogs loved it too!

Lunch was virtually the same plan as all camping trips this summer (see posts here and here) and was comprised of picky-pick items.  Hubby isn't a fan of bread in general (I know, I only WISH I had that same problem) and definitely isn't interested in eating it while camping as it always dries out.  So bite sized food with crackers makes him very happy.  And for me, it makes for easy clean up and doesn't take much "work" before you get to dig in.

Ingredients

• Heirloom baby tomatoes (from last nights caprese bites)
• String cheese
• Sliced avocado
• Edemame
• Crackers
• Deli turkey slices for him
• And admittedly some cookies....

After a thrilling game of Apples to Apples and a half game of Yahtzee, it was time to start prepping for dinner.  In order to do this, we needed wine.  We splurged and brought a nice bottle of wine as a treat.  And then were super classy drinking it in the yellow plastic cups.  

 Dinner tonight was another "do-again" from an earlier camp trip with an asian style bowl.  The variation which makes this different is that instead of rice, I used some of my pre-made quinoa to save time and effort.  And hubs skipped the bowl completely and made an actual plate of food.

Ingredients

• Quinoa
• Bell Peppers
•  Edemame
• Tofu
• Stir Fry sauce
• Salmon (for him!) 

 Directions

1. If you didn't prep ahead of time- you should make your quinoa, rice, couscous, or grain of choice now.  It will take the longest and it can sit and wait for the rest to catch up!
2. Drain tofu- I layer a plate, couple paper towels, tofu, more paper towels, another plate and then anything you can use as a weight.  This will squeeze the moisture from the tofu and get it ready for grilling while you prep the rest of the items (and maybe have a glass of wine!)
3. Marinate the salmon steak in sauce
4. Chop your bell peppers into bite sized pieces
5. De-shell your edemame
6. Cut tofu into medium-small, thin pieces.
7. Set your pan to medium heat (which I know is impossible to really regulate on a camp stove!)
8. Add a little butter or oil to the hot pan, and drop in your tofu.  Leave it alone for a three to five minutes and flip once it has started to get a golden color.
9. After another couple minutes, push tofu to the side and add the veggies to let them stir fry for just a few minutes.
10. Pour in enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pan.  
11. Stir to coat and let simmer for another three to five minutes
12. Meanwhile- add the salmon steak to your grill and cook on each side according to the size and your "wellness" preference.
13. Add some quinoa to your bowl, and top with stir fried tofu and veggies & salmon

Josh decided to have quinoa and veggies on the side!

This was such a GREAT day at the lake.  Wonderful friends, sunshine, and great food!  Next up- camping chocolate tacos!  This is the kind of dessert I can't resist!

"Fancy" Camp Food #3!

Ya... so over in my bio I mention how I try to be healthy, thrifty, responsible, organic, etc...  And how I sometimes just want Oreo's?  Well this post falls into the second category.  If for no other reason than I just took the easy way out.  I wasn't going to let anything get in the way of having an awesome camping weekend.  Especially not guilt over eating badly.  

(For more recipes and camp ideas, check out my earlier and more fancy camping food posts here and here.)

This was a bit of a last minute trip, which included leaving right after work on Friday (after having to stay and work late...sigh...) and getting all prep, laundry, groceries, and new shoe shopping squeezed into a couple hours Thursday night.  The shoes were not for me!  But instead for our dog, Hudson.  He needed hiking boots.  Bright red ones, to be fancy.

We planned to spend most of our time kayaking, hiking, and exploring.  Eating was just going to be a necessary "evil" invading our fun time.  So the plan was to make it as quick and effortless as possible.

Breakfast

I'm not going to lie... we had donuts and French Press coffee.  Shrug.  I will admit I was jealous of a nearby camper who was making what I imagined to be an awesome egg & veggie skillet based on the undeniable smell of grilled onions and peppers.  And as I sadly looked at my chocolate covered donut, I was only slightly sad for a moment.  The morning of Day two we made coffee again, but added a packet of hot chocolate.  Camping mocha!

Lunch

Josh's parents met us at the lake to go kayaking and have lunch.  We had all the "pick-nic" supplies.  Spread it all out on the table and just picked and snacked away!  This is the perfect way to eat lunch.  There really is NO prep.  I suppose it is an "adult-only" type of lunch.  Not because of any scandalous reason, other than dirty little kid hands.  So maybe they can point and you put their choices on a fun and colorful kid plate.  Or maybe if you actually have kids, you aren't freaked out by the germs as it is most likely part of a normal day.

• Hummus
• Cheese- sliced cheddar, & mozzarella string cheese
• Crackers
• Deli Turkey
• Sliced Avocado
• Grapes
• Cherries
• Sliced Apples
• Edamame
• Trail Mix
• Beef Jerky
• Almonds
• Gummy Bears
• Andes Mint Chocolate Cookies- so good!

 

Dinner

We went with classic BBQ.  Josh made a steak, and I had a veggie patty.  Guilty pleasure- Ranch Style Beans and an easy side salad with avocado and 3 beans made it a complete meal.

The only hiccup was the "3 bean" part of our salad.  I normally buy this in a jar with a marinated mix of kidney, garbanzo, and green beans.  And it's a great, easy way to add color and flavor to some greens with no additional dressing needed.  But neither of our two grocery stores had it late on Thursday night.  So I settled for a version that came in a can.  (Which I never do and shouldn't have panicked and compromised.) Sadly, it didn't even come close.  First it didn't have garbanzo beans but instead wax beans which honestly they lived up to their name 100%.  And second, the green beans actually made a rubbery, squeaky sound when you bit into them.  No thanks.  The only edible item in that can was the kidney beans.  So what I learned was, don't buy that again.  Ever.  I recommend you don't try it either.

It was still a great trip.  A quick weekend get away, time with family, kayaking, and exploring the beautiful scenery that is all around us.  Despite the food fail (I won't mention the stop at McD's on the way home...) the rest of the trip was a complete success.  And so it just goes to prove- It really doesn't have to be fancy!  It just needs to fit in your car.

Can you spot Hudson back there with all the gear?!?!?

Caprese Pasta- Might be the best thing ever...

Honestly I'm not even going to bother with all the chatter and trying to be clever and write up an intro.  Just LOOK at this... It was delish!

And really, most importantly, this was SUPER easy.  I'm not even sure it counts as "cooking."  Making a meal, yes.  Cooking...not so much!  Can you boil water?  Then you can make this awesome dinner.  Or lunch.  Late night snack.  Breakfast?  Maybe not breakfast.

I spied this with my little eye while on Pinterest.  A quick look at the original post here, and I knew it was basically instinctual to make.   And I decided that instead of "italian dressing" this would be better with simple, classic, oil & vinegar!  I had Josh buy Parmesan too, thinking I would make some Parm toast to go with this (cause... everyone loves toast!) but I just didn't want to mix any other flavors with this yumminess.  So ignore the parm in the pic, k?  Now onto the important stuff!

Ingredients

• 1 package of Cheese Tortellini (Rainbow if you want it to be pretty!  And who doesn't?)
• Fresh mozzarella.  Seriously don't even think about using any processed fake stuff.  It just won't be the same and everything will be ruined!  (read in a super dramatic teenager voice!) 
• Bite sized tomatoes (cherry or grape will work!)
• Fresh Basil- which you will make fancy when I teach you to "chiffonade" it!
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
• Generous dash of Salt

Directions

1. Boil water for your pasta
2. Cut your tomatoes in half.  It's pretty and easier to stuff in your mouth in one bite with pasta and mozz!
3. Cut your mozzarella into bite sized pieces.  Why?  See #2.
4. Add these to your big white mixing bowl (everyone has one, right?)
5. Sprinkle with salt
6. Add Olive Oil 
7. Add Balsamic
8. Mix and let this marinate (yes, your pretty white cheese will get a little dingy looking but it will taste SOOO good.)  Plus, we aren't fancy here and don't need to look pretty all the time.
9. Add pasta to your boiling water and cook per the directions (probably 4-5 minutes.)
10. Chiffonade your basil!  Roll it and cut it.  Seriously THAT's how fancy it is.  I demo below.
11. When pasta is done, drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking and to cool it down.
12. Toss into your big white bowl
13. Stir to coat with the olive oil and balsamic mixture *You can make it more saucy if you want, just keep the ratio of oil to vinegar 2 to 1.
14. Top with your fancy basil and voila!
15. Oh ya, add chicken to His bowl...

Stack some basil leaves- I used seven.

Roll it up tight (I have no experience in rolling so that was good enough)

Cut into thin strips, then "fluff" it all up to be pretty ribbons!

 So there you go!  Simple and delicious.  An easy weeknight meal on those days when you haven't slept well for two nights, had spreadsheets and vlookups annoyingly calculating for DAYS at work, and hit traffic on the way home.  It's the best way to end the day on a yummy note!

Barley, Peas & Lentils...Oh My!

After work last night, I was not in the mood to do anything except change into comfy clothes, sit on the couch, and bust open a bag of gummy bears.  And I did JUST that.  After I made dinner of course :)  I needed something quick and easy, which if I'm being honest is really no different than most things I cook.  So I decided to try this mix of grains that I bought from Raley's recently.  Had a cute little note on the bag that says "Cooks in 10 minutes!"  Yeah! 

But they lied.  Totally lied.  Worthy of a Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire...  This was not ready in 10 minutes.  And the grain mixture didn't even cook at the same time.  Annoying, but whatever.  Have to go with it at this point and just meant I spent more time stirring the pot.  And I ate peas that were a bit "al dente!"  Despite that little issue, this turned out surprisingly well for something I just made up.  Even Hubs liked it.  So I think it will be a keeper even though I'd like to hold a grudge about the 10 minute label.

Ingredients

• 8.8 oz package of Raley's Barley, Peas & Lentils mix
• 5 or 5 1/2 cups of water, or broth  (The directions on the package actually call for more but I wanted it to cook like rice and have no remaining liquid.  Used 6 cups of water, and still poured some out at the end.  shrug.)
• You choose spices
• You choose veggies
• You choose meat
• You choose other garnishes- cheese, green hot sauce, etc.

Directions

1. Season your water.  Because of the veggies I chose tonight, I wanted to keep it simple
1. Garlic Salt
2. Pepper
3. Oregano
2. Get your barley mix on the stove before you do any more prep, because it WILL take more than 10 minutes.  I'd suggest leaving it on boil for a longer time before reducing to simmer.  And then simmer longer as well.  Go with twice as long as stated on the package.  In general you are going to have to test it as you cook until it is the texture you want.  Keep in mind my previous note about the peas still being less cooked than the barley...  I ended up cooking this about 25 minutes before I was just OVER IT and decided it was as done as it was gonna get for the night.
3. While that boils, cut up your veggies.  I used the following-
1. 1 chopped green onion  (Probably would use 2-3 next time)
2. 1 cup chopped arugula
3. 1/2 orange bell pepper- chopped
4. Saute any veggies that you want to be warmed up
1. Bell Pepper went into my pan with a little bit of olive oil
5. Meat lovers- get your meat chopped & cooked.
1. Pepper Turkey lunch meat was chopped up for Josh.
6. Get Garnishes ready- We used the following
1. Shredded mozzarella
2. Green Tabasco (for him)
7. Once barley mixture is done, spoon into bowls and mix in as much or as little of all the good stuff.

 

How GOOD does this look for an unplanned and annoying meal?

As with most packaged foods, this was more than enough for two people.  I had left overs to take to lunch at work the next day.  Threw some arugula in a container, spooned in some barley mix, and topped with shaved parmesan.   (Here is me enjoying it during a conference call with East Coasters who always invade my lunch time!) 



Next time I think I would try this mix as a cold salad with greens and zucchini slices, topped with a fresh lemony dressing like this simple Martha version here. 

                  Long Story short- This turned out successful despite such misleading label info!