"Fancy" Camp Food Day #1

Ok, so maybe it's only a step up from roasting a hot dog over a camp fire!  Calling this "fancy" would be more of a stretch than normal.  The point is, that if I can make this stuff while roughing it, then you can make it at home.  Easy as can be.

Last weekend we had an awesome camping trip with some great friends.  And we did rough it more than our typical camping excursions with our tent trailer.  This trip we were like real explorers.  Out in the middle of nowhere.  Nobody around for miles.  The views were spectacular.  I can't even describe just how perfect this trip was.  And we hauled everything, fancy food and all, inside an old military trailer with a roof top tent.  Poor Huddy was banished to the truck each night to sleep by himself.  (He probably had the coziest spot in all honesty...)

A gorgeous sunset welcomed us to camp on the first night.  What a great start to the trip!

But back to the food!  We had some of the typical camping staples- Popems (donut holes), string cheese, grapes, crackers, etc.  But there were no sad, dry sandwiches to be found, no hot dogs, no greasy chips, and no burnt marshmallows.  We had real food.  I made pizza one night.  Josh had a steak and salad.  We had personalized camping version rice bowls.  And our new friends made awesome peach cobbler for dessert.  We managed to eat tasty food with very little effort.

Night #1- Shalon

If this looks familiar it's because this is a slightly modified version of the Pita Pizza's I posted last week.

Ingredients

• One whole wheat round pita bread
• Pesto from a jar
• String cheese
• yellow & orange bell pepper slices
• sliced olives
• Baby Arugula and Spinach salad mix
• Avocado
• Grapes

Directions

1. Toss the sliced bell peppers into the pan on your camp stove on medium heat to let them get warm, and slightly "charred."  (This is camping and it has to look authentic!)
2. Spread pesto onto one side of your pita bread.
3. Like a 6 year old, carefully pull stings from your piece of string cheese and place on top of the pesto.
4. Open your can of olives, drain, and add to your pita pizza.
5. Check your peppers, maybe flip them.  They probably aren't ready because steps 2-4 only took about 2 minutes.
6. Slice some avocado for your salad.
7. Remove a few grapes from the bunch.
8. Arrange some arugula/spinach mix on your plate, add your avocado & grapes and dressing of your choice.  I used some of the pesto as my dressing.
9. Check the peppers.  When ready, move them to the side of the pan, add your pita with it's pesto, cheese, and olives top side up!  Then toss HALF the peppers on top.  Reserve the other half for hubby. 
10. Heat until the cheese begins to melt- about 3 minutes.  (Your pita shouldn't burn but will crisp just slightly.)
11. Remove from the pan, add to your plate and eat!

 

Night #1- Josh

Ingredients

• Manly sized piece of steak from the butcher (He used a rib eye)
• yellow & orange bell pepper slices
• Baby Arugula and Spinach salad mix
• Avocado
• Grapes

Directions

1. Start with "room temperature" steak.
2. Add spices, marinade, etc to your steak.  Hubby bought a Korean marinated rib eye that morning.
3. Preheat your grill on high
4. Cook to desired.  Here is a handy calculator to tell you how long to grill your steak based on cut and how well you like it.
5. Let it grill and flip only once half way through.  Resist the urge to "mess" with it.
6. Remove from heat and let it sit for 5 minutes.
7. Add some grilled peppers as a side, along with the salad.  Enjoy!

He didn't snap a picture of his steak, so here is his truck instead!  We used the tailgate as a prep station, and to do the dishes.

I'll post more from our trip and the fancy camp food we made in the next post!  (Camp Food Day #2 is posted here!)  I'll be honest and admit there will probably be more pictures of the fun and the scenery than the food.  I  wasn't in my "blogging" frame of mind while enjoying this awesome camping trip.  Missed most of the food picture opportunities. Shame on me!