Fancy Camp Food #4- Quinoa and more!

Camping was the cool thing to do this summer.  At least for us it was!  (And by cool, I am cleverly also making reference to the nights when I thought my feet would actually freeze off.)  We haven't spent this much time in the great outdoors for a few years.  And it was awesome.  Great times, great friends, great wine, and even great food.  Sometimes...I'll admit I took a couple "easy way out" opportunities.  Don't judge.  This trip WAS pretty great food, I'll even call it total a success.  I had items planned well, which certainly helps make camp food easy.

The first thing I did to prepare, was to cook up a large batch of quinoa.  It would serve as a base for many of the meals this trip.

I also pre sliced one each- red, yellow, and orange bell peppers.  This made for easy packing, easy snacking, and less prep time at camp

I finished my prep work and "shortcut" choices with edemame in a bag, heirloom bite sized tomatoes, tiny little mozzarella balls packed in water, a mix of oil and balsamic, and my favorite spinach arugula mix!  Packed it all up, and headed out after work.

When we arrived it was just starting to get a little dark.  We had enough time to quickly unload the truck and create this little appetizer to share with our friends.  How cute are these Camping Caprese Bites???  

And they couldn't be easier.  We made both tomato and peach caprese bites.  And the most work was cutting up the peaches!  Everything else was simple assembly.  Grab a toothpick, add two mozzarella balls, followed with a torn leaf of basil, and finally a tomato or a peach bite,  Drizzle with the oil/balsmic mixture, and voila!  Perfect to pass around camp while everyone was preparing the meals.  And easy enough for the kids to snack on as well.

By this time, it was starting to get dark.  Josh grilled up a steak, and I quickly made us some salads to finish the meal.  Throw all of the following into a bowl and toss with some oil & balsamic.  Done!

Ingredients

1. 1/3 cup cooked quinoa
2. Handful of spinach/arugula mix
3. 1/2 chopped peach
4. A sprinkle of dried cranberries
5. Top with small mozzarella balls (would also be great with shaved parm!  Maybe even better...)

Stay tuned for the next fancy camp post with easy lunch items, and the most important- dessert!

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!