We went camping from Monday, June 4 to Friday, June 8. That's four nights of vegan food, plus 4 breakfasts and lunches. We camped in a tent this time, so we had to keep our cooler stocked with ice, but it turned out pretty well.
For lunches, I brought tofurkey lunch meats, peanut butter, and tortillas for the kids. We had a lot of fruit all around, and some baby carrots, too. For myself, I made a curried chickpea salad to replace my old favorite of curried chicken salad. It was good, but I added a bit too much curry powder. Next time I know how to make it better. We also took some Lara bars--oh my goodness, these are so good! Cashew cookie is my favorite, and they have only two ingredients, cashews and dates. Convenience food made out of real food and nothing else? Heaven. The kids loved the cherry pie and apple pie flavors. Checking out the website, I see that they have even more flavors that I didn't know about. I am definitely going to have to hunt down a Key Lime Pie bar to try. Oooo, and ginger snap. And cinnamon roll. (I'd link you directly to these flavors so that you can easily see the wonderfulness here, but they have one of those websites that I hate, where you click around and it puts up content, but the page address never changes. I don't get their blog, either. The description makes it sound like if you click on their link to launch their blog, you will be generating the content--"A new window will appear and you will be bloggin' in no time at all!"--but it seems that they do in fact write the blog themselves. Maybe you can email them stuff to post, or maybe they don't get that blogging means writing a blog, not any generic activity associated with blogs, like reading them. Odd for a group of people writing a website.)
For breakfasts, it was mostly whole wheat mini-bagels and Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese. I know, that isn't terribly healthy, but the kids love the stuff, and it is vegan. We also ate a lot of fruit, and I brought some cereal and rice milk.
Dinner menus:
Monday: Pizza! I made the Basil-Tofu Ricotta from Vegan with a Vengeance before we left, and brought along a premade whole grain crust and some pizza sauce from Trader Joe's. When we got there, I assembled the pizza and wrapped it in aluminum foil and cooked it over the fire. It turned out pretty well, but we are thinking about bringing charcoal next time to get a hotter cooking fire. We had salad on the side with this. Well, the kids didn't, but I shared with my friend.
Tuesday: Tofurky Italian sausages on whole wheat buns with a little cream cheese, new potates and asparagus roasted in a foil packet with olive oil, thyme and parsley
Wednesday: Beanie Weenies, recipe from my McDougall Quick and Easy cookbook, leftover asparagus and potatoes, fruit
Thursday: Falafel, tahini sauce that I made before we left, roasted garlic hummus, all wrapped in whole wheat tortillas and served with grape tomatoes on the side, salad, fruit
The kids weren't as thrilled with falafel night as they were with all the other choices (especially the beanie weenies, when they eagerly sat at the table and ate seconds), but they were fairly content with the choices. As always, I wish they would eat more vegetables, but they did eat a LOT of fruit. One day for lunch, we did whole wheat tortillas spread with peanut butter and wrapped around bananas, which is one of their favorites. Overall, I'd say this longer vegan camping trip was a success. The key was planning ahead, and making the basil-tofu ricotta and the tahini sauce at home before we left. That way I had everything I needed and didn't need to spend a lot time sitting at a picnic table getting the meals ready to be cooked.
If anyone has any other great ideas for vegan meals while camping, please let me know--we will be doing this again!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
A few things
I am always doing this. I get busy, I think of several things I want to say, and then I come here and do a big brain dump. I have a few topics that I am going to save for their own posts, but here are some small items I just have to get out.
My New Favorite Meal
Last night for dinner I made New Farm Mac and Cheez, recipe from Jess at Get Sconed! Oh my goodness, I could not believe how creamy good this was. I won't add any bread crumbs next time, but mainly because the kids hated them. We had steamed broccoli and cauliflower on the side, and I chopped some apricots, added some blackberries and juiced a lime over the fruit for dessert. So healthy and yummy!
The Dishwasher!
It's running right now. I love it so much. I was right, it does help me to cook more. It is so much easier to cook in a kitchen that has counters that are not piled high with dirty dishes. I am so much less overwhelmed at the thought of cooking AND cleaning up. I would even go so far as to say that the dishwasher has made my life better. I love it so much, I cannot overstate it. Well, I don't want to marry it or anything, and no idol worship, but my adoration is just short of those states.
Unpacking
Not my favorite activity. I am really struggling with the fact that my new kitchen has less storage than the old one. This will force me to get rid of some stuff I don't need and plan ahead a bit. I am getting rid of some stuff as I find cans of chicken broth and big containers of mayonnaise, though.
Menu Planning
I made a real plan this week. Oh, and last week, too, while I was camping, but more about that in another post. It is nice to come home from work knowing what we are going to have, and having everything I need to make the meal. Here is what we are having/have had:
Monday: falafel with tahini sauce, hummus, chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, and mache lettuce, sauteed zucchini, baked fries
Tuesday: (listed up above)
Wednesday: leftovers, peanut butter sandwiches for the kids (it's tumbling night at the gym for the girl, and it falls right during dinner time)
Thursday: Curried Stir-Fried Noodles with Vegetables, salad, and whatever fruit we have lying around (we have lots, so we’ll just grab whatever looks good.
On Friday, the kids go to their dad’s for two weeks, so I’ll be eating leftovers and trying to use up any veggies in the fridge. I just need to stay away from the restaurants—I always want to eat out while they are gone. It’s lonely here without them :-(.
My New Favorite Meal
Last night for dinner I made New Farm Mac and Cheez, recipe from Jess at Get Sconed! Oh my goodness, I could not believe how creamy good this was. I won't add any bread crumbs next time, but mainly because the kids hated them. We had steamed broccoli and cauliflower on the side, and I chopped some apricots, added some blackberries and juiced a lime over the fruit for dessert. So healthy and yummy!
The Dishwasher!
It's running right now. I love it so much. I was right, it does help me to cook more. It is so much easier to cook in a kitchen that has counters that are not piled high with dirty dishes. I am so much less overwhelmed at the thought of cooking AND cleaning up. I would even go so far as to say that the dishwasher has made my life better. I love it so much, I cannot overstate it. Well, I don't want to marry it or anything, and no idol worship, but my adoration is just short of those states.
Unpacking
Not my favorite activity. I am really struggling with the fact that my new kitchen has less storage than the old one. This will force me to get rid of some stuff I don't need and plan ahead a bit. I am getting rid of some stuff as I find cans of chicken broth and big containers of mayonnaise, though.
Menu Planning
I made a real plan this week. Oh, and last week, too, while I was camping, but more about that in another post. It is nice to come home from work knowing what we are going to have, and having everything I need to make the meal. Here is what we are having/have had:
Monday: falafel with tahini sauce, hummus, chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, and mache lettuce, sauteed zucchini, baked fries
Tuesday: (listed up above)
Wednesday: leftovers, peanut butter sandwiches for the kids (it's tumbling night at the gym for the girl, and it falls right during dinner time)
Thursday: Curried Stir-Fried Noodles with Vegetables, salad, and whatever fruit we have lying around (we have lots, so we’ll just grab whatever looks good.
On Friday, the kids go to their dad’s for two weeks, so I’ll be eating leftovers and trying to use up any veggies in the fridge. I just need to stay away from the restaurants—I always want to eat out while they are gone. It’s lonely here without them :-(.
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