Sunday, June 24, 2007

Vegan Camping

What could be sweeter than a week of camping? Once our kids were safely off at camp, my husband and I decided that a camping trip was in order (and long overdue!). So we packed up our car with an obscene amount of food, 1 tent, 2 sleeping bags, 1 air mattress, 1 camp stove, a lantern and our dog Bruno and headed off for a week of adventure.

Our first stop was in Eugene for lunch at Cafe Yumm. My veggie burger was indeed yummy, served with their special yumm sauce. I wish we had more time to try some of the other veg restaurants in Eugene.
Then we were off to Crater Lake (with a few of quick stops at hot springs along the way).

Bruno loves posing for pictures.
Now onto the food. Like I said, we brought an obscene amount of food. Here's a shot of our stuffed food bin.

We brought all of the essentials: coffee, tea, whole grain bread, instant oatmeal, gnocchi, pasta, tomato sauce, nuts and dried fruit, tofu, veggie hot dogs, veggie chili, lentil soup, lots of fruit and veggies, hummus, nut butter, cherry jam, hazelnut milk, smoked Tofurkey slices, Vegenaise, mustard, Braggs... Basically, the essentials ; )

Here's Jay making his Firecracker Tofu. It was really good!


Here's another Jay dish. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was one of my favorite dinners -Gnocchi with a tomato basil mushroom sauce. I think he also put some veggie meatballs in there too. It was delish!


Two things we learned on this trip:

1. If you plan on enjoying wine with your dinner, don't buy your bottle openers at the dollar store.
2. Don't forget to pack mosquito repellent. No matter how much you might hate spraying yourself with poison, it sure beats a thousand mosquito bites.

15 comments:

Webly said...

I love cooking while camping, it adds a new challenge to the kitchen.
Your food looks great.

Anonymous said...

looks great! cute photos!

julie hasson said...

Hi Webly. Thanks! Camping definitely adds a challenge to cooking. It's funny how food always tastes so much better camping.

Hi Johanna3. Thanks! We had a great time. I really love camping.

Sheree' said...

Oh, what memories this brought back. DH and I have not been camping in quite a few years. We brought the kids up roughing it and they love it.

Which veggie dogs do you buy? We always buy the "Smart Dog", but thought we might try something new this year.

I got the DVD in the mail a couple days ago and already made Bryanna's cutlets. Now I am off to make "Triple Chocolate Pudding" to surprise DH when he gets home from school tonight. I will post pics of the pudding tomorrow! The DVD is fantastic!

julie hasson said...

Thanks Veg-a-nut! I'm so glad you like the DVD. Aren't those cutlets awesome?

I think that we bought Smart Dogs for the trip. My husband had fun toasting them over the fire. Now, if we only had some good vegan marshmallows...

Caty said...

It looks like you had a great time! And I think that Gnocchi looks gorgeous.

KleoPatra said...

Julie, thanks for stopping by my blog! i just came back from camping (OK, well it was over Memorial Day weekend and a little before and a wee bit after it) but my trip was hardly as cool as yours! HOW FUN!!

when i go camping, like you, i always bring a ton o'food too... well, because you never know what you may (or most likely MAY NOT!) find on the road to eat... and as i'm an active gal, i need to make sure i have good stuff (read: vegan AND tasty AND at least SOMEwhat healthy) to eat! My essentials look a lot like yours. i even have that same blue plastic bin that i keep my stuff in. *Cue Twilight Zone music*

Jay's quite the cookout cook there, isn't he? Nice dish there of gnocchi. WITH "meat"balls too. Super fab.

What is REALLY weird about all of this is that my pal Peter and i had originally intended to GO TO CRATER LAKE! i freaked when i saw this post!! i have been wanting to go there for, i dunno, FOREVER? But we messed up on the airline stuff and by the time we figured it all out, we couldn't get affordable flight tickets or the right times for us to leave San Diego...

Anyway, i did love seein' the pix of you and yer husband and Bruno enjoying the trip - sans the kiddies! And i only mean that as in: YAY for you two to have some time alone... with Bruno, of course! *sigh* Crater Lake looks entirely gorgeous. i am going to get there some day! And maybe get to some of those hot springs!

Hope you are enjoying your summer. It sure looks like it! Have safe travels, Julie...

~K

B.A.D. said...

That looks like some fine camp food. I haven't been camping in ages! Everything looks so yummy, I love the photos!

Tofu Mom (AKA Tofu-n-Sprouts) said...

Oh I love camping and Crater Lake is wonderful too! How fun camping WITHOUT the kids too (for a change!).

I love hearing about Portland and the Pacific Northwest especially since my hometown's just up the Interstate...

julie hasson said...

Hi Kleopatra! What a small world. Your trip up the California coast looked like an awesome trip. Wouldn't it be fun to run into other vegan bloggers on a trip?

Thanks BAD! The camp food was pretty tasty.

Hi Tofu Mom! Yes, Crater Lake was beautiful. And as much as I love camping with my kids, it was really nice hanging with the hubby and only having to worry about ourselves. I hope we can squeeze another trip in this summer.

Vegan_Noodle said...

Wow, sounds like an awesome camping trip with yummy food! Tofu while camping, that's awesome. Your pics from Crater Lake are beautiful, I've always wanted to visit (someday....). Now we just have to wait for camping season down here in Texas, which probably won't be till October or November!!

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

awesome photo of you & jay in front of the lake!!! we tried to visit crater lake several years ago, but sadly a fire kept us away. this looks like so much fun and what a sport bruno is, and very cute too. thanks for sharing your vegan camping tips. :)

Diz Rivera said...

The shots of the lake and the springs look fake! So pretty. And I love Bruno.

spiceislandvegan said...

Wow, Julie! We love camping. Another thing we have in common. We love roughing it too, in a tent, instead of RV. We haven't done it for a long time.

But usually for food we bring pancake mix, sandwiches stuff (we have a sandwich toaster thingy that we can roast sandwich on a fire), stir fries stuff (yes, I even bring my wok to camping), chili mixes and beans, etc.

I love and missed Bruno. I bet he had so much fun, camping!

SIV

Anonymous said...

For vegan marshmallows, see here: http://www.veganstore.com/index.html?stocknumber=850