Vegan Camping Ideas
Vegan Banana Boat
Ingredients:
- banana - vegan chocolate bar (Trader Joe’s makes a great one in a green package) - Vegan marshmallows (Whole Foods)
Directions: - Cut open the banana (leave the peal on) and stuff in chocolate and marshmallows and then try to close it up and then wrap in foil or don’t – your choice (I don’t like to use foil)) - put banana on the grill over the fire and let it all melt (a few minutes) then take it off the fire, open it up and enjoy!
Vegan S’mores
Ingredients: - Vegan Marshmallows (Whole Foods) - Vegan Chocolate (Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods) - Graham Crackers
Directions: - You may think it’s funny to have directions but I’m married to a man from Ireland who never had even heard of a s’mores until I made him one. This recipe needs to be enjoyed internationally! - Take out a graham cracker and break it in half - put down a piece of chocolate on side - roast your marshmallow over the fire until it’s just the way you like it - put the marshmallow on top of the piece of chocolate and use the other half of the graham cracker to help pull it off of the stick - turn it into a sandwich and enjoy!
Camping breakfast:
This is my Dad’s recipe. He made it every time we went camping when I was little and we all love it! It is a perfectly hearty and healthy breakfast to wake up to on a cold morning or any morning when you’re out camping.
Ingredients: (use however much you want of each item, it’s just to your taste) - Red Russet Potatoes - Red onion - Garlic- “sausages” (Whole Foods has an incredible meatless sausage by a company called Field Roast Grain Meat Co. – it’s called Smoked Apple Sage and you can buy them at Whole Foods. Click here to see their website) - olive oil - salsa – preferably the kind with nice large tomato chunks – not a pico de gallo but more of a pace picante style salsa so that it adds more of a stew like quality.
Directions: - Cut up the potatoes into bite size pieces – thin slices are good because they’ll cook faster - slice up the red onion into edible thin slices - mince the garlic (use as much as you want) - cut the sausages into small slices - pour the olive oil into a large saute pan or even a pot if you’re making a lot - saute the sausages until they look good to you (sorry, I’m not an expert recipe writer!) then set aside - Saute the garlic and onions for a minute or so and then add in the potatoes - saute them all together until they’re starting to stick or burn and then add in the salsa to create a good amount of moisture so that it can all simmer and absorb the flavors - add in the sausages and let simmer for 5 minutes or so and then serve.
Mexican Food Night
Ingredients: - ground soy “meat”- mexican blend (an insanely awesome spice by Morton and Basset – photo below) - tortillas - salsa - tomatoes - onions (green, white or red) - avocado - rice - can of beans (I like to add in a can of vegan refried beans with a can of black beans so that even my family members who “hate” black beans get them anyways – but I’m mean like that!)
Directions: Do you really need directions? Warm everything up, let everyone add what they want into their burrito and eat!
Spiders! (aka: Spiced Cider):
Another family tradition was spiced cider. We obviously weren’t allowed to have it when we were little, but it was a sort of “coming of age” tradition in which as you got to a certain age you were allowed to have some special cider by the campfire. Now that I’m an adult, it’s my favorite camping beverage – especially on cold nights!
Ingredients: - Apple Cider packets (although they are filled with crap)/or apple cider that you bring - Brandy - Mulling Spices (you can buy individual “tea bags” of organic mulling spices to put in your drinks; photo below)
Directions: Heat up your apple cider, add your mulling spices and pour in as much brandy as you like, be careful… a little bit goes a long way!
Other tips/ideas:
Pre-measure out 1 cup servings of rice (or any other grain/bulk item) in a bag rather than bringing the whole thing of rice and write how much is in there on the bag for easy use!Salsa – lots of it for camping breakfast, mexican food night, anything! Oatmeal
Instant mashed potatoes
Vegan animal crackers (costco) Have fun!!