Vegetarian Camp Food

Hello! I just got back from spending four glorious days relaxing at Lake Casitas! It was so nice just doing nothing at all!

This is now my second camping trip as a vegetarian. I tried a couple new things including spaghetti, grilled cheese, green beans, and grilled peppers and onion fajitas (not pictured).

Spaghetti
I cooked the whole wheat spaghetti noodles at home and stored them with olive oil un a Plastic container. All I had to do is cook the veggies in some butter and then add the spaghetti to the pan to warm it all up. I sprinkled parmesan cheese on top after it was cooked.

Grilled cheese
For lunch, we made grilled cheese with sliced fuji apples and red onions. I used cheddar cheese and French bread (although the bread really tasted like sourdough). This lunch was super easy, but seemed gourmet. I loved the crunch the apple slices added. I'll be making this more often at home!

Green beans
I cleaned and cut the green beans at home so all I had to do was dump them in a pan with butter, garlic, and parmesan cheese. Again, super easy. Luckily, I'm growing this kind of bean in my garden so soon I'll be able to make these at home with home grown green beans!

S'mores
One day I had a s'more for lunch! Why not? It's vegetarian! Hahah. We like to make fancy s'mores by using Reece's peanut butter cups or Ghirardelli chocolate squares.

Vegetarian Camp Food

This past weekend, JR and I went camping at Lake Casitas to celebrate his 25th birthday! This was my first time going camping as vegetarian. Normally, I bring cheeseburgers for one night and chicken breast for the second night. This time I had to get a little bit creative. I wanted something easy (I only bring foil, a pan, and a spatula), budget friendly, savory, and filling (because JR is a meat eater). So, I bought a 10 lb bag of potatoes.

The first night we had baked potatoes. I poked little holes in the potatoes, wrapped them in foil and threw them on the grill! Talk about cheap, easy, and filling! We topped our potatoes with cheese, salsa, sour cream, green onions and butter. Yumm.

We saved one potato for breakfast. We chopped it up, and mixed it with soy chorizo and eggs. We turned this into breakfast burritos using the salsa, cheese, and sour cream. I highly recommend soy chorizo from Trader Joes.

My sister met up with us for the day. For lunch, we had sandwiches. Since JR and Kelsey are meat-eaters, I really wanted to prove that giving up meat doesn't mean you're stuck eating flat and boring grilled cheese sandwiches all the time. Eating like a vegetarian is delicious! I wanted our sandwiches to be special. I wanted the ingredients to be piled high. I bought some cheese rolls and croissants for the bread. Inside, we put spicy hummus, tomatoes, onions, spinach, lettuce, mushrooms, cheese and tons of avocado. Avocado is important because it really turns the sandwich into something special.

The second night we feasted on sauteed veggies. They came out delicious and definitely filling. We had zucchini, squash, red onions, white onions, green onions, green beans, mushrooms, carrots, garlic, and one slice of jalapeno. I had sliced and seasoned (salt and pepper) everything before we went camping so all we had to do was dump the veggies into the pan with butter and mix it around.

For dessert, we had s'mores made with Reese's.

Overall, I found that planning a vegetarian menu while camping makes my life a thousand times easier. For one, I don't have to worry about food contamination (did the chicken juices leak onto other foods while in the ice chest?). Also, I didn't have to worry about keeping the ice chest super super cold. One bag of ice lasted the entire weekend because I didn't have to worry about keeping meats cold. And finally, vegetables are cheap. I bought all my food for under $45.

Do you have any other ideas on simple vegetarian meals that I could make while camping?

Santa Barbara, CA

Santa Barbara (State Street specifically) is one of my favorite places in the whole world! Someone recently asked me where I would live if I could live anywhere and of course I picked SB. He was like, "Oh, because you went to school there?" and I was like, "Nooo... I went to school there because it's always been my favorite place!"

I especially love State Street during the holidays. I love shopping at Paseo Nuevo during the night because of all the white Christmas lights. Ahhhhh.

So today, we were spontaneous and took a drive out to SB to do some Christmas shopping. My sister met us and we had lunch at Palazzio. I've been here a couple times before, once for my 20th birthday. I love the bread and the caesar salad. For the first time in months, I kinda took a break from being a true vegetarian. This place serves their pasta family style, so we ordered pasta with chicken and I just picked the chicken out. I'm sure I ate some tiny pieces, but oh well. Anyways, I'm not sure why I didn't eat here more often during college. It was delicious!

I love Santa Barbara. I always feel so sad whenever I have to leave. <3

Flagstaff 2011- Day Two

We slowly woke up and got ready for our day.

To start, we went to the coolest coffee shop/restaurant called Macy's. Everything looked sooo good, I had a hard time deciding what to order. I ended up choosing some fancy soy latte and vegan waffles from their amazing all-vegetarian menu! I loved that everything was vegetarian. Love love loved it!









After breakfast, we walked around downtown. We went back into a lot of the shops we went to the night before during artwalk. It was nice to go back when it wasn't so crowded. I bought a couple little things.

Christine had to be at NAU for the football game at 2:30 and we had lunch plans with some friends including a friend from high school, Justin (actually I've technically known him since preschool I think). We were really short on time, so we just sat with them for like 15 minutes and then went off to enjoy the game. Since we didn't have much time to catch up over lunch, we made plans to BBQ in the evening.

Christine is part of a club called Chain Gang so I sat with Cassie and her swim team friends while Christine fulfilled her Chain Gang duties.





Christine was able to save me a seat next to her so I went down to sit with the Chain Gang... right behind the football players. It was smelly! Also, number 69 had a mullet.



Christine was able to leave after the first quarter. Per the boy's request, Christine baked cookies as a contribution to the BBQ. So, we went back to the apartment and Christine did what she does best... baked cookies!





After the cookies were done, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up some other BBQ essentials. Then we were off to the BBQ.

Here's a pic of my cheeseburger with no meat. I did end up taking a 10 second break from being a vegetarian so that I could try a tiny piece of lamb. Hahaha. I just wanted to be able to say I tried it, plus it smelled really flavorful. I'll admit, it didn't taste bad!



Unfortunately I didn't take any more pics at the BBQ. We spent the evening watching Netflix, eating, and laughing. We left at about midnight.

I had such a fun day. I really like Christine's friends, Flagstaff, and of course, Christine. <3

Camarillo

My sister recently moved to Camarillo. I love Camarillo because of the shopping (of course) and also the location (not too far from home, and super close to LA).

But, we are still searching for a delicious restaurant. We've tried a couple yummy places, but we are looking for more. Does anyone know of any great places to eat? We are especially interested in finding a great breakfast place :)

Labor Day Weekend Road Trip- Day Three

Day three consisted of MORE EATING!

Our first stop was Pho Y! This place was packed (always a good sign!). When it comes to pho, I can't help but take a "30-minute break from being a vegetarian"! I did order mine without meat though :)





Then after pho, even though we were super stuffed, we went to Tapioca Express. I tried honey milk tea which was super sweet.





After that, we went to Gilroy to shop and then headed home.

Labor Day Weekend Road Trip- Day Two

We took our time getting ready at the hotel. We checked out around 11am and were on our way to San Jose.

My cousin knew all the popular food places. Our first stop of the night was The Counter on Santana Row. It was so fun customizing our orders. I had a veggie burger.





Even though we were STUFFED, my cousin convinced everyone to try Hello Desserts! This place was amazing!



I got a Fruity Delight. Soooo yummy! Suddenly, I wasn't so stuffed anymore. I finished the whole thing!