So, yes the plant based diet is continuing and I'm hanging in there about 90-95% of the time. My weakness is cheese, of course! Planning for my solo trip I did a bunch of research to see what others have found work well for camping. I wanted to have pretty limited amounts of prep to do for meals and I only brought a little MSR and one pan to cook with. Here's what I came up with for meals: For breakfast at home most of the time I eat a half container of coconut milk yogurt with gluten free granola and fresh blueberries, its almost like having dessert for breakfast! This particular gf granola from Trader Joe's was super crunchy, just the way I like it. For a little variety I made these Oatmeal/ Zucchini/ Protein muffins. This was a new recipe that I tweaked a bit and added dates and walnuts too and they turned out great! I froze the ones I wasn't taking camping and since I've been home I've tested those too and they are just as good after freezing...thumbs up! Lunches were both easier and challenging... Since I knew I'd be hiking a couple of days, I wanted to make sure I had something that would hold up in the backpack. But I also wanted some greens to balance things out. I ended up going with simple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for hiking. For a bit healthier alternative I picked up a bag of Trader Joe's Cruciferous Crunch salad mix (because I knew it wasn't going to wilt down and get slimey, yuck!) and a pack of shredded carrots and beets from New Seasons. Then I roasted a can of Garbanzo beans with spices to add some protein to the salads. Topped with this delicious Vegan Ranch dressing I found and pumpkin seeds, it was super yummy. For dinners I decided to be a little more creative. Dinner number one I made with lentil pasta from Trader Joe's topped with an arugula vegan pesto (which I made the night before heading out.) I added the broccoli when I heated it up at camp and topped with the vegan parm cheese. I so wanted this to be really good, but alas, it just wasn't. Turns out I'm not a fan of the lentil pasta...oh well. Will try again later with a better gluten free pasta. Dinner number two, was super easy! I picked up a bag of Trader Joe's frozen Vegetable fried rice and kept it frozen in the cooler. I baked up a half a container of extra firm tofu with spices so that it got a bit crispy. All I had to do was heat everything up in the pan at camp. It was delicious! Next time I might bring a little tamari with me to just add a tad more flavor. Dinner number three actually didn't get eaten at camp. It started raining the last night and I decided to treat myself to dinner at Wallowa Lake Lodge where it was nice, warm and dry! But it was going to be Amy's Vegetarian chili (with a pull tab top so no can opener was necessary!) and fritos. The fritos aren't pictured because I had to pick them up at a potty stop on the way...New Seasons nor Trader Joe's carries them, boo! I have been known to chow down an entire bag of cheetos while camping, because obviously calories don't count if they are consumed outdoors! This time around I decided to try out Earth Balance's puffs and supplement those with my favorite Sea Salt potato chips. They both hit the salt craving just perfect! I balanced the junk food out with some fruit and nuts too. As for the whiskey and beer, well duh....I was camping!! You also can't camp without making S'mores! Trader Joe's has vegan marshmallows (meaning they don't contain gelatin) and the dark chocolate over 75% is considered vegan. I do have Honey Grahams and I know honey can be a controversial subject for vegans. However, I'm a honey eating vegan. I loved that I could use my new mermaid lunch container to make transporting the S'more stuff much easier! In addition to my dinner out the one night, I also had lunch at the Summit Restaurant one day. Otherwise, I stuck to my meal plan pretty well! Everything held up great and because there wasn't really anything that could spoil, I didn't have to be too militant about keeping ice in the cooler. In some ways I found packing vegan easier than previous camping trips!
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