Vegan Camping with Cheesy Burger Bush Pie

I just went camping this past weekend for the St. Victor Boogie, a motorcycle rally that is held ever year here in Saskatchewan by the Southern Independent Riders. It always promises to be a great time and this year it didn’t disappoint. I even got to sing on stage with one of the bands! So basically I am a rock star now! As for the food, I didn’t really eat like a rock star, because I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked, but I survived and actually came up with some awesome things to eat.

The Burnout Pit!

Being vegan and going camping you have to be prepared. Everyone usually packs to much food so you could share, but most people usually pack lots of meat products. So now what? You could eat the grass right? Haha no I wouldn’t suggest that, and I hope you don’t get that desperate. Basically you need to be really prepared, so take some time and think about what you would like to eat, especially snacking food.

If you have a fridge I would strongly suggest you take as much fresh fruit and veggies as possible. I brought out avocados to make fresh guacamole for one of those afternoons when you are craving something salty, and fruit and my 3 Ingredient Cookies for when I was craving something sweet. If you have the time before hand I suggest making these cookies for your trip. They are the perfect substitute for granola bars because there is no added sugar or mystery ingredients in them!

The groceries I brought out were:

Dempsters Vegetable Bread

Daiya

Vegan burgers

Vegan hot dogs

Coconut oil

Bananas

Frozen Fruit to make smoothies (we have a small generator so I brought my magic bullet!)

Spinach

Avocados

Salsa

Blue corn chips

Banana oatmeal cookies

Things I forgot - my mangos and grapes

And last but not least – vegetarian beans that were generously given to me by my friend Amber

As you can see there is not a ton of fresh stuff, but I think I ate pretty good for camping. 

I would say that the one thing that saved my butt this weekend was the bush pie maker. They are the greatest camping invention ever and without it I would have probably starved (okay I wouldn’t have, but you get the picture). If your family goes camping and don’t own one, go to Walmart or Canadian Tire and get one now. There are two types out there, aluminum and cast iron. The aluminum ones are cheaper and you get what you pay for. My sister in law Jen put hers in the fire to heat up and the whole thing melted. Clearly that wouldn’t happen with the
cast iron version, so if you can spend a little more, splurge on the cast iron version.

These burgers turned out awesome!
And I love how they are vegan,
gluten free and soy free! 

So what did I make with my bush pie maker? First I made a grilled cheese. If you have ever had Daiya before you know that it takes a while for it to melt, well not in this baby. She was perfectly toasted in less than 5 minutes and the cheese was melted and stringy, YUM!

Second I made a grilled cheese but this time I added beans to it, which was even better! If you are cringing right now I don’t blame you, its not something you eat everyday, but if I could I would. When my sister Ashley got back from Europe she brought back this tasty treat with her and I have loved it ever since. Apparently it is something that they eat all the time, crazy Europeans!

Its always good to drink lots of water!

But you can sneak in a few Palm Bays too!

But the main star of the weekend was the grilled cheese burger, yup I said it and I made it, a grilled cheese burger. This was super simple to make and I was eating it in less than 10 minutes. First I took the vegan burger (Santa Fe variation from Big Mountain Foods) and cooked it in the bush pie maker for 5 minutes, then sandwiched it in between cheese and cooked it once more for 3 minutes. It was pure heaven, even my meat lovin friends were saying how awesome it looked.

Now that I have found a new delicious meal, I am now considering asking Devon to make me a fire this week so I can eat another one because I have never had a better grilled cheese in my life.

Also, there are so many different versions you could make:

Grilled chili cheese

Pizza (think of the toppings)

Fruity ones

The sky is the limit really, so go and have some fun with  your food!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Portobello Mushroom Burger

Have you ever tried to make vegan/vegetarian burgers? There are so many recipes out there that call for different ingredients, everything from quinoa, sweet potato, black beans ect. If you are adventurous you will try some of these recipes out and pray to the vegan gods that they turn out. If not then you will have a stir fry with the mixture instead. I have made a couple and they haven’t been that bad, nothing life changing but not a waste of ingredients. I know I haven’t tried all of the recipes out there, so there is still hope for finding that perfect vegan burger. But what happens when you are craving a BBQ burger but you don’t feel like making something up. Well Portobello Mushrooms to the rescue!

I have only ever cooked these in the oven like a pizza, but I know other people have tried this method before and it was successful for them, so why not me! I had two in my fridge and they were getting old so I wanted to use them up quick before they got moldy. I didn’t have any pizza sauce so I couldn’t make pizzas, so why not try something new like BBQing them like burgers. Devon was feeling a little adventurous and said he would give them a shot, seeing as I had two to eat up.

Result? Super delicious and very satisfactory. I had been craving something BBQ’d for a while because the weather had got so nice and I could smell other people BBQing in our neighborhood, thankfully this totally hit the spot. They only took 15 mins on the grill to prepare, so while those are cooking I cut up all of the veggies I wanted on the burger and BAM supper was ready with not a lot of mess or prep work to clean up.

 

Scrape out the insides of the mushroom and lightly coat with coconut oil. Season with salt, pepper, and Montreal Steak Spice. Cook hollow side down for 5 minutes, then 10 minutes on the other side. For the last 10 minutes, fill with Daiya cheese and let it melt! I put down tin foil on the BBQ to avoid cross contamination and the mushroom cooked just fine.

Top with your favorite toppings like tomato, lettuce, avocado, mustard, ketchup on a bun or in a lettuce wrap! Eat while hot and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N