Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Hippie Camping

Not exactly how we camp, but...


My family spent the past holiday weekend camping with my parents and my younger brother and his family at Waveland Lake, up by Crawfordsville, IN.  We sat around and talked, we ate, some of us swam, we ate, some of us fished, we ate, my youngest son broke my nose with his head, we ate, we went hiking at the Shades of Death State Park, we ate, I mutilated some poor fish when my dad tried to teach me to fillet, and we ate some more (but not until I washed my hands.  Fish are slimy!)

Ever since my youngest was about 4 months old, we have gone camping every year on Memorial Day, the 4th of July and Labor Day.  Sometimes it is hot; sometimes it is cold.   This year it rained on every Sunday we were camping, and this past weekend we endured a 40 degree difference in highs from Friday to Monday!

Packing for the crazy weather aside, the hardest thing about camping (other than the ridiculous trails that my brother keeps sending us hiking on- I still hurt and I didn’t even do that hard part!) is feeding me.  Unlucky for my mom, but very lucky for me, Mom and I share the same gluten intolerance so that definitely helps.  What also helps is that we share the responsibility of bringing meals between the three families represented.   With three different brains working on it, we can figure out meals that translate into GF/DF/EF pretty easily.  For instance, this year my family contributed tacos and burritos- ever that quintessential camping meal, right? ;)  It works though- my oldest son loves “burrrrrit-oes” as he calls them;  my youngest loves a good deconstructed taco (everything just piled on a plate) and my adorable red-headed niece is a big fan of her Aunt Val’s Mexican rice.  Mexican cuisine is the first thing I always point to when people say, “How do you do this?” because it is naturally mostly gluten-free- especially if you stick with corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas.  It is also easy to leave off the dairy ingredients, and as long as you stay away for the huevos or anything breaded, you miss the egg component as well.  To add to the “feeling normal” aspect of it, there are a few dairy-free sour cream replacers that really do the job.  My favorite is by a brand named Tofutti and is called Sour Supreme.  The stuff adds the creaminess that I used to get with cheese to just about anything I put it in.  I miss cheese…

  Along the same lines as our taco contribution, my brother’s family brought a Taco/Ranch burger that was really, really good!  If I had been able to put a slice of pepper-jack cheese on the top….heaven!  My mom and dad contributed pork barbecue to the party.  Using Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and letting the pork cook all day in the crock pot, Mom made some of the best barbeque I’ve ever had.  And she found some rolls made by Schar that we used for buns.  Sooo yummy!

So all in all, I was thankful that hiking at the Shades of Death didn’t do me in- I had too much good food to eat!  Adding all the fun we had, the chocolate soy milk that was really, really good in coffee and the care taken to make sure that I had everything I needed (including graham crackers and dark chocolate for s’mores) it was a fantastic camping trip- for everyone but that poor, poor fish…  

1 comment:

  1. Would you send me your recipe for Mexican Rice? I can't seem to find one I like.

    ReplyDelete