Hobo Huggy

I went camping this weekend as a birthday / bon voyage celebration for my boyfriend. This was not roughing it, but more like car camping since we spent the first half of the weekend moving his apartment into storage.

Even though I spend about ten hours a day communing with nature, I’ve never been a big camper. You can blame that on my parents and an encounter with a bear three years ago in upstate New York.

My first attempt at foil-wrapped veggies was quite a success. One friend called them Hobo Huggies and another called them Boy Scout Packets. I can find no reference to either of those exact names, but I like the sound of Hobo Huggy. So, Hobo Huggy it is!

The Huggies I made contained onion, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, portabella mushrooms, and marinated tempeh.

Since we were cleaning out the fridge in preparation for moving, I combined the remains of Asian sesame dressing and red pepper dressing to make a sauce. I also added soy sauce, mustard, ketchup, and honey into the sauce. I seriously was trying to use up every thing in the fridge.

I spread the uncooked veggies on two layers of tin foil so they were not piled high. Then I sprinkled the vegetables with salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, and chipotle pepper powder. Next I spooned about 4 or 5 tablespoons of sauce over the vegetables. I wrapped those babies up and then wrapped the whole packet one more time with tin foil.

We put the packets on hot coals, flipping them occasionally, and waited until they were done. (They're just sitting on the rack in the picture. They were on coals when cooking.) I’m not sure how long it took, but it was less than an hour. The first time we checked, they were done.

They were perfect! I don’t know what it is, but they tasted 100 times better than when I put the left over veggies in my kitchen oven to roast the next day.

Oh yeah, I made sure to bring stuff for s'mores. I'm a dessert whore! Plus, how often do you get to light marshmallows on fire?

‘Tis the season, so more camping recipes here, here, and here.

Tempeh Salad

One of the only meat dishes I crave is chicken salad. I like my chicken salad with lots of pepper and celery. The tiny containers of vegetarian chicken salad are way too expensive, so I usually grate seitan to make my own.

I’ve never made a veggie chicken salad with tempeh, but I saw this the other day and decided to give it a go since I already had a fresh baked olive roll from Fork:etc. The olive roll, by the way, was perfect - crusty on the outside, soft in the middle and had large hunks of olives.

Tempeh Salad
adapted from Yoga Kitchen: Recipes from the Shoshoni Yoga Retreat
serves 4

2 tablespoons sunflower oil
4 cups cubed tempeh(the smaller you dice the tempeh, the better it stays on the roll)
3 tablespoons Bragg Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce)
1 to 2 cups mayonnaise (regular or vegan)
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1/2 cup diced red bell peppers
1/2 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup diced celery
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
salt and pepper

• Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the tempeh and fry until golden. Sprinkle the Bragg Liquid Aminos over the tempeh and sauté for 1 minute longer.
• Transfer to a serving bowl and stir in the mayonnaise, scallions, bell peppers, carrots, celery, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. (I also added garlic powder and lemon juice to make it a little zippier.) Mix thoroughly.
• Let marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour before serving. Use more or less mayonnaise depending on your taste.