Vegetable Egg Scramble with Polenta

I love eggs. They are a complete protein, meaning they contain all the essential amino acids one's body needs for muscle repair and healing. Egg yolks do contain a lot of dietary cholesterol and fat, but when I'm backpacking my body can use the extra calories for the day to come. Also, when I am backpacking I tend to have a plant-based diet (since it's difficult to bring meat along on a backpacking trip), so the extra cholesterol isn't too much of a worry. If you have high cholesterol issues, powdered egg whites are also available for purchase.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup dry egg powder
• 1 tsp dehydrated onions
• 1 tsp dehydrated bell peppers
• 1 tbsp dried portabella mushrooms
• 1/8 tsp dill weed
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 roll of premade polenta
• salt and pepper to taste

At Home

1. Mix dry egg powder, dehydrated onions, bell peppers, mushrooms and dill into a ziplock bag

At Camp

1. Mix 1/2 cup of filtered water into egg powder mixture. Let stand for 5 minutes to allow vegetables to soften.
2. Open premade polenta roll and slice into 8 slices.
3. Add 1 tbsp of oil to medium camp pan and bring to medium heat. Slowly pan fry polenta circles for 2 minutes on each side or until lightly brown and crisp. Put aside. 





4. Return pan to stove and remaining oil to pan.
5. Pour egg mixture into pan and slowly cook eggs until done.
6. Serve eggs and polenta. Salt and pepper to taste. (Or side of cholula like my husband likes!)

Roasted Chestnuts

We're all familiar with the song, but how many of you have actually roasted chestnuts on an open fire? This is something fun and easy to do when at base camp, not really a backpacking activity since many places have restrictions on fires in the backcountry. We actually roasted these chestnuts on our backyard fire pit. We like to pretend we're camping every opportunity we get! 

Supplies needed

• Disposable pie tin
• Sharp scoring knife

Ingredients

• Fresh chestnuts

At Camp

1. With sharp knife, score the chestnut all the way around, horizontally. Try to score through the skin as this will make it easier to peel after it is roasted.
2. Set up grate over the campfire and place pie tin on grate.
3. Place prepared chestnuts in pie tin.
4. Roast chestnuts over fire for about 15 minutes, gently shake pie tin every few minutes for an even roast. 
5. Remove from fire and allow to cool.
6. Peel skin and enjoy! 

Roasted Vegetables

Following the same basic principles from my Grilled Asparagus recipe, I roast many different vegetables over the campfire. Be creative and remember, camp cooking doesn't always have to consist of canned beans and hot dogs!  My favorite is grilled brussels sprouts. I've tried roasting vegetables without any oil and I don't recommend it as the vegetables will dry out and burn before they get perfectly roasted.  

Wash and chop brussels sprouts into quarters for best cooking

Campfire roasted corn is delicious. 

Grilled peppers are my husband's favorite. The peppers need to be turned
more often because they burn easy, so I typically grill them on a piece
of foil instead of making a foil packet.

Perfectly roasted Poblano chilies

Bucketful of Use

This bucket is made by Seattle Sports
and it folds down to almost nothing. 

Who would have though a 15 dollar collapsible bucket would be one of my favorite camp kitchen items? A bucket is very handy to have during backpacking and at base camp. Believe it or not, it helps you conserve water, which can be very important when camping in a desert! You can save grey water from food prep or washing dishes as the day goes on and use that to put out that campfire at night. It also helps minimize trips to your water source since it holds so much. This is useful when backpacking if your tent is far away.

Some of my favorite uses of my bucket include:

• Fill it up with fresh water from a river or lake and filter your drinking water from the bucket
• Wash fruits and vegetables in the bucket (with potable water of course)
• Wash dishes
• Use as a basket for freshly picked fruit (blackberries along a river perhaps?)
• Clean freshly caught fish from the river. And then sanitize the bucket with some soap before using it for anything else.
• Do laundry

This is definitely an essential tool for anyone's camp kitchen.