Fun with camping/road trip food. (Really!)

The eight-day road trip was pretty successful, food-wise and overall.  Who knew that gluten, potato, and grain/cheese intolerance on the road could be so easy?  (Of course, it helped that we packed two full grocery bags and a cooler before heading out.)  Here's a quick summary of how we did it...

We started and ended with coffee, bacon and eggs at local diners.  The starting breakfast was much more satisfying than the end.

Cricket Cafe - Day One

Drift Inn (Yachats) - Day Eight

(Although my four-cheese omelette was disappointing, with just a clump of cheese slapped between an egg tortilla of sorts, and the service there is absolutely terrible, I will give it to the Drift Inn - Patrick's spinach/feta frittata was pretty good, dinner the night before was delicious, their food is fresh, and I got to choose polenta over toast/biscuits at breakfast.  This reminder has inspired several polenta dishes recently and I can't wait to explore more of this wonderful food-I-can-eat.  Polenta croutons are next on the list.  As with any breakfast I handed those potatoes over as soon as she set the plate down though.)

And OH MY GOD if you are ever in Yachats go to the Green Salmon and get a cup of their Melitta filtered house coffee.  I don't care if you don't like coffee - just do it. 

Otherwise, camp breakfast was coffee, oatmeal, and whatever additions we felt like that morning: dried cranberries, honey, peanut butter, dried bananas, fresh peaches, slivered almonds, flax and chia seeds were all viable options.  Honey and peanut butter were always chosen.  Good to know that a container of quick cook steel cut oats from Trader Joe's and a bag of Peet's were just the right amount for the week.  Note to self: next time bring cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice!

about 3 minutes before I spilled my coffee the last morning

Road snacks and lunch consisted mostly of rice cakes/peanut butter, Whole Foods Spanish mix, Trader Joe's plantain chips/cheese, and lots of dried and fresh fruit.  However! One simple peanut and safflower oil treat Patrick found in Crescent City inspired me to check Fritos (my road trip weakness) to see if they were safe - AND THEY ARE!  And Trader Joe's has a Frito imitation chip that's way less greasy than the name brand!  All of this information made me very happy.  These peanut poofs made me happy too.

 thank you, Israel!

Dinner was just delicious.  Every single bite, every single night.  And so easy (thanks in part to heavy duty aluminum foil - sorry environment, I make up for it every other day of the year).  The night before we left I made a big batch of quinoa for me and couscous for Patrick, with just a little olive oil and salt and pepper, and this lasted us four days in the cooler and served as the base for the first several dinners.

I also brought along a freezer bag full of spice jars (the basics like rosemary, parsley, oregano, red pepper flakes, plus a few surprises), and we tried to vary the produce with each meal (except for corn, which we ate at every opportunity).  Protein at each meal included either salami, soy curls or fresh fish we picked up that day. 

corn, brussel sprouts, salami, quinoa/couscous

corn, asparagus, snapper, quinoa/couscous

zucchini, carrots, snapper/cod

 fresh oysters - four each gave us a week's worth of iron!
or something ridiculous like that

 precooked brown rice, canned black beans, farmer's market tomatoes, salami

 eggplant, mushrooms, bean threads, soy curls, garam masala

We only ate out a few times...  Once in Brookings when we were really craving a burger but the "best burger joint on the coast" was closed, so we agreed to hit Dick's Kitchen when we were back in Portland and settled on the DoLittle Cafe for a Cobb salad w/oil and vinegar for me, BLAT for him.

Once in Bandon to try the infamous Tony's Crab Shack fish tacos...

pretty good, but not *the best* I've ever had

And dinner and the aforementioned breakfast at the Drift Inn in Yachats.

dungeness crab salad for me

dungeness crab and artichoke bake for him

Dessert was usually peanut butter with dark chocolate (Trader Joe's to the rescue again, with their dark chocolate peanut butter cups).  Except when it was peanut butter fudge, dark chocolate fudge, or some combination of the two.

And yes, there was wine and whiskey involved.  Back in the day Franzia {shudder barf} used to be the only wine-in-a-box option.  Recently I've definitely seen an upswing in the variety of boxed wine at the grocery stores, and since we got back we've leaned toward that because they do seem more eco-friendly.  (And we're not super picky about wine.)  (And we are cheap... er, frugal.)

Bandit and Bota Box wines are surprisingly good.  Black Box, on the other hand, not so good.  And the box is shiny so we couldn't burn it in the campfire.  I didn't stoop to Columbia Crest or any of the other crap I wouldn't buy bottled either, so I have no opinion on those.

You do have to be careful with these boxes though.  There's no way to monitor how much you're drinking unless you count refills, and after a few refills who counts refills?  Not that I learned this from experience or anything.  Really, I didn't.  I'm just supposing.

neither Bandit nor Bota Box -

I had two glasses

So...  After all this, I had only one minor issue, and I think that was the cole slaw from Tony's Crab Shack.  (Not that it was bad - but I think there was some vegetable gum in the dressing or something.)  And even that was fairly painless.  Pretty amazing, and a really good reinforcement of what fresh food can do for you.

Well, fresh food charred with carcinogens and paired with wine in a box, I suppose.