no meat!

[Lisabob]

The discussion in the original thread has me thinking about how we cook & eat at scouting events. I know this doesn't apply to everybody, but it seems to me that a lot of scout cooking is pretty meaty. Perhaps it isn't surprising that those are the things our scouts fall back on when planning their menus. They're just cooking what they know, and what they see us cooking.

 

So let's share some new ideas! My challenge: post a recipe that you like and that can be made on a camp out, and that doesn't include meat. Maybe someone else can start a "no gluten!" thread and do the same thing.

 

One of my son's winter favorites: Yellow rice & veggie hash

 

Ingredients

2-4 sweet/regular potatoes (or combo), cut into small cubes

1-2 onions, diced

bell pepper, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms, corn, tomato, other veggies (whatever you prefer) - cut up in small pieces

2-3 green onions finely chopped

1-2 fresh hot peppers (serrano, jalepeno, whatever) diced

 

1+ Tablespoon ground coriander

2+ teaspoons ground cumin

1/2+ teaspoon cayenne

a little olive oil

salt to taste

(We never measure the spices precisely so add more if you like!)

1 bag of vigo yellow rice

 

Cook the rice according to the directions on the bag.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and saute onions. Add potato & saute til about halfway cooked (10-15 minutes). Add other veggies & continue cooking. Add seasoning and toss well to coat. When cooked, garnish with green onions & hot pepper.

 

I've never met a boy who wouldn't eat this, even minus the meat (goes well with andouille sausage and/or chicken thrown in, too, for the meat eating types.) My guys prefer to mix the cooked rice in with the veggies to pick up the spices. Also goes well reheated in breakfast burritos, with or without eggs.

 

 

If I had a mixed group of vegetarians & meat eaters who absolutely demanded meat, then I might chop some smoked sausage and warm it up in a separate pan (maybe the one the rice cooked in, after the rice is mixed into the veggies to minimize dish washing) and have them add it to their own plates at the end.

 

 

 

[IM_Kathy]

one very simple is just cooking penne pasta and using a non-meat sauce... can cook up hamburger or sausage in a seperate pan for those that want to add the meat. or go with an alfredo sauce.

 

we do the same thing with scrambled omlets - will cook a pan with meat in it and a pan without... just cook up the veggies a bit, add the eggs, and then melt the cheese in.

 

kebobs are also good - can add meat chunks or just go with the veggies - mushrooms, onions, peppers, carrots, and whatever else you want.

 

our boys are required to make sure everyone in the patrol is able to eat their meals and has all the food groups covered - so they always have apples, oranges, or bananas and things like carrots or such for munching with the meal which helps a great deal.

[SeattlePioneer]

What's the point?

 

 

Or put another way---

 

Where's the beef?

[Lisabob]

SP - you might want to read the end of the thread from which this was spun. Mac-n-cheese is NOT the only vegetarian dish on earth with some flavor to it. The boys hopalong describes clearly need some new ideas. I thought we might be able to help with that. That's the point.

 

 

[dg98adams]

Catchup, water, and spaghetti noodles....... New patrol grub master forgot the sauce.

 

They finished eating, and the leaders heard about it over the camp fire later..They were discussing the pro and cons of roasting the grb master . .. Sorta good they mushed on without an SM/ASM addressing the problem of the missing sauce.

 

Note to self: what is catchup..... Tomato flavored after all right?

(This message has been edited by dg98adams)(This message has been edited by dg98adams)

[IM_Kathy]

personally I think plain noodles would've been better than putting ketchup on them

 

another one I've see the boys cook before is cooking up egg noodles and adding frozen vegetables making it a bit of a soup... it is much better with chicken broth, but wasn't terrible without it as I sampled.

[Tampa Turtle]

As a diabetic I have similar options. For example if my wife makes a hamburger helper dish she cooks up the meat for the dish and before adding the pasta (carbs) and sauce (sugar and fat) she sets aside a potion of meat for me. I then eat that and doctor it up myself. She then cooks the meal for the rest of the family normally. I suppose you could do the same thing with a dish -- spoon out the vegetarian part first and then add the meat in for the rest.

[Papadaddy]

My nephew, now 18, will NOT eat a vegetable of any kind. He grew up on frozen pizza, burgers and fries. He and his dad (died in Sept), lived that way. When we take him out to eat, his two "sides" are french fries AND mashed potatoes. Or "double fries". If we make him put a vegetable on his plate, it ends up in the trash. Dad was a heavy smoker and died at age 50 of a massive heart attack. Go figure...

 

Nephew was in Scouts long enough to go on one campout...I suspect this is why he dropped out. That and the fact they expected him to get up before noon.

 

PS: Thanks for the recipe, Lisa. I'm going to print this out and try it!(This message has been edited by papadaddy)

[Engineer61]

LB,

 

Yeah if they're hungry enough they'll eat anything...normally though, my Scout wouldn't touch it.

 

E61

[Tampa Turtle]

We have a few vegetarians and sometimes thats what the Patrol cooks. I know because my youngest will come home saying something was pretty good and wants to make it at home.

[Lisabob]

E61 - are you telling me the boy will not eat rice (if the spice is the issue, have him get his rice out of the pot before it gets mixed into the spiced veggies)? Or potatoes? That he couldn't judiciously pick around some of the veggies if he was hungry enough? That (if he "has to have" meat) he couldn't arrange to also warm up a little smoked sausage or pre-cooked white meat chicken and add it to his rice? And failing ALL of that, that he apparently wouldn't bother to participate in the meal planning process to ensure that there might be at least one thing on the menu he is willing to eat? In that case, suck it up, cream puff.

 

This isn't really about likes/dislikes; it is about having food that one is ABLE to eat. In the situation described in the original thread, boys who were on legitimately restricted diets ended up with nothing they could eat because other boys would refuse to make even basic accommodations like buying cheese for vegetarians to put on their sandwiches. Apparently not once, but frequently. How is that right? How does that demonstrate good patrol leadership? I'd say it isn't and it doesn't. The original poster mentioned that the meat-eating boys were sick of mac&cheese, as though that's the only option. I'm not advocating a total ban on meat here - just broadening the choices beyond "mac&cheese or nothing at all."

 

So - everybody - how about it, more non-meat recipes for camp outs?

 

 

[CalicoPenn]

Meatless Chili - Serves about 6.

 

1 small onion , chopped

1 large green bell pepper , chopped

3/4 cup chopped celery

3/4 cup water

3 garlic cloves , finely chopped

 

2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans recipe-ready diced tomatoes , undrained

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 cup tomato paste

2 vegetarian vegetable flavor bouillon cubes

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

2 (15 ounce) cans canned kidney beans , rinsed and drained

 

Directions:

 

1) COMBINE onion, bell pepper, celery, 3/4 cup water and garlic in large saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, for 6 to 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

 

2) ADD tomatoes and juice, water, tomato paste, boullion, cilantro, chili powder and cumin; stir well. Stir in beans. Bring to a boil; cover. Reduce heat to low; cook, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes (so that it's more of a chili consistency than a soup consistency).

[sailingpj]

On my ships summer cruise I threatened to do a vegetarian day and make tofu(no food allergies or picky eaters in the crew). Since I did not want to wake up under water I did not actually plan that sort of day. Unfortunately one of the other scouts meals decided to take flying lessons when we got hit by a wake on our beam. The only thing that survived was the broccoli because he hadn't taken it out of the fridge yet.

 

I went to help him find some spare food to make dinner with. Well I found a bunch of spaghetti, so I suggested that he make that. He commented that we didn't have any sauce, so according to him I grabbed a pot and magically pulled spaghetti sauce out of thin air.

 

What I did was take a can of diced tomatoes, and two cans of tomato paste, put them in a pot, and add water. I also threw in some salt and pepper to give it a little more flavor.

 

So I guess what I am suggesting is that spaghetti can be a good vegetarian dinner, and like the others you can always cook up a bit of sausage to put on top.

[Tampa Turtle]

I have eaten the TVP "meat" and used it in Chili and Sloppy Joes. My sons, who are big meat eaters, could not tell the difference.

[GKlose]

I suppose like everyone else, our guys go through cycles. We're complicated because while we have vegetarians, we also have a peanut allergy Scout, and a Scout with a severe milk and egg allergy (he really only eats bacon and plain bagels at home).

 

One thing they stumbled upon awhile back was tacos -- with refried beans as a filling for the vegetarians. One campout I formed a small cooking groups for two vegetarians, and their dads -- since we were looking for something quick to prepare, we had heat and eat Indian entrees that were actually very good (bought on sale at an Indian grocery, so they were cheap too).

 

The troop's latest kick, though is "meat on a stick" -- our prior SM is a hunter and also perpetually on a low-carb diet. It led to a Friday night campire snack of "meat on a stick" -- hot dogs for those with no patience, and italian sausage for those with patience. On a 5-day canoe trip this last summer, one dad carted a cooler and we had meat on a stick for the first 3 nights.

 

Guy