camp cooking Archives

Whether home or in camp, these Morning Breakfast Muffins are a perfect, healthy morning snack. I’m looking forward to making these the day before an adventure as an excellent bring-along snack for day hiking, biking and canoeing.

I like cutting them in half and grilling them lightly before spreading with cream cheese.

If you bake in camp, like with the Omnia Stovetop Oven, or Omnia Oven Kit (with oven, rack, and liners), or a good Dutch Oven (I have the Lodge 8qt and the Stansport 4qt), this would be an interesting recipe to try in shallow cake form.

I may experiment next time to see if I can come up with a batter that will form into donut hole-sized balls for baking in camp without a muffin tin.

This is a great recipe for tweaking to one’s own tastes, adding more fruit or nuts, or switching up the type of nut-butter or milk, etc. I found it just a tad salty, so will reduce the amount of salt by half next time (already adjusted below). I also added raisins and chopped walnuts (included below).

If you tweak the recipe further, let me know what you did and how it turned out.

Makes 12-15 muffins

INGREDIENTS

– 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats . For camping I like Quaker Oats in resealable bags. (Not instant oats)
– 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
– 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
– 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
– 2 cups milk (almond, oat, or dairy)
– 2 ripe bananas
– 2 large eggs
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 1/3 cup almond butter, at room temperature
– 1 cup pitted dates, finely chopped
– 1/2 cup raisins
– 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
– 1/4 cup hulled pumpkin seeds, plus extra for topping before baking

(Note: This recipe is modified slightly from one first found at LideyLikes.com, insta: @lideylikes. I halved the amount of salt and added raisins and chopped walnuts.)

batter spooned into muffin tin — Spoon batter into muffin tin

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin tin or line with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Place the bananas in a separate, smaller bowl and mash with a fork until smooth. Add the eggs to the bananas and beat until incorporated, then stir in the milk and vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Whisk in the almond butter, then add the dates and pumpkin seeds and mix well.

Sprinkle pumpkin seeds on breakfast muffins before baking — Sprinkle pumpkin seeds before baking

Let the batter rest for 15 minutes, until slightly thickened. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling them to the top, and sprinkle a few pumpkin seeds on each cups.

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the cups have risen slightly and are firm to the touch.
(Note:I found when making this that it took a bit longer to firm up.)

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then run a paring knife around each cup and carefully remove. Cool completely.

I keep mine in Debbie Meyer Green Bags right on the kitchen table. They’re usually gone within a couple days.

If keeping longer, the cups will keep for up to a week stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

THIS WEEK’S ROADDUDE FOOD:
Red Curry Lentils with Sweet Potatoes & Spinach

Red Curry Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach on rice in a bowl with red pepper and cilantro garnish — Red Curry Lentils, Sweet Potatoes & Spinach

Most of my cooking on the coast of Maine in winter is with an eye towards comfort food, warm and tasty, though often with an eye towards meals I can prepare later on the road in my camp kitchen, too. This week I cooked up a nice pot of Red Curry Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach.

Because I’ve been cooking up a storm of chicken and beef dishes lately, my daughter suggested I change it up and do a lentil dish of some sort.

I went looking and found a great Red Curry Lentils recipe from Lidey Heuck (@lideylikes) at New York Times Cooking.

This is a tasty Indian dal style dish, with red lentils cooked in a Thai arrangement of fresh ginger, red curry paste, turmeric (and red chile if you like).

Ingredients for Red Curry Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach on Rice — Ingredients for Red Curry Lentil Dish

Enhanced further with coconut milk, browned sweet potatoes, fresh spinach, and coconut flakes, and served over a bed of Basmati rice with some toasted Naan, this is a great winter dish that will have your kitchen smelling like heaven and your bellies feeling grateful.

I modified it only by not using the red chile pepper suggested and used red bell pepper instead, though only as additional garnish to the cilantro. The Thai red curry paste I used has ‘chilli pepper’ as primary ingredient and still provided more heat than my daughter was expecting. I loved it, though, and the dish checked all the boxes for her vegan partner as well.

Go check @lideylikes, lideylikes.com, or sign up at NYT Cooking for a ton of great looking food.

Ingredients cut up for Red Curry Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach on rice — Cubed, chopped, minced and ready to cook!

I’m eager to try her Tomatoes, Peaches, and Corn with Burrata salad when I get down to the borderlands soon.

Here’s Lidey Heuck’s Red Curry Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 med-large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 med yellow onion, chopped
3 tablespoon Thai red curry paste (sub yellow curry paste for a bit less heat)
1 tablespoon minced garlic cloves
1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
4 cups low-sodium vegetable stock
2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste at the end
1 can (13oz) full-fat coconut milk
1 bag baby spinach (5oz)
1/2 lime, juiced
1 red chile such as Fresno or serrano, halved, seeds and ribs removed, then minced (optional)
Fresh cilantro leaves as garnish
Unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted for serving (optional)
Steamed Rice, if desired. We love Basmati for meals like this. I keep a container of Texmati in my pantry for camp cooking and will use it when I cook this on the road.

PREPARATION:

– In your favorite soup pot, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high. Add the cubed sweet potatoes, stirring occasionally, until browned all over, 5 to 7 minutes. Browning the sweet potatoes before cooking them with the lentils brings out their sweetness, balancing the heat from the chile and curry paste. When sufficiently browned, transfer to a plate and set aside.

– Add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the pot and heat to medium-low. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 4 to 6 minutes. Stir in the curry paste, garlic, ginger, chile (optional) and turmeric, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

– Stir in the lentils, stock, salt and browned sweet potatoes to the pot and bring to a boil over high. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are just tender, 20 to 25 minutes.

– Add the coconut milk and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has reduced and the lentils are creamy and falling apart, 15 to 20 minutes.

– Add the spinach and stir until just wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, stir in the lime juice and season with salt to taste.

– Ladle into bowls, over rice if desired, and top with cilantro and coconut flakes.

Enjoy!

Let me know if you try this, how you like it, and if you changed it up at all.

~ Road