Vegetarian Camp Cooking

If it's chilly in the morning, warm up with a bowl of oatmeal. Instant oatmeal cooks fasts once you get the water boiling. Eggs are also quite simple to make when camping, as long as you have a griddle. Serve scrambled eggs with a grilled English muffin. For a treat, make cinnamon toast kabobs. Cut your bread into cubes and brush them with melted butter. Sprinkle them with a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon. Arrange the cubes on skewers with fruit such as sliced strawberries and bananas. Grill the bread for about eight minutes. If you're camping in an area with fresh blueberries, take advantage of them by making blueberry pancakes.

For a hot vegetarian lunch, serve vegetable soup. Use canned soup or homemade soup. For a more filling soup, add beans such as lentils, black beans or chickpeas. Serve soup with a sandwich. A simple grilled cheese sandwich tastes amazing when prepared outdoors.

Foil-wrapped dinners are the quintessential camping food. Replace the traditional hamburger patty with veggie burgers -- either homemade or purchased. Add sliced potatoes, carrots and onion and sprinkle with some ranch seasoning mix for extra flavor. Seal all the ingredients tightly in the foil. Then, cook on the grill. Pasta is also easy to prepare. Just be sure to pack a pot and enough extra fresh water to cook the pasta. Top the pasta with heated canned veggies and vegetarian pasta sauce. Stir in tofu or another a meat substitute for some added protein.

For delicious camping desserts, use fruits. Wrap either an apple or pear in aluminum foil and cook for about 20 minutes on a dying campfire. Carefully unwrap the foil to avoid steam burns. If your family prefers bananas, you can grill sliced bananas on a sheet of aluminum foil. Bananas cook fast, so remove them from the heat after about 5 minutes. Top these hot fruit desserts with butter, brown sugar and chopped nuts. All of these fruits are also delicious when topped with chocolate sauce. No camping trip would be complete without a variation of the traditional s'mores. Use an agar-based marshmallow and top a graham cracker with a chunk of chocolate.