Last year, Sam and I went vegetarian for one month. For us it was a diet change that neither of us knew how it would affect our health, mood, and lifestyle. We both grew up large meat eaters unaware of the effects of cutting out meat for our health and the environment. Confession time, a month felt like a big challenge for me, it felt like I was on a proper restricted diet for a month rather than just a dietary change. Living in a small outback town being a workaholic, I used that as an excuse to not continue past the month. Few months later, closer to Sam and I leaving I knew I’d have more resources and time to becoming vegetarian. This time it felt natural, I woke up one morning and haven’t touched meat since. I FEEL AMAZING. Sam is such a brilliant cook so he takes care a lot of our meals and thought it’d be easier to tag along the vegetarian diet. Now we are both vegetarians eating the tastiest meals on the road and it has not been a challenge whatsoever. In the last couple weeks, we have taken the time to educate ourselves about the health and environmental benefits of cutting out meat (and dairy…but we haven’t gotten to that). This dietary change has been really good for my gut health, however I realise this isn’t for everyone so this post isn’t about what people reading should be doing, only about our journey. I did want to attach one of the podcasts we’ve been listening too and some of our simple (roughly written) recipes in case anyone was interested! PS. Nothing better than cooking over a camp fire!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7eqDt0JYyYm0KbJuBfEToc?si=dFn0Os3bRx2Ogd74OV3iXA

Rice and Bean Tacos
Take a cup of brown or black rice, and two cups of water and bring to boil
Cut up onions, tomatoes, capsicums, mushrooms, garlic, chilli peppers
Fry the above ingredients in olive oil, add a can of black beans, chickpeas work too
Use your taco seasoning from the packet or make your own with paprika, salt and pepper, chilli powder, garlic powder, oregano, dried onion
Add the seasoning to your frying pan, with some water until it thickens
Serve lettuce, cheese, salsa, and guacamole (avocado, taco seasoning, lime, salt) on the side and add anything els you want. We usually add Sriracha to our tacos!
And hopefully you have enough to have leftovers to make… Nachos!

Nachos
We obviously don’t have an oven on the road but it is possible to make crispy tortilla chips in a large pan! Sam made this beautiful dish one night and it was so yummy.
Warm up your leftovers, melt some cheese, add some spring onion if you wish and ta-da! Nachos that we ate straight out of the pan!

Quesadilla
SIMPLE BUT MY FAVOURITE ON THE ROAD! (Can you tell we love Mexican?)
Grate cheese (you can easily be using vegan cheese) , cut up veggies – my go too are onion, garlic, chilli peppers, tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms. I added cooked asparagus one night because we were low on ingredients and it was amazing. Fill half of the tortillas with your veggies and cheese, and cook on the pan each side until its golden or your cheese is melted
Dip in Sriracha Mayo and you’re set!

Bocconcini Salad
Pour a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar on a serving plate
Sprinkle some basil (basil leaves work but on the road, its easier to use dry basil)
Slice tomatoes into equal thickness and lay them on the plate
Drain and cut bocconcini pieces in halves and overlap them with the tomatoes on the serving platter
Pour a bit more olive oil and basil to finish off!