Elsa Rhae

Professional Creative

5 Days of Off Grid Meals

Elsa Rhae22 Comments

The ingredient amounts are very rough estimates of what I use in my meals. I don’t have measuring cups or spoons and cook by taste! Make a small batch of a sauce or dressing first and adjust to your liking!

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French Toast

Ingredients:

-Dry sourdough baguette

-3 eggs

-2tbs water

-2tbs cinnamon

-Butter

-Toppings: peanut butter, honey, chia seeds, extra cinnamon, salt

Cut your bread into slices if it’s not already. Use a better knife than I did. Mix the eggs, water and cinnamon. Dip the slices into the batter and place them onto a buttered cast iron. Cook each side for a couple minutes. Note: I tried soaking a few pieces in batter for 20+ seconds and they came out pretty soggy at the end. Top with your favorite ingredients!

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Creamy Vegan-Friendly Salad

Ingredients:

Dressing:

-1/4c tahini

-half a lemon

-2 caps apple cider vinegar

-1/2c olive oil

-add water if dressing is too thick

Salad:

-1 bunch massaged kale

-1 head chopped broccoli

-1 sliced carrot

-1 sliced red bell pepper

-1/4c pumpkin seed

-4tbs nutritional yeast

-Solid sprinkle of Everything but the Bagel Seasoning

I’ve lately been mixing my salad dressings in a jar before putting them on my salad, that way if I have left over I can save the extra dressing for my next salad! Kale is the heartiest, most durable leaf to have off the grid. I love using spinach and arugula when I am closer to a town with fresh produce, as it only lasts 1-2 days in the cooler, while kale lasts 2-3. Note: if I haven’t used my kale in time and it starts to turn yellow, I then cook it with eggs or add it to soup so it doesn’t go to waste. Slice your veggies and add it to the massaged kale, add your dressing and you’re done!

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Keto Coffee

Ingredients:

-Coffee

-Freshcap Mushrooms

-1tbs Coconut oil

-1tbs butter (in the video I use butter powder. Real butter is a better, tastier, plastic free choice I will use in the future. I bought this butter powder thinking it was something else)

-Other additions I like to add: maca powder, cacao discs, pink salt, cayenne pepper

-Frother - THE BEST tool for blending drinks off grid!

I love my morning drinks. It feels like an instinct to prepare myself a beverage each morning. I switch it up every single day with cacao, no coffee, drinking plain black coffee, sometimes matcha tea, sometimes herbal tea. The ingredients of my mornings drinks change with what I have on hand or what I’m craving. Lately I’ve been very happy experimenting with these medicinal mushrooms. Sometimes I like adding powdered herbs like ashwaganda or maca. DandyBlend is a great coffee alternative for when I’m craving coffee but don’t want the caffeine. Options are absolutely limitless.

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Spring Roll Pasta

My take on a dish made by Sadia from Pick Up Limes

Ingredients:

SAUCE:

-1/3c peanut butter

-2tbs chili paste

-1/4c coconut aminos

-1tbs sesame oil

-water to thin

PASTA:

-garlic

-shallot

-carrot

-broccoli

-red pepper

-pok choi

-ginger

-rice noodles

-cucumber

-honey roasted peanuts

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MAN, this dish is AMAZING. We’ve made this dish many times before using our leftover springroll ingredients that wouldn’t fit into any more spring rolls. It was Sadia from Pick Up Limes who gave me the idea to try the dish hot.

It’s best to slice all the veggies pretty thin and cook them long enough to slightly soften but still retain some crunch. Add whatever veggies you like, cooking the heaviest/hardest ones first (i.e. potatoes, broccoli, carrots, etc.). Add the softer items like veggies and herbs at the end, then the pasta and top it with your delicious sauce!


Breakfast Hash

Ingredients:

-small red potatoes

-garlic

-kale

-chili paste

-coconut aminos

-pink salt

-Other ingredients we like to add: broccoli, onion, pumpkin seeds, flax

Same deal here as any other dish, cook the hearty veggies first until they’re soft and add the eggs very last, they only take a few minutes to cook! Alton Brown said it best, “if your eggs look cooked in the pan, they’ll be over cooked on the plate.” Especially when using a cast iron, I turn off the heat as soon as the eggs are almost finished cooking, then let it finish cooking from the heat of the pan. We eat all our meals straight from the pot/pan to conserve on dirty dishes.

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Loaded Pancakes

Ingredients:

-kodiak cakes pancakes (I prefer the taste and ingredient list of Birch Bender instant pancakes)

-eggs

-butter powder

-chia seeds

-toppings: peanut butter, banana, honey or real maple syrup

Everyone knows how to make pancakes. We enjoy adding plenty of weird, healthy stuff to our batter and further add more ingredients to the final cake. We don’t usually add things like cacao or fruit to the batter as it’s hard to work with on a cast iron and save those ingredients for when the cake is complete.

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Loaded Veggie Pasta

Ingredients:

-zuchinni

-shallot

-garlic

-tomatoes

-toretllini

-pasta sauce (no added sugar)

The easiest way to load up a basic pasta dish is to add some additional veggies to the mix. The ingredients above are our go to’s but you could add things like squash, meat, or whatever suits your fancy. We get so much sugar in our diets as Americans so Barron and I always choose pasta sauce with no added sugars. They taste better and are better for you!

This picture in no way captures the deliciousness of this dish. Oops.

This picture in no way captures the deliciousness of this dish. Oops.


Coconut Curry Soup

Ingredients:

-2 sweet potatoes

-2 beets

-1 carrot

-1 head of broccoli

-1 green bell pepper

-2tbs ginger (I use something closer to 4tbs)

-3tsp better than bullion

-1/2 jar red curry paste

-1 can coconut milk

-3c water

-rice

This is my favorite meal to cook when we have guests over and any leftovers taste even better the next day.

I like to steam all the vegetables before putting them in the soup to save a little time on the cooking process. It would probably work the same to let all the veggies simmer on the stove for 30 mins but I do it this way for some reason. When the veggies are steamed and soft all the way through I add them to my large pot with the water, Better than Bullion, curry paste, coconut milk and any additional lighter veggies that didn’t go in the steamer. I let that all simmer for 10 minutes, let it cool for 20 and BAM, the best soup ever. Note that if you add the rice into the pot of soup, the rice will soak up all the soup. It’s best to serve the soup over rice in each person’s bowl!

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Glacier National Park

Elsa RhaeComment

It has been an experience of a lifetime to explore so many national parks! I’ve now seen 4 and the list is still growing! I’m in a unique place with how I feel about National Parks. The nature and views are utterly outstanding and otherworldly. It’s amazing that they can be kept so pristine despite the millions of people who pass through each park every year. I appreciate the protection and preservation of the parks to no end, the USA is very lucky to have such a passionate forest service, however the masses of people deter me from spending much time in the parks. I know that I am one body adding to the masses, I know it’s unfair of me to want to experience the parks with less people, I know I am part of the population problem. I feel fortunate to lead a life where I experience beautiful nature each day, unfettered with people, slow moving, beautiful and simple. Because of my lifestyle, I have an appreciation for all nature, especially that which is quiet and undisturbed. The National Parks offer a starting place for non-nature enthusiasts to experience visceral beauty and protected wildlife. There are pristine campgrounds allowing new campers to experience the outdoors in the company of other enthused travelers and explorers.

We arrived at Glacier National Park at 5:30am to beat the crowds. We parked in a half full parking lot and took a simple 1.5 mile walk to view Hidden Lake. There were few people on the trail, the air was calm and quiet, and wildlife could be seen all over. On the walk down, Barron and I stayed to the side of the trail, one of us behind the other to make room for the dozens and dozens of people making the same hike up. The wildlife had disappeared with the new sounds of babbling brides maids and foreign languages. The parking lot was swarming with impatient vehicles lurking around for an open spot. The time was 7:30am.

A Stressful, Not Fun Day

Elsa Rhae2 Comments

Moving the Scamp to a new location goes one of two ways. It’s either simple and fun or stressful and not fun. The chances for a good moving day tend to be better when I wake Barron up with a kiss on the cheek (this is real, it’s an act of love as well as tact), however on this day that was not the case.

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It was an unusually hot morning. Barron packs up outside as I pack up inside and the heat seemed to stress him out, not to mention he dropped the tongue of the Scamp on his foot. I worked very hard to not mirror his energy, which often tends to happen with just the two of us in this tiny space during stressful situations and only makes matters worse. I gave him a hug, offered him some CBD (my go-to anxiety cure) and after pulling the Scamp out of our bumpy, rocky spot and up the steep hill to the main road, we were finally able to laugh it off and enjoy ourselves, road trips with the Scamp are quite enjoyable, that is until we came to a stop and the solar panel in the back slid off the storage bins and into the Berkey, snapping in half one of its very expensive water filter elements. (We’ve not yet decided if we will replace the filter or find a new water filtration system.)

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Road trips with the Scamp are enjoyable because we have the freedom to go anywhere with our home on our tail. It’s like backpacking, but with far more luxuries. We drove up into the mountains and past Lake Gunnison, absolutely gorgeous and undisturbed terrain, but our car was working over time with the temperature gauge rising on every hill. Barron long ago learned from his dad that when the temperature gauge begins to climb, to blast the internal heat so as to pull heat off the engine, a myth that has been 100% confirmed by our Subaru on more than one occasion. Thankfully the mountains are still very cool this time of year so we drove with the windows down and the air vents pointed away from us.

I don’t often tow the Scamp. In fact, I never tow the Scamp. I am the copilot and navigator so I am usually unaware of the stress going through Barron’s mind as he monitors the various nuances of the Subaru. While he’s paying close attention to sounds and the feel of the car, I’m blasting the music and putting my feet out the window.

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The road to our new location was top 5 most treacherous we’ve ever driven. It’s very hard for me to assess the road conditions when looking for campsites online. Nothing broke, the back window of the Scamp didn’t show up with any additional cracks than the 7 already existing, but the screws of the Scamp’s door handle managed to rattle out of their homes and I found the handle sitting in my hand after fully opening the door.

After officially landing and unpacking, we both went on walks separately to clear our heads. We weren’t mad at each other, but because nearly every hour of our days are spent within 10 feet of one another, time alone is an unsurprisingly efficient way to recollect ourselves. We were lucky enough to find a private, desolate spot to camp that still has great service, so we pulled up Game of Thrones on my iPad and closed out our day watching our long-time favorite character tyrannically burn down a city.

The following day was sunny, warm and lovely.

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A Journal Entry

Elsa Rhae1 Comment

September 25, 2018

This morning was so wonderful waking up in the Scamp. The moon was bright AF as we went to sleep and the sun was bright AF as we woke up. Why is the full moon so special? Why not all moons? It’s only one moon anyway.

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