Crisis Averted

As usual, planning when eating out saves the day!

Last weekend we had a special Boy Scout event.  In our area, it is an annual rite of passage ceremony called Webelos Woods and is where the Cub Scouts leave the Cub Scout pack, cross a over a bridge, and are received by their new Boy Scout troop on the other end.  It is a weekend campout filled with fun activities, culminating in this ceremony.

For many years our troop has done active service for this event and usually FabHubs, a pioneering guru, builds the bridge that the boys cross over.  This year was a little extra special.  While FabHubs was building the bridge, FabTeen built the campfire…a four-foot tall structure (design courtesy of FabHubs) that was lit in the ceremony and burned in a spectacular towering inferno.   I am proud of him…he has learned well from FabHubs!

    

The bridge is built with no nails…all wood held together by rope…and goes up in about 8 hours…and down in less than one after the ceremony!

But back to the crisis…since FabHubs does the bridge, we recruit our troop to help him…and while the troop is out there we always have one of the troop cooks out there preparing lunch and dinner for us.

But this year I am vegetarian.

So I called Troop Cook in advance and asked about the menu.  I know this is something I always have to do now.  In the past Troop Cook, who proudly declares “I don’t eat anything green”  has always been extremely accommodating finding something for me to eat.

This time he seemed a little annoyed.

Lunch, he said, would be roast beef sandwiches, chips, and cookies.  But don’t worry, he told me, it will be very high quality roast beef.

Hmmmmm……

I told him thanks, but I didn’t eat any meat.  But since I had an event with FabPreteen in the morning anyway, I just figured I would come after lunch.  Problem solved.

Now on to dinner.  Dinner would be chili and cornbread.  Now in the past when he has made chili for us it has also had a side of rice.  So in my mind I thought, okay, chili, cornbread, and rice. 

I knew the chili would be with meat…so I asked if he would be able to put aside some off the chili mixture for me before he added the meat and I would bring some Boca Crumbles to put in my batch.  I would even bring my own small Dutch Oven to make it in.  No, that wouldn’t be possible, but he could make it with chicken instead for me (and everybody else). 

No…that wouldn’t work, I don’t eat chicken either.  At this point he was really sounding annoyed, to the point where he told me he was about to lose service on his phone and would call me back in a few minutes, which he never did.

So as usual, I took matters into my own hands and decided  to throw together my own batch of chili, which I cooked the night before and brought with me to reheat at the event.  I figured I could have it with cornbread and rice that would be there.

Plus, I knew besides being meatless, I would bulk mine up with extra veggies…including “green things!”  So I quickly went to work and gathered my ingredients..

Tomato sauce, black beans, Boca crumbles, frozen mixed veggies, spices:

First I browned some garlic, baby bella mushrooms, and garlic in a little EVOO:

Then  I added everything else and let it cook!

     Easy chili!  Ready in 20 minutes!!

I put it in a baggie and stuck it in the fridge, and the next day I packed it in the cooler, along with some cheddar cheese and sour cream to top it off.

Good thing I did too…because when I got to the campout I brought my chili over to Troop Cook and asked about heating it up.  Nope…no extra equipment..I was on my own.

Okay..how about the rice and cornbread..well, no rice, but the cornbread would be cooked as a top layer right on their chili.  So was there a little extra cornbread mix we could put aside and use for my chili?  Sorry!

I was so glad I had brought some toppings and fruit for me!

And I was so happy that FabTeen opted to eat my healthy chili instead of the other too.  (Wish I could say the same for FabStepSon and my Fabulous Husband!)