As part of our beach vacation meal plan series, we bring you this vegetarian-friendly version to help you with figuring out how to organize your trip. Just like our omnivore versions, this one includes a combination of make-ahead meals with easy recipes you can whip out in less than 30 minutes each and plenty of prepared foods to tie you in for snacks and sides. Breakfasts are protein-heavy to give you energy for the day and dinners are easy and mostly on the grill for speedy cooking and lots of flavor.
We first outline the foods you will be bringing and/or preparing in advance and then provide you with a handy guide organizing all of them into three-day meal plan:
Many of us subscribe to a no-cook rule while on vacation. After all, what’s the point of going through all the motions of getting there only to end up tied to the kitchen with a sink full of dishes just like every other day at home? Or maybe you’re hesitant because you’re just not a great cook and are secretly afraid of ruining your family’s vacation with overcooked burgers.
But just because you don’t feel like doing the kitchen work or are just not very good at cooking, it doesn’t mean that you need to spend your beach vacation surviving on frozen hot dogs, burgers and pizza with some supermarket brownies on the side or wasting a considerable chunk of each evening waiting for a table at the only restaurant in town where you’ll wind up blowing double the money you were originally planning on spending for that trip.
To help you out in putting delicious food on your table that will make your vacation even more memorable, we searched around for a set of easy recipes with minimal ingredients and barely any cooking time at all. Some only require the assembly of good quality ingredients into a sandwich or appetizer spread while others are so good on their own that all you have to do is throw them on the grill and wait for them to brown.
We first outline the foods you will be bringing and/or preparing in advance and then provide you with a handy guide organizing all of them into a 7-day meal plan:
The easiest dinner ever: just put together all the cheese, olives, cold cuts hummus and little nibbles you brought along with plenty of bread and good olive oil.
Along with deviled eggs, fondue and cheese logs quiche has been relegated to the pantheon of old school foods to cringe at the same way we do when remembering the forest green velour pants we wore whilst eating them.
But with all the 70’s nostalgia going around these days, it’s only fair that we also give the decade’s cuisine a fair chance at some well-deserved comebacks and no other dish is a better candidate for this than quiche.
As it happens with any food that becomes ubiquitously popular, quiche has become, since it’s heyday on the American table four decades ago, one of the culinary world’s favorite punchlines.
It brings back bad memories of heavy, custard side dishes to holiday dinners and the frozen versions many of us are used to buying on a whim at the supermarket haven’t helped its reputation at all.
But we’re here to argue that quiche - the homemade kind - is pretty darn good. It’s the perfect multi-purpose food to make ahead and have around for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it works both as a main dish or as a side.
It’s also one of the best meals to feed our current brunch obsession as nothing says: “I had time to make breakfast today because it’s a weekend” better than baking your eggs into a pie.
And let’s not get started on how insta-ready those quiche slices will look with all of the colorful veggies you’ll put into them.
In order to bring the quiche back, we collected a list filled with updated versions that go way beyond the classic quiche Lorraine that you grew up eating and that include modern ingredients that our moms wouldn’t even have dreamed of using back in the 70’s.
After months of filling yourself with hearty foods to power through cold winter days, spring brings a welcome respite from subsisting on meat, heavy roots and squashes with lighter fare like peas, leafy greens, crispy asparagus and the most flavorful alliums of any season.
We’re excited for markets filled with fresh fava beans, garlic, spinach, ramps, leeks, watercress, radishes, endives, cherries, strawberries, artichokes, scallions and all the other incredible produce that the Spring season brings. This is the time of year when basil is at its peak flavor, avocados at their creamiest and chives at their most delicious.
There is no better vehicle for all these fresh herbs and veggies than a simple bowlful of pasta where their flavors are free to shine. It’s also the perfect thing to cook once it’s nice outside and you have no appetite for complicated recipes that will keep you inside in your kitchen for hours.
Check out below our list of yummy pasta recipes that will have even the pickiest of eaters loving all of these nutritious ingredients.
The last thing anyone wants to do while on vacation is cook and then have to deal with a messy kitchen after a fun day at the beach. You’re tired, you’re sunburned and you’d rather plop down on the couch to watch a movie with your family or sit outside to enjoy the warm summer night with a cool glass of Pinot Grigio in your hand. But keeping it simple doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice eating real food and live off canned tuna, hot dogs and hot pockets for a week. With the right ingredients and recipes at hand, you can create easy, healthy and delicious meals that will satisfy everyone and add some delicious memories to your vacation experience.
Breakfast
Breakfast can go either way: long and leisurely or light and quick. We prefer to err on the side of the former and turn it into a special occasion as breakfast is a meal that we so often consume in a hurry - or not at all. Plus, you’re going to need the energy for those long days out in the sun.
This is where the temptation to eat out strikes! You’ve been out all day and are hungry and tired. In order to make it easy for you, we’ve chosen a mix of meals you can prep in advance or whip up in your grill in just a couple of minutes:
For many of us, there are few things that we look forward to in the winter months. Sure, Christmas is amazing and hot cocoa by the fireplace with a good book is one of life’s greatest comforts but the novelty of fresh blankets of snow starts wearing off right around mid-January when we get winter fatigue and start fantasizing of spring garden parties and summer beachside picnics. But there is one thing to look forward to in those freezing cold months and thats is peeling and cracking your way into some sweet, sweet Dungeness crab. Although Dungeness crab season runs from November through the beginning of April, the peak and absolute best time to have them is right around late December and early January. Check out what to serve with crab here.
Dungeness crabs are native to the cold waters of the U.S. west coast and their habitat covers an area that goes from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, past British Columbia, Washington State and Oregon and down into Southern California. They are prized for their large size and the sweet, mild flavor of their meat and have been considered a delicacy ever since the first Native Americans settled in those regions.
There are conflicting opinions regarding on where the best Dungeness crab is found. Since these crabs love cold water, some argue that the higher up you are along the west coast, the better the Dungeness crab will be. Washingtonians like to claim that they have the best ones since, after all, they were the ones who made them world famous but you don’t have to go all the way up to Washington state to enjoy delicious Dungeness crab. Both Mendocino and Sonoma counties in California have a bustling crabbing industry and Dungeness crab is a regular and sought-after staple in restaurants all over San Francisco and in nearby Napa Valley. Oregon, lying quietly in between California and Washington, is often forgotten but here is where most of the Dungeness crab in the U.S. is caught and where you are very likely to find plenty of under-the-radar hidden gems serving excellent renditions of it.
Lately, though, Dungeness crab season has been changing quite a bit with seasons becoming delayed or cut short on many occasions. The main causes for these problems have been events related to climate change and the warming of oceans. Crabs love cold habitats and the warming of the waters they live in affects their food sources and therefore their development. It’s happened before that, since the crabs did not have enough to eat, they were not yet be at their ideal size for when the season kicked off and so it had to be delayed. Changes in water temperature can also cause an opposite reaction where there will be a larger-than-usual bloom of toxic algae. The crabs will eat this toxic algae and the toxins that accumulate in their bodies will, in turn, make the crabs’ meat unsafe for human consumption and affect the length of the season.
Since Dungeness crab season has become so affected in the past couple of years, we recommend you stay informed and do your research to be on the loop on what’s going on. You may have to forgo having them in your table around the holidays because the season has been put off and maybe even have to wait until the following season if they are not safe to eat during a particular one. Although it’s sad that this delicacy and staple of the American table has become so affected by climate change, this will hopefully makes us appreciate it even more when it’s in season and realize how important it its for us to take care of our planet.
We’re going to bet on the fact that, until now, you didn’t even know that shrimp and prawns were different animals and that, just like us, you’d been using their names interchangeably all your life thinking that prawn was maybe just a fancier term for shrimp.
Although it’s quite difficult to distinguish a prawn from a shrimp by just tasting them, they are, in fact, two different animals that just happen to look very similar.
The most important difference between shrimp and prawns is that prawns are freshwater dwellers while shrimp are only found at sea in saltwater. Asides from rivers, prawns will also live in what is known as brackish water or water that is a mixture of fresh water and salt water which can be found in lagoons and estuaries.
Regarding their looks, there are small differences between the two that can help you identify them. First of all prawns are larger than shrimp but if you’re not doing a comparison with both items present, we have a list of things you can look at to figure it out:
Claws - This is the easiest way to distinguish a shrimp from a prawn as it only requires a quick look. Both shrimp and prawns sport claw-like structures in their front legs but prawns will have three pairs of clawed legs while shrimp only have two.
Shells - Shrimp and prawns have segmented shells to help them move. The first of these segments is the one that’s right behind the head. Starting with this one, count three segments. If the second segment is overlapping the first and third ones, then you’re looking at at a shrimp. If they continue in a regular pattern, then you have a prawn.
Bend - That overlapping segment that we just talked about creates a more distinct bend in shrimp than the one found in prawns. This means that shrimp will have a more pronounced u-shape and that prawns will exhibit a flatter curve.
Using the words prawn and shrimp also varies from one country to another. Americans almost always use the term “shrimp” to refer to anything that looks shrimp-like but will sometimes use the word “prawn” to describe larger shrimp. Since word “prawn” originated in Britain, you will find that it is much more commonly used in Europe and in countries that are culturally associated with the U.K. such as Ireland, New Zealand and Australia.
Although prawns and shrimps are two different animals, their flavor profiles are nearly identical and so they are interchangeable ingredients in the kitchen. The same goes for their nutritional value: they’re both excellent sources of low-fat protein, B-12 vitamin, phosphorous and selenium.
For those with more developed palates, however, the difference may be palpable, though not a deal breaker. Many claim that prawns tend to be sweeter than shrimp because they live in freshwater and consume a different diet.
Knowing how to differentiate each species from one another can be useful and even fun but we recommend you focus on an even more important matter: where was the product sourced from? Regulations for both food and human safety in the shrimp and prawn industries are notoriously lax, especially in countries such as India or Thailand. This is why choosing shrimp or prawns that are sustainably sourced and wild caught will give you better results, a superior experience and be safer for you and the planet.
Check out these recipes where you can use either shrimp or prawns:
Incredible Recipes for Your Breezy Day-to-Day Lifestyle
There are few pleasures on this planet that can compete with dining on a truly incredible meal. If you want to be able to do so day in and day out, then it's up to you to pay us a visit here at WarmChef.com, plain and simple.
We're a well-rounded and diverse online source for all people who are on the lookout for casual coastal meal concepts and ideas that are genuinely worth their time.
If you want to establish a coastal kitchen that's exceptional in every manner, then assessing our website can do a lot for you. It can do a lot for the people you feed regularly as well.
We can present you with the finest and most balanced cooking tips around. We can provide you with product reviews that are sincere, detail-oriented and thoughtful to the max, too.
If you want to compare the greatest lake shore vs coast recipes out there, then it's up to you to check out WarmChef.com without any delay. We can help you take your existing waterfront kitchen to the next tier, and that's definitely no joke.
We're a website that strives to resonate with individuals who reside on the picturesque lake shore or coast.
We strive to make an impact with individuals who head to kinds of breathtaking locales on a regular basis as well. It doesn't matter if you're an easygoing coastal resident. It doesn't matter if you simply head to the lake for leisure all of the time, either.
We want to accommodate your seafood recipe requests and more here at WarmChef.com.
We zero in on folks who are all about tranquil existences. If you're the kind of individual who has always been enamored by serenity and ease, then we're precisely the site you need at your disposal.
Options That Can Accommodate All of Your Waterfront Dining Requests and More
We update our informative website with great consistency. That's why our readers never have to wait long at all to receive top-notch food-related content.
If you want access to product reviews and cooking tips that are modern and relevant, then we're readily accessible to you at all times.
We can dazzle you with reviews that can help you make intelligent choices on your next trip to the local grocery store. We can dazzle you with cooking tips that can make tackling any and all of your coastal meal ambitions feel like a cool walk in the park.
If you want to learn about all of the greatest and most advanced seafood preparation techniques, you can depend on our site completely.
If you want to discover the best options that can pave the way for coastal meals that are fresh, tantalizing and distinctive as can be, then you can rely on our site with the same degree of zeal and commitment.
There are so many food preparation sites on the Internet that never change. WarmChef.com is definitely not part of that camp. Our team members know just how crucial it is to give our readers information that's both relevant and current. We know that coastal lifestyles change on a routine basis. We admire that as well.
If you have a penchant for casual coastal dishes that are filling, then it's up to you to tour our extensive site. We don't restrict ourselves to dishes that are simply filling, either. That's because our website is a haven for dishes that can suit all kinds of needs and wishes.
If you want to prepare energizing meals that are ideal for social gatherings, we're ready to assist you. If you want to prepare soothing meals that are optimal for lazy nights at home with your cherished ones, we're just as ready to aid you, and that's a simple fact.
What is WarmChef.com?
We recently acquired WarmChef.com in order to fulfill a vision that we could create a blog + store relating to coastal kitchens everywhere.
Whether you own a house or condo at the beach (congrats), or you travel there regularly like we do, we think there is a slightly different vibe, look, mentality people have while near the beach.
We are starting to modify the content a bit from WarmChef.com and WarmChefShop.com to match more of this mentality and there is more to come.
It is really about a mentality of slowing down, taking in nature, eating a bit healthier on some days in order to eat poorly on other days. It is about eating really complex recipes on a rainy day, and finding the easiest, best recipe to make when it has rained for 2 days and you want to maximize your time in the sun.
In terms of products...it is about finding great deals on products that you may have for your vacationing visitors (it will find its place in reviews on VRBO / AirBnB), and the best stuff in a closet for when you are enjoying your space yourself.
Who are we?
Daniela is our Website Developer, a Home Chef and mom. She was born and raised in the beautiful coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dani is obsessed with creating a flawless customer experience, but she asks you to bear with her while she juggles all of her responsibilities. She earned a bachelors degree in Marketing from Georgia State University and a bootcamp certificate for Software Development from Georgia Tech (she worked at Turner Broadcasting for 10 years before switching careers). She currently resides in Chamblee, GA with her husband and 2 kids.
Josh is our online buyer and resident professional chef. Josh attended Georgia Southern University and Johnson & Wales University College of Culinary Arts. He has worked in the kitchens of Atlanta restaurants Pano's & Paul's, La Tavola Trattoria and The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, as well as Louie’s Backyard in Key West Fla. He lives in Smyrna, Ga., with his lovely wife Kelly and two children Beckett and Kennedy, and spends spare time searching for the perfect bourbon, losing his voice at Falcons games, and refining the art of “porch time.”
Derick, Publisher / GM: Derick is fanatic about creating a community through a superior audience experience, he earned a bachelors degree in Finance from University of Minnesota and an MBA at Emory University and worked for years at Home Depot. He has lived in Atlanta since 2003 with his wife, two kids and “a Carolina dog named Dakota.” He enjoys visits from his mother-in-law, who owns a small brownie company. His favorite recipes are gumbo and the classic old fashioned.
Paula lives with her husband and their 2 children. She likes cooking and making delicious dishes for her family brings her happiness. She hopes to associate with other cooking blogs to have more recipes. Paula is the former editor of WarmChef.com.
Collectively, we are adamant that we will never write content influenced by or paid for by an advertiser. To support our work, we do make money from some links to companies and deals on our site.
A picnic in the park is a real pleasure with friends or family. It allows you to enjoy the good weather while sharing a meal with the people you love. But what to bring? Here is a delicious recipe idea for the perfect picnic!
These chicken drumsticks perfect for a picnic, you can serve it with a delicious salad. I choose to cook it in the oven, because you get a quick and uniform cooking. I like to brush it with a marinade, which keeps all the flavors during cooking. At the exit of the oven, you can cut it easily and quickly. You can even keep the extra making sandwiches for lunch.
Step 1 In a bowl, mix all the ingredients, garlic, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, olive oil, ginger, all spice and salt and pepper. Reserve.
Step 2 In a large airtight bag, mix chicken and marinade. Close the bag. Refrigerate for 2 to 12 hours. Drain the chicken.
Step 3 Preheat the oven to 375 ˚F and place the chicken on a baking sheet.
Step 4 Cook the drumsticks in the oven for 40 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked and to let the marinade caramelize. Once out of the oven, cover the chicken with an aluminum foil and let it rest for 10 minutes. This allows the juices to redistribute in the meat, and this ultimately gives a softer and juicier chicken.
Mushrooms can provide unique earthy taste to the food. It is almost distinct that replicating its flavor is quite complex. Finding the right mushroom substitutes is a troublesome task, even for gourmet sleuths. It simply emits a tang that you can never simply get from mixing other ingredients.
It has been stated by many chefs and culinary professionals that mushrooms are among of the foodstuff that cannot be substituted easily. The culinary rarity of the flavor of mushrooms is something that not everyone can chase and mimic. However, this doesn't mean that we have to stop, right?
Okay. Here's the general rule that some people follow when it comes to mushrooms. If the recipe requires the inclusion of mushrooms, you can try replacing any other veggies that you want. It doesn't matter what vegetable you choose. Just simply exclude mushroom in the equation. You just have to alter the flavor of the recipe.
However, if the main item of the recipe is mushroom, you might not want to continue that recipe anymore. Don't get pissed by this fact. Just like I said, mushrooms have another tier of tang that is too complex to recreate. Even if they are simple ingredients, mushrooms should still never be whittled down.
A Brief Introduction to Edible Mushrooms
The food alternatives for mushroom can be safely considered as rare or scarce. A professional cook can justify this claim to you. Of course, there are various reasons why this is the case. Apparently, a lot of people just don't mind to find mushroom alternatives because they don't want mushrooms in the first place. In fact, some are even allergic to this food.
Fortunately, there are different variants to mushrooms. The number can go as high as 5 million. But take note that a chief number of these mushrooms are not edible. A few of them are too deleterious for your body. That's why it is essential that you only get mushrooms that are being sold in the market. You can also grow edible variants of mushrooms but always be careful of the environment so that they won't get contaminated.
Despite being the most unlikely ingredients, mushrooms are still causing a boom in the economy of many people. In Europe, many rural folks are in the business of foraging. They usually culture the mushrooms by themselves in a controlled setting. Some hunters harvest mushrooms in woodlands. They are proliferating there.
Countries like New Zealand have deep affection toward mushrooms. They are prime cultivators and exporters of shiitake, oyster, and enoki mushrooms. And they can give it to you in a variety of forms. They offer dried and fresh mushrooms as long as you pay the price.
If you take all these facts into account, you can easily conclude that mushrooms are not scarce. They are widely available in the market with a plethora of local versions all over the world. But still, they can't help you if you don't want to eat mushrooms because you don't like them or because you have allergies.
You can always resort to these following ingredients if you want to somehow replicate the flavor of mushrooms.
Best Mushroom Substitutes
Tofu
Tofu is one of the most creative alternatives for mushrooms. You can slice tofu and submerge it soy sauce so that it can imbibe the earthy flavor of field mushrooms. If you are trying to make a mushroom sauce, you can freely replace the mushroom with tofu slices. Of course, I can attest that the flavor will never be as close as to mushrooms. But certainly, the sauce will appear like you have used mushrooms on it. You can also include tofu slices and bits in soups and stews (cut them on these Cutting Boards by Epicurean that are a great value).
Tempeh
Tempeh may be new for you. But it is actually a common ingredient in Indonesia. Specifically, it is a soy product that has a firm texture and characteristic. Amusingly, the appearance of this food is pretty similar to nutty nougat. But of course, their taste is far too different.
The flavor of tempeh is almost similar to mushrooms. Their texture can also be comparable if you slice tempeh as thinly as possible. Tempeh is created by soaking soybeans in water then partly cooking them. After that, the beans are subjected to a mold that produces the tempeh. However, if you are allergic to the molds, then tempeh is not a good alternative for you.
Tofu and Soy Sauce
For those who want to create mushrooms soup with the mushroom, you can use the combination of tofu and soy sauce. Add the mixture to a base composed of carrots, root veggies, sauteed onions, and leeks. Once done, you can already pour the cream. Some variants of vegetable stocks can work well in the recipe.
You can also combine tofu and soy sauce to create a mushroom sauce for your favorite steak. Just add onions, miso paste, meat stock and mustard, if necessary.
Zucchini is a vegetable that is included in the squash family. Because of that, this veggie has a moniker of summer squash. When they get mature, zucchini can grow as long as one meter. But typically, this squash is harvested when they are still small. A young zucchini has a moderately sweet flavor, which is akin to mushrooms. The texture of its flesh is somehow reminiscent of mushrooms, too.
Tomatoes can be dried through the heat of the sun. And once it happens, they can become substitutes for mushrooms. This is due to the earthy flavor that is produced throughout the drying process. Many culinary expert love to use sun-dried tomatoes because they can offer a unique taste to any recipe they touch. While they are dried, the tomatoes are being seasoned with herbs, parsley, and other spices to further enhance their flavor.
Sun-dried tomatoes can replace mushrooms as toppings for different dishes. They might have different flavor compared to mushrooms, but the texture they give makes the recipe earthy and flavorful. You can dice or slice them, depending on the requirement of the dish.
Eggplant
Another unorthodox mushroom substitute is the eggplant. This is a common kitchen ingredient all over the world. They are used in various recipes, but they can also serve as a main dish for hardcore vegetarians.
The soft and sensitive texture of eggplants is somehow similar to mushrooms. Their slightly sweet taste also makes them a good ingredient for recipes that have mushroom toppings or base. Since mushrooms are long in size, you need to cut them into tiny pieces before you add them to the mixture (check out this high quality, low cost knife set on Amazon).
Russet Potatoes
Potatoes come in multiple variants. That is a given. One good example is the Russet potato. Unlike the common potatoes that you see in the market, Russet potatoes are large and long. Their skin is quite thick and hard to peel. They contain a huge amount of starch and their fruits are moderately dry.
The high level of starch in Russet potatoes makes them as ideal ingredients for fried and baked recipes. However, you should not use them in salad and soup recipes. They can cause sogginess in the dish. Therefore, you should not make them as a replacement for mushroom soups and sauces.
On the flip side, Russet potatoes are usable for dry recipes that include mushrooms. Fried dishes that come with mushroom toppings can be revitalized by the use of this potato variant. You just have to peel the potato and chop it down to your desired shape and size (buy peeler on Amazon).
Garbanzo Beans
I placed Garbanzo Beans in the last portion because of its innate rarity. This particular ingredient only flourishes in only a few regions of the world. There are two variants for this bean: the smaller one and the bigger one. Each of them can be used in different recipes, but the nutritional value of smaller Garbanzo Beans is higher than its big brother. You can use Garbanzo Beans to replace mushrooms in dry recipes.
Before you can use Garbanzo Beans as a substitute for mushrooms, you have to cook them first. This is how you should do it:
Examine the beans and remove all those spoiled and rotten ones
Rinse them carefully so that you can give them a thorough cleaning.
Rinse the beans again in a water-filled pot. Place the pot on your stove and let the beans be boiled for about three minutes. Don't forget to cover the pot.
After this, switch off the stove but don't remove the beans yet. Let them stay there for two to three hours.
Once done, the beans are already safe to be used as mushroom alternatives.
Conclusion
Mushrooms are ingredients derived from the fungi kingdom. But despite their status, edible mushrooms are still on par with some veggies when it comes to nutritional contents that they have. They are known to curb down health issues like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
Aside from their health benefits, mushrooms are also great in improving the overall taste of various recipes. They elevate the impact and appeal of the dish. That's why it is a sad thing if some people dislike or allergic to them. Their tongues are missing a lot of flavorful palettes.
Fortunately, these mushroom substitutes that I have listed here can somehow cope up with this problem. You just have to use them appropriately so that you can get the best results.
Do you know other alternatives for mushrooms? Share it with us in the comment section below!
