The Regimen

"Pasta... pesto... and chili."

That was the answer I received whenever I asked other grad students and professors about what food was like in the field. Needless to say, I wasn't really expecting much, and imagined losing a lot of weight. So when I saw Jon throwing chocolate bar after chocolate bar into our shopping cart on our first food shop in Adelaide, I was a bit confused.

As it turns out, we feast like kings out here; Jon doesn't understand how I was ever given the initial false impression. Every evening, using a propane camping stove and other assorted cutlery, we chop, slice, boil and fry enough food for dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day--that's right, I'm learning how to cook! What we eat is completely up to us, our sole limitation being that we must purchase foods that do not easily perish, i.e. no meat, just vegetables and a treasured block of sharp cheddar cheese.

My parents are probably laughing at this point, because if anything, I've been a carnivore all my life. I'm still very much the kid that picks at their vegetables at the dinner table and refuses to have anything to do with brussels sprouts. I've never been able to make sense of how vegans and vegetarians manage to feed themselves satisfactorily. But who knew that vegetables could taste so good?

Without further delay, I present to you 'the Regimen', the strict dietary plan as set forth by the unrelenting, butter-hating resident dietitian, Jon Husson. Of course, I kid--although we really haven't used any butter since Day 1.

BREAKFAST

Hot oatmeal with your choice of brown sugar, muesli, peanuts, cashews, sultanas (raisins), dried cranberries, dried blueberries, canned peach slices, and whatever else you want to throw in there.

Drinks: Cadbury hot chocolate and peppermint green tea

Future experimentations: buttermilk pancakes with raspberry jam and canned peach slices

SNACKS

Granola bars (Crunchy Nut Nutty and Uncle Toby's Yoghurt Tops), ginger nut cookies, royal gala apples, oranges, mint slices (Thin Mints in cookie form), popcorn

Specialty snack: Tim-Tams smothered in crunchy peanut butter, a.k.a. the carrot in front of the horse, the only reason I crawl out of my tent in the morning or do any work at all


DINNER

Generally a rotation amongst the following dishes:

Pesto sauce - Pasta with roasted walnuts, bits of cauliflower, onions, garlic, mozzarella string cheese, brussels sprouts, and authentic pesto sauce. My second favorite dish. Tastes better as leftovers the next day during lunch.

Sweet potato burritos - Small cubes of boiled sweet potatoes wrapped up in a tortilla with a paste of refried beans and sautéed onions, red peppers (called capsicums in Australia), and mushrooms. Topped off with avocado, sharp cheddar cheese, Mexican chili powder, and salsa. My favorite meal by far. Also tastes better the next day.

Red sauce - Pasta with sautéed onions, mushrooms, broccoli, zucchini, veggie burger chunks, and classic tomato pasta sauce. The least original of all the meals, but still tasty and filling.

Coconut-curry tuna dish - Coconut milk and curry paste with stir-fried onions, mushrooms, peppers, and carrots over rice with lentils. Perhaps my least favorite dish, but a little bit of this stuff goes a long way.

Chili - Assorted beans, super sweet corn, and tomato chunks with fire-roasted potatoes and onions, topped off with bits of cheddar cheese. A large bed of hot coals is needed for sufficient and even roasting of potatoes and onions, which are wrapped up in aluminum foil. The meal with the most fun to prepare, and hard to mess up (except burning the outsides of the potatoes).

Fried rice (new addition!) - Sautéed vegetables (onions, mushrooms, broccoli, peppers, carrots, zucchini, etc.) chopped finely with cubes of tofu or veggie burger in a sweet ginger-soy stir-fry sauce. Newly introduced this season and officially added to the rotation. Perhaps the most difficult meal to prepare, due to not having a pot large enough for mixing the vegetables and rice.


EXPERIMENTS

Breaded eggplant - Attempted to make bread crumbs out of haphazardly toasted semi-moldy bread, which unfortunately failed to stick to the eggplant very well. Making a bread crumb and soy milk paste also failed to deliver. While a nice addition to the red sauce pasta, the eggplant required too much effort to prepare. Not worth the trouble.

Brown sugared yams - Slices of sweet potato dipped in olive oil and covered with an excessive amount of brown sugar, wrapped in aluminum foil and roasted in hot coals. Resulted in burnt, ash-encrusted sweet potatoes that tasted fine but not at all like brown sugar. Will add brown sugar after roasting next time.

Chocolate-covered popcorn - A giant, mushy failure.

French fries - You know what they are. First attempts made burnt hash-brown like substance that was still reasonably tasty. Only after committing to the oil (as in using a vat of it) and waiting for it to rise to a high enough temperature did we finally get the potatoes to fry with a crunchy exterior. Delicious, but oily and completely awful health-wise.

Kettle corn - An almost-Croser (Catherine) special. Attempted to pop kernels with brown sugar and olive oil, resulting in semi-burnt but still really good sweet-tasting popcorn. The condition of the pot, with a layer of burnt sugar caking the inside, was another story involving lots of scrubbing and suds.

Future experimentations: Thai noodles with peanut sauce, inspired by Erica, who is practically a gourmet chef; popcorn drizzled with white chocolate (take two)