Camping is one of my all-time favorite activities. Getting away from the daily grind to a place where cell phone reception is poor at best and charging a laptop isn’t really an option is just a small part of the appeal.

Being out in nature and witnessing what we as a species have paved over in a lot of areas and seeing the world as it should be is the main reason I try to get out there.

I recently went camping with three vegetarian friends of mine, so I thought I’d offer up some of the simple meals we prepared over the campfire.

None of these were done while heavy trekking, just simple car camping so the ingredients are from a cooler, but some things can be put into a pack and travel for a real wilderness trek. All of these meals were done in collaboration with all four of us on the camping trip, so none of these meal ideas are mine alone, but I thought I should share them all.

Breakfast

Vegan pancakes are simple with a box of Bisquick and some soy milk with just a little vegetable oil.

Some vegan margarine and a basic frying pan do the trick. We had a camping cookware set from Coleman that was pretty inexpensive and worked great.

The trick is to use a lot of margarine because the pan heats up pretty high over the open flame and will cause the pancakes to stick.

Lunch

The best discovery of my camping was a hobo-pie maker from a company called Rome. This cast-iron device opens on a hinge and you put in two pieces of bread, fill it with pretty much anything from peanut butter and jelly to vegan faux-lunchmeats. Just shove it right into the coals of the fire and you have a great toasted sandwich in just a few minutes.

Veggie hot dogs are great over the fire as well. The good old traditional method of finding a stick and skewering them to toast over the open flames works well. Best of all, since there is no meat and it’s all precooked; you just have to heat it up and not worry about cooking out bacteria that cause problems in undercooked meats.

Dinner:

Some prepackaged meals just heated up over the fire work great, but combining some of those veggie hot dogs with some fresh veggies in a pot and tossing in some seasoning, then busting out the cast iron sandwich machine makes an awesome dinner.

Rice cooks nicely in a little camping pot over the fire as well, so mixing that with some canned beans and spices, or tossing the beans in a pot with some onions and some boxed Indian food makes a hearty meal as well.

Vegans can have an unlimited amount of options for meals while camping, especially because of the fact that most vegetarian foods really just need to be heated up and not actually cooked all the way through.

The Lazy Herbivore is a weekly vegetarian recipe column designed for vegetarians with little time on their hands, or little effort to put into cooking.

To ask questions, suggest recipes, talk about vegetarian stuff, or just belittle his writing abilities, email John at jberry@timesherald.com or call 610.272.2500 x204.

I'm always looking for new places to find vegetarian meals near by. There are plenty of restaurants that offer vegetarian and vegan options on their menu, but few that are fully vegetarian outside of Philly.

Are there any fully vegetarian places in Montgomery County at all?

The toughest part of making fresh guacamole is the avocados, both choosing a ripe one and getting it pitted and skinned without maiming the important parts.

If you press on the skin, it should be slightly soft, but not too soft. If it is hard, the avocado is not ripe, if it is very soft, then it’s overly ripe and will not taste right.

Try slicing it vertically right at the center until you hit the pit. Next turn the avocado around the blade so that you cut all the way around the pit. Turn the two halves in opposite directions.

One of the halves will still have the pit, so try to gently pry the pit out with your knife.

Scoop the flesh out of the skin and put into a bowl.

Once you have scooped all of the avocados, mash them with a fork or potato masher.

Mix in the garlic, onion and tomatoes while mashing the avocado a but more.

Cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice into the mixture.

Add the salt and pepper, then mix in well.

Serve with some chips and garnish with slices of the tomato if you have any left over.

You can also use fresh guacamole on sandwiches, burgers or any number of other meals.

Ingredients

4 ripe avocados

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

1 serrano pepper, chopped

1 lime

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 or 2 plum tomatoes, diced

1/2 tsp salt

fresh ground black pepper to taste

The Lazy Herbivore is a weekly vegetarian recipe column designed for vegetarians with little time on their hands, or little effort to put into cooking.

To ask questions, suggest recipes, talk about vegetarian stuff, or just belittle his writing abilities, e-mail John at jberry@timesherald.com or call 610-272-2500 x204.