Pitta Pizzas

Hey! 

I can't believe we've been on the road for a month now! Crazy times. I'm so glad that I've been keeping a diary to remember everything we've done! As you may know, we've headed east from Auckland along the coast to the Cape and down the west coast to Dargaville. Then we've headed back east again to work at Omata Winery and visit a family we met on the road. We've also tried to see anything we missed the first time round. We've seen glow worms, body boarded and snorkelled for the first time, slid down sand dunes, checked out the local history, hiked, swam everyday, stroked a kiwi, picked up hitchhikers and met so many people! It's been awesme so far. Don't get me wrong, things have gone wrong too! Our waste water container was leaking, we've had a lot of condensation in our van and a lot of insected bites. We get lost a lot too ha but that's the fun of travelling right? 

Anyway, soon I will share where we've been doing since the Cape. However, in this blog I've been meaning to share the kind of cheap, quick and easy meals we're eating on the road. I hope that it might be handy?! We tend to have porridge or muesli in the morning and then usually rice cakes at lunch. By dinner time we are pretty peckish and are keen to have a healthy but hearty dinner. I will try to share some of the recipes if you're needing any inspiration.

One thing that we've loved about NZ is eating the veg that's in season. Corn on the cob is one of our favourites. There are so many fruit and veg farms or stalls when you're driving about here. Some just have honesty boxes.

Obviously one challenge with living in a van is trying to store food and keep some chilled. There was a chilly bin in our van when we bought it which has been great but trying to keep it chilled has been a bit of a nightmare. We've found that salt ice lasts the longest, especially if you cut it up a bit and put some in tupperware. It means UHT and cheese last a bit longer. We also keep our veg in foil, in the chilly bin, to stop it getting rotten.

We tend to buy the basics when we need to from Pak 'n' Save. It's the cheapest supermarket here. Things like pasta, rice, noodles, pittas, rice cakes and then tins of lentils, beans and sweetcorn. We've got some herbs/spices now - smoked paprika, mixed Italian, Cajun seasoning, curry spices, a pepper grinder and cinnamon. Then with fresh fruit and veg we can make up some different, tasty meals.

GF food is not the cheap here but if it is I'll buy some pittas and pasta. Last night we had pittas that needed used up. Here's what we made on our 28th night on the road. Crazy eh! You could use wraps or pittas to make these easy pizzas.

(Serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 
  

1 tsp garlic paste 

• 
  

1 onion, finely chopped

• 
  

2 mushrooms, finely chopped 

• 
  

1/3 courgette, finely chopped 

• 
  

1/3 pepper, finely chopped 

• 
  

1/2 can corn

• 
  

Pittas (1 or 2 per person)

• 
  

Tomato paste

• 
  

Few cheese cubes for on top

• 
  

Fresh leaves and tomato

Recipe: 

1. Heat oil and garlic paste. Add the onion, mushrooms and courgette. Simmer for a couple minutes. 

2. Add the pepper and corn and season with pepper. Continue to simmer until the veg is nearly ready.

3. Meanwhile, toast the pittas slightly in a frying pan.

4. Top with paste, veg and cheese and toast for a couple minutes in the frying pan.

Quick and easy! It depends what your cooking situation is on the road. We've got an indoor 2 burner so we can use a saucepan and frying pan at the same time. Some paid camp sites have ovens, pizza ovens and toasters. We are missing a bit of roast veg but it's amazing what you can do with very little and how much you then appreciate when cooking is a bit easier. We have to move things around a lot to cook and then clean the dishes. Luckily were not in a rush! 

Thanks for reading. I'm looking forward to a chickpea curry and lentil bolognese soon. I'll share the recipes when I can.

X gf v x