Making the most of a beach day or long hikes with BioLite
By Morgan Hannah, Life & Style Editor
With warmer weather approaching, it is time to start thinking about taking advantage of those beautiful outdoor days—and beach days in particular.
Living in British Columbia, we are all blessed to be close to a variety of beaches, mountains, trails, and parks. So, when the opportunity arises, it is crucial to make the most of each day spent outdoors. For me, taking advantage of the outdoors is packing dinners and bringing them to the beach or making coffee at the summit of a hike.
When I say dinner at the beach, I do not mean grabbing takeout or pricey sand-side grub; I mean full, healthy, delicious meals with proper cutlery and plates. And when I say coffee at the summit, I mean water-boiling French presses of coffee with genuine cream—none of that powdered stuff.
Portable camping tools help make my outdoor meals memorable and easy; BioLite offers an excellent CampStove with many accessories, including a kettle, French press, and grill! It’s light-weight, portable, and an incredibly handy tool with perks such as a heat to electricity phone charger! Using my wonderful BioLite tools, I have easily packed up a cooler bag full of ingredients on multiple occasions and you can too with similar camping cooking sets! Here’s a couple of my favourite meals:
Salmon and Cauliflower dinner on the beach
It really is as simple as it sounds; a slab of salmon smothered in butter, maple syrup, salt, and cayenne pepper. (If you’re not into salmon, beef steaks, or pork shoulders are just as easy to prepare and cook up in the same way!)
Pair your protein with a whole head of cauliflower hollowed out with butter, chopped onions, and seasonings inside. Wrap the cauliflower head in tinfoil and throw both it and the salmon right on the portable grill. Bring some ciders or OJ and enjoy a full flank of salmon on the beach—and you’ll be the envy of the crowd!
Protein-stuffed poblano peppers for breakfast
A perfect hike-starter, these peppers are a mild chili pepper packet for eggs, bacon bits, maple syrup, and cheese! OR for a vegetarian option, substitute the bacon for tofu and try goat cheese for a healthier and more flavourful alternative. Scramble up your chosen ingredients ahead of time and stuff them into the peppers, then wrap the peppers up in foil.
First thing in the morning at the base of your hike, bring out your camp stove and toss on your stuffed peppers—tinfoil and all. Cook until insides are toasty and melty.
Coffee at the summit
This is where things get exciting! Bring out the BioLite kettle and boil up some water. When the water comes to a bubbling boil, drop your ground coffee directly into the kettle. After five minutes of steeping, use the French press accessory and slowly plunge down on the coffee mixture. Because of the light weight and perfectly packable nature of these BioLite tools, there’s plenty of room left in my backpack for a small canister of cream and some honey. How easy is that?
