We're Back!

Hello again after a short hiatus!  Marc, Pepsi and I are back from our cross country road trip.  What started out as an idea, turned into an adventure!  We got to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on Waste Veggie Oil and then back again with a ton of amazing things in between!  Our goal was to have a vacation, but to have as little footprint on the earth as possible.  The biggest deal was using Veggie Oil as our fuel instead of a petroleum products.  Waste Veggie Oil (WVO), the stuff that makes your french fries, is considered a hazardous waste...why, I have no idea.  We use it to fuel our truck; the ultimate in recycling, and it is considered a carbon neutral fuel because the corn grown to make the oil offsets the carbon from driving.  Pretty cool.  We also composted, brought bulk grains and ate all our Village Veggies along the way which meant not going to the grocery stores for highly processed foods.  I am sure we could have done it better, but it was a small step in the right direction, and definitely a great vacation.  We saw the Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountain National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, the Vermilion Cliffs, tons of state parks throughout the middle of the country and a TON of wildlife.  Couldn't have been better.

This is our set-up in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

That big tank in the back of the truck is full of Veggie Oil and Marc is trying to get rid of the grease smell with some bleach water so we don't attract bears.

Dinner in Utah just outside of Bryce Canyon.

Hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park looking at the Hoodoos.

Once at a camp site we used our bikes to get around, here's mine with a bundle of wood (Marc thought this was funny).

The Grand Canyon, from the North Rim.

Picnic dinner at sunset in the Grand Canyon.

Pepsi making herself comfortable.

Well I have a TON of pictures so I won't post them all, these were just a glimpse of the awesomeness!  Can't wait to do it again!  And since we've been back home it is officially fall!  So we started cooking up some goodness once again.  And surprisingly my garden is not dead yet, so we are lucky to still have some eggplants and tomatoes.  

I was very proud of myself for the dinner we had the other night.  Thanks to this post from Fields and Fire, I made my first roasted chicken (with roasted garden veggies).  It was super easy and tasted AMAZING!

Veggies for the skillet: Kale, Brussel Sprouts, Butternut Squash, Parsnips, Potatoes, Carrots, Onions and Garlic.  Chop these garden fresh veggies and put them in the bottom of the skillet.  Place your chicken on top with some salt and roast.  Seriously, it was that easy.

And this was the end result!

We also got some sugar pumpkins and baked them for pumpkin puree and roasted pumpkin seeds.  It is nice to be home again.  I will be posting more soon about some fall baking and getting ready for my backpacking trip coming up.