I had just hiked to the top of a ten thousand-foot mountain pass powered with nothing but a Ginger Turmeric Immunity Shot. I gripped a chunk of homemade Sourdough bread full of multigrain goodness in my fist and also a chunk of my favorite aged cheddar Cheese from Whole Foods. My adventure pup sat at my heels, fervently praying for me to drop a piece of aged chorizo into the freshly packed snow in her direction. Not happening puppy dog, when I just snowshoed five miles up a mountain peak and I’m hungry.

Sweat and tears and sourdough bread

As much as I love man’s best friend, she has no idea how much time effort, sweat and tears and yes hard hard-earned cash went into this accomplishment. No, not summiting another ten thousand foot mountain peak, but constructing my first successful loaf of homemade sourdough bread. I may not have children but I gave birth to a loaf of sourdough last week. It feels like it was almost a nine-month love affair of preparing my kitchen and my world for this new sourdough lifestyle.

Even the day my sourdough starter was finally perfected and I was ready to start building my autolyze as I mixed the bread flour and room temperature water, I had no idea I could not even put my beautiful loaf in the oven for forty-eight more hours. First I had to stretch and fold and no Im not talking about pretzel-like yoga moves here. After so many sets of stretch and folds, bulk formation, cold proofing and good Lord can I actually, finally preheat my oven to five hundred damn degrees now?

A sourdough adventure

I fell in love with sourdough in Talkeetna Alaska. It was the summer of 2003  and I was in the last frontier dressed like a flatlander and trying to cram everything sourdough at my face and maybe also some moose breakfast sausage.

I hail from the once great state of California and sure our state was formed around a culture of gold mining back in the day. I mean San Francisco and any place where gold mining was in our past is well known for all things sourdough. I hail from a ski town that had a very pathetic gold rush boom in the late 1800’s. I’m sure those early Big Bear pioneers were known to bake a loaf or two, between fervently praying for nuggets of gold.

Here we are in the year 2024 and San Fran, you know the home of Nancy Pelosi, is more well-known for crack-whores smoking meth in front of Fisherman’s Wharf than sourdough bread creations. Does our dumb-dumb Govenor Hair Gell care? As long as his family wineries keep him driving the latest and greatest in electric SUVs, who cares that working-class Americans consider fresh-baked bread a privilege? I’ll tell you something, after you purchase every accessory known to man to create your homemade sourdough bread, sourdough is actually very cheap to keep making! Your starter is simple to maintain. You just need to purchase bread flour and bing bang boom, delicious home baked bread without Whole Foods prices.

• Check out local thrift stores when looking to purchase a dutch oven or digital scale.
• Always purchase unbleached flour to feed your sourdough starter.

How I learned to bake a three hundred dollar loaf of bread.

I don’t think those first Big Bear gold rush pioneers had a digital scale or a three-hundred-dollar proofer from Amazon. Sure, you can buy every sourdough accessory from a bowl scrapper to a banneton (That is a fancy hippy mixing bowl made from organic materials like hemp and Bernie Sanders tears.)

Yes, you can invest in a Dutch oven but you don’t have to. A cookie sheet works just fine to bake your bread. Of course, if you are an Instagram influencer, I’m sure you want to buy a five-hundred-dollar bread cloche and then make a story for your 10,000 followers.

But if you are not currently creating a TikTok reel about your mother ( I mean your sourdough starter of course) you might be looking for a few easy hints about how to create your first loaf of sourdough bread. Even for someone like myself, who has been baking since I was twelve years old, creating homemade sourdough bread is not as easy as baking a batch of Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies. There is so much science that goes into creating a perfect sourdough loaf from mixing your autolyze with the perfect amount of grams measured between water, starter, salt and bread flour.

It’s easy to make simple mistakes when trying to create a loaf of sourdough bread.

Are you using regular bleached flour to feed your twenty-year-old inherited starter? God Lord, don’t do that! Did you buy bread flour to bake your actual loaves? Are you storing your mother in a glass mason jar with a lid? Be careful, as the gasses are created, can crack the glass! It might not sound fancy but the best way to keep your starter on the kitchen counter is in an old deli meat container. This way when the gases are built your starter can burp freely.

Oh Momma

Sourdough at-home bread baking seems to be crazy trendy. Even friends of mine who seem like they would never bake a loaf of bread in their lives are currently obsessed with their mothers. By that, I do not mean their Mommy’s but I mean that yeast-less culture we bread lovers are always feeding every morning.

Shaping a sourdough creation is a commitment. You take your starter on vacation with you. You buy so many ridiculous bread-making tools from Amazon. You try not to make Dutch oven jokes. You wonder every single time you do one of those six stretch-and-fold tactics how many random cat hairs ended up in the dough.

Things you do need for sure for a sourdough success story

Ice cubes to steam your bread (Tuck them in the parchment paper when baking.)

A Dutch oven

A digital scale

Patience!

Unbleached flour to feed your starter

Rice flour to line your bowl for final proofing.

Sourdough vs gluten

So why has sourdough bread become so trendy? Store-bought bread is so commercially processed and chock full of GMOs, artificial flavors and Lord knows what else. Fermenting your loaves to give them that amazing sour flavor also makes this fermented favorite so much easier on those with a sensitive stomach. How does my homemade sourdough get all full of that gluten? As I stretch and fold all that dough every fifteen minutes for two hours straight I’m organically adding gluten into it. Is it magic or is it science? All that natural bacteria that sourdough is chock full of is not wizardry, it’s the true art of baking.

The trick to a sourdough bread that won’t upset those with gluten sensitivities is to ferment the dough for up to seven hours. Using a well-aged mother helps with this process. The wild yeast and bacteria in a sourdough starter break down some of the carbohydrates and proteins found in flour, and bing bang boom, even you can enjoy bread again!

Just how can you create the best homemade sourdough bread at home?

• Cold fermenting your final loaf before baking is no joke. You must cold ferment that loaf 5-12 hours to create that final sour flavor.
• Preheating your oven to the proper very hot temperature is crucial. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees with your closed Dutch Oven inside the oven.
• Place ice cubes on the outside of the parchment paper in between the walls of the Dutch oven.
• Steam your loaf in the oven during the first parts of baking. This allows t

  he bread to expand.

• Place a cookie sheet underneath your Dutch Oven when ready to cook. This will keep your bread from burning on the bottom.

If you are ready to start down the road to baking your own sourdough, get ready to watch a lot of YouTube videos. Think you know how to knead bread? You have no idea how to stretch and fold. It sounds easy but once you watch a video, you realize you had no idea how to do it. Is your sourdough starter suddenly as orange as Donald Trump’s hair? You either forgot to feed it or your house is too warm.

There are so many tips and tricks to creating a tasty at-home sourdough bread but as soon as you take that first crusty loaf out of the oven, it’s all worth it. How can you go back to super market purchased sourdough ever again?

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Looking for the tastiest gluten-free baked goods? Let’s hope your hiker’s backpack is stocked up with these easy-to-bake with seasonal produce Meyer lemon muffins! Gluten-free! Low-Sugar! High in Fiber! Does it get healthier than that? If you enjoy gluten-free baked goods like I do, you need to bake these when you get back from your early morning snowshoe shenanigans.

These make a fantastic early morning on-the-go breakfast delight. Full of protein, healthy MCT fats and very high fiber. The MCT oil in these is great for weight loss and providing energy, making these a great early-morning breakfast choice. So many mornings, I’m racing out the door at nine a.m. The pup and I are ready for a full day of snowshoeing, I mean making the big bucks,

as Big Bear Lake’s number one-rated hiking guide. That is what TripAdvisor tells me anyway.

These fiber-filled muffins are a God-send on a busy February morning.  I can shove one at my face while sitting in ski traffic and be ready for my first group of snowshoers with a healthy and oh-so-easy breakfast filling my belly. Of course some mornings I also grab a Ginger and Turmeric Immunity Shot to down. I spend so much time out in the cold around strangers.  These neon orange shots keep my immune system in tip-top shape whether I am snowshoeing with my clients, my groups or just spending the morning helping out with a community trash pick-up event.

If you are looking for a new gluten-free baked goods recipe, check this one out!

Keto Gluten Free Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

1 1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 cups coconut flour

1/4 cup ground flax meal

3 teaspoons of Inulin

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup of coconut oil, room temperature

3/4  cup of Greek yogurt or sour cream (You can use almond milk if you are vegan)

1/2 cup of Meyer lemon juice, at room temperature

2 teaspoons lemon or Meyer lemon zest

1/3 cup monk fruit for baking

2 teaspoons poppyseeds

Cream your coconut oil and your sugar. Mix in the lemon juice, the vanilla and the

lemon zest. Mix in your sour cream or yogurt. Mix in all the dry ingredients.

Put dollops of dough in your muffin tins. This batter, being gluten-free won’t rise very much so don’t worry about overfilling them. Bake these at 350 for 55 minutes

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Working in customer service is so hard. And it’s a lot harder when people are dicks and you can’t eat carbs. After a day at work when people cuss me out as I pick up carloads of trash, throw their dirty used diapers at my feet and tell me I’m an elitist for refusing to take their smelly used diapers, I would really love to alleviate my stress with terribly rude human beings by shoving some donuts at my face. But there is that damn, oh yeah, I’m not inhaling delicious carbs, white flour, gluten or sugar right now, issue. I might not be able to force humans to be more considerate but I can eat more cinnamon. Cinnamon you say? Yes, who knew there were so many health benefits of cinnamon? If only it was also stress-reducing.

Instead of giving in to my donut cravings, I ran two miles up a mountain trail after work today. My bad knee might be hurting but I tried to sweat out my stress and not think about donuts or rude tourists. I mean unless I happen to be thinking about keto donuts full of Ceylon cinnamon. I swear to you, there are so many health benefits to cinnamon you never even knew about! I like to start every day with a Banana, Almond Butter and Cinnamon Smoothie which is chock full of all of the health benefits of cinnamon. It also gives me a healthy and zen-like start to my work day. I mean before shit gets real, vacationers start yelling at me and everyone forgets that we can all be polite to one and another. It is possible, I swear.

The call of the wild

I feel like people get more rude and entitled every year. Thank God for the very few nice people I met during my days of slogging through the snow. This is why I spend my days off deep in the wilderness off-roading in my Jeep away from the masses of Snow Pigs. Okay, you may call them tourists. (And yes, this is why I am constantly in Facebook jail, because here in 2024, Snow Pig is a racial slur) On my days off, I’ll pack my snowshoes, my keto salad, some snacks for the pups and just enjoy the call of the wild.

And then there are the weekends. In the wintertime, I make sixty percent of my income for the year in the snowy season between Thanksgiving and the first week in March. Dealing with tourists can really try one’s patience. If you look in popular social media groups about Big Bear Lake, you see so many postings about how rude employees are in ski towns like Big Bear. It’s not that we want to be assholes it’s just that we are beyond fed up with how tourists treat us and our scenic wilderness.

Leave no trace, for fuck’s sake

We are all adults and we should know better than to throw our cigarettes, Monster energy cans, broken pieces of sleds and so much worse into the forest. Maybe people need to calm down, eat more donuts, chill out and most of all, pack it in, pack it out.

So after a long work day, I would love to go home and drown my stress in some baking! Keto baking can be a challenge with a serious learning curve. Learning to bake with monkfruit and gluten-free flours takes practice. Sometimes I like to use my favorite low-sugar protein powder as the sweetener, like I do in these donuts.

The amazing health benefits of cinnamon

The health benefits of cinnamon seem endless! But did you know that not all cinnamon is created equal? You have to make sure you purchase Ceylon cinnamon. The more popular Casia cinnamon is chock full of coumarin which can harm your liver in large doses. My liver doesn’t need any more hurdles.

But as long as you don’t OD on cinnamon, there are numerous health benefits of cinnamon. Cinnamon is chock full of antioxidants. A sprinkle in your coffee can help fight inflammation and help our bodies fight off chronic diseases and illnesses. Cinnamon can also help to regulate blood sugar levels. Doesn’t cinnamon seem like the spice that you do not have enough of in your diet? I grind my cinnamon sticks at home to always have the freshest cinnamon on hand at all times.

Keto donuts? Is this an April fool’s joke?

These keto donuts are no joke. They are just plain delicious and a simple after-dinner keto dessert. These easy keto donut holes can be made with ingredients you probably already have on hand. And it is very easy to make different variations of them. They save me when I’m doing keto and I’m craving a munchie after dinner.

Cinnamon Coconut Keto Donut Holes

2 teaspoons Greek yogurt

3 teaspoons almond flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon low low-sugar protein powder

1 teaspoon freshly ground Ceylon cinnamon sticks

Coconut oil cooking spray

2 teaspoons butter

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon monk fruit for baking

Mix the yogurt, almond flour, baking powder protein powder and cinnamon. Pop your donut holes in the air fryer and spray liberally with coconut oil cooking spray at 325 for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter. Mix the monkfruit and additional 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. When your donut holes come out of the air fryer, use a pastry brush to coat with butter then briefly roll them in the cinnamon and monk fruit. And then pop them in your mouth.

Additional way to make the best Keto donut holes with all the health benefits of cinnamon.

• Add 1 teaspoon of unsweetened powdered cocoa to your almond flour batter. (This is my personal favorite way to indulge in these keto donuts)
• Add 1 teaspoon Pumpkin Spice Powder to your batter.
• Add 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder to your batter.

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I’m going through a love affair with tofu. I know it’s not the best for my body being oh-so-chock full of soy, but tofu is one of my guilty pleasures. If eating tofu a few times a week is one of the worst things my body is ingesting then I guess it’s not that bad! I could actually be addicted to MSG-filled Orange Chicken from Panda Express!

Okay so I may be addicted to pretty-damn-not-so-bad-for-ya-tofu but I’ve also been buying a lot of Velvetta cheese. Yes, I said, Velvetta cheese. Feel free to cancel me as a food blogger! I came across a keto recipe for Queso Dip that has a secret oh-so-processed ingredient in it and now I’m embarrassed to run into anyone I know at the local market! But when I’m not buying GMO Cheese, you could find me either snowshoeing in April in the very last of the winter whiteness or possibly shoving a tofu salad at my face.

Confession time, Tofu is the problem

I’m forty-three years old and I just learned how to cook delicious tofu! Homecooked tofu is not an easy dish to master. You need two appliances to become a tofu master; You need an air fryer and you need a tofu press. How did no one ever tell me this? maybe I was just too busy snowshoeing up mountains to tackle being a tofu master until now!

It’s finally starting to feel like springtime here in our mountain town at over six thousand feet. Yes, that means snowshoeing in shorts. It could also mean having more salads for lunch and dinner. Yes, I do get tired of my favorite Curried Chicken Salad and Korean Steakhouse Salad. So I am always on the lookout for a new delicious salad. This one hit the spot and is chock full of high-fiber veggies like cabbage.

I like to serve this Air Fryer Orange Tofu as a Salad, but this Air Fryer Ginger Tofu is also fantastic just stir-fried with your favorite Asian veggies.

Air Fryer Orange Ginger Tofu Slaw Salad

1 package of extra firm tofu, drained for at least half an hour in your tofu press

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1teaspoon white pepper

3 teaspoons potato starch

Coconut oil or avocado oil spray

Mix the dry ingredients and toss the tofu in it until you are ready to put it in the air fryer. When ready to air-fry, spray your tofu wit the cooking spray oil. Air-fry at 375 for twelve minutes, stopping to shake halfway through and respray with the oil again.

Ginger Orange Sauce

1 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice

1 red chile, chopped

10 garlic cloves, chopped

2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

zest of 1 orange

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon potato starch

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 teaspoon olive oil

In the olive oil fry the chile a few minutes. Add in the garlic and the ginger until cooked. Set aside while you zest the oranges. Combine the OJ, garlic sauce, rice vinegar, and orange zest. sesame oil and rice wine vinegar in a Nutri-bullet. Grind up well. Return this to the stovetop. Add your potato starch to the Nutri-bullet along with two teaspoons of water, cover and shake well to get all the last bits of your sauce and using a spatula add this to your orange sauce on the stove. Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer, stirring every once in a while. Let this simmer and thicken for 20 minutes while your tofu cooks in the air-fryer.

Air Fryer Orange Tofu salad

Wasabi vinaigrette

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon wasabi paste or powder

2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon pink Himalayan sea salt

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon Swerve sweetener

In your Nutri-bullet mix the sesame oil, wasabi, rice wine vinegar, salt, grated ginger and Swerve. When you are ready to build your salad, mix this vinaigrette with your frissee, cabbages, and radishes. Dredge your tofu cubes in the orange sauce and set them on top of your salad. Garnish with pickled red onion and fresh jalapeno slices or pickled jalapeno slices. Add the Gochujang Nuts to the very top. At the very end before serving, add fresh mint leaves to the very top.

1/2 cup of frisee salad mix

3 slivered radish, sliced

2 cups sliced napa cabbage

1 cup sliced red cabbage

Gochujang Candied Almonds

Candied ginger slices to garnish

Fresh jalapeno slices or candied jalapeno slices

1/8 cup fresh torn mint leaves.

Pickled red onions

The post Air Fryer Orange Ginger Tofu Slaw Salad appeared first on The Hungry Mountaineer.

I must be the only nutwalla in Big Bear Lake California! In all of my adventures around the Big Bear Valley, I have never run into another ethnic seller of nuts. I’m also lucky enough to be the Big Bear Valley’s only hiking guide and outdoor Jeep adventure guide. Life is good when you are making a living just being outside! (And sometimes creating tasty nut medleys)

I have a lot of skills these days, maker of Indian curries, creator of delicious nut mixtures and oh yes, hiking guide and Jeep tour extraordinaire! Feel free to book a pop-up picnic with me here. Or just check out this amazing and quite easy recipe.

My wintertime business of taking tourists to play in the snow or on snowshoeing tours is slowly ending for the season. Now I’m moving on to hiking tours and Jeep tours along with pop-up picnics. If you want to book the most scenic Jeep tour in Big Bear Lake this spring, full of mountain vista views, fields of wildflowers for your selfie needs and of course a gourmet pop-up picnic check out the link to book via Airbnb experiences. And request these delicious Bombay-style spicy nuts be added to any pop-up picnic and Jeep tour.

If you travel to Mumbai (Formally known as Bombay) on the west coast of India, good luck finding anything to eat that is keto. If you wander past a street food selling nutwalla, expect to find those crunchy delicious bhelpuri and panipuri savory snacks that are delicious and popular street foods. And oh so not keto but so crazy delicious.

Keto Bombay Nuts with Curry Leaves

2 cups mixed nuts or your favorite combination of nuts

2 teaspoons Swerve brown sugar

1 teaspoon Kashmiri chile powder

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

12 curry leaves

Whip your egg until frothy. Mix the chili powder, paprika, cinnamon,  salt and Swerve. Add in the nuts to the eggs until the nuts are well coated. Put your nuts on a cookie sheet and then sprinkle with seasoning. Bake at 325 for twenty minutes, mixing halfway through. When you mix the nuts hallway through, add the curry leaves to the top.

The post The Keto Nuts Formally known as Bombay Nuts with Curry Leaves appeared first on The Hungry Mountaineer.

I think I just crossed a line. A line into crazy cat lady territory. I clicked the orange button, buy now! Ship at once! Oh Amazon, you had me again. It was too late to go back. I really am a crazy cat lady now. I just bought a leash and harness for my twenty-pound Norwegian Forest Cat. I mean it was so easy to teach Leo to learn the sit command, how hard could it be to teach him to walk on a leash? I watched a YouTube video and away we went down the road to crazy cat lady!

Let’s face it, the forest cat and I are at our chunkiest right now. I tried doing squats indoors while holding a wiggly twenty-pound forest cat but what does he get out of that? I asked for a kitty-cat treadmill for my birthday in August. Leo thinks it’s a fine place to take a nap. It’s time this fat forest fellow for walks as his idea of playing is rolling on the floor. No joke, from the time he was a kitten, Leo refused to jump. He’s been like this his whole life and his big tummy shows this.

So one of my fall goals as autumn begins here in our mountain town is to take my cat for a walk on a leash. Nothing says oh those changing fall colors like a hiking guide trouncing through the neighborhood wearing her favorite autumn boots, sipping on a homemade Pumpkin Spiced Latte and walking her Norwegian Forest Cat, right? And this could be why I was weaving my way up our street at 4 p.m. sipping on a Pumpkin Spice White Russian instead. So do you have the patience to teach your cat how to walk on a leash?

Step 1. Introduce your cat to the harness

First of all, you have to make your cat not afraid of the harness. This was not the easiest step for me as my lazy cat became even more lazy when I put the harness on him. He just decided not to walk at all for the first three days. He would lie in the middle of the kitchen floor, he did this especially when I was trying to cook dinner. He would just yowl at me stretched out in the middle of the kitchen and look pathetic. I don’t care fatty, you are going for a walk. Eventually, your fat cat will get used to the harness and learn to walk again and not just be a land seal.

Step 2. Let your cat walk himself

Attach the lease to the harness if and when your cat ever seems comfortable wearing the harness. Let your cat lead you on a “Walk” around your house. Be very gentle and let him go wherever he wants. Many times this ended with him just leading me to his favorite cardboard box to flop in.

Step 3. Let your cat lead you on a walk, assisted by treats.

Cats can be treat motivated but really they just want to be challenged so don’t make it all about the treats, no matter how fat your cat is. Even my fat cat didn’t care about the treats one bit when we stepped out into the backyard, finally on day five of taking the cat on a walk training. I found that letting him lead me around the enclosed backyard was a safe environment for him to get used to walking on the leash.

Leo is usually a cat who is very good at coming to me when I call him but as soon as we stepped outside and this inside cat caught the sights and smells of the great outdoors, well he was like a four-year-old child. He lost all pretense in attempting to listen to me.

Step 4. Don’t let the dog help!

Do not let your cat get scared during these introductions to how to walk a cat on a leash. Letting the dog loose in the backyard to go bat-shit crazy as the leash training is happening is not recommended. Keep that bitch indoors until your cat is comfortable with her crazy puppy freak-outs.

Teaching a kitty-cat to walk on a leash is not for everyone but with the right training and a cat who is not too stubborn, it is possible! We like to say Little Leo is more dog-like then cat, so hopefully one of these days he will persevere at learning how to walk on the leash. He was able to learn to sit and learn how to get up on two feet so easily!

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I’ve always loved the snow. Even when I was ten years old and instead of playing with my friends I was shoveling the driveway. No one in our 90’s era working-class neighborhood had a snow blower, certainly not my family. Our mountain neighborhood was always quiet when I was outdoors shoveling feet of snow, which I’m sure builds character. As does teaching yourself to cook healthy meals at twelve years old, like this healthy Keto Queso.

Unlike today’s adolescents who spend so much time TikToking, I built character by physical exercise and creating a love for the great outdoors. So it was the stillness of the wilderness during those February snowstorms that I remember most. Back in the day, kids did not have cell phones. I grew up in a neighborhood a one-minute walk to the forest. When my mom said “Go outside” She meant “And don’t come back til it’s dark”I often say, I was raised by wolves because I literally grew up playing in the forest with grey squirrels and stellar Jays for friends but actually we do not have wolves in southern California. Fun fact. And it is just nuts how many people who live here in southern California believe wolves are living in these woods. (No, just Angie’s silly Huskies)

I may have grown up in a ski town but I never grew up skiing. That was for the rich kids on my elementary school’s ski team. Certainly not anyone from our working-class family. Besides the fact that absolutely no one in our family was athletic in any way. My 95-year-old grandma still asks me today ” Why do you run? Why do you hike”

The obvious answer is that I really like to eat cheese.

Lucky me, these days my boyfriend and I are on the keto quest which means all cheese, all the time. But have you ever met a Keto Queso? So many versions of queso or cheese dip in general start out with making a roux, which is basically just flour and milk and lots of carbs. If you are on the keto craze like me, trust me, you don’t need a roux.

What can you use this delicious Keto Queso for? Simply put, what does it not go on? Try some with your breakfast scrambled eggs. I personally love this with a protein burger. That’s actually why I came up with this recipe. Keto Queso may sound like a tongue twister but it’s flat out delicious.

Seven-dollar burger my fat ass

I had just snowshoes oh so many mountain miles. I needed lunch and I needed a burger salad. I needed to make a copy-cat Carl’s Jr Diablo Burger asap. Unfortunately, those jerks at  Carl’s Jr discontinued that spicy goodness, right after they got me hooked! Protein style, of course!

Obviously, this Keto Queso is great as just a dip. Dip green bell pepper slices, sliced radishes or slices of celery in this delicious spicy queso dip. I personally love this spicy queso over beef taco salad. It’s great over breakfast eggs with some homemade salsa as well.

Spicy Keto Queso

1 cup Velveeta cheese

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup whole-fat cottage cheese

1/2teaspoon garlic powder

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 teaspoon sriracha

2 jalapenos, roasted and chopped up fine

Combine all these ingredients in a Nutri Bullet then add to a oven-safe baking dish. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.

The post A Quest for a Spicy Keto Queso appeared first on The Hungry Mountaineer.

When world travelers talk about Toronto they talk about hockey or catching a Jay’s game. They don’t mention an extremely overcrowded sweaty city with an undercurrent of social unrest building in the eves. There are not many things I miss from our adventures over two weeks in Toronto, Ontario. (I mean besides besides my boyfriend’s awesome family, that lives there) I don’t miss the hellacious traffic that makes it nearly impossible to drive twenty kilometers between Brampton and Mississauga in less than forty-five minutes. I don’t miss the overwhelming summertime heat and humidity (Or pouring rain from thunderstorms that build over Lake Ontario. It’s one or it’s the other in the GTA!) I like to be able to sit outside at our lush green campsite, read my book in the shade and relax on vacation. Toronto is ridiculous when ninety percent of the summertime days we spent there we couldn’t enjoy sitting outside until six p.m. at the very earliest. What I really truly enjoyed about Toronto was the Bengali food and especially Northern Indian street food like Dahi Samosa Chaat. Since we have been back home in Southern California, I have been craving Dahi Samosa Chaat something crazy!

Should I Chaat up about Toronto already?

This summer we were very blessed to spend ten days in Toronto visiting my boyfriend’s family. How did we get to Toronto? Well, we simply drove there through nine states and one Canadian province in our 34-foot motorhome. It was a spectacular trip of a lifetime full of the usual hijinks for this cast of characters. The east coast of the United States for these spoiled Southern Californians who come from an alpine mountain town was well, a challenge. That east coast humidity, man, was it something else! We did thoroughly enjoy the mid-summer thunderstorms and the fireflies were spectacular. But for myself personally, Toronto was not a city I would want to visit again, particularly in the summertime.

If you are a fan of hockey or the Toronto Blue Jays, hell maybe you will love Toronto. But for this nature wanderer, Toronto left very little wilderness to explore. The congestion of an uber-crowded big city was more of what Toronto left in my memories. Thank God every evening we had an urban oasis of a campsite to return to. Bronte Creek Provincial Park was a very pretty oasis that let us forget we were smack in the middle of a concrete jungle of three million people.

One thing every world traveler says about Toronto is it is a melting pot of delicious cuisines. At home in our rural mountain town of Big

Bear Lake California ethnic food is impossible to find. When we travel, we are all about finding a delicious ethnic meal. Whether it was Peruvian food or Punjabi Chaat, man did we enjoy some delicious foods while in Toronto. All over Toronto, it was just so easy to find Indian bakeries and chaat houses tucked away in strip malls. There are so many different types of chaat available in Toronto. On our travels through southern India, I tried just a few. Pan Puri, little crispy-filled dumplings that burst in your mouth, are the most popular.

Papdi Chaat is a mishmash of Indian flavors from Northern India. This popular Indian snack food is full of fried dough balls, chutneys and fried chickpeas and potatoes. And of course, like any good chaat, it’s topped with curd or yogurt. My favorite made-at-home Dahi Samosa Chaat is a mishmash of all the different chaats I have tried from Southern India to Artesia ( What is colloquially known as Little Indian in the Los Angeles area) and even our recent trip to Punjabi-influenced Toronto.

Chaat your face!

Okay, first of all, you should know that chaat is not a healthy food, especially Dahi Samosa Chaat. It’s not gluten-free. It’s definitely not keto. And sorry, hippies, but this version is not vegetarian. If I’m going to have a super easy chaat for a late afternoon snack, you better believe I will be using frozen samosas that I bring back to life in the air-fryer. I highly recommend this Dahi Samosa Chaat made with Lamb Samosas if you have the time to make them from scratch.

• Feel free to garnish with Himalayan black salt. This unique salt lends an authentic egg-like umami flavor.
• Bhel is the puffed rice trail mix you sprinkle on top at the end. Don’t forget these crunchy pieces of fried dough like puri.
• Feel free to make your own Lamb Samosas if you are so inclined.
• You can totally feel free to use plain curd or yogurt. Or you can whip up my easy Peach Raita.

To serve with this Dahi Samosa Chaat.

8 fried samosa pieces, chopped into fourths

1/4 cup tamarind chutney

1/4 cup homemade Plum Ginger Chutney

Or 1/4 cup homemade Peach and Ginger Indian Chutney

1/4 cup Mint Chutney

1/4 cup Peach Raita with Mint

1/4 cup bhel, Indian trail mix

Create your Samosas, whether you are baking the Lamb Samosas from scratch or just using frozen samosas reheated in the air fryer. Cut your samosas into about four bite-sized pieces and layer on the plate. Drizzle with Mint Chutney, the Plum Ginger Chutney and a final drizzle of Tamarind Chutney. Drizzle your curd over the top and then add the crunch, the bhel. You are now so ready to shove this Dahi Samosa Chaat at your face! Don’t even think about using a fork and knife! Eat this with just your fingers, India-style.

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When it comes to camping, everybody has to start somewhere. Usually, there are hijinks involved, bears break into coolers and someone always freezes their ass off. I’ve camped with a lot of newbie campers. Yes, they are usually the first ones to not listen and have the bears eat all their food the first night. Thank God for this great article on Camping 101! When it comes to camping Bear Big there are a few great do’s and don’t’s to be aware of even before you plan your trip. Just because you are in southern California, mountain camping is still the wilderness and there are a few helpful hints you should know before you buy a tent or a RV and get started.

Big Bear Lake is known as southern California’s finest alpine tourist destination. Yes in the winter months, we are most well-known as a ski and snowboard destination. But in the summertime Big Bear Lake is known for three things; Hiking, mountain biking and camping. Are you planning on camping at Big Bear Lake this coming summertime? Just where should you book in advance? Or should you just show up whenever you feel like it for some dispersed camping in the forest? Are you looking forward to tent camping? Did you just buy a motorhome or a Sprinter van? When it comes to camping outdoor adventures there is more to it than just pitching a tent these days!

Bring Fido!

First of all, camping Big Bear Lake is a great idea without driving as far as the eastern Sierra, Yosemite or Sequoia National Park. I personally am not a fan of national park camping as I tend to avoid crowds and I also take my dog everywhere with our family. Our pup joins us on every family vacation and dogs are treated like second-class citizens in our national park system. Our national parks have a saying “Paws on pavement” Which means your dog must always travel where the road is paved in a national park. Basically no national park hiking and exploring for your Fido when it comes to our U.S. national park system.

Big Bear Lake however is a very dog-friendly place! Your pup is always invited to join you out in the national forest.  Big Bear Lake has so many dog-friendly restaurants. (The Social, Nottingham’s, Hacienda, just to name a few) The shoreline of our 3,000-acre lake is awesome to take your pup for a swim in the summer months as well.

Camping adventures in Big Bear Lake

Camping Big Bear is so close to the urban jungle of Los Angeles. With the price of gas in Califonia it’s a less pricy option than driving your motorhome to the central coast or Mammoth Lakes for a week of camping. Big Bear Lake has plenty of campgrounds to choose from that can fit you and your family’s needs. Unlike a lot of national parks, you won’t need to make reservations at midnight a year in advance to camp in Big Bear Lake either.

When you plan your camping trip to Big Bear first of all you want to ask yourself how close to the amenities and the town of Big Bear do you want to be. Are you traveling in a recreational vehicle? Do you want to stay at a motorhome park with all the hookups? Or do you want to camp away from all those other tourists in the middle of the wilderness?

Our family personally loves to disperse camp in our motorhome away from the crowds. We tend to stick to well-graded dirt roads where we have a clear view of the northern sky and our Starlink works well. We also like to camp closer to the best hikes that we love to do like the Manzanita Maze or back in Historic Holcomb Valley in the springtime when the wildflowers are in bloom. Rural campsites like these are perfect for setting up our outdoor camp kitchen and whipping up a delicious Butter Chicken after a full day of hiking all over the Big Bear Valley.

Serrano Campground

Serrano Campground is the most popular in Big Bear Lake by far. It is located on the north shore of Big Bear Lake and you will often see bald eagles fishing here down by the lake in the summer months. Go for an early morning walk along the lakeshore and keep your eyes on the sky! Serrano Campground is great for lakeside access but you will be very close to your neighbors here.

Pine Knot Campground

Pine Knot Campground is one of the best campgrounds right in the town of Big Bear Lake. Pine Knot is just not as crowded as the uber-crowded Serrano Campground. There are so many great hikes you can do right out of the Pine Knot Campground.  There are a lot of tall Bristlecone pines in this area though and if you are looking for Starlink reception, you will have a hard time finding it. If you are visiting Big Bear Lake in the summertime for the mountain bike park, you can ride your bike to the park from Pine Knot Campground.

Hanna Flat’s Campground

Hanna Flats Campground is my favorite of the U.S. Forest Service-managed campgrounds in Big Bear Lake. I do like to stay in a forestry-established campground sometimes because I enjoy having a campfire while camping. All of our dispersed campgrounds in Big Bear do not allow campfires. Camping in an established campground means you are very close to other campers.

Asmuch as I prefer my space while camping, sometimes it just does not feel like camping if you don’t sit around the campfire and make smores in the evening hours. Hanna Flats Campground is about five miles down a well-graded dirt road. If you are into mountain biking this is a great area to stay and recreate. There are also epic hiking opportunities back here like the scenic Butler’s Peak fire lookout or hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. You can also easily off-road back to Holcomb Valley from Hanna Flat’s campground or take a lovely day hike to the top of Delamar Mountain.

To glamp or not to glamp

Many people come to Big Bear for glamping, not camping. If you are the type of camper who is looking for full hook-ups you will want to book far in advance. The options are limited. North Shore RV is the best option. They are a great location if kayaking is your thing. Always remember to get a permit before putting your kayaks in the waters of Big Bear Lake!

Heart Bar Campground

Heart Bar Equestrian Camp is the best place to camp if you are bringing your equine friends with you. Heart Bar sits right below San Gorgonio and the views of San Gorgonio’s peaks from Heart Bar are epic. This area is far more situated in the wilderness and that means more wildlife sightings. It also means this campsite is far on the outskirts of Big Bear Lake. If you hope to have a grocery store nearby or go bar-hopping in the evening, Heart Bar may not be the place for you. It is an extremely gorgeous area for camping, however. It’s also very close to the South Fork Trailhead for those hikers eager to hike at San Gorgonio. I love that the campsites at Heart Bar are not too close to other campers as well.

Check with the forest service to see when Heart Bar will reopen as the road in was damaged by Hurricane Hillary in the 2023 flooding.

Mill Creek dispersed camping

Mill Creek is the place to be in Big Bear Lake for car camping in the summertime. You can disperse camp anywhere in Big Bear Lake for up to fourteen days at a time Mill Creek is one of the prettiest areas for hiking and camping in Big Bear Lake so you will definitely see a lot of people camping out here, especially on weekends, all summer long Mill Creek is also very close to the heart of Big Bear Lake so visitors find it very convenient.

The Mill Creek area is also very well-known for having a lot of homeless people living off of Mill Creek Road in the summertime. If you do set up camp at Mill Creek, you don’t want to leave valuables out if you leave camp. Big Bear Lake is known to be very safe but we do have a huge amount of homeless people who live in the forest all summer long. Car camping at Mill Creek is so very popular in the summertime but the dirt roads stay open until the first snow and this area is even more scenic in the autumn months!

Autumn camping Big Bear

Car camping is great in the autumn as long as the low does not go below thirty. If the low is below thirty degrees you definitely need a Mr Heater Portable Heater (Find one on Amazon) in your tent or a fluffy canine to snuggle with in the back of your SUV.

The camping situation at Mill Creek is just gorgeous in the autumn in Big Bear as long as you are ready for lows near 20 and the elements. You can also find some epic camping spots up Knickerbocker Forest Road if you have a hard-core SUV or four-wheel-drive truck to get up the sometimes rugged dirt road. There are some just gorgeous dispersed campsites up Knickerbocker with insane views of Big Bear Lake. Plus the Black oak trees up Knickerbocker Road are just bursting with vibrant yellows and burnt oranges in October.

Wintertime dispersed camping in Big Bear Lake

If you happen to have a camper van, yes you can still camp in Big Bear Lake in the winter months. It may be a little chilly but the mountain wilderness of Big Bear is a beautiful place to experience winter camping at its finest.

Many of the dirt roads in Big Bear Lake are closed in the winter months but some of the dirt roads like Holcomb Valley Road, Polique Canyon and Burn’s Canyon Road stay open through the winter. If you have the right rugged SUV to handle snowy icy dirt roads, camping back in these wild places is indeed still a snowy winter option.

So you want to live in a van down by the river

Campers and custom vans are a big deal in Big Bear Lake where I live. It was so interesting as when I left southern California all summer and traveled to the east coast, I didn’t see any Sprinter vans or custom vans at all! Is it a southern California thing? Every autumn Big Bear Lake is thrilled to host the Adventure Van Show. We get a lot of tourists coming into town to show off their fancy built-out hippie vans. Camping Big Bear Lake is a big deal for these adventurists who like to get off the beaten path. Dying to have a custom van of your own built for you? Check out Big Bear Vans!

Overland camping 101

To the outdoor extremists, Overland camping is simply the best way to go. Are you the type to want to get away, far away from the crowds?

Then you need to learn how to Overland camp. Overlanding in a nutshell is a self-reliant journey into the wilderness to find yourself and get away from the world. It’s my kind of outdoor adventure! I have a few hidden favorite overland camping destinations sprinkled throughout Big Bear Lake

Yes, there are places you can overland camp in Big Bear without being more than a few hours from Los Angeles! There are areas such as Kidd Creek, Holcomb Valley and Clark’s Grade. Yes, Clark’s Grade, the original dirt road to Big Bear Lake from the late 1800’s. Those were the original Overlanders! There are miles and miles of dirt forest roads you can travel in these areas if you are looking for adventure yes even in the wilderness of southern California.  But when it comes to Overland camping, just where do you start? KUHL has a great beginner’s guide to how to become an overland expert.

No matter how you intend to camp in Big Bear Lake whatever season, there are so many fantastic options for you and your family. Have a great time wherever you decide to camp in Big Bear Lake whatever season. Just remember to leave no trace and exit the forest leaving her as wild as you found her!

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