Simple Food & The Tragic Lack of Picnic Cookbooks (or Heat & Smells)

The other day I posted about minimizing. I left off at food and asked what 3 things for breakfast and dinner you could eat over and over. Rachel and I had time to chew on it (get it?!) and we decided on these:

AM: 1) eggs, 2) peanut butter&banana toast, 3) cottage cheese/yogurt & fruit

PM: 1) curried tofu with veggies, 2) BBQ chicken salad, 3) Russian salad

(Actually, I can't remember what PM #3 we agreed on, but this one sounds good to me.)

All of these we already eat pretty frequently, aren't terrible for you, require little to no cooking or can be made in an electric skillet or on a grill outside. Because, here's the thing about your bed being about 9 feet from your stove top: smells. And here's the other thing about your kitchen being in the middle of your vast 26 foot space: heat. 

Heat and smells.  

Plus, Texas summers. Very limiting from a culinary perspective. So all of these are intended to address both issues. I'm looking forward to simpler grocery shopping, too. 

I'm also considering another approach: picnics. Since I imagine many of our meals will be taken outside, I envision dining al fresco. You know, like this...only less English estate-like and more RV-ish:

So, I set out to find cute picnic books/ideas. Can I just tell you how unimpressive the picnic book selection is?! Most people just think of a picnic as throwing a few things together that are easy to eat with your hands and won't spoil. But I think picnicking is a food genre of its own. It's at once glamorous and nostalgic. It suggests the luxury of repose. In my mind it's elegant. 

At any rate, we will have table cloths and twinkle lights :) I'm pretty excited about that.

P.S. My dear friend, Pama, just shared this vitally important video with me. The perfect scrambled egg: