Eating vegetarian at NASCAR

Because I recently returned from a trip to Denton, TX for NASCAR weekend, I want to talk about the challenges of eating vegetarian in that type of environment. The last time I was at NASCAR was a few years ago, and at that time I was not a practicing vegetarian, so eating really did not pose any challenges. This weekend was a different story! I already knew what we would be facing, so to get prepared, I made about a dozen black bean patties for burgers and froze them for the trip. I also took a 6-pack of mixed bell peppers, a veggie tray, fruit, cheese, hummus for sandwiches, etc.

NASCAR is a completely different world. There are campgrounds all around Texas Motor Speedway where people can either set up tents or RVs and “camp” out for the whole week. Pre-race festivities usually start on Thursday, and events take place daily until the last race on Sunday. People will then start leaving Sunday or Monday. One of the nice things about going to the races is that you can take your own food and drinks into the track, so if you plan ahead, you can save a lot of money and eat healthy.

Near the campgrounds, there is a “tent” grocery store set up where you can get almost anything you could buy in a regular grocery store. They even sale some foods already cooked (primarily ribs, turkey legs, breakfast tacos, etc.). You will see people with grills and deep fryers set up, and you can smell meat being cooked almost 24/7.

We arrived Friday afternoon and set up our camper. We made a quick grocery run to get additional supplies and decided for our first “meal” we would grill a veggie pizza. Wal-Mart didn’t actually have any veggie pizzas, but they did have a plain cheese pizza, so we opted for that and put our own veggies on top. Quite yummy! Meal 1 down, no problem. Our neighbors had several deep fryers going and cooked up a ton of fish, hush puppies, and fries. I’ll admit we did have some of their food for meal 2.

Saturday, one of our friends decided to run to the "tent" grocery store to buy breakfast tacos. Alas, all of their tacos had meat in them, so we opted to cook our own. Eggs, potatoes, and mushrooms. Yum! I packed up some hummus sandwiches, quinoa cashew butter cookies, and peanuts for our lunch at the track. That evening when we got back, it was black bean burger time! We also had grilled mixed veggies (bell peppers, potatoes, onions). Our neighbors politely declined the black bean burgers and stuck with their brisket, but they did make a killer potato salad.

By now, we felt like we had the meal routine down, and had planned well. Sunday we basically followed our Saturday routine for all of our meals. Our neighbors even got in on the act, making a very nice green salad, a cheesy potato casserole, and deviled eggs (granted they still had their meat, but at least the had a variety of non-meat items as well).

So what did I learn over the weekend? Don’t plan to buy vegetarian breakfast tacos at the track! It’s probably also best to buy most of your groceries at home before you leave. And make sure that you have a plan for ALL your main meals, especially if you want something on the grill. While it takes a lot more planning, and may not be as easy as just slapping some meat on a grill, you can definitely successfully eat vegetarian on a “camping” trip at Texas Motor Speedway.