(Aren’t these trees beautiful? They had so many around our area)
We just got back from a week of Disneyland, Sea World and visiting a lot of relatives in Southern California. We had a wonderful time, and are now ready to get back into our normal routines again (and back to cooking!). Many of you know that I am currently not eating any dairy or sugar, on top of trying to eat a nourishing diet as a regular part of our lives. I thought I would share how we made our vacation a little more “healthier”.
For other vacations, closer to home, we have stayed at places with kitchens and have brought freezer meals, and simple dinners to make there. But on this vacation, we had a lot of things planned, a lot of relatives to visit and knew we weren’t going to have time to make many meals. So we had to have a different strategy. Normally, though pretty strict at home, I would relax our standards on a trip like this. But with my health not being 100 percent right now, and having to avoid diary and sugar, I knew I would have to do something different this time around.
Normally, I like to make a batch of muffins, crackers, or other bready type of snack to bring with us. But I was going into this trip really tired, so I knew it was going to be enough just getting us packed and ready to go. So this is what we brought with us.
What We Brought
Two cans of coconut milk and two cans of coconut water to make coconut milk tonic. We used this to make smoothies. We were staying with relatives (who very, very kindly let us take over their kitchen on some days). They had the blender and we got frozen fruit and bananas once we were done there.
A small container of Ghee (I can tolerate ghee but not butter, so this was for my use. We bought some Kerrygold butter for everyone else, once we were down there. I hoped I hooked Jack and Clara, our hosts, on it. 🙂 )
Some dairy and sugar free crackers and cookies (a compromise food, in that they weren’t whole grain or soaked, but that’s okay)
Some fruit sweetened, dairy free, chocolate covered nuts (a special treat for me).
Soaked and dehydrated pumpkins seed and raisins (a favorite snack around here)
Once we got there, we went to Trader Joe’s and later in the week an other health food store and found the following.
What We Got Once There
Sprouted bread ( a whole grain bread with a lower phytate content )
Frozen fruit for our smoothies
Kerrygold butter
High quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Organic lettuce
A free range whole chicken
Roasted almond butter and a fruit sweetened jelly
As well as a few other items for a dinner I made for us all later in the week.
(Sea World!)
Having these staples were so helpful! For breakfast we would have smoothies, eggs (Jack and Clara bought them from a neighbor girl), toast from our sprouted bread, served with Kerrygold butter, honey (and ghee for me). Or sometimes oatmeal. We were mostly out of the house at lunch time, so I would bring a simple dressing made with the olive oil and balsamic dressing and order a salad with some type of meat. This is what I did when we were at Disneyland.
When we went to Sea World I brought my own salad with chicken and dressing. I was also able to buy fruit to eat there. (Most of the parks won’t let you bring food in. But you are allowed to if you have any type of allergy or food issue). For dinner I would try to pick dishes that were full of meat and veggies. There were a few times I got a stomachache from food with hidden dairy or sugar. But for the most part, this seemed to work fairly well. If I wasn’t able to get enough to eat while we were out, I would make myself toast or a sandwich at home. One time we went to a very nice buffet, and I was able to get loaded up with salad (I used my own dressing again), a TON of veggies, and salmon and roast beef, with berries for dessert. I amazed my table mates with how many veggies I can eat at one sitting.
(Feeding the dolphins, amazing!)
Meals I Made
One of my favorite dinners was when I made dinner for Jack and Clara at the house. Clara was afraid that Jack wouldn’t like my food because it might be bland, or taste, you know, healthy. So, she was going to make her and Jack some other things to eat, and we would eat “our” food. But, in the end, she ran out of time to make anything, so we all ate what I made. I roasted a chicken, made brown rice, (which we served with soy sauce and butter), stir fried some swiss chard in oil and ghee, and made a green salad with avocados and a balsamic and olive oil dressing. It really was a pretty simple dinner. To their surprise, they loved it! Clare said she could eat “healthy” food all the time, if that’s what it was like.
The only other meal I fixed was a egg and veggie breakfast. I stir fried red pepper, fresh corn, and zucchini and then scrambled some eggs into it and served with toast and butter. That went over very well also.
Whipped cream, sweetened with honey
My great Aunt Joni made us a wonderful meal when we went over to visit her and my Uncle Nick one night. The meal was great and she did something that I had never done before. She whipped her cream with honey, for a naturally sweet whipped cream. Though I couldn’t have it, my husband enjoyed it a lot. He said that it went really well with the fruit it was served with. I am keeping this in mind for when I can start having dairy again.
Go Raw
One last food item to mention was a brand we found down there called Go Raw. I was able to enjoy their chocolate, sprouted granola, and granola bar. All high quality, dairy and sugar free food to enjoy for my good health. I am wondering if I can try to make my own at home….we shall see what I come up with. It was expensive (like most high quality, sprouted products), but I know I could make it at home for a lot cheaper.
So there is a little look at the food we ate on our vacation. The small steps we made for healthier eating definitely worked for us, and really wasn’t to much extra thought or work. And it left plenty of time to visit with family and have fun sight seeing!
Anyone else want to share how they have eaten well on vacation?
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I’m very inspired! I have such a hard time trying to eat well when I’m away from home. This is partially due to my hosts not understanding my dietary restrictions or other genuine problems finding food I can eat. But it’s also partially because I tend to use the opportunity as an excuse to eat everything I can’t have at home “to make it easier on everyone else.” I’m going to keep your tips in mind and see what I can do during our upcoming trips.
Good for you, Kimi! I will admit that when I go on vacation, I usually end up eating similarly to those who I am with, and just try to make the best choices out of what’s available.
When on a particularly strict diet, I have done like you, bringing some food and buying some other items. I will bring items like me-friendly snacks or cookies, my homemade raw granola (to add to yogurt and fruit), etc.
I’m glad to hear it went so well buying and making your own foods and introducing some of them to your hosts. I’ve always worried that doing something like that would put up barriers or create tension, so I’ve never really done it much. The farthest we’ve gone is buying some goat’s milk for my daughter, or wheat free bread, or I’ve bought a few extra veggies “for my daughter” (I say that because really they were for all of us, because I knew there wouldn’t be enough veggies around).
Thanks for sharing with us how you made this work!
This is great! I was just wondering how I am going to eat somewhat healthfully on our vacation.
One good thing for me is that those we are staying with enjoy letting me cook! That is the easiest way to stay in somewhat control of what we are eating. I wouldn’t mind if it were for only a few days, but our vacation will go for a few weeks. A few weeks of bad eating catches up with you 🙂
Thanks for sharing with us. I appreciate it.
Stacy