How We Eat Healthy(ier) on a Trip

When we traveled to Orlando last week, in addition to the numerous duffles of clothes that we brought with us...we also brought a full-sized cooler with food.  And several grocery bags of food.

Yes, we looked high-class walking into the Gaylord Palms.  Crunchy country come to town.  (try saying that three times fast.)



But it's all good.  By the time you reach 40, you have (mostly) stopped caring what others think.

But seriously, when we go on trips we bring food with us.  Sometimes lots of food.  When we go to the beach for one-two weeks in the summer (my parent's timeshare) we bring even more food because there is a full kitchen with a regular sized fridge.  But the mini-fridge found in hotel rooms helps to keep me in check.



I like to bring food because...

1.  The food we bring is healthier for us

2.  Bringing our food is way cheaper than eating out

3.  I'm nervous about food and don't ever want to not have food handy (just ask Jas), in case I get hungry...which is often!



Jas got breakfast at his conference every morning, but the rest of us chickadees were on our own.  And breakfast is such an easy meal to pack for.  Here is what our normal breakfasts look like every morning here at the house:

eggs - 1-2 per person (yes, we go through a dozen eggs every. morning...

it may be cheaper to get our own chickens.  Oh, wait...we plan to!)

fruit - usually something with lots of vitamin C (oranges, strawberry, mango, kiwi), 

as that helps the body absorb the iron from the eggs

whole grain - steel-cut oats, toast or one of the choices from the breakfast recipes I listed here

So, knowing that we'd be there for breakfast on three mornings, I brought 24 boiled eggs.  I also brought three different pack-able whole grain choices for those three mornings.  And I brought some cute little "cuties"clementines. (They are so cute, aren't they?!?)  Breakfast for 5.5 people (G is still nursing and doesn't eat much for breakfast)...done!  Easy peasy.

I wasn't trying to pack enough for all three meals for every day we'd be there.  We did go out to eat several times, which is totally a treat to the kids and I since we don't do that very often. (But by the time we get home we're so glad to stop eating out, because by then we're sick of it!)

Here is a rundown of the food we brought with us to Orlando last week:

boiled eggs

breakfast bars

double chocolate muffins (using Einkorn wheat I sprouted and soy-free chocolate chips)

breakfast cookies

"cutie" clementines

bananas

apples

avocados

yogurt  (brought the 2 lb. carton of Stoneyfield vanilla that we buy every week)

raw milk (brought 1.5 gallons of our whole, raw milk)

24 bottled waters

string cheese

partial block of sharp cheddar

fruit and nut balls  (I recently made balls out of this recipe, so that G could get nuts and dried fruit, which he wouldn't be able to chew safely.  He loves these!)

some homemade baby food: sweet potatoes, asparagus, peas

cashews

Compromise purchases (things we don't normally buy for the house) but the kiddos asked sweetly...

Cheerios  (original, I choose Cheerios because it doesn't have much sugar, and it doesn't have BHT in it)

triscuits


And that, my friends, is how we attempt to eat healthy(ier) on a trip!