Sweet Mixture

I have been making this before every road trips. I love it. It's addicting, so I had to limit it to road-trip snacking... and during those trips, I often have to remind myself: conserve the snacks, conserve, conserve... oh gawd, it only has been one hour on the road!? conserve! conserve!

Growing up, I loved trail mix, but everybody had their own preferences. For me, I could not comprehend why the mix has M&Ms. That alone, is a treat. Is that a way to tempt people to eat the nuts after they run out of the chocolates? I'm not too fond of the mix of the sweet and salty. It's just... awkward.

I often head out on road trips with bunch of people. I do not know their diets, I do not know their frequency of dining out, I do not know their eating schedule.... so I have a habit of packing snacks in my backpack for the "just in case."

Several times, I find myself starving. Those several times, people actually eat a loaf of banana bread and head off to skiing without eating a bite until late at night. REALLY!? My body does not absorb carbs very well, and on the mountain, I found myself shaking so hard that I kept crashing to the slope with my snowboard, that I made two more runs before I admitted that I was done for.

This was my lesson learned. Pack snacks. You never know.

Being on Paleo can be challenging while on the road. There are not many options, and you are often searching up on your phone for a restaurant that offers more organic, based diets. Important thing is to try your best, and it's okay if you eat gluten. I often find myself in a knot when I try to eat out. We can't always eat salads or steaks every time. I usually go for wraps (thinner bread), something with less potatoes or gluten. The rule of the thumb is that you maintain your paleo diet at home, and try your best when you're out. So it's nice if you can pack paleo snacks to help you to keep you from eating too much "bad stuff" and to at least string healthy food along.

This one, I came up on top of my head. I decided to use ingredients that are common in the home to save money and the trip to the store. I hope it will be the same for you.

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Sweetness
serves 4... or maybe just yourself

4 cups cashews, soaked and dehydrated
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
2-3 Tablespoon honey (depends how sweet you like)
1 Tablespoon Basil
1/2 Tablespoon salt and pepper
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup sunflower kernels
1/2 cup small nuts of your choice (I used chopped walnuts and hazelnuts)

1: melt coconut oil in large baking pan in oven of temperature 175*
2: pour cashews, mix with oil, level out the nuts (no overlaying) bake for 20 minutes or until cashews show golden brown
3: put honey in pan, return to oven, wait for melting, about 3-5 minutes
4: mix all the ingredients in pan, stir well, mix well
5: bake for 30 minutes, infrequently mix the pan ingredients
6: leave in oven, turn off temperature, let it cool.
7: Yum in the Tummy (make sure the treats are completely cooled off).

San Francisco and Tahoe Lake

Hello bloggers:

We have gone on a week-long vacation down in California. Beautiful San Francisco (most of the time) and everlasting beautiful Tahoe.

I am sure when you read blogs about travels, Paleo bloggers usually will say "it's OK to cheat a little. You can go loose when traveling because you cannot find the perfect meals, but always, always, always go back to your diet when you come home."

It rings true. I usually go for items that has lower legumes, gluten, or fat. For instance: avoid desserts, sub wrap instead of thick bread-ed sandwiches, avoid legume salads/conocotions, limit beer or sub with wine/hard liquor.

Here's some examples:

Maks, the meat lover, LOVES beer. Before we went Paleo, we usually frequent local breweries when on travels. This was one of them. She got her beer fix, and I got my salad fix. This salad... OMG... ROCKED! It was mix of greens with beets, pear, and sweet vinaigrette.  I was in love. Maks went for fish and chips. Paleo: Fish, salad, fruit. BAD: Beer and potato fries. See, it wasn't that bad. We had our good stuff and some bad stuff. We did not go off the radar.

San Francisco's 21st Amendment Brewery

The next morning, we had to eat. Really. Eat. We did not realize that in San Francisco, basically half to 3/4 of restaurants in town are closed on Sundays. Fuck. Time to cheat. Luckily this place has thin bagels, so we can request them instead of the thick, regular sized ones. It helped. Especially that they served eggs and meat sandwiches.

My first time with Noah's. Really. I was unimpressed with the bagel, but COFFEE... to die for.

 

 

We ended up starving pretty much rest of the day. We ended up chewing on dehydrated banana chips and rode our bikes on the bay. We found a Mexican restaurant and decided to head in for a late lunch/dinner. Maks had heavy meat chimmy and I had the chicken burrito with one legume and rice removed. Not too bad. Our appetites reduced with more exercises from biking for few days.

We headed out to Tahoe Lake, since it was Maks' birthday, we cheated BIG TIME by getting her a chocolate ice-cream to celebrate.

We had Steak cut up in strips with us, that we cooked and made them into wrap with vegetables. It was delicious. Breakfasts consists of scrambled eggs with green pepper and chives, and bacon.

Shattup. I know I'm not the perfect cook. ;)

 Maks has a thing for s'mores with our camp fires. I allowed her to have that pleasure, she carrys that through from her childhood, having a fire and s'mores.

Although, s'mores... *gag* I don't like the marshmallows. Maks had taught me how to make s'mores WITHOUT the marshmallows. Tastes like fudge covered- graham cookies, LOL.

Careful of that dripping chocolate!

Honestly, I think we did great. We did not go whole swivel around and off the radar. We kept to our fruits, vegetables, and meats. We did not splurge on the fatty foods (ice-cream and s'mores ration for a week worth of vacation... not too bad), kept in touch with our diet.

Coming back to home, it was easy to go back to 100% paleo. It felt natural to eat things naturally. Yeah, you saw that right. Eat naturally. Eat vegetables and fruits from farmers markets, and the occasional meats. Fast food? YUCK. Boxed meals? Disgusting. Canned meals? Fuck no.