Traveling and Cooking with REAL Food(and kids)

     Not only is traveling and going on vacation expensive, but if you have food allergies or only EAT REAL FOOD, it can be a challenge to find restaurants and places for the time away.  I learned long ago that with kids and vacation, eating out it NOT what we are going to waste our money and time doing.  We always look for suites/hotels with full kitchens so we can prepare our own food and stay healthy the entire vacation.  It takes a little planning, but it is totally worth it knowing that my kids will be eating good food and I will be saving a lot of money!




Meal Plans for the week and for out of town travel.

 Sunday -deconstructed Beef and Deer Burgers with kale chips

Monday -grilled deer steaks with broccoli and cucumbers

*Tuesday -(leftovers medley) black bean and chicken tortilla soup with avocado and mango

Wednesday - sweet and sour meatballs with cauliflower rice

Thursday -Asian venison Stir fry with soaked rice(with carrots, peppers, broccoli, onions, celery) using leftover deer steaks

Friday-grilled pork-chops with and left over veggies and ***black bean tortillas


*This was a change in original meal plan because of going out of town, I needed to use up some leftovers...(I cut a carrot, celery and onion and then I happen to have about a cup of white rice-cooked, 1-2 cups of cooked chicken, a jar of previously cooked frozen black beans, 2 jars of chicken stock and a smidge of salsa.  I added a little sea salt and cumin to taste, but that was it and it was delicious.  Serve with avocado on top and eat with non-gmo corn chips or cheese crackers)

       When it comes to vacation, Real Food is possible, you just have to plan ahead.  We are going out of town for a few days for Spring Break.  We are not sure how many day we are going yet, but planning on 3-4. Since we only eat REAL food and I don’t want to waste money on icky food, we meal plan. I also make sure we get a hotel or suite with a full kitchen.  It doesn’t cost much more and will save us lots of money on food on our trip.  Here is our out of town meal plan.  The only cooking tool I need to bring(besides foods and such) is my crock pot!

       I always try to plan easy no fuss meals, that we can use as leftovers for lunch the next day or won’t have leftovers for travel purposes.  I was planning on doing a BBQ pork roast but the roasts we had are HUGE like 4-5 pound and we would have had a ton of left overs and I don’t want to waste or travel with that, so we changed a day to spaghetti.  Travel day is tough and since we will get to the hotel close to dinner, the 'Against the Grain Gourmet Pizza' is the easiest thing to cook, while we unpack and the kids jump on beds!
 

He always sneaks food when I am prepping!

Saturday-Against The Grain Gourmet frozen pizza and peas(they are grain free, use real food cheese and sauce, employ adults with disabilities and donate pizzas that they can use to sell to local food banks) If you have not tried them, they are really, really good!

Sunday breakfast-breakfast will most likely be the same daily.....kids always love G.F.toast with lots of butter and either cream cheese or peanut butter and jelly, eggs for the rest of us.
Sunday lunch/snacks-tuna fish with mayo, nut or rice crackers, fruits, cheese, pb balls, plantain chips

Sunday Dinner-**lemon chicken in a crockpot with sweet potato fries and broccoli (with leftovers)

Monday Lunch-Chicken sandwiches, left over from dinner and fruits, cheese, pb balls, jerky

Monday Dinner- Beefy Spaghetti in Crockpot with rice noodles or GF noodles and mixed veggies.  Most likely there will be no leftovers.

Tuesday Lunch-Grilled cheese sandwiches or PB and J or Egg salad, depends on what we have left and weather.

Tuesday Dinner-easy egg drop soup....I have everything on hand so I don’t have to go to grocery store when we get home and it is a 5 minute dinner.




Black Bean Flour Tortillas

Makes 12-13 8-inch tortillas
1/3 cup black bean flour
1/2 cup arrowroot flour
2 Tbsp. tapioca flour
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. cumin(optional)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups filtered water

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and mix until combined. Mix in the wet ingredients with a whisk until the batter is free of lumps. *The batter will be really thin. Set aside to rest for 20-25 minutes.
Preheat an 8.5 inch skillet over medium high heat. *The skillet is warm enough when a few drops of water dance and sizzle around the pan. The same way you would check a pan for pancakes. Ladle a 1/4 cup of the batter into the skillet at a time, swirling the pan so that the thin batter coats the entire pan and barely begins to go up the sides of the pan.
Allow the tortilla to cook between 30-45 seconds before flipping with an offset spatula to cook the other side. *This batter is so thin that it is easy to tell when it is cooked through and ready to flip.
When the tortilla is cooked through place it on a plate and continue the process with the remaining batter.  I just layered them on a plate and kept warm in microwave.


Lemon Crock-pot Chicken

1 whole frozen or partially thawed chicken
2 lemons
fresh rosemary
sea salt
water (if chicken is thawed)

Place chicken in bottom of crock pot, squeeze lemons on top and around and place rinds in crock.  Add rosemary (a few sprigs), sea salt on top and inside cavity to taste.  If the bird is thawed add about 1 cup of water to bottom, if frozen, there is no need for water. Put on lid and cook on low 6-8 hours and you will have yummy lemony chicken.  Left overs(if there are any) can be used for sandwiches, chicken and rice, chicken soup, chicken pot pie, white chicken chile, chicken salad, the possibilities are endless!!