Vacation Meals

Pulling together decent meals while on vacation can be even harder than when at home if you don’t have access to the ingredients you need.  With a little planning, though, it’s easy to be prepared and not spend the whole vacation in the kitchen.

Our vacation earlier this month was a “Big Family” vacation.  We are fortunate in that all four of our parents have big families, so whenever we get together with extended families, it’s always a big group – the more, the merrier!!   In addition to planning meals that are easy to make for a big group, we also needed meals that were easy for vegetarians and omnivores to enjoy together.  Check out the list below and give your suggestions in the comments!

Dinners

Burgers (Prepared grain burgers were a treat here)

Tacos or Rice Bowls

Rainbow Orzo

Low country boil (Field Roast sausage, beans, potatoes, carrots, and sauerkraut for the vegans)

Stirfry

Spaghetti with pink sauce

Lunches

Mac and cheez

Hot dogs (Carrot Dogs would be a good option here but we opted for Field Roast hot dogs as a treat)

Beans and franks

Sandwiches and salads

Leftovers from dinner

Breakfasts

Pancakes

Overnight oatmeal

Apple pie oatmeal

Cereal and smoothies

Fake sausage, baked hashbrowns, and toast

Desserts

Chocolate Ganache Pie

Lots and lots of chips. . .

Next time, I’ll do things a little differently:

• I won’t be as worried about spending more time in the kitchen, since I can’t be out in the sun the whole day anyway.
• Our easy meals did not have as many veggies as we usually eat, so I’ll focus a little less on fast and easy.
• I’ll have more healthy snacks available.  Everyone was drawn to the chips- perhaps the combination of salt and dehydration or the fact that vacation sometimes means vacation from healthy eating.  Either way, having more healthy snack options will help.
• Sharing a meal with non-vegans is a great opportunity to show that vegan food can be delicious in addition to nutritious, so I need to take more advantage of that opportunity.

I was really proud of my Big Family – those who were willing to try the vegan dishes thought they were fine, even tasty, if they even noticed they were vegan.  Between now and the next Big Family get together, I’ll be working on more recipes to showcase a whole foods plant based diet!!