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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Post-Vacation Update

We're baaaaaaa-ack!

We spent 11 days in the midwest, returned home for 4 days, and then spent a week in the Berkshires (western MA). We ate at more restaurants than we would have liked on our journey to the midwest, but I think we did pretty well with food overall.

What do I mean by well, anyway?

Well = eating real food rather than highly processed or scientifically designed concoctions which taste and look like food but may not actually be FOOD. Limiting junk, enjoying the process of acquiring, preparing and eating FOOD.

I already wrote about our trip to the midwest here and here, so I'm going to write about the Berkshires trip this time. Even though we knew we could buy food when we arrived, we wanted to minimize shopping trips since they are a bit trying for the kids (and thus for us). Here are some of the many foods we brought from home:
  • Vegetables - we took things we knew wouldn't last until we made it back (minus the spinach we somehow left at home???). This included several cucumbers, probably a sweet pepper. We brought green and yellow beans, which we ended up enjoying on Friday night. I *think* we brought an eggplant because I made a vegetable stew. I brought red and brown/green lentils for our favorite casserole. We also packed carrots since I like to put them into cheesy lentil rice casserole.
  • Fruits - we meant to take our peaches and nectarines. Somehow we forgot those too. :( We did take some berries (blue and raspberry, I think). Those never last long.
  • Grains - oatmeal, whole wheat sandwich bread, Ak-Mak and Vinta crackers, frozen tortellini, brown rice, Israeli couscous, Cheerios, Puffins, Trader Joe's fruit bars.
  • Dairy - cheese (Feta and a cheddar-based shredded), yogurt as though it's going out of style
  • Beverages - beer (I suppose this is a grain), seltzer, milk (yes I know that's dairy too), diet soda
  • We also brought our most commonly used spices and vegetable bouillon
  • Peanut butter (is this a vegetable? fruit?)
We still ended up shopping quite a few times. We bought fish and challah for Friday night dinner, another loaf of sandwich bread, and we bought more diet soda and seltzer.

We still ate at the occasional restaurant such as when we met our friends at a tasty burrito shop or when we were at the top of Mt. Greylock and it was much easier to order at the lodge than drive back 45 minutes with increasingly tired kids. That said, I felt like our eating was pretty well balanced. We snacked on cucumbers and fruits, especially
on the day we went apple, pear, and plum picking.

We hiked 2 different mountains, and I realized I want to make my own fruit bars which would work well for hiking. I'm thinking something dense and chewy with bits of crunchy goodness (nuts, chips). I just need to find a recipe that the kids will like AND will retain its shape reasonably well. Feel free to send me suggestions for fruit bars!

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