Traveling On A Paleo or Primal Diet

I feel as though becoming a primal parent has heightened some traits I didn't even know I had and reshaped the way we approach many things in our life. I was reflecting on this recently and I came up with a short list of things that really stick out. I made an earlier post about how going paleo had made me feel like a better member of my community. This is following in that vein and includes my latest primal vacation success. Eating clean on vacation is as simple as a little planning and some culinary adventure. When we made our reservations we had the luxury of staying with family so a kitchen was available. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) When we aren't with family, I plan on finding a hotel with either a mini-kitchen or at the very least an in-room refrigerator. We also look up the local farmer's markets and write down (or bookmark) the times and locations. Plan around them. I made good use of our cooler bag on the flight and packed it full of all the food we needed for the trip, some contingency food for flight delays and a big for when we landed. Nothing worse than trying to find food fast when you have a special diet. 

Eating off the menu plus a
bit of packed food.

I also keep a small bag of healthy jerky, fruits and bottled water around. I feel like we don't always know where our next meal will be on vacation so we go prepared. For people that eat on the primal and paleo diet because they are health conscious I get a little jealous. They have the option of forgoing their chosen lifestyle and eating out once in a while. We don't have the option. It has caused some really stressful days but overall it has brought us to a better place. I have a set of really adorable metal lunch boxes that we travel with. I love to eat my way across a town and find that instead of buying a t-shirt I will spend my money at the market buying local dates or trying the creamed cocoa honey.

Stroller parking. 

When working on a limited pantry I spend a little time making a shopping list that is economical. I stick to one kind of cooking oil, typically coconut oil. It can hold a decently high heat, bakes well and doubles as a nice moisturizer in case yours was taken by airport security. I like to buy a few kinds of chicken sausage and cut them up into eggs, vegetable medley and stir fry. The AlFresco brand has a nice breakfast apple and maple chicken sausage that works for us. They are sweet without bordering on too sweet. The Aidells brand and a few others are gluten free with no hormones or antibiotics used. That type of knowledge comes in handy when eating out as well. On our trip we stopped in Calistoga for a nice lunch and I managed to find a restaurant that served one of the brands of chicken sausage that we could eat. It was a comfort to know that I had pre-screened the company and felt safe eating out. What a nice change. 

A nice winery tour at the Beringer Winery.

One of the smaller markets in the city. 

This is the short list of some of the things I love about being a primal mother and adventurer. 

• I loved to cook before. Now I love to try anything I can in the kitchen. I even spatchcocked a chicken a few months back. I find that since I am cooking 3-4 meals a day from scratch I get in a grove in the kitchen and don't even have to think about it anymore. Kind of like driving. When you first make a turn in an intersection you get nervous. Checking and double checking where you will head. After a while, I am pretty sure I could drive with beer goggles on. Okay, that was a really bad analogy. Moving on.

Look at all the squash varieties. I am not sure how but I think I have cooked
 about 30 pounds  of squash this year and still have yet to get bored with it.  

• Food tastes better now. I hated everything that wasn't boxed before. Now I approach food with a sense of adventure and a "what the heck, why not?" attitude. I don't consider any food to be off my palate even if I once hated it. A funny thing happens when you cut out the processed grains, chemical sweeteners and lab-created flavors. Suddenly your body recognizes natural sweeteners and saltiness. You taste nature's unami and can fully appreciate all of the seasonal bounties. Added bonus: no degree necessary to read your food labels.

• Agriturismo. I visited my family in California recently and took advantage of the farmer's markets. I had never done this before. Why not? California produces 80% of America's produce yet I had not been to the farmer's markets the whole time I was growing up. I learned so much about the local region as well by going to the markets. There were beautiful crawfish crawling in containers that had been harvested in the rice paddies. I never knew they lived there before. I love crawfish. How did I miss that growing up? Another delightful agriturismo highlight: conversations with the goat farmers about how raw milk licenses work. I was able to learn the ins and outs of the raw milk legal system and health benefits thanks to my morning walk through the market. I found a nice contrast to the local NC peaches in California. They grow the most peaches in the US yet I only saw a few varieties. In the south they market each variety by name and celebrate the diversity. California just labeled them all peaches. 

• I travel smarter and plan my vacation around what local food I can find. We are headed on a trip to a new city soon and I am already planning where to find great food. I am even planning our hotel near a good market location. Instead of a traditional hotel we are booking a bed and breakfast that has a kitchen we can utilize. That is going to allow us to take some of the stress of searching for food in the city off of our minds. 

These mushrooms were delicious. A nice stir fry
with chicken, cashews, broccoli and mushrooms made for a
 lovely afternoon delight. 

Great goat cheese and a fresh stock of raw milk. 

The largest brussel sprouts I have ever seen.
The big ones were baseball sized. 

• Learning about natural remedies stems from a desire not to pump chemicals into your system. I didn't intend on becoming an anti-big pharmacy hippy. It just sort of happened. It seems inevitable. After all of the food education I have gained in the past year, why mess my body up with something that I would avoid were it not in a pill? I find that information is a wonderful thing but it can be a curse. I used to be satisfied with buying a children's tylenol. Maybe I would spring for a dye-free bottle. Today I went to my 4th pharmacy looking for a bottle of tylenol that had no dyes, gluten, soy or corn products. It took me 4 pharmacies and I eventually had to give up and pick the lesser of the evils out there. I have become such a hippy that I now seek out local honey when I travel so I don't have to get a sore throat from the regional allergy irritants. -For those who don't know, taking a bit of the local honey is a great way to get the local immunities. I swear by it now. No more Claritin or Zyrtec for us. While in California I stopped by and had a bit of the Penrod Farms raw, unfiltered honey and didn't have any allergy problems. What a nice change from my usual sore throat and itchy eyes. Even my son didn't have to have his face sucked out by the Nosefrida snot sucker. It is a win-win for us. 

This market was under the freeway overpass. It was massive. The market is
 about 2 blocks  long and 4 rows wide.