Part of the fun of traveling is trying new restaurants and food, right? However, eating out for an entire week can get quite pricey. That’s why I’ve created the best vacation grocery list & meal plan to help cut those costs. Why you should plan meals ahead With this vacation grocery list, you’ll still get to eat out a few times (or enjoy carry-out), but you won’t have to rely on restaurants for all of your meals. You’ll eat better, spend less, and save time too! Who doesn’t want all of those benefits while traveling? Plus, if you have little ones on your trip, I’m sure you know that sometimes it’s MORE work to eat every meal at a restaurant. If you love saving money when traveling, be sure to get my FREE 5 Tips for Saving Money on Your Next Vacation. You’ll find more great money-saving tips! This menu plan works best if you are staying in a condo or rental with a full kitchen. If you are in a hotel room with a fridge and microwave you can still manage some of the meals, but it does cut down dramatically on how much you can prepare in your room. You only need a fridge for this easy vacation lunch What I love about this vacation menu plan is that all of the ingredients are easy to find in any grocery store (or use Shipt to make life even easier), simple to prepare, and delicious for even picky eaters. The Vacation Meals Menu Plan Let’s start with the menu plan. Although this meal plan printable shows a typical...
Eating dinner together as a family most nights is very important to me. However, with two teens in the house (both involved in sports), a full-time job AND my blog, time is at a premium. Most weeks I do a great job of planning out meals, hitting the grocery (or using Shipt) and making a healthy, tasty dinner. Then there are the other weeks … You know, the weeks where there is something going on every night, where the weekend was so packed you couldn’t get to the grocery or even get your online order placed, even the weeks where you just don’t feel like menu planning. Those are the weeks I depend upon EveryPlate. EveryPlate isn’t the first home delivery service I’ve tried. I’ve also given Hello Fresh and Blue Plate a try, but I couldn’t stomach the prices and I found myself forgetting to cancel a week and therefore ending up with meals I didn’t really want or need. Pros of EveryPlate EveryPlate is really affordable. I have a family of four, but I use the 2-3 serving meal plan and it’s currently only $38.93 per week (including shipping). That gives me 3 meals and since my daughter doesn’t eat meat I’ve found by adding a salad, a piece of fish or veggie burger for her, or just adding extra rice or pasta to the meal we have more than enough. To be fair, none of us are big eaters, but you could certainly start with the smaller plan like we did and move up if needed. The food is delivered fresh and nicely packaged. I really...
When we are traveling, one of our favorite things to do is find local restaurants and try them out. Although we are all very adventurous eaters, we do try to eat as healthy as possible, even while on the road. You’ll often find us enjoying vegetarian dishes, beans & rice, salads and fresh fruit. Not to say that we don’t tend to indulge a little more when away from home, we just try to keep what we eat as close to real food (food that isn’t heavily processed, has simple, whole food ingredients, and isn’t high in sugar) as possible. Because we aren’t as strict when traveling, when we are at home, it’s super important for me to create meals that are as healthy as possible. That way I can ensure we are following my 80/20 rule of 80% healthy eating and 20% not quite as healthy. I do love to cook, but with a full-time job, kids in two different schools, and year-round sports it can be challenging to get a real food meal on the table. One of my favorite tricks is to find cookbooks I love that have pages full of delicious real food recipes. Then I’ll plan the weekly menu using just that one cookbook – it’s fun for me, easy as I’m not looking up recipes all over the place, and if I like the author, I find I’m happy with the meals. Lisa Leake’s cookbooks are some of my favorites. I’ve been using 100 Days of Real Food: Fast & Fabulous: The Easy and Delicious Way to Cut Out Processed Food and 100 Days...
Looking for an easy healthy fix? One simple step that will automatically make you healthier? Add a fruit and vegetable to every meal. Doing this one small thing will automatically increase your produce intake to at least six servings a day. You’ll eat less unhealthy foods if you fill up with healthy and low-calorie fruits and vegetables. If you mix up which fruits and veggies you enjoy with each meal, you’re also likely to hit your appropriate amounts of daily vitamins and minerals. How easy is this? If you took my challenge last week, even on your busiest days you can just pull out your bowls of prepared fruits and vegetables or create a quick and healthy salad with your already prepared greens and dressing. So no excuses of “I don’t have enough time” are allowed here. This is also something you can make fun for the whole family. Create a challenge for your kids to see who can hit their servings for each meal. Let them pick out a new fruit and veggie each week from the grocery – often kids are more likely to try something they have chosen themselves. This week I challenge you to try it for a week and see how you feel. Don’t overthink it, just make sure to include at least one fruit and one vegetable every time you have a meal. I’d love to hear in the comments how this made you feel, so please share! Looking for more ways to improve your health (and by default your family’s health)? Let’s talk – I love to help busy working moms create a healthier and...
It’s pretty apparent I believe strongly in preparing ahead of time. Last week I shared how I keep lunch making stress to a minimum. To keep things even easier and to help with all meals during the week, there are a few things I regularly do right after grocery shopping. These few tasks will make EVERY working mom’s mealtimes go a little bit smoother. I know some of you will read this, roll your eyes, and say to yourself “NO WAY! I don’t have time for this nonsense.” BUT, I timed myself and it took me twenty minutes start to finish. The benefits include healthier eating and less stress for the whole week. that’s worth twenty minutes to me. Got older kids? Make your life even easier and enlist their help. As soon as I get home from the grocery, I pull out the cutting board and a knife and prep a bowl of veggies. Once that’s done, I can pack the veggie portion of school lunches in seconds, and if dinner is rushed, this bowl can be pulled out as a healthy side. I also make a small bowl of dip or hummus to enjoy with the vegetables, and a pint size mason jar of healthy salad dressing (Just mix a few T of extra virgin olive oil with a few T of some type of vinegar, add salt, pepper and any other herbs you’d like. You can also add a t or 2 of dijon mustard. Yum!). Greens are washed and spun dry, then packaged in bags with a damp paper towel. Now they are ready to be...
Wherever you live, I suspect school is back in full swing by now. A few years ago, I did a post on my lunch “formula.” The method I use to pack easy, healthy lunches for my kids. This is still exactly how I do it, but as an update I thought I’d delve a little deeper into the details. Every week, I try to mix up the lunches so that the kids eat a variety of foods. Below is an example week – you can see that each lunch follows my “formula,” but contains slightly different components. M – salad with leftover grilled chicken, cucumbers and sliced peppers, berries, pretzels, chocolate covered blueberries, water T – yogurt with granola, snap peas, watermelon, crackers, water W – hummus and pretzel crisps, celery/cucumber/carrots, sliced peaches/plums, chocolate square, water Th – soup or chili, whole apple, crackers, carrots, water F – peanut butter & jelly sandwich, applesauce, cucumbers, Pirate’s Booty or popcorn, water Notice how earlier in the week I include berries, watermelon, peppers and snap peas. The items that are freshest and taste best right after I purchase them. Apples and carrots tend to last longer so they are typically reserved for Thursday/Friday. Ditto for peanut butter and jelly. I also often tuck a little note or joke in the lunchbox – not every day, but definitely several times a week. Right now I’m LOVING Lunchbox Love – they are easy, pretty and fun, but you could totally take a post it note and make your own. I tend to prep and pack lunches the night before – usually while I’m making or...
Hi! I’m Pam. I’m a busy mom of two teens who loves to travel and enjoy each and every day. My hope is to inspire other busy moms to create family memories and discover everyday adventures wherever they are! Check out my About Pam page for more details.
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