MY ESSENTIAL TRAVEL FOODS

I need to preface this by saying that when I went shopping, I was on hour 68 of a 72 hour water fast. So I may have bought a liiiiiiiitle more than necessary. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same if you hadn’t eaten in three days and then you walked into a grocery store.

Anyway, my boyfriend and I planned a last minute 2-day New Year’s trip to Big Bear with some friends. None of our friends have dietary restrictions and they don’t mind eating Taco Bell for every meal, so I had to prepare to feed myself for two days on the assumption that we would not be getting food from any Marisa-friendly restaurants. So, without further ado, here are my travel essentials with it comes to food:

Let’s start with the fun part. The snacks! The first thing I put on my list was dessert hummus because I have been OBSESSED with it. For those of you who were around when I was in Alabama you’ll remember that I discovered this dessert hummus while I was there and was heartbroken that it wasn’t sold on the West Coast. So heartbroken that I bought six tubs of it before I left, stashed it away in my suitcase, and smuggled it back to California. I was so excited to discover that they now sell it here and obsession has been renewed! But I can’t eat it by itself (well, I totally could but it’s more fun to put it on things) so I got some gluten free pretzels and some berries to go with it.

For some easy snacking with a crunch, I got some kale chips, freeze dried strawberries, veggie chips (never tried this brand before but like I said I was fasting so I grabbed everything), and some pork rinds from Epic (super delicious by the way).

To make sure I will have easy access to some protein and fat, I have an assortment of nuts. First, I grabbed some salted roasted macadamia nuts from Target which are almost so good they should be illegal. I accidentally got my roommate addicted to them. The bag never lasts long when it’s in our house. Oops. I also made my own little nut mix with sprouted nuts from my farmers market and some cacao beans. Lastly, I have some cacao coated pili nuts. These are even more dangerous than the macadamia nuts. They have a very high fat content so they almost melt in your mouth like butter. Then throw on some chocolate and I could probably eat 12 of these bags in one sitting.

For an extra boost of protein, I grabbed some jerky (beef heart and regular beef) from Diamond Mountain Ranch at the farmers market and a chickpea and kale salad that looked good to me while I was fasting. And if I’m craving sweets, I grabbed some Living Raw cacao truffles, and some Good Bites truffles, which I have already eaten a few of and they are in danger of going extinct before I actually leave for this trip. Oh well.

Lastly, I threw in a box of the Kettle & Fire Chili just in case I want a second dinner…. I tend to overpack…. Have you noticed?

And then I packed… EVEN MORE SNACKS!!! Here’s everything I put in my bar bag (ie. my bag full of bars—from protein bars to chocolate bars).

Of course, I have some Rx bars (my OG favs), some Epic bars (my newer favs), and some Papa Steve’s bars (my nostalgic favs). I also found these nut butter packets in my cabinet, one from Rx and one from Pili Hunter’s, so I decided to bring those along too. For chocolate, I grabbed one bar of Nohmad (my OG fav healthy chocolate), one bar of Hu Kitchen chocolate (a newer healthy chocolate fav), some Justin’s peanut butter cups because fasting-Marisa likes to grab everything even though I usually wouldn’t eat these, and I couldn’t leave without my Coffee Guy’s chocolate from Blacklight (my current absolute fav chocolate). And the last thing in my bar bag isn’t actually a bar but it fits in the bag so it’s in there anyway. I had to bring some Four Sigmatic adaptogens with me! I packed a Chai Latte mix because I plan on consuming some alcohol on New Year’s Eve so I want the Turkey Tail to help make my gut not hate me as much afterwards. And I grabbed a Mushroom Mocha with chaga because I figured having a little immune boost from the chaga would be good since it is going to be FREEZING in the mountains.

And to round off my snacks, I also grabbed a few pieces of fruit.

For dinner on the first night, I’m bringing a Shepherd’s Pie and Cottage Pie to heat up for my boyfriend and I when we get to our Airbnb. These are both from my meat people (ie. Diamond Mountain Ranch—the farmers I buy all my meat from at the farmers market because it is all 100% grass fed, 100% pasture raised, hormone and antibiotic free, humanely raised, etc). These pies are legit better than pizza. And I love pizza. You can order them here. Prepare to be mind blown.

This is probably what I am looking forward to most (other than the chocolate, duh). It’s going to be very cold up in the mountains so having a nice warm, comforting meal at the end of the day is going to be the perfect way to end 2018.

For my two lunches (and potentially another dinner if we don’t get home until late) I’m making burrito bowls! They’re so easy to make and will theoretically be easy to transport in a cooler. I just cooked some white rice in bone broth with some turmeric ghee, mixed together one can of black beans and about 3/4 of a can of corn, grabbed a few bags of pre chopped lettuce and some tubs of guacamole and salsa, and made some slow cooker chicken in taco seasoning and chicken broth. When it’s time for a meal, I’ll toss one bag of lettuce in a bowl with 1/3 of the rest of the ingredients.

I may top these with some bacon bits from Epic and eat some Siete paleo tortilla chips on the side.

Originally I was going to try to stay mostly paleo on this trip but trying to plan everything last minute without really having a plan in the first place was making it tricky. I don’t know if or when I’m going to have access to a microwave or other cooking device so I don’t even know if I’ll be able to heat these up. These burrito bowls were the best thing I could come up with last minute that wouldn’t be horrible if I had them cold and were still made out of whole food ingredients.

For breakfast on New Year’s Day, I’m bringing some eggs, avocado, and bacon. Nice and simple. Though I did just find out from the owner of our Airbnb that she may not have more than one pan to cook with so

I might be lugging an extra pan along. And might have to bring plates just in case. So, not as simple as I was hoping but I’d rather be over prepared than show up and not be able to use the kitchen at all.

And yes, I am extra enough to bring my own salt with me so that I don’t have to use iodised table salt. Having good quality salt can make such a difference. While the war on salt is unfounded (really, there isn’t a limit to how much salt you should have in a day), table salt is almost as annoyingly bad as white sugar. Both are the highly processed and chemically treated versions of an otherwise much more nutritious product. Salt is incredibly important for proper neural function, heart function, and general muscle function. There is a reason that the only thing I consume while fasting is water and salt. Because salt is vital for bodily function. Himalayan salt, like the one I’m bringing with me, contains all 84 essential trace elements required by the body. Another great salt is Celtic sea salt (which I also bring with me sometimes) because it is unprocessed and also contains a lot of minerals that our bodies need.

Now for drinks! Starting with the non-alcoholic, I’m bringing one kombucha per day and fasting-Marisa decided she wanted a Rebbl so we have one of those too in the reishi chocolate flavor. While I do absolutely love Rebbl drinks and highly recommend them, they are pretty darn high in sugar so if you’re planning on having one, I’d recommend you watch your sugar intake the rest of the day.

And as for the alcohol, I did say that I’m planning on drinking a little bit—it is New Year’s Eve after all. But since I just finished a fast, I don’t want to go hard and I want to do what I can to minimize the damage. So I’m employing two key techniques: charcoal and probiotics.

I’m bringing the Four Sigmatic Charcoal Lemonade with me. Charcoal is really good at trapping and expelling toxins in your body—so good in fact that it is used in medical settings. For this reason, it is not recommended that you take it regularly because it can actually absorb nutrients that your body needs to function. But if you know you’re about to consume something that isn’t ideal for your body, taking some charcoal in advance can help buffer against its negative effects. And as for probiotics, I’m consuming my alcohol in the form of boozy booch, which comes with its own probiotics. Alcohol can negatively affect your gut so taking a probiotic with alcohol can help mitigate this issue. Probiotics can also help aid in improving inflammation that occurs after consuming alcohol.

Note: making sure to take charcoal and probiotics does NOT excuse binge drinking. That is still really bad for you no matter what you do.

And that is all of the food I will be bringing with me to survive on for the next two days! Now that I’ve written all of this down I am realizing just how much food it is and how excessive it is but its already packed and it’s 1:00 AM so it’s staying packed. I won’t finish it all on this trip but at least I’ll have options. And anything that isn’t eaten before I get back will get eaten eventually. Is it sad that the thing I’m most excited for on this trip is the food? I can’t wait to dig into my dessert hummus!

Hope you all have a good New Year!