Meal Planning for Vacation

Hello hello from Turks and Caicos! How’s everyone doing? I’m sending warm weather wishes your way.

While we are away in Turks and Caicos, we are staying in a villa complete with a full kitchen. This is our first time ever staying in a villa and are super excited about it. We usually go to all-inclusive hotel resorts which typically entail lots of great food, fruity cocktails, too many desserts, and an unhappy tummy.

dominican dessert

dominican dana pina coladas

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy an all-inclusive hotel as much as the next guy, but given my digestive system has been “off” for a while now, it’s a good idea for me to try to stick to more typical food and beverages as much as possible while I’m away. The last thing I want is to regress with my progress because I a feeling gooooood!

Being that we do have access to a full kitchen while we are in Turks, we have decided to prepare most of our own meals while we are there. We were told that groceries are pretty spendy over there, so we did A LOT of food planning, and brought the majority of our food from home. The only food that we are not allowed to bring from home is fresh produce, so we will be going to a local farm/farmer’s market while we are there to stock up on the fresh fruits and vegetables. I can’t wait to see what they have!

We packed all of our food in a cooler, which was duct-taped shut after inspection. The meat we brought was packed frozen solid, and stayed cold enough (and in the safe zone) until we reached our destination. Once we got to the villa, it went right into the fridge and freezer.

turks and caicos food turks and caicos food turks and caicos food

turks and caicos food

We plan on going out to eat a couple of times while we are there to enjoy some of the local food, and we plan to purchase some fresh seafood and cook it in our villa couple of nights as well.

Here is what our meal plan looks like for the week:

 

Weekly Meal Plan for Turks and Caicos

Breakfast Lunch Dinner
Thursday x x Turkey Burgers
Friday Banana w/ peanut butter Chicken Caesar Wraps and veggies Lentil Tacos
Saturday Eggs w/ turkey bacon and fruit Leftover tacos or pb wraps Fresh seafood and veggies, quinoa
Sunday Oatmeal or eggs Leftover chicken caesar Out to dinner
Monday Banana w/ peanut butter, eggs, or oatmeal PB banana wraps Veggie hash
Tuesday Oatmeal or eggs Salad Veggie something?
Wednesday Eggs w/ turkey bacon and fruit Leftovers Seafood and veggies
Thursday Leftovers PB wraps x
Snacks Dried fruit, fresh fruit, fresh veggies, pistachios, Chex Mix, date/nut bites, chips and salsa
Beverages LOTS of water, wine, tea, coffee, fresh juice?
http://beautifullynutty.com

I’ll be excited to fill you in how all it all turned out!

Catch up with you later gators!

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What to Pack for a Caribbean Vacation

The moment has arrived…we are on our way to Turks and Caicos! I plan on taking a break from the computer this week but I still have a few posts that will be coming your way! So while I’m away, everyone behave. 🙂

As much as I love traveling, I always have the hardest time packing. I don’t want to over pack but I don’t want to under pack. The whole process turns into a bit of a fiasco and I wind up packing things I don’t need. You know what they say though, practice makes perfect. I guess we’ll just have to keep traveling in order for me to figure it out! 😉

Once again I did my best and packed what I thought was “necessary”, and I’ll find out very soon if I did a good job.

Lucky for us, the weather in Turks is 80’s during the day and mid to high 60’s in the evening, so we don’t have to pack warm clothes by any means. This means I can pack more light clothes! Kidding, I truly did try to be realistic packer.

Here is a list of items I put together that one should remember to pack when traveling to the Caribbean or any other tropical destination…

What to Pack for a Caribbean Vacation

1. Apparel

  • Swimsuits
  • Swimsuit cover-ups
  • Shorts
  • T-shirts
  • Tank tops
  • Workout type clothes
  • A few “nicer” outfits in case you go out to eat
  • One long-sleeve cardigan or shirt
  • Flip flops
  • Tennis shoes

2. Sun protection and LOTS of it

  • Sunscreen
  • Lip balm with sunblock
  • Sunglasses
  • A pair of contact lenses (see website where I bought them from)
  • Hats

3. Hygiene items

  • Safety kit (Neosporin, alcohol wipes, ibuprofen, tweezer, etc.)
  • Body wash
  • Deodorant
  • Shampoo and conditioner
  • Razors
  • Face wash
  • Body lotion
  • Bug spray (the bugs really like me unfortunately—I learned this from our trip to the Dominican)
  • Hairspray if needed
  • Hair dryer

3. Games and Entertainment

  • Card games
  • Books
  • Magazines
  • Snorkel gear
  • Hand paddle ball
  • Nerf footballs
  • Music

4. Miscellaneous

  • Camera
  • Camera charger
  • Underwater camera
  • Tri-pod or camera gorilla
  • Backpack for day trips
  • Garbage bags to keep inside of backpack dry on day trips that involve water
  • Beach bag
  • Zip-loc bags to bring snacks on day trips
  • Water bottles
  • Amenity kit for airplane–eye mask, toothbrush, toothpaste, lip balm, lotion, antibacterial, ear plugs
  • Beach towels if not provided

I hope this helps at least one person out there who’s frantically trying to pack for a Caribbean getaway!

This is definitely just what I needed to do to make sure I had everything packed that I would need for this trip. We also packed food, and a lot of it. Watch for that post coming your way soon!

Check in with you later!

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Prada, Gucci, and Larry King

Good morning! Wow, each time I am away from home and come back from being away I remember just how much I love my bed! It hugged me tight last night and didn’t let go until the morning. I was so tired and still kind of am. It usually takes me a couple of nights of sleep to recover from vacation.

Continuing on from yesterday’s post which would bring us to Day #2 in California. Considering we went to bed at 9:30 pm Friday night, we were both wide awake at 6:15 Saturday morning. We took advantage of being up early and got ready to head out for the day. We said our goodbye’s to Dalynn and goodbye to Hollywood and headed out toward Rodeo Drive.

On our way we stopped at a Farmer’s Market area to search for a place to eat breakfast. We ended up going to a little Bakery and Cafe called Du-par’s, which originated in Vegas and has been around for a while. I believe it is still in Vegas, but LA now has one as well. It has an old school feel; the waitresses even wear the old-fashioned bonnet type hats, and they make coffee from a large, old brass- colored coffee maker.

The menu was simple and classic. I settled for two eggs over easy and hash browns. The meal also came with whole wheat toast and  their homemade jam. We tried both strawberry and raspberry and both were delicious. We also drank a couple cups of joe on the side.

After breakfast we continued on our way to Rodeo Drive. We parked our hot mustang at a meter and started walking the ritzy sidewalks. We got there fairly early so it was nice and quiet and peaceful while we were there. We passed Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Cartier, Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Harry Winston, Jimmy Choo, Prada, and more. I bought something at each and every store. 🙂 Ha. I couldn’t hardly even afford to look through the windows of these stores much less step foot in them and buy something. I would have felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and there is no question about that (especially in my athletic apparel that I was sporting that morning).

As we were walking along the sidewalks, we had our one and only celebrity sighting of the whole trip. I walked past a man and did a double take. I smiled at him, he smiled back. It wasn’t until I passed him that I realized it was Larry King. I got my celebrity spotting that I was hoping for! I was pretty jazzed up about it too. I’m a little bit of a dork like that.

We wrapped up at Rodeo Drive and headed to Newport Beach to meet up with my friend (since middle school), Brandon, who is going to grad school at University of California, Irvine. His parents live in Newport Beach and we stayed at their home for the rest of the trip. They have a gorgeous place and were so accommodating and gracious.

We got to their house around noon and then waited for our other high school friend, Will, to arrive, before we headed to the beach. Brandon drove us over to Crystal Cove in Newport Beach and we walked barefoot in the sand under the warm sun. It was so serene and beautiful and I loved every second of our walk.

Brandon managed to get stung by a bee in the process of the walk which was really funny to me at the time (sorry Brandon). The bee got him in the bottom of the foot but that didn’t stop him. We kept on truckin’!

After the walk we headed back home to get cleaned up and grab some lunch/snacks: homemade guacamole, fresh strawberries, veggie chips, etc.

A few hours later we were heading out towards Laguna Beach to a bar called the Rooftop which overlooks the ocean and has a great view of the sunset. It was very pretty! We stayed there only for a little while before heading out to dinner in Newport Beach at the Bear Flag Fish Company. They are very well-known for their fish tacos and I can understand why!

You step in to the joint and the place is packed. In the front there is a closed glass deli case filled with about 10 different fresh fish filets. You chose your fish and place your order at the front. In about 20 minutes or so they make your fish of choice into a grilled blackened fish taco. I chose the Opah and was extremely happy with my decision. Seriously, check this out.

Fresh grilled opah, cabbage, jalapeno, cilantro, tomato, some really good cream sauce, and a squirt of lime juice over the top. I also ordered a side of black beans because I like black beans. These tacos were incredible! I would recommend this place to everyone! The prices were very reasonable too considering the amount of food you got and the freshness of the fish and ingredients.

Dana ordered a grilled artichoke as an appetizer which was also very good. I snagged a couple bites of that green goodness. I want to make artichokes on the grill at home!

After dinner we decided just to head home and relax on their outdoor patio. We called it an early night again and hit the hay around 10:00 pm! Once again, wild and crazy! One more day to share with you and then you will be all caught up!

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A little off-subject food news to share with you. I cooked with Tempeh for the first time last night! I will be talking more about it later but wanted to give you a sneak peek! Pasta with Tempeh marinara. It was GOOD!

 

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Anyone have any fun celebrity sighting experiences to share?

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