Hello everyone! How have your past couple of weeks been?

My life has been all over the place! At the end of July we went to Pennsylvania for a few days to visit some of Alec’s relatives / spend time with family. I was then home for a quick weekend of “catching up on life things” before heading to Traverse City with my mom for a quick overnight to see Jewel in concert at (her alma mater) Interlochen. I *HAD* to go to the concert despite the less-than-optimal Monday evening timing, and it was just as good as expected!

In today’s post I’m sharing some meals and snacks from my recent excursions, including how I navigated returning home to an almost-empty fridge for several days before going to the grocery store. (Preview: plenty of frozen items and pantry items for the win!)

Before heading to Pennsylvania, Alec’s mom and brother/his family came to Ann Arbor to visit for a day. We had them over for lunch and I made tacos / taco salad. I love to use this guacasaca recipe from Rise & Run whenever I make Mexican! Other toppings were pretty basic, including shredded cheese + chopped veggies + my favorite organic salsa from Costco. The guacasaca is also quite simple since you basically just throw everything in the blender (a high-powered blender like a Vitamix is ideal here).

For my taco meat, I typically sauté a white onion while I am browning the meat, and add plentyyy of taco seasoning + some extra salsa for additional flavor.

For dinner, we all went to Salt Springs in Saline. I had this absolutely delicious Michigan salad w/ smoked cheddar, apple, red onion, sunflower seeds, smoked chicken, and a maple cherry vinaigrette. I would go back soon just to seek this specific salad out, it was that good!

Mini froyo for dessert since I was feeling quite full from dinner. Chocolate/vanilla swirl w/ choco chips + chocolate raspberry cups. We walked along the river for a bit in downtown Dexter.

The next afternoon we flew a quick flight to Harrisburg. One of our outings was to tour Gettysburg, where I had another phenomenal lunch salad. Greens w/ turkey + chopped apple + walnuts + dried cranberries + provolone + herbed vinaigrette. Definitely hit the spot! We went to the Springhouse Tavern, where I would go again if/when I am in the area another time.

Chipotle bowl for dinner w/ greens + chicken al pastor + veggies + pico + shredded cheese + salsa verde. Alec and I both got the chicken al pastor and loved the flavor!

Chipotle always reminds me of college since I used to get that or Panera pretty much every Saturday!

When traveling, I always like to bring plenty of snacks for all my in-between meals and hunger/on-the-go needs. This trip’s items included Aloha bars, trail mix, hazelnuts, dark chocolate, homemade energy bites + cacao bars, fruit/veggie squeezes, and beef sticks. Always so much cheaper than the airport and easy to bring from home, and I like to have a variety of snack options!

Lately Aloha bars have been my go-to bar of choice. They are relatively high in protein (~14 g/bar) and lower in added sugar. I love all the ones I have tried, but like the lemon cashew, chocolate brownie, and cookie dough ones in particular! I bought a few of these recently for the PA trip and up north overnight.

I find them at Whole Foods or on Amazon!

We went to the Hershey Museum our last morning in PA which I really enjoyed! We had lunch after, before heading to the airport, and I had this amazingly delicious chicken salad sandwich. *Good* chicken salad is one of my favorite meals of all-time!! (To be clear, there is a major difference between GOOD and BAD chicken salad…). Lol.

I had gone to the grocery store before we went out of town, and knew I wouldn’t have time to go for several days once we got back with work and everything. SO I planned ahead with our meals/snacks, including getting more frozen veggies and non-perishable type items so we would still have some nutrient-dense options, considering most of our produce wouldn’t have been very good at that point.

Having some good frozen and/or pantry options on hand for after a trip (if you can’t go to the store right away) can be a helpful strategy! I also love when I have leftover/frozen homemade meals to take out of the freezer for just this scenario.

We got home Wednesday night and I was happy to have planned leftover black bean soup (from frozen) that we thawed/heated and ate w/ some salad (still had some greens that were good) and tortilla chips. This epically hit the spot as a first homecooked meal!

I then prepped some of our quick lunches to pack for the rest of the work week (at least to pack for Alec and to have on hand for me!).

For the lunches, I thawed some leftover brown rice from the freezer and made some extra quinoa to go with it. Then I thawed a bag of frozen bell peppers, opened a can of black beans, and added salsa, leftover tomatoes, and shredded cheese to our mini Mexican lunch bowls. These were surprisingly tasty! I also thawed some frozen mango for the side and scooped up my lunch bowl medley w/ tortilla chips.

Side note is that I have been really into the organic frozen mango from Costco lately. I am finding it to be basically just as good as fresh and a lot easier to manage! While I love a good fresh mango, they can also be more hit or miss and obviously more annoying to cut/prep. I put a few days’ worth of frozen mango chunks in a glass container to thaw and then eat it as I want.

While it is completely fine to NOT have many fruits/veggies for a few days (or in general, if you don’t prefer to eat this way!), there ARE many ways to still get in a lot of quality fruit/veg while eating primarily frozen or pantry items if this is something you like to generally maintain when it comes to eating.

Breakfasts post-out-of-town were chocolate zucchini muffins (from frozen), whole milk yogurt (I got extra to last us a couple of weeks), peanut butter, agave, more frozen/thawed mango, and cacao nibs. Such a good breakfast bowl combo lately!

Dinner #2 before my trip to stock back up at the store was quinoa + frozen veggie medley + sunny eggs + plenty of rosemary/thyme/salt/pepper + some leftover goat cheese. This was also surprisingly tasty!!! Simple and utilizing more frozen for the WIN. Adding extra seasoning + spices can do wonders for any simpler meal.

I had planned on doing just celery/carrots in place of our usual side salads but still had enough good lettuce for salads. As far as fresh foods go, celery and carrots are a good veggie option to have on hand for post-travel or if you aren’t able to go grocery shopping as often as you’d like for whatever reason.

I had planned on the above dinner being a thing for two nights, but then our frozen veggie mix only lasted for the one meal. So I improvised the next night and came up with a fantastic egg scramble that will be a go-to dinner option from now on! “Mexican egg scramble” made by repurposing some of the components you’ve seen above :). Scrambled eggs w/ the remaining black beans + peppers from our lunches, plenty more taco seasoning, and finished off with some feta. This was really flavorful and good topped w/ salsa and scooped up by tortilla chips. Will be making varieties of this egg scramble going forward! It was basically somewhat of a version of chilaquiles if you are a fan of those.

The next weekend I made it out for a grocery run before I would be heading up to Traverse City with my mom for the next Monday – Tuesday. It’s helpful for us both if I make Alec’s lunches, especially with his time constraints and long commute, so I made a batch of the “superfoods soup” from the Run Fast Cook Fast Eat Slow cookbook for an easy-to-pack main lunch component. So simple to throw together and it made a bunch!

I also made a batch of the bolognese from the same cookbook — so tasty and again, easy to throw together! A beef-based bolognese sauce w/ lots of veggies — I used onion, carrot, celery, red bell, zucchini, and kale. We ate this before I went out of town and Alec ate it the evening I was gone.

For sure will be making this on a regular basis! We also have more leftovers in the freezer which will, again, be good to take out on another busy evening or post-travel day in the future.

Before the concert, my mom and I went to Poppycocks in downtown TC. I had a phenomenal Mediterranean-inspired salmon dish w/ plenty of fresh herbs and veggies over white rice. My mom had a short rib dish that she also really liked. Plus my favorite (local) late harvest riesling!

The next morning we went to The Towne Plaza for breakfast, where I had a breakfast quinoa salad w/ roasted veggies, parmesan, and poached eggs. And plenty of coffee!!! I have a hard time falling asleep (sometimes at all) when I go to bed later than usual and was thus very sleep-deprived. My sensitive body “likes its schedules” a bit too much and tends to revolt when these preferred times are not honored!…

We made it back from up north on an unusually rainy August Tuesday and jumped back into the regular week!

ANNDD, if you are new to the wonders of Jewel, automatically improve your Wednesday by checking out my intro/well-curated playlist HERE!

Have a great rest of the week! 🙂