Guest Post: Allison @ Food For Healing

Today’s post comes from one of my besties, Allison. I am so happy that she will be taking over the blog for the day with yummy recipes and ideas for good snacking on the go!

Hey! It’s Allison from Food for Healing. I write about a few things on my blog; food, some fitness and whatever life throws at me.

Whitney was looking for some guest posts to fill in some time while she was away camping, and of course since we are biggest loser besties, I had to write a guest post!

Since she is going on a camping trip, I figured what better post to do other than camping/backpacking/hiking snacks. I plan on doing some backpacking and some camping this summer myself.

These snacks are easy to make, stow away nicely in your bag and are delicious!

First up is Trail mix. Trail mix is one of the easiest things you can create yourself at home, you don’t need any special kitchen tools or gadgets.

Here’s the mix I made up:

-Almonds

-Dried Cranberries

-Raisins

-Sunflower Seeds

-Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

-Chocolate covered sunflower seeds

Next up is another simple snack, but you do need a food processor.

Date Brownie Bar

-1 cup almonds

-10 pitted dates

-approximately 1 tbsp cocoa powder (or to taste)

-1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Process almonds until finely chopped, don’t process too long or it will start turning into butter.

Add your pitted dates and cocoa and process until well combined.

Roll out and mix in chocolate chips.

Make any shape or size you wish!

Other great dehydrated snacks are dried apple rings

fruit leather, which can be made in soo many different flavours!

mango slices

And another great little treat, dark chocolate covered coffee beans (bought in bulk)

What type of snacks do you like to bring when you go camping or backpacking?

Thank you so much for reading, and thank you Whitney for having me be a guest poster on your amazing blog!

xoxo

Allison

August Goals / July Recap

Hi friends!

How is everyone? I am still enjoying my time on vacation so here is another pre-scheduled post! Woo!

Wow, AUGUST already? Imagine that. I love August here in Michigan. This marks the start of my favorite season it’s called “AUG.-OCT., the most beautiful time in Michigan” I think that’s a good name.

July Goal Recap:

• At least 1 hour of exercise 5 days a week. This can include nature walks, runs, gym time, biking, and Zumba. I NEED this hour everyday to lower my stress. I did the best I could.
• Use up my Zumba punch card at the dance studio. I bought a 10-class punch card in January and have only gone once. Mainly because the classes are all at night. Expires in August! I only used it twice, whoops! I think I am going to try to use it after it expires on the fifth. I might even slide a 1 in before the 5 on “Aug. 5th” if you know what I mean..
• Make time for family and friends. Check!
• Attempted to be more organized. Like paying bills on time, keeping my room clean, keeping up on laundry, filing important papers. Ehhh, check?
• Apply for Fall classes! Check!
• Roller blade on the new bike path by my house (repeat daily, I ❤ roller blading). Fail.
• Stay away from processed junk like oreo’s and nutter butter’s. Not worth the belly ache! Check!
• Limit fried foods to maybe once every 2 weeks. Yes, this included my favorite roll (sweet potato roll) at the sushi joint. Check! I’ve been eating a lot more salads and actually enjoying them!

August Goals:

• Reeelax.
• Read my Biology book to get a head start!
• Start studying early for fall semester.
• Go to Canada
• Celebrate my 20th Birthday on the 31st!

Did you make any goals for August!

 

& Were Off

It is officially vacation time & I couldn’t be more excited.

Granola? Check.

VOO and “Egg” salad? Check.

Apples? Check.

Bananners? Check.

& Were off to go camping on one of Michigan’s great lakes for the whole week!

No fancy restaurants, no Starbucks, no health food stores, no air conditioning, no hair dyers, no oven, no whining cats (sorry babes, mommy is going to miss you very much!), no familiar faces, no gym, no TV, no freezer, and no internet. 

I will bring the laptop but I doubt I will find wifi. I will be sure to share tons of beautiful photos next week. I hope you enjoy the posts I have lined up for the week! When we return, we have a big weekend ahead of us so be patient! (Details later! 🙂 )

Before I go…

This is what packing looks like:

Whew! That’s a lot so far and I’m not even 1/4 of the way done. It’s going to be a long day! 🙂

Have a good weekend!

Feature Friday: Vegan on Vacation

Hi guys! Happy FRIDAY! The weekend usually doesn’t excite me because it usually means being extra busy! However, I am totally excited for this weekend because I will finally be on VACATION! The boyfriend and I are taking our annual camping trip and we will be gone for 6 days! I am so excited to just relax on the lake for an entire week.

I thought it would be interesting to do this week’s Friday Feature on….

VEGAN ON VACATION!

For the past year and a half of following a vegan diet I found that I’ve had the hardest time when traveling.

Vegan eating on the road: Most people think that fast food is the only food to eat when traveling. Sure, it is convenient, but it is definitely not the only choice! If I am not prepared and need to eat something right away, I feel the best way to grab something to eat fast is at a grocery store. Pick up an apple, banana, carrots, berries, snack bars, soy yogurt, or a bottled smoothie. I also find it fun to stop at new local markets for fresher produce!

Packing a lunch isn’t just for children: I pack lunch like it’s nobody’s business. Remember last semester when I had to pack a lunch and dinner all in one day? Yeah, I’m not joking. For longer trips, pack a mini cooler! For my vacation I am packing days worth of overnight oats, potato salad, maybe some faux tuna or egg salad, bread, premade vegan desserts, chocolate, fruit, lots of veggies, tofu, cereal, and non dairy milk.

The perfect tools for a great packed lunch:

• Ice-pack
• Thermos
• Reusable bags
• Cloth
• Spoons

Salad bars are your best friend: What a great way to chow down on good food! It can be a challenge to find a good salad bar but definitely take advantage of it!

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare: In my opinion, preparation is the key to any healthy diet. Things like packing a lunch, meal planning, and bring along the right tools you need to stay on diet is very important. For me, this means packing dessert, I cannot live without chocolate! I would just be super cranky without it. Cravings are no fun to deal with on vacation.

 I am thinking about taking the Vitamix camping. I could make green smoothies out of the local produce! I think that will be fun. What do you think?

Any other great vegan/healthy tips for travel? Leave them below!

Bicycle

So, I’ve really been slacking in the physical fitness department.

Can you blame me though? I don’t really have time to go to the gym or wake up super early for a run. To be honest, I’m just really not in the mood.

But lately, I’ve been getting in new forms of exercise.

Biking

It is a great way to clear your mind, get some fresh air, and get your heart rate pumping. Not to mention biking is very easy on the joints which is always a plus for me.

Yesterday I wasn’t really in the mood for anything. I thought about maybe going for a walk but, it was already 10:00 AM I wasn’t all that thrilled to get all hot and sticky outside. So I grabbed my mom’s bicycle thinking I would explore the new bike path:

Oh yes, this bike is quiet a classic. I do own a mountain bike, I swear, I just don’t know how to filled the flat tire. Go ahead, make fun.

Just admit it, you think I look really cool on this bike.

Jealous yet?

I must have biked at least 5 miles, it was so much fun!

Do you bike?

I used to bike a lot when I was younger… before I got a car. Now it’s just a rare occasion. I am pretty excited to bike tomorrow morning! Scott and I usually rent bikes when we go camping. I just checked the prices on rental bikes and they went up a lot! I’m talking $23 each for a rental bike for one day. Last year, they were half of that! SO disappointed. Maybe I’ll have to invest in a bike rack?

Camping Vegan Style…

One of my most favorite late summer activities is camping. I feel that sometimes we get so caught up in our busy lives we forget how beautiful the simple things in nature can be. I for one have alway been a huge nature fan; it’s who I am. I believe everybody has it inside themselves somewhere, just admit it!

Waking up every morning to the sunrise on Lake Huron is so relaxing.

Who could not enjoy this???

MONDAY Aka, Scott’s birthday. We packed our bags and headed north. So maybe we made a quick stop at a casino… free birthday cash! unfortunately we lost but it was still a lot of fun. My favorite is video poker, I usually at least break even but not this time. Oh well, you can’t go to a Casino and gamble and expect to win. After all that gambling excitement I worked up a hunger. Luckly, I had my handy dandy raw almonds on hand which went well with some “jerky”:

Believe it or not, Primal is actually very healthy. It’s full of vitamins and protein and it is very tasty.

This held me over until taco bell about an hour later. I do not get fast food too often but when I do I like taco bell’s 7 layer burrito without the cheese or sour cream. Do you eat fast food? If so, where do you go?

After Taco Bell the camp site was only about an hour away. I couldn’t wait until we finally got there!:

 I was getting pretty antsy!

Anyway, so we got there. I missed this park so much! I love driving in for the first time and seeing all my temporary neighbors.

 We set up the huge tent we just bought:

Ta da!

After this we wasted to time in starting a fire and making dinner. We brought a lot of left-overs from my open house such as kabobs, hummus, and pita bread. We seasoned the ‘bobs and threw them on the “grill”!

To drink I tried one of these babies:

I really liked this flavor compared to the lemon kind.

TUESDAY I had a great breakfast before our nature walk.

After our walk we drove to East Tawas to shop around a bit. I found a Candle shop with soy candles so you bet I had to get some. Upstairs there was a candy shop and guess what I found?

I had to get them. All the restaurants in Tawas were pretty much the same, sports bars or hamburger bars. Not one pace looked appealing to me. I felt like the only non-meateater in the whole freaking town. We ended up driving back to our campsite because I was so hungary. We snacked a bit a cooked a long dinner.

Over the fire we made some amazing meals compared to every other camper’s hot dogs and hamburgers. We made refried black beans, rice, and veggies. This took a few hours but it was so worth it. Nobody has a gourmet meal like this camping!

Campfire cooking tips:

• Get a good steady fire going before you start throwing food on

• Invest in one of these handy grill grates

  

• TAKE YOUR TIME cooking food over a campfire will take more time and will require a lot more attention

WENESDAY Aka, our anniversary. We rented bikes and rode all over town! For lunch we went to a pizza place where I got this little veggie pizza:

Even the waitress said, for not having cheese this pizza looks really good! Black olives, green peppers, and pineapples actually went really well together. After I devoured this entire personal pizza we went back to the site and layed out on the sand.

Dinner went a little something like this: roasted red skins, baked beans, and Tofurkey sausage

I never had this drink before. It’s Bolthouse soymilk, I enjoyed it.

 This was my first time trying this one too. These are vegan candy bars made to represent other candy bars like Snickers. I was never a big Snickers fan so this was just okay. But if you like Snickers, I would highly recommend it!

THURSDAY morning I read more of my book and had breakfast:

Later, we went put putting! Scott really likes golfing so this was the closest thing. After that we played a lot of games and went to my uncle’s house. When we got home we grilled up some Boca burgers. My new favorite Boca burger is the Chicken patty kind. My boyfriend said it taste like a chicken sandwich from Burger King. What’s your favorite veggie burger?

FRIDAY was a sad day. Time to pack up and go home! We had a wonderful trip overall and we both can’t wait to go back again next year!

Falafel!!!

Woowee what a busy day!

Today, Scott and I did a lot of running around looking for a tent and other camping supplies for our camping trip coming up on the 2nd. We got a really good deal on a 7 person tent. It was originally $160, on sale for $139 PLUS 20% off. Score 🙂

We went out for lunch at one of my favorite places, Taboon. We were both defiantly in need of some of their falafel.

And how could you forget the fattosh?

Yum. This was perfect. Well, other than waiting about an hour to get our food. That was pretty ridiculous considering we were the first people and everyone got their food before us. But that’s okay, we enjoy each other’s company. 🙂

I should really be at the gym right now because I am trying to go everyday this week. Today is my only day off until next Tuesday so I really have no excuse not to go tonight and work on my core. Does anybody know any good core workouts? I usually just do cardio and strength training so I’m pretty new at this.  I’m also thinking about buying a yoga DVD but there are so many to close from! Sometimes I do yoga at my gym but, I kinda suck at that too. You know it’s bad when the 60+ women can hold a pose longer than you can. I think I just talked myself into going to the gym.

Stay tuned for my recipe on Vegan Blueberry Bars & Summer Smoothie Pops!