Budget Paleo...Made Easy: Made it home last night after being in Scottsdale, Arizona

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Made it home last night after being in Scottsdale, Arizona

for a week. We really enjoyed our time together and the weather was great!

With a little advanced planning traveling and Paleo can be simple and even save you money.

The day before we left for Arizona I cooked up some boneless chicken breasts and roasted some sweet potato slices. I packed them in 2 small sealable containers, 1 for each of us, and threw them in our carry ons. We also packed some coconut flakes, macadamia nuts, and dried figs. When lunch time rolled around we were able to eat a lunch that cost much less than if we bought it in the airport and we were guaranteed it was Paleo.
While we were there we stayed in a Condo which had grills, so we grilled nearly every night. In fact we ate Filet Mignon, yes, that's right Fillet Mignon two nights! I admit it wasn't grass fed, but what a treat! A package of 4 steaks were only about $24.00 at Costco, making 2 meals for the two of us. I estimate that the Filet Mignon and veggie meals were about $8-$9 dollars per person, just a small fraction of the what it would have cost us to eat out for Dinner. The first night we grilled Filet Mignon, grilled sweet onion,grilled mini sweet peppers and grilled zucchini. Then we used the leftover veggies for a breakfast scramble the next morning. Another night we grilled pork tenderloin, asparagus, peppers, zucchini and sweet potatoes. It was all so yummy! Grilling makes everything taste so much better.
On our last night we grilled extra pork chops, veggies and sweet potatoes to use on our trip home. We also had some left over sausage links that we sliced and pan fried. We then divided all the leftovers between our two containers for the trip home and we were good to go. One suggestion I do have, is to pre-cut your food before hand, especially your meat, since you can't pack a knife of any kind on board planes. Cutting it into bite size pieces and packing a plastic fork makes it easier later when it's time to eat. You could even throw in some napkins or hand wipes.
The few times we ate out our biggest indulgences were goat cheese or blue cheese and dressing/vinaigrette on our salads. And I have to admit the night I finished my CrossFit Cert class and passed we celebrated by eating "real" Haagen Daz ice cream. What a treat!
The rest of the time we stayed on track with our eating by making our own breakfast, lunch and dinners. If you are traveling for any length of time and can't stay with family and friends, check out Vacation Rentals By Owner. Often you can find a great deal on a house, condo, etc. We happened to find a condo that was very, very nice and after bargaining with the owner we paid less than it would have cost us to stay at a mid-range hotel. And it provides the option to prepare your own meals, unlike a hotel/motel, creating an additional savings and making eating Paleo easy. Traveling and eating Paleo is not hard, it just may require a little more planning.
I enjoyed those grilled meals so much that since we had a sunny day today, I decided to grill dinner. Grassfed Ground beef for Hamburgers, which I topped with pre-made guacamole, and served with sides of grilled zucchini, yellow squash and sweet potatoes. Looking forward to more nice weather and grilling. Paleo and grilling go so well together.