Roadtripping While Veg - An Intro (Plus Trail Mix Recipe)

I recently stumbled across a Vegetarian Times article titled "Ultimate Veg Travel Guide". I was excited for my favorite veg magazine to have an article on the topic as I am about to drive (yes drive) across the United States, literally coast-to-coast. Was I ever disappointed when it mostly turned out to be one big advertisement! You can check out this article here. While it has a few good tips, it's nothing someone who has traveled more than a few hours in a vehicle or taken an airplane wouldn't already know. I travel for work and often take food with me so as not to inconvenience my hosts and to save time after working 12+ hours. This requires some forethought and preparation, and often most of my luggage ends up being food.


The latest travel endeavor is a cross-country trip where kitchen facilities are few and far between, and the words "vegetarian" and "vegan" are unfathomable in many areas. Why wouldn't you want butter or cheese on your pizza?! This being said, I've decided to start compiling some of the best vegetarian/vegan traveling tips from my personal experience. Hopefully they'll be of use to you too!

Road Snacks:

To me, having healthy snacks handy is a must for those on-the-road-and-there-isn't-a-rest-stop-for-58-miles snack attacks. I like having a mix of proteins, carbs, and salts, with a couple sweet treats thrown in. One of my favorite snacks recently has been kale chips. While I've attempted to make these tasty morsels in the past, they never seem to be as delicious as the ones I buy locally from Kitchen Ahimsa. They have amazing vegan, gluten-free, and raw kale chips in addicting flavors like spicy chipolte, Thai curry, and cheesy pizza. Seriously check them out here. Gushing about wonderful local businesses aside, here are some other car-friendly snack ideas:

• Nuts
• Granola bars/Lara Bars
• Granola (Naughty But Nice chocolate granola is a personal favorite)
• Fruit (bananas, peaches, pears, apples, anything that won't spoil too quickly without cold)
• Kale chips
• A dairy-free dark chocolate bar
• Trail mix (check out the bottom of this post for my recipe)
• Dark chocolate espresso beans (for when you need your caffeine fix without needing a rest room stop)
• Baby carrots & hummus 
• Multigrain crackers & peanut butter 

Travel Food:

Traveling with prepared food is one of the best and most difficult things to do as a vegetarian/vegan. Most often is requires you carry a cooler and means you have a day of cooking before leaving on your journey. But your body will thank you during your traveling when you have good, healthy food to eat and aren't resorting to eating sides and salads (aka lettuce with tomato and carrots if you're lucky) with balsamic at restaurants. One of my favorite dishes to travel with is curry. It's very easy to make and can be frozen to create ice packs for your cooler. Plus when you arrive at your destination, exhausted, it requires minimal prep outside of cooking rice and defrosting the curry itself.

However, if you're concerned about liquids leaking in your vehicle (understandable), try to keep to dry foods like quiona dishes and noodles with veggies and spices. Personally I'm a big fan of wraps. If you're concerned about the white flour in the tortillas, look for varieties like multi-grain, flax, spinach, sun-dried tomato, and organic corn for a gluten free option. Wraps can be filled with all kinds of versatile fillings and don't take up much space. They are also great to freeze if you make a large batch.

Here are a few of my personal favorites for travel-friendly food:

• Baked blueberry oatmeal
• Tofu scramble
• Vegan fajitas
• Quiona & veggie bowls
• Black bean casserole
• Overnight oats in mason jars
• Vegan muffins
• Homemade healthy oatmeal cookies (this recipe is vegan, oil-free, gluten-free, and has no added sugar)
• Curry
• Chia Pudding

Supplementals:

When traveling there a few other things I love to pack in order to stay healthy and energized. Pick and choose what best suits your needs and your trip.

• Non-dairy milk (for oatmeal, granola, smoothies, chia pudding)
• Chia seeds
• Nuts
• Bulk rice
• Flax meal
• Maca powder
• Lentils
• Oats (rolled or steel-cut)

Don't forget to pick up some fresh fruit and veggies at any local roadside stands you may pass.

Hope you enjoyed my starter-tips to making traveling when veggie and found a couple of helpful tidbits! Check out my trail mix recipe below!

Erin's Totally Awesome Road Trip Trail Mix

This trail mix will satisfy your crunchy, salty, sweet, and spicy cravings! I found all of these items in the bulk section. This is a great option because you can buy just as much as you want to put in your trail mix (I like a lot of chocolate, cranberries, and cashews!).

• Cashews
• Almonds (raw or flavored)
• Peanuts
• Pistachios (you can purchase these with or without the shell. Generally with the shell on is cheaper, but will require more work for you)
• Hemp seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Tamari-spiced pumpkin seeds (I find these at the local co-op)
• Vegan chocolate chips (or carob chips for less sweetness)
• Dried cranberries
• Dried sour cherries
• Dried unsulfered mango, cut into chunks
• Dried whole figs of various types (4-6 of each)
• Cacao energy chunks, sliced into bite-size (I've only seen this at Whole Foods, but you may be able to find something similar. Just be sure to check the ingredients for dairy products and honey)

1. Place desired amount of each ingredient in a big container with a lid and shake it till everything is mixed. 
2. ENJOY and safe travels!

Vegan Baked Blueberry Oatmeal

If you're like me and love food and breakfast, but mornings are not your time of day, you've found the right recipe! I'm a huge fan of overnight oats, but sometimes all I want is a hot breakfast to start the day. This baked blueberry oatmeal is 100x better than the instant packets that are full of preservatives and in my personal experience, often not dairy-free.

If you have a busy life or travel for work, this recipe is perfect. Prep takes me maybe 15 minutes if I'm feeling extra lazy or am tired from a long day. This hearty, fruity oatmeal stores and reheats well, so if I have a busy week coming up I'll make a large pan and pack a bunch of smaller containers for the week ahead. This keeps me from being tempted to grab a packaged breakfast or binge on sweets later in the day. Plus it tastes like starting the day out with a treat!

This oatmeal bake is full of fruity goodness that adds a touch of sweetness, but not too much. The type of non-dairy milk, nuts, and fruit can all be interchanged. Why not try out blueberries one time and raspberries the next? Maybe you have pecans on hand instead of sliced almonds, go ahead and experiment! The recipe below is for a triple batch, which will fill a 9x13 (2" tall) glass baking pan perfectly. I will also post the single batch measurements at the bottom of this post for a 8x8 pan.

Vegan breakfast will never be the same.

Again, this is a triple batch!

And.....GO!

Vegan Baked Blueberry Oatmeal

Ingredients

• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds, divided in half
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup maple syrup (agave can be used, but it doesn't have the same flavor)
• 3 cups vanilla coconut milk (or any desired non-dairy milk)
• 3 flax eggs (link in first step of instructions)
• 6 tbsp. Earth Balance, melted and cooled slightly
• 3 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4-6 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
• 3 cups blueberries (or fruit of choice), divided in half

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
2. Make a flax egg and place it in the refrigerator for around 20 min. The best way I found to make a flax egg was from Bonzai Aphrodite. But as I've stated, I'm lazy so I do use pre-ground flax meal and have yet to notice much of a difference from fresh ground flax.
3. Grease your 9x13 baking pan and spread the sliced bananas in a single layer over the bottom of the baking dish. Top with half the blueberries.
4. In a large bowl, combine the oats, half the sliced almonds, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a heat-proof measuring cup, combine the maple syrup, non-dairy milk, flax egg, butter, and vanilla.
5. Sprinkle the dry oat mixture over the bananas & blueberries in an even layer. Pour the liquid ingredients evenly over the nuts.
6. Sprinkle the remaining sliced almonds and blueberries over the top. bake for 35-40 min, until the top is browned and oats have set. Allow to cool for 10 min before serving.

This recipe was adapted from both Heidi Swanson's "Super Natural Every Day" and Leah Short's blog, "So How's It Taste?"

❀

Refreshing Green Juice

While there are many debates over the benefits of juicing, I have found personally that my body loves fresh pressed juices! I have more energy, can stay more focused, and it gives me something tasty to drink that I know will be doing something good for my body.

There have been a few (okay maybe more than a few) really terrible juicing experiments that resulted in wishing I'd just cooked the vegetables. This juice was not one of them. It's the first one I made in 2014 and have continued to make throughout the year! It's refreshing and has a great flavor from the combination of both fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

It has ginger which is great for aiding digesting and adding a little kick in with the sweetness of the oranges and apples. Spinach is packed with iron, and parsley is well-loved for having anti-inflammatory properties.

Recipe:

Place all ingredients through a juicer in the order below, mix and enjoy! 

• Ginger (1/2 thumb size)
• Parsley (a handful)
• Spinach (2 packed cups)
• Orange (1 small)
• Lemon (1/2)
• Apples (3 small)
• Cucumber (1/2)

Serve in a mason jar and use a Glass Dharma straw to stay plastic free!

Welcome!

Welcome everyone!

This is me, Erin, here to share with you my personal guide to how I learned to love life again through yoga, vegetarianism (complete with plenty of desserts!), photography, and travel. I am certified yoga teacher, semi-professional photographer, and self-proclaimed lazy cook, whose job in the film industry keeps her on the road. In fact, I'm about to set off across the country for work in a coast-to-coast drive that is sure to be the experience of a lifetime!

My first time ever trying Navasana while flying. 

Only made it half way there, but practice makes perfect!

I just did a total redesign of this blog in 2014, so please keep checking back for updates. Originally my thought had been to create a completely new blog with a catchier title, but then I thought "Why?" I don't want to write this blog and share what I have learned to become popular or well known. I want to share what I have learned so maybe others who have faced the same challenges can find a helping hand.

I have left the old blog posts up because those were the words, sorrows, and thoughts of someone who was finding a way to deal with diagnosed depression. I left them so those of you who also feel that way know you are not alone and that things do get better. The world still overwhelms me today, I still get sad. We are all human after all. But I learned to accept myself slowly through the processes of yoga, and through yoga I learned how to better care for myself and thereby begin to share love and kindness with others.

These days I like to take pictures of my fresh pressed juices (all the recipes will be shared of course!), make green smoothies, eat plant-based food and enjoy the simple things in life. Whether you're new to yoga, new to vegetarianism or veganism, are trying out Meatless Monday, or simply found your way here because you like photographs and adventure, WELCOME!

Namaste!
Erin