Last Tuesday we decided to take a last-minute, school is starting soon, if I don’t get out of the house and go somewhere I’ll go crazy family vacation.
Leaving three days later, on Friday.
To Cowboy country (read: meat everywhere).
With three kids.
(no, I did not take this picture – mine were less pretty – lots of smoke in the air and no snow)
Suffice to say, I wasn’t going to put together elaborate pre-planned and prepared meals, nor was I going to let us throw it all to the wind and eat whatever (entirely -maybe a little).
We stayed in a condo, so we had a kitchen (in my opinion, the only sane way to travel with kids and dietary concerns) and our minivan has enough space to hold a lot, especially when only packing gear for five days. So I went to my favorite store – COSTCO!
I picked up three “deli” style salads – an edamame one with carrots, roasted corn, peppers and cranberries; the Pita Pals black-eyed pea salad; and my absolute favorite – their quinoa tabbouleh with quinoa (red and white), brown rice, lentils, mung beans, and the appropriate veggie accompaniments (which I need to learn to recreate). It is so good that ZJ and I finished it off for breakfast one morning when she didn’t want to eat her waffles (she’s two, so of course this would be her favorite breakfast). Between those, hummus, bananas & peaches & grapes, a batch of granola and whole grain waffles, we totally survived and had beautiful picnics everyday along the banks of various rivers scattered throughout Yellowstone.
We ate well, but now I feel a bit of a need to detox since travel inherently includes “travel food”, including the infernal/blasted/loathsome/sinister/”I hate those!” chips – aka the Kettle BBQ chips that I was apparently incapable of putting down (also found at Costco). On the way home we listened a few hours of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and were inspired to hit the Downtown SLC Farmers’ Market on the way home to pick up some peaches, nectarines, plums, pears and tomatoes. It seemed we had everything else already growing in our garden.
And so, tonight for dinner we’re having juice. Juice with beets, oranges, carrots, apples, celery, ginger, and grapes. And, if you read the title of this post, let me tell you why we weren’t gone long enough. I say this because the fruit flies, our cute, cuddly, and ever-present pets, survived the stretch. HOW??? Matt thinks it was the garbage disposal. And they are now very, very happy to have our pile of juice dregs to feast on. Seriously, am I the only one whose kids think that living with fruit flies is normal?
Good Clean Food 
Do you ever run a sink of ice cubes through your disposal? I do weekly. Keeps it clean and smelling good 🙂
Yeah, it’s really not so bad, and we do the boiling water and ice method frequently enough. It’s just amazing the fruit flies held on as long as they did! Next time I just need a longer vacation I think!
Fruit fly fiesta season has begun. Sorry to break it to ya, but it’s only going to get worse as you bring your tomatoes in. And what would we do without Costco? And by the way, Harmons has now started labeling the deli options with tags that say whether they are vegetarian/gluten-free/or EVEN VEGAN. So cool! Glad you had happy times with your family on the road. A picnic in Yellowstone sounds lovely.
don’t i know it. some guy at the farmers’ market tried to sell me stuff that would make my plants grow better and I told him they we’re growing just fine, thank you very much. I’m not planning on canning this year, unless i get a weird burst of energy. Not likely. Apparently I’ll be dehydrating a billion tomatillos. lucky me.
I’d be happy to help you out with that conundrum 😉
Fruit flies will outlast us in the end, I’m sure. I can’t say I like them, but I sort of accept that I would have to be a lot more careful to have fruit without them. Here’s to post travel juicing! Sounds like you had a good trip!
Me, I have a major issue with Stacey’s Pita Chips. If they are in the house, I will eat them until there are only tiny crumbs at the bottom of the bag. Bad. Funny, I thought Utah might be fruit fly-free since I hadn’t seen any near our compost bucket. Until a few days ago. Now a small cloud drifts out of the bucket whenever I open the lid. Those fruit fly traps work decently well and I’ve also noticed if I immediately wash the fruit when I get home it cuts down on them.
A lovely post! thanks for sharing it with us!
Great ideas for traveling when on a special diet. I had some challenges on our last road trip because I didn’t do enough pre-cooking. 🙂 Glad you guys survived (and I LOVE that book btw, very inspiring!)
I have a good little “trap” to get rid of fruit flies. Put some very ripe fruit in a little bowl and then cover it with plastic wrap and poke some holes in the top with a toothpick (make the holes large enough for a fruit fly to crawl in). The flies are attracted to the smell of the fruit so they will crawl into the bowl but won’t be able to figure out how to get out.
Good idea and reminder! We used to make a similar trap with a foil funnel and it worked awesome. I had forgotten about that!
Um, what Costo are you shopping at? Either those things don’t exist at mine, or I’m not looking hard enough. Glad you had a last Hurrah too. Hope you feel better soon!
?Great pinterst post on fruit fly trap. Pint Mason jar put some apple cidar vinegar and alittle dish soap in the bottom. Make a cone out of paper and put it in the mason jar. Will look like the bee traps you buy for outside. The flies will fly in and then not be able to get out. Works great. Got rid of my fruit flies