Moderation 4 Life: Eating Healthy on Vacation

This past weekend I had the privilege of traveling to northern South Carolina where Alaina was competing for running. My mom and her made the trip from CA and we were able to stay at a Marriott hotel set up like a timeshare. We love staying at a place with a kitchen because it really makes eating healthy on vacation very realistic.

Even outside of the hotel, my mom and I were able to eat healthy. Subway is always a good option when traveling, so we went there for lunch one day. Make sure not to load up on the dressings, cheeses, or unhealthy meats. Chicken, turkey, tuna, or veggie are great options. Then, when Alaina's team went to get ice cream, we found a TCBY frozen yogurt for our healthier treat option.

Back to the hotel, we decided to make an awesome dinner, versus going out to eat. Let's get started...

Grab some sweet potatoes, scrub them up and get cutting. Cut the sweet potatoes in half.

Try to cut each half in half again, so you have two thin long flats. Then cut slices in each flat piece.

Now all of the slices go on to a foil lined baking pan.

Drizzle the sweet potatoes with a little bit of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Get your hands in there and get mixing!

Set the sweet potatoes aside for now, and let's start on some cilantro pesto for the shrimp we're making. Chop up a whole bunch of cilantro, and finely mince some pecans.

Then chop up some green onions...love the flavor of these...

Throw your greens into a blender or food processor.

Add in the nuts.

Drizzle some olive oil into the blender. This amount really will vary because you need just enough oil to be able to puree the other ingredients. We used garlic infused olive oil for this. If you have regular olive oil, then also add a few mined garlic cloves. Next, use your microzester to add some lime zest to the mixture. Then cut your lime and squeeze some juice in!

Time to mix it up! Nice and blended. Add a little more oil if it needs it - you be the judge here!

Alright, moving onto the shrimp. Grab your bag of frozen shrimp and place in a colander. To quickly thaw run cool water over the shrimp. Make sure not to use hot water, it can be a safety risk!

Okay shrimp are ready to go, onto the broccolini. Rinse and chop off the ends.

Place in a pan with a little bit of water, add a lid, and steam the veggie.

Remember those sweet potatoes we prepared? Get them in the oven. 425 for 30-40 minutes, you want them crispy and lightly browned! (We did end up moving ours onto two sheet pans so it wasn't so crowded).

In the meantime, grab yourself a nice cold beer! We choose a hefeweizen, and added some orange slices to compliment the flavors of the beer.

Let's get the shrimp in the pan. Add the shrimp to the pan, and just pour the pesto right on top! These babies will cook quickly, like 1-2 minutes per side, so keep an eye on them.