Beach Trip!

Tomorrow I leave for a week at the beach.  A week of sunning, swimming, relaxing, reading, spending time with family and friends, long walks, and eating.  Yes, eating.  My fondest beach memories include munching on cheeze-its while playing cards, snacking on dorritos while laying in the sun, macaroni and cheese and sandwiches for lunch, pizza and burgers for dinner... all foods I love to indulge in while at the beach.  Unfortunately, cheeze-its and dorritos don't make the list of snack foods this year, and a week of relaxation can only happen after a lot of planning, cooking, and preparing for the week ahead.  Here are some things I will be taking with me this year.....

Homemade cashew milk and homemade almond milk.  Here are the recipes:


Cashew Milk


soak overnight, or for about 8 hrs:  1 cup organic raw cashew pieces. Drain and rinse until water runs clear.

Add to a blender with 4 cups of water, and blend until smooth.  Sweeten as desired.  I used vanilla stevia, but you could use agave, honey, vanilla extract, or pitted dates.

Almond Milk


soak overnight, or for about 8 hrs: 2 cups raw almonds.  Drain and rinse until water runs clear.

Add to blender with 4 cups of water, and blend for a couple of minutes.  Drape a nutmilk bag or other mesh bag or piece of cheesecloth over a bowl. Pour the contents of the blender into bag and squeeze out all of the milk from the pulp.  Add liquid back to (rinsed) blender and sweeten as desired.

I saved the almond pulp and made these gluten free almond pulp crackers from Elana's Pantry!

So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer for my morning coffee!!

Bananas, kale, and frozen fruit for breakfast smoothies

apples, oranges, cucumber, and carrots for snacks.  Also bringing popcorn, corn chips and homemade mango salsa, the almond pulp crackers I mentioned above, and flax herb crackers.

Applegate pepperoni and Daiya vegan cheese for pizza ( I will also pre-make a couple of gluten free pizza crusts to freeze and take), gluten free/dairy free mac & cheese, and coleslaw for lunch and/or dinner options.

While I am excited to go, I'm sad to leave my husband for almost a week (he has to work), and this little guy isn't too happy that I'm leaving, either....

"I'll just sit here and stare out the window until you come back, mom."

Bo obviously doesn't care...typical picture of our doggies.

Stay tuned for updates and pictures of the trip!!

*Ashley*