Plantstrong in the Hawaiian Islands (Maui Edition)

Aloha!

Now seriously, how would a post be complete without the traditional Hawaiian greeting?! (and the beautiful view from our balcony)

Anyways....


After spending 4 days in Canada, I was beyond ready for warmer weather (I was expecting it to be in the 60's-70's in Whistler and it ended up being 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit cooler). In order for us to get to Hawaii, we had to fly to Los Angeles before departing for Maui. We were set to have a couple-hour layover in LA which fell during lunchtime. Unfortunately the dining choices we had were very limited. We could either eat at a Ruby's Diner or some deli. My family chose Ruby's and I chose the latter.

 

 

 

At this point in the trip, I was becoming tired of having salads as the main part of my meal for every meal minus breakfast. However, I wasn't in the mood for a sandwich and ran across a few "speciality" baked potatoes. They weren't plantstrong to begin with, but with some modification and subsidizing, my lunch was quite filling. I started with a fiesta chicken potato and took off the chicken, cheese, and sour cream, which left me with tomato, corn and broccoli. To add some bulk to my potato, I added some oil-free, dry roasted soybeans (p.s. I took the picture before I added them) and two side salads.

 

Once we landed in Maui, I snacked on an apple because I wasn't sure when our next meal would be (I don't like eating late at night for a couple reasons; one, I'm impatient like that and my slumber usually isn't great if I eat less than 2 hours before bed). It's a good thing I did because we ended up running into some trouble with our rental car. My father reserved a Ford Crown Victoria, thinking we'd be able to fit 12 suitcases in its "huge" trunk. We spent a good hour or so trying to squeeze everything in, but he eventually gave up and we got a mini van instead, which meant we had to wait even longer before going to our hotel almost over an hour away. By 8:00 or so, I was getting impatient about dinner so I ate a couple of the Shredded Wheat biscuits (the large ones) to hold me over until we could stop for food. Long story short, we didn't stop for dinner and those two biscuits were my dinner (at least I lost my appetite at that point).

 

Moving on....

 

We didn't do much on our first full day in Maui; in fact pretty much all we did was drive to Kapalua from Kaa'napali to eat lunch and drive around the area taking pictures (my parents' idea of fun). The restaurant we ate at was quite nice and had an.... interesting menu, to say the least. I settled on their Polynesian Salad (it had cabbage, sprouts, carrots, molokai sweet potatoes, edamame and edamame hummus). Incase you're wondering, Molokai sweet potatoes are just purple-fleshed potatoes that taste a bit milder than their orange cousin. They're super good, and if you ever run across them, you have to try them. Here's a picture of the salad (unfortunately the picture doesn't do the salad much justice):

 

 

 

 The next day we were a little more productive by going on a mini "warm-up" hike as well as one that was a bit more challenging (at least for my family; I could of kept going for hours!). Since I knew we would be out most of the day, I packed a can of Eden Organic Rice and Beans, a sandwich bag filled with baby carrots and a apple.

 

 

One of the spectacular views on our "big" hike

After our hikes and the road trip back to our resort, we headed off to Roy's for a belated birthday dinner (my dad was out of town on my actual birthday and wanted to make up for it by taking us to an upscale restaurant). As soon as we arrived at the restaurant, I scanned a menu to make sure I could find something to eat. I couldn't find anything (yes, even the salads were impossible to plantstrong-tize) and was afraid to tell my dad that I wouldn't be able to eat there, but after I informed a waitress that I was vegan, she gave me a vegetarian menu to look at. There were only 4 or 5 entrees to choose from and only one of them was most likely oil-free (sushi). However, I found a tofu dish which sounded appealing that I thought could be make plantstrong. I kindly asked our waiter if I could have the bok choy steamed instead of sauteed, but apparently didn't pick up on it when I saw my order. I didn't want to send it back because my parents don't get the whole 'no oil' thing, so I just dried off whatever oil I could (otherwise the dish was delish!). ((picutred below))

In order to keep this post from becoming too long, I'm just going to add the last picture I have of some of the meals I had in Maui:

 

 

This salad was the best hands-down that I had while on Maui at Honu Seafood and Pizza in Lahaina. It had an assortment of ingredients including kale, quinoa, tofu, green beans, tomato, cucumber, chickpeas, mushrooms, soybeans, pomergranate arils and a vegan coco peanut sauce (on the side). I know the combination of ingredients may sound odd, but believe me, this was not your average salad.

 

 

I'm so sorry about this post being extremely long (mainly due to all the pictures. Hopefully Kauai's post will be shorter, but I'm not making any promises. I can't help that I have all these plant-strong food porn pictures lingering on my phone. ;)

 

-Michelle

 

Plantstrong in Whistler, British Columbia

As you all already know, the week leading up to my vacation was slightly hectic, as was the first day of my vacation. I woke up before 5am central time, left for the airport around 6 and departed for my first destination (Calgary) before 9. Arrived in Calgary around noon and had a short layover before flying to Vancouver. Once I landed in Vancouver, I had to collect my bags and get the rental car before driving 2 hours to Whistler.

I bet you're wondering "When and how the heck were you able to eat?" Well for one, I always plan ahead. No matter what. I knew my family wasn't going to stop somewhere at the airport to get anything to eat, and even if we did, I'd be in the process of gnawing my arm. I made oatmeal with fruit before we left, put it in a cup and ate in the car with a water bottle I filled with soymilk. Not knowing what my lunch situation would be, I packed Wasa flatbread crackers and a Dr.McDougall Right Foods Black Bean and Lime soup cup in my carry-on incase hunger struck mid-flight. Once we landed in Calgary, I sought out a veggie box to round out my lunch. Hunger struck again once we were in Vancouver and I snacked on an apple that I had packed (which surprisingly made it through customs).

Since we were supposed to arrive in Whistler close to 9pn, we decided to find a sit-down restaurant in between Vancouver and Whistler, and Howe Sound Brewery fit the bill perfectly. I stumbled across a house made veggie burger that just so happened to be vegan and ordered it alongside an entree-size salad as well as a small salad that came as a substitute for french fries. The burger was pretty good, but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture to post. I could have asked my dad for his phone (I wasn't allowed to use mine while out of the country) but as usual, I didn't think about it until after the burger was non-existent.

Pretty much the first thing my family did when we arrived in Whistler was visit the Iga Supermarket, which is the largest grocer in the area. Being a plantstrong foodie, I decided to scope the area of the store to see what goodies I could find. Nooch (nutritional yeast), countless varieties of non-dairy milks, an abundance of local produce.... you name it. I found a large container of BC blueberries for $3 and an even bigger container of BC raspberries for $4. I was in heaven.....

Anyways.....

Staying plantstrong in Whistler wasn't an issue (I didn't really expect it to be), but it wasn't a breeze, either. Not only did I have to find restaurants that I could eat at, I also had to be on the lookout for places that could accommodate to my stepmother who cannot have corn, soy or gluten (not a lovely combo of food sensitivities) and is extremely frugal, but I was up to the challenege.

Even though some of the meals I had weren't masterpieces, I never went hungry once while we were in British Columbia, but I had my fair share of salads and McDougall Right Foods Soup Cups. There were only 2 meals that I had that stuck out in my mind and I only was able to take a picture of one of them. (pictured below)

It might have been the dead of summer, but it didn't stop me from ordering what seemed to be a meal only suited for the chilly months. There was a little cafe/deli called Portobello's that was a short walk from our resort and their vegetarian chili (which happened to also be vegan) sounded much more appealing than veggies piled between two pieces of bread. To round out the meal, I had a mixed green salad and 2 black plums on the side.

I'll upload a post on the Maui and Kauai legs of the vacation soon, and I promise that those posts will be more... appealing (from a foodie standpoint with all the pictures and such). It really does suck being a blogger and not having access to a phone during an amazing vacation...

Thanks for reading! I promise I'm not this boring in real life. I just don't have the whole "blogging" thing down yet so I'm still a bit shy. Eventually this girl will break out of her shell. ;)

-Michelle