California Dreamin'

I recently spent 10 days following the Amgen Tour of California (where I met Patrick Demsey- are you tired of seeing this picture yet?) and worried a lot about what I'd be able to eat along the way. Since I was there for business, I never knew where or when my next meal would come, so I tried to plan ahead as much as possible.



It started on the plane when I pulled out some cooked/cubed sweet potato I'd made the night before in my successful attempt to clean out every single edible thing in the fridge. I thought nothing of opening my container and chowing down until my coworker sitting next to me look in bewilderment at me and asked what I was eating. Then we decided, yeah, it's weird to bring sweet potato on a plane. But that doesn't mean it's not smart. It was quite tasty.



My options on the long plane ride were really limited: a chicken ceasar sandwich, a fruit and cheese plate, or a transfat box that contained popular killers like breadsticks and "cheese," chips and salsa, and candy. I had to choose the lesser of all evils and went with the fruit and cheese plate.

On the actual trip, I was fortunate enough to, in the beginning, be able to run for an hour through each city before stopping to get my new favorite food- a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter. As the trip went on, it got a littler harder to find this little delight, but I got by...Being in California was nice, there were a few good places to get tasty food that won't kill you, though I think I overdosed on fish while I was there, since that's the only animal that I ever really eat anymore, and that's typically once a month or so. Looks like I don't need to eat anymore of that for a long, long time.

When I returned from my trip I had to go grocery shopping almost immediately since I'd done a great job of clearing out all food. Luckily I had something I'd made and frozen that I ate for dinner the night I got back.

Usually after a trip I spend a billion dollars at the grocery store. On a regular trip I spend about $20-25 weekly with a random $60-75 to stock on up stuff every month or 6 weeks. After a trip I easily spend $100. This time, however, I barely spent $50. And I splurged.

I decided to branch out and buy some regular tofu (as opposed to silken), some veggie pepperoni, and Toffuti Better Than Cream Cheese. I'll let you know how that goes...