Guest Blogger - Cole Millen

Check out Cole's article on Staying Healthy on Vacation and pop on over to his blog for more great articles!


Staying Healthy on a Vacation

Your vacation is something you have likely been looking forward to for months. In fact, in preparation for the fun and excitement, you may have dieted and worked out more than normal to make sure you could shed that extra weight and look fabulous for your trip. However, it is often a bit more challenging to continue with the good eating habits and lifestyle changes while vacationing. There are a few ways for you to keep the weight off while having a good time.

Remain Healthy While Flying

The foods offered on a plane are not necessarily the healthiest selections. If at all possible, avoid eating food while on the plane. You can do this by eating a nutritious and filling meal before you board your flight. You may also consider carrying some healthy snacks for your flight so that you do not have to eat junk food on the plane.

After getting off of the plane, you can carry your luggage down the flights of stairs instead of relying on the airport elevator to get you from one place to another. This will allow you to burn off a few calories even if you spent most of the day sitting down while on the plane.

Keep Active at the Hotel

Your vacation is a time to relax. It does not mean that you have to completely forget about your healthy lifestyle habits. Prior to even booking a hotel room, check to see that the hotel has important features that promote healthy lifestyle. For example, try booking a hotel that features a fitness center and a swimming pool. You can get plenty of exercise swimming in the pool and working out in the fitness center. Often time’s hotels can be misleading when looking for information. For this reason I have found reviews from other travelers to be extremely helpful. I recently took a trip out west and found a great site that listed reviews for hotels in Las Vegas regarding not only their amenities and services but also the restaurants in the surrounding area. This made is easier than ever to maintain my healthy lifestyle both in the hotel and out.

If your hotel room comes with an optional mini bar, save yourself from temptation and simply say no. The mini bar costs more money and is loaded with empty calories and snacks that are most likely no good for you anyway. Stop at a grocery store within the area to find prepared meals that will be easy to make from your hotel room that will also be healthy, such as instant oatmeal, healthy soups, and fresh fruits.

Healthy Restaurant Options

Most people do not want to cook while they are on their vacation, which is completely acceptable. If you are planning to try different restaurants in the area, you should find out more about them before you even enter through their front doors. Restaurants will often have their own website with a list of food items on their menu. You can decide which restaurant you will go to for your meals based upon what is available on the menu. Check for healthy selections and low-calorie meal made with fresh and flavorful ingredients. Avoid the need to stuff yourself and simply take your extras to go if need be. Try to stay away from foods that are obviously deep-fried or double battered because they have tons of calories and lack nutrition.These are just some of the ways to stay healthy when vacationing. You can still eat healthy and properly while exercising regularly while you are on an enjoyable vacation.

Original Recipe - Tex Mex Salad

Feel free to share but please 
link back to this blog.

When I was a kid in the 70's, we always had some recipe making the rounds.. I think someone would see it in a magazine or on the back of a box or jar of something.. now days, it would be a Pinterest recipe posted on Facebook!

I distinctly remember jello poke cake .. which was so disappointing. You'd think 'cool, cake!' and then you'd find out it was gross jello poke cake.

Not cool.

I remember my mom making 'taco salad' that consisted of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, hamburger meat and crushed tortilla chips, tossed with Wishbone Russian dressing. I'm guessing it was found on the Wishbone bottle.  I remember the corn chips scraping my throat as I swallowed.. it was a painful and delicious meal.

I wanted to re-create this idea with healthier, whole food ingredients with a fun twist - homemade corn chip croutons! If you don't want to make the croutons.. you can just sub in some broken tortilla chips.

You need to make all the components and then assemble it. This will make 2 large entree sized salads or 4 side salads. I like the taco meat to be room temp or cold, but you can also have it warm if you'd like.


Taco Meat 

4 oz meatless ground
1 tsp oil
3 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp taco seasoning
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

Heat the oil in a pan and crumble the ground into it. Mix in the rest of the ingredients.  Warm it up until it's all incorporated.

Tomato Dressing

I recommend using a bullet type mini blender for this. If you don't have one, try a whisk.

4 Tbsp water
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp nutritional yeast
3/4 tsp garlic powder or granules
3/4 tsp onion powder or granules
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt

Red Hot Cheesy Mayo Drizzle

I think you'll make this a lot once you try it. This is also great on a salad itself or you can dip your fries, carrots or chick'n nuggets in it! It's really addictive.

2 Tbsp Veganise
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp Frank's Red Hot

Whisk together until very smooth and so it thins out enough to drizzle it. You may need to add a little unsweetened non-dairy milk to get it thin enough. It's your call.


Corn Chip Croutons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

6 corn tortillas
1/8 cup veg oil (canola, olive or corn)
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast, divided
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp taco seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion granules
1/2 tsp garlic granules



Stack the tortillas and cut into strips and then into small squares and place in a large bowl.

In a measuring cup, blend the oil, 1 tbsp of the yeast, lime juice, salt, taco seasoning, onion and garlic and mix well. Pour over the tortillas squares and toss until all the pieces are coated. Then toss with the last tbsp of nutritional yeast. Spread out in a single layer on a large cookie sheet. Bake until lightly brown and crispy, tossing every few minutes to avoid burning. They will start to make a sound on the sheet when they are crispy.. you'll 'hear' it and you can taste test them.. you won't be able to resist. Cool.

To assemble the salad:

Place a 10 oz bag of mixed greens into a large bowl with chopped tomatoes and 1/2 cup sweet corn and toss gently and lightly with the tomato dressing. (add a little at a time as you go) Turn out onto a plate and top with the meat mixture. (you may not use all of it)  Drizzle the red hot mayo over that and sprinkle the croutons on top.

Review: Gardein Meatless Ground

I saw this at my local store a few weeks ago so I grabbed one. I've had it in my fridge for awhile and this morning I decided to make some pasta sauce with it.

It comes in a 13 oz package (four 2/3 cup servings total)  and inside are two packs so you can freeze one if you need to, which is great! When you open it, it's like pre-cooked cow hamburger.. it crumbles perfectly and quickly (I like the Gimme Lean ground but it's a pain to get crumbled up) and it tastes good straight out of the package. This is perfect for pasta sauce, sloppy joes, tacos or on pizza.

Once I had it cooked up in my sauce, I was stunned. If I hadn't made it myself, I would have bet money it was cow burger. The texture is the same as I remember a ground sirloin having (ie: none of that chewy gristle texture) but I haven't eaten flesh in 10 years. That is my memory of it. I think you could successfully use this for meat eaters and they'd never know unless they saw you make it.

So, I recommend giving it a try. I'm going to try it in tacos next!

Original Recipe - Shelly's Cabana Cooler

This reminds me of those Orange Julius drinks I got at the mall when I was much younger except this isn't full of yucky ingredients like cow milk and chemicals.

Refreshing and delicious!

This made enough for my hubby and I to have a small 8 oz glass each but next time I'm doubling it!

I used fresh lemons and oranges here but feel free to use OJ from a carton if you need to.




Shelly's Cabana Cooler

Juice of three oranges (about 1/2 cup)
Juice of one lemon (about 3 tbsp)
1/4 cup non-dairy milk
2/3 cup pineapple chunks with juice (not in syrup)
3 ice cubes
1 tbsp sugar (optional, if you want it sweeter.)

Combine all ingredients in blender until smooth.

Do you use Ebates? I've gotten close to $400 cash back over the years. It's super simple and you can get your cash via Pay Pal!

Use my link so I can get the referral credit, please!

All you do is log onto Ebates when you're ready to make an online purchase and check to see if they have that online store available for a rebate.. if they do.. just click the link and do your order like normal! Then every quarter you get cash back from your purchases!

Original Recipe - Caper & Black Olive Dressing

This is one of my most favorite salad dressings 
so I'm sharing it with you! 

Yes, it's salty. 

It has a caesar vibe to it and works great over romaine.

I use a magic Bullet type mini blender and I recommend using whole black olives because then you'll be left with lovely chopped chunks of olives in your salad!


Shelly's Caper & Black Olive Dressing

1/3 cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp capers
2 tbsp black olives (7 large)
1 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari or Bragg's)
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp water
1 tsp minced garlic

Original Recipe - Gyro Salad with Pita Croutons

I recently discovered Skye Michael Conroy, The Gentle Chef and bought his cookbook.

The first recipe I made was the gyro seitan roast and it was delicious. The first time I enjoyed it, I made a traditional gyro on a pita but it kept falling part so when I decided to eat it again, I came up with a fabulous idea - all the yummy components of a gyro sandwich on a salad!

You'll need to get your hands on Skye's cookbook for the gyro seitan recipe. If I can't find a recipe online already, I won't give it out. These folks need to sell their cookbooks!


Shelly's Gyro Salad

You'll need some of Skye's gyro roast, sliced and pan fried in a little olive oil until it's warm and slightly crispy. Cut into bite sized pieces.

Note: if you don't want to make your own, I suppose a commercial seitan would work as well here. You can try and locate some greek type seasoning to jazz it up.

Salad components:
mixed greens
tomatoes (I recommend campari)
cucumber, sliced
kalamata olives, pitted and cut in half
red onion, sliced

Pita croutons:

Cut a pita into small squares. Melt a tablespoon of Earth Balance (or Skye's Better Butter)  in a fry pan, add the pita squares and toss to coat, Cook until they are lightly brown. Sprinkle the croutons with a couple pinches of garlic powder and nutritional yeast to taste.

Cucumber dressing

Note: Skye has a recipe for sauce in his cookbook and even a recipe for sour cream!

1/2 cup Tofutti Sour Cream* (or similar)
* you can use Vegenaise here but the result is a thinner dressing.
1/2 fresh cucumber, peeled and grated
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dill
1/4 tsp salt
couple pinches nutritional yeast
pinch pepper
pinch onion powder
pinch garlic powder
pinch or two of sugar

Mix together until it tastes good!