As I alluded in the last post, we had a road trip planned for the next day in Nor Cal. Boy oh boy are we pushing our luck with all these long car rides with an infant!
But this is what he does most of the time so we are really lucky (so far). Fingers crossed.
I packed lots of food for us so we could hit the road early (basically right after we had both showered and I’d breastfed P).
Kyle and I both had similar breakfasts, but his was sandwiched between some delicious Semifreddi’s sour batard and mine was over brown rice.
This is hole-y bread. Pun intended.
I try not to push my FODMAPs luck when traveling (if I have the option) because just the act of changing schedules and locations and whatnot seems to stress my GI tract out…heaven forbid I throw a slice of yummy wheat bread into the mix. 🙁
Why oh why do you have to be such a pain, IBS!?!
So much jealousy as I was preparing his egg & avo sando. My meal was awesome too though.
I added nooch and water to create a cheesy sauce, then topped it with a microwaved “fried” egg (spray a bowl with nonstick, crack in an egg, zap for 40-45 seconds) and avocado.
The rest of the eats were more snack like (bananas, granola, etc.).
The drive only took an hour though, so the snacks weren’t really necessary. Not that that didn’t stop us from enjoying them throughout the rest of the day…
Davis is so cute. The downtown area is adorable and there are several cafes and restaurants I’m dying to try. All in good time…
Kyle’s business is in Davis FYI.
I don’t talk about it much (because it’s still a fairly new venture) but if anyone is interested you can read up on it here. So anyway. This was my first time visiting the shop. Lots of robots.
For lunch we made our way over to Whole Foods. The Davis store is brand new so Kyle’s business partners were teasing me that I’d been waiting to visit until the WF was finished. 😛
I seriously love exploring different Whole Foods stores. It is so exciting to me to see what local goodies each place has.
On the way up to Davis Kyle was telling me about a new product he had heard about called Beyond Meat. He read about it in a finance article (Bill Gates and one of the guys from twitter are investors) and was so proud that he knew about it first. He asked if I wrote about it on HHH if I’d give him “mad props for being on the cutting edge”. So there you go Kyle (he doesn’t read my blog anyway).
The point of that story was to say that the Davis Whole Foods carries Beyond Meat and naturally I had to give it a try.
This is a vegan Sonoma Chik’n salad that uses it (they carry it in the cold case section as well as having it as an option at the sandwich section).
I wasn’t in the mood for a sando so I got the salad separately (side note: I think it’s super cool that they have a sandwich and burrito loyalty program where you track your purchases on a card and get the 12th one free – I’ve never heard of another WF that does that!?!).
I also got a large bag of Lundberg rice chips for gluten free dipping (nevermind this 6 servings business – I finished the whole bag).
I really really realllllly want to recreate this because it was SO good and seems to be pretty simple.
As for Beyond Meat, it’s good stuff! Nothing like gardein or any other faux meat product I’ve had. It’s not as rubbery or soft. It’s actually dense and tough (like real meat?). I haven’t had chicken in foreeeeeever, but this tasted really good! I bet anyone – vegan or not – would like it. I’m definitely a fan now. I’m curious to see how it tastes solo as opposed to in this Sonoma salad.
Kyle got a lentil bolani. I love these and probably would have gotten one myself if they’d had the pumpkin one. Alas, they only had the lentil, potato, and spinach ones.
Later on we went for a walk through town. There are SO MANY parks in Davis. We also went by the Farmer’s Market space. It reminded me of Pike Place Market in Seattle with the covered space for stands (but I’m sure it pales in comparison in most other aspects because Pike Place is insane).
We headed home in the early evening and by the time I got home I was starving. P ate first, but after that I made us food as fast as possible.
Amy’s to the rescue! I had a bistro burger over a salad and Kyle had vegetarian chili.
Not overly thrilling, but the avocado made it awesome. I had lots of tea (and granola) on the late night.
The next morning Kyle had to go back to Davis, but I stayed home with P.
Kyle got a late start because I needed him to help me manage our son in the wee morning hours. I was seriously sleep deprived after a loooong night (all those hours sleeping in the car backfire hard core), so I got some shut eye between 7-8 while Kyle took care of P. Phew! I am SO dang lucky to have a self employed husband who can give me relief.
For breakfast I made a mega bowl of oats.
I really love eating at my parents house because they have the most perfectly massive bowls. I don’t think I used a single plate while I was staying there!
I topped it with banana slices, peanut butter, and selective portions of the trail mix (chocolate chips, raisins, almonds, & cashews).
Later on P and I had another visitor (family friend who is basically my second mom).
For lunch I made another pseudo Cobb salad with Mary’s Gone Crackers on the side.
It had spring greens, tomatoes, carrots, avocado, Daiya cheese, and hard boiled egg.
Didn’t even need dressing because the yolk and avo made a creamy coating for it all.
I went for a walk as per usual in the afternoon. Nothing too exciting.
My mom bought all the groceries for dinner (I emailed her a list while she was out doing errands) and I made dinner.
Kyle got home right as I started so he was my assistant. This post is getting rather lengthy though so I’ll share the recipe later.
Sadly the next day we had to say goodbye.
How do you chop up your salad like that in the bowl? Care to share?
Thai Red curry – yum!
Have you tried Maasamam? You would love it, super with eggplant & tofu.
Nom nom nom…….. Howdy to P, cutie patootie.
Cheers
Lori
I’m the same way when I travel, I ALWAYS have to check out the Whole Foods. I have so much fun comparing them! My favorite still is the biggest one here in Chicago, I’ve yet to find a WF to beat it! Although I’ve never been to any in CA…
I tried Beyond Meat the the Natural Products Expo West, and was really impressed as well! They said right now they are mainly in the Whole Foods prepared section but are releasing their retail products soon!
so jealous you got to go to expo west. im hoping i can find their products!
never tried it! im sure id love it though…eggplant and tofu…mmm
i just cut it with a fork and knife. nothing special!
I’m curious about the Beyond Meat. I’m not vegan or even vegetarian but I have been pushing my eating boundaries the last year to include more leafy green goodness and plant based proteins. I love the chick’n from Veggie Grill because it tastes so much like the real deal but I’ve tried it at other places (Leaf on Washington) and not cared for the rubbery texture. I assume this has something to do with the brand or the way it’s prepared. I’ve made tempeh here at home with yummy results too. I’m going to keep my eyes peeled next time I’m at WF.
This post made me want avocado so bad that I just went and whipped up some guacamole!
Davis is super cute! My sister went to college there and we always we t to that farmers market- there was a vendor there with the best vegan bolanis evvveeeerrrr that we would stock up on.
Just curious, no judgement one way or the other here, but will P be a veggie kid? I know its a hot topic so dont feel the need to reply if you dont want to share.
I discovered a vegan molasses cookie at whole foods here in nyc, if you find them (individual in bakery section) they are awesome. Looking up that beyond meat situation now……!
TBD. I don’t plan on buying meat, but once he’s older and there are other people feeding him it remains to be seen. I just want it to be organic, grass fed, no hormones, etc.
I suspect he may have some dairy (same principles), but probably just cheeses and not milk.
But I’m still not 100% certain about any of this.
I also, love to check out WFs while traveling! My favorite, hands down, is the store in Austin. It was MASSIVE!! Anyway, my store has had Beyond Meat for a few months, because I am in St. Louis–and I think the product was created at the University of Missouri.
So far I haven’t tried, it mostly because the ingredient list is SO long. I wanted to do more research on the ingredients before I dove right in. Glad it tastes yummy!
I love Beyond Meat! It is good plain–that is actually the only way I have ever had it. They have it on the salad bar at my Whole Foods (strips of it just like they have tofu and chicken etc.) and I made the mistake of tasting it once and I got hooked…I have to talk to myself in my head the whole time I am in Whole Foods to convince myself not to buy any…the salad bar is SO expensive, and the Beyond Meat is kina heavy, so it adds up fast, lol.
I am glad P is so happy to sleep in the car, but sorry he was up a lot of the night. I am glad you were able to get a little sleep!
Courtney
Pumpkin bolani + Semifreddi’s bread are definitely some of my bay area favorites. The Costcos around have been selling bolani in 4 packs – maybe in socal too?
how do all these non-LA whole foods have this!?! i feel so out of the loop. maybe its better for my wallet though…
whoa. gonna have to look for that! i love bolani!
Just found your blog! I am glad I did. Glad your baby sleeps good on road trips. When my son was 6 months old we drove from so cal to no cal and he did really well too. I am so jealous that everyone has a Whole Foods by them and not me. I have heard only really good things about the store.
Hi Elise, I have been a fan of your blog for awhile now but this is my first comment. I want to thank you for posting about that chicken salad! I ate it recently at my local WF and I swore it was real chicken! I googled it when I got home just to be sure but I could not find any info on this strangely convincing faux meat product. Until you blogged about it, that is. I should have known you would be the one to do it. So anyway thanks from one WF addict to another :).
Was at a BBQ recently & got talking to a US expat about US vs OZ food, and he said the biggest difference was the huge Asian influence – we eat lots & lots of Thai, Malay, Indo, Singaporean etc, at home as well as out. There are more Asian restaurants than any other kind. I asked him what he missed the most – he said cereal! We only have a small selection compared to you guys apparently.
I love talking about food 🙂
Cheers
Lori
lucky you! i love asian food and i gather yours is way more authentic! we do have tons of cereal here. ha.
well its nice to meet you 🙂 glad i could reassure you of the vegan “meat”.
Only 1 Whole Foods in my area has it on the salad bar. But it is def better for your wallet…it is super delicious, but the salad bar is crazy expensive too, lol. So good, though!
Courtney
Great post!
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This is so funny, I was reading this article on the 5 friendliest towns cities and Davis was on it and I remember you live there! Lucky! 🙂
http://www.today.com/id/24843322/ns/today-money/t/friendliest-cities-america/
cool!! thanks for the link 🙂