Hi hi! Just a quick note, in case you have my blog saved in a blog reader, I will be changing the domain to www.nestledandnourished.com. Just wanted to give you the heads-up!

We recently travelled 9 hours to the border of Missouri and Arkansas to spend a few days with all of Joe’s immediate family. We had an absolute blast and I already want to plan another trip for next summer. I savored being together as one big family, wiping away tears from laughing so hard, exploring a beautiful new place, and making wonderful memories together.

Something I try to do when we travel is pack healthy and delicious snacks for in the car, and even planning ahead for a few simple and healthy meals (like breakfasts) while on vacation. We were fortunate in that we were staying in a house with a great kitchen to cook in, but I even feel like some of the things we did could be easily done with just access to a mini fridge.

Unpictured: organic green grapes (I took them off the stem and quartered the grapes for my two year old and placed hers in the little snack size bag and the rest I split up into two sandwich bags. Also packed us turkey sub sandwiches, cheddar popcorn and kettle corn.

I sliced up those apples and placed in a bag, and we we packed our cooler full of drinks like LaCroix, water bottles, fruit, sandwiches, the cheese sticks, and the veggies (which, oops, we never ate those!).

Cecelia loves fruit leathers, bars, and fruit/veggie pouches. I usually get her Lara bars, but I was at Target and saw those Cascadian Farms chocolate chip ones and thought she’d enjoy something new—turns out she’d rather have her usual, but she still ate them throughout our vacation. Her absolute favorite snacks in the car though were the protein balls (recipe below), grapes and the Trader Joe’s dried fruit-specifically the dried mango. Pretty much any time we are in the car she asks me if I have a bar or pouch, and if say, “No, I don’t think I do,” she will ask, “can you check your purse?” haha.

These protein balls are a HUGE hit every time I make them.

Protein Balls

• 1/2 cup Shaklee 180 Café Latte Protein Powder
• 1/2 cup of almond butter (we love it with my homemade cinnamon almond butter)
• 1/4 cup honey
• Optional: chocolate chips

Stir all the ingredients together and roll into balls. You can store them in the fridge, but I do like when they’ve sat out for a little bit and aren’t as hard.

Eating While On Vacation

Like I said, we were fortunate to have a kitchen and a grill, so we were spoiled by Joe’s parents cooking us up some wonderful meals: chicken salad, fruit, green salads; grilled marinated chicken with baked potatoes and veggies; hot dogs and hamburgers with baked beans and watermelon; pizzas and salad, etc.

My mother-in-law made a grocery run for us before we got there and I gave her a list for breakfasts. Cecelia loves oatmeal so every morning she had Trader Joe’s blueberry oatmeal with almond buter and sliced bananas. I either had strawberry or mango protein smoothies (blended with almond milk and frozen fruit), or plain yogurt with chia seeds, berries, raw honey and almond butter. I keep my chia seeds in a glass jar at home, but found a random empty sprinkles jar and packed some chia seeds in there and covered with saran wrap and rubber band around it for travelling.

For snacks we had trail mix, yogurt, cheese and crackers etc. In full disclosure, I ate my fair share of chips and brownies too (everything in moderation?), and went to town on pimento cheese and crackers after being out on the lake all afternoon! I swear if I swim for even ten minutes I’m like a ravenous beast.

I’m so glad I also packed my Performance powder as well. This is Shaklee’s hydration drink that you mix with water-it has no artificial colors, sweeteners, or preservatives, it tastes so refreshing, and is clinically proven to hydrate better than water alone. The mornings that I worked out I was so happy I brought it with! I’ve also run with it before and love how it doesn’t make me feel nauseous like water alone can while working out. I’ve had the lemon-lime and orange flavors and I like both a lot, but orange is my favorite.

The hills there were no joke!

Another must-have while on vacation? Sunscreen.

I love this stuff. Hypoallergenic, safe for all skin types and members of the family (ask a Dr. if your child is under 6 months old), plus it has patented Vital-Repir+, which contains antioxidant vitamins and minerals that protect your skin from premature aging by neutralizing harmful free radicals. I also appreciate that it doesn’t look white or grey (or even purple, seriously I have honeymoon pictures where Joe and I look purple because of the sunscreen!), and that it goes on easily and isn’t pasty.

One more Shaklee item that was super handy to have with us:

A spray bottle filled with water and a few drops of Basic H2 (a wonderful organic cleaning concentrate) was awesome for quick clean ups in the car, sticky hands, a picnic at the beach, and wiping down counters at the rental house.

Oh! I completely forgot to snap a couple other pictures but I also love using my morning face moisturizer before going out in the sun since it has SPF15 in it and visibly reduces fine lines and wrinkles, as well as the herbal blend multi-purpose cream, which was awesome after swimming and showering and being in chlorinated water multiple times a day. It is definitely one of my new (to me) favorite products.

What are some of your vacation or road trip essentials?