Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and are ready to start out the new week on a high note! Of course 
This week I was a little bummed to not be able to make it to my favorite farmers market, but I really wasn't too upset as it was because 
Before I share a little more about the visit to the orchard, I'll show you what we packed in the cooler for the weekend. As I am sure many of you have encountered, when you have certain dietary needs sometimes it is just a whole lot easier to make food to bring for a road trip than trying to find a place to eat out. As vegan and health-conscious eater, knowing we had a full kitchen at the cabin meant I prepared most of our meals to bring with us.
I also knew we were going to be out hiking on a few of the days, so I kept in mind easy portable lunches in addition to our meals in the cabin. Though the cabin had a fully stocked kitchen, I knew I didn't want to spend the whole weekend cooking so a little prepping made sure that wasn't the case.
To go along with the taters I made a tofu scramble. I know, it is normally served as breakfast, but it actually tastes just as good for dinner. 😉 When I was looking through the refrigerator before we left that was one of the best things I could come up with to use up the last of the veggies from the week. It is also a great way to refuel after hiking and make sure to get in plenty of nutrients. This one had onion, pepper, mushrooms, kale, tomatoes and broccoli sprouts.
I snuck in some more fruits and veggies at breakfast with pumpkin pear overnight oats. Such a simple yet filling meal to start out the day before we headed out on our adventures. These had rolled oats, almond milk, chia seeds, pumpkin puree, chopped pear, pumpkin pie spice, and walnuts. I packed some bananas to go along with in case we needed an extra boost before going hiking.
For lunch and snacks I went with a classic--peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! Haha, I just can't seem to pack a road trip cooler without a few of those. I find that the Food for Life sprouted grain bread actually holds up really well, even after a few days in the refrigerator, and of course my nut butter and jelly is all natural with no junk added. To go with I also packed grapes, carrots and hummus. Since we were a little light on leafy greens in our meals, I also grabbed green juice on the way up there just for good measure. We may not have consumed as many vegetables as we usually do when eating at home, but we definitely ate much healthier than most Americans do on vacation!
To stock up on our apples we stopped at a different orchard this year than we went to previously. It was one of the only ones still doing u-pick, but the lines were so long even at 10:30 in the morning that we just decided to purchase from the market. I love getting out and picking my own, but at least we were still able to get ones right from the source. They actually had a lot more varieties available in the market than for picking, as well.
They also had fresh produce, so I grabbed a few things since I missed my own Saturday market visit.
They had a whole bunch of pumpkins for sale outside of the market. Some of them were massive!!
We didn't have any room for pumpkins, though, since I insisted on purchasing about 40 pounds of apples (and some sweet taters, too). 😊 I opted for Honey Crisp, Arkansas Black and September Wonder varieties. You know where I'll be for the next few days...
Have a fantastic week everyone!