It's Wednesday, and we're heading to the shore this weekend for a week of family time, sand, and eating. In our pre-real food days, this meant pigging out on caramel corn, cotton candy, frozen custard, taffy, Mack 'n Manco pizza, and lots of homemade desserts. We always joked about how much weight we'd gain in the one week. Even early morning bike rides on the boardwalk were just an excuse for fresh donuts.

Now that my in-laws have switched to a real food diet too, the menu at the shore is changing! Pizza and McD's nights are gone. Home-cooked meals are in. Tons of dessert options are gone. Honey-sweetened homemade treats are in. From a health perspective, these are amazing changes. From a packing and prep mommy perspective, we just added a bunch to our workload. (From my husband's perspective, he still wishes someone would make peanut butter rice krispy treats. :-))

Strategies for eating real food "down the shore:"

1. Have a plan.

Create a meal plan for your vacation time, and don't forget to include snacks, desserts, and drinks. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. My mother in law planned simple dinners like tacos, meatloaf, pulled pork, and Barbeque chicken. Everyone else will bring sides. Our CSA begins tomorrow, so I'll bring lots of greens.

2. Shop before-hand.

I've haven't been very impressed with the old grocery store in Ocean City, NJ. Many items are over-priced compared to home, and I don't expect to find organic options. We stopped at Trader Joe's last night to load up on items for our trip.

3. Bake and cook what you can before-hand.

Yesterday my boys and I made Flourless Peanut butter chip cookies, and today we made Grain-free Strawberry Streusel muffins. I also want to make some Soft and Chewy Double-Chocolate cookies. These are all going into the freezer until we leave. I'm going to measure out ingredients for our home-made waffle mix, and then we'll just have to bring the wet ingredients. I've heard that my husband's 90 year old grandma even helped to prepare some fruit crisps for the trip. My mother in law gave her some sucanat to substitute for regular sugar.

Strawberry Streusel muffins

4. Make healthier substitutes for traditional favorites.

I didn't think our homemade ice cream would transport down to the shore, but I wanted to have a healthier option for frozen treats. I decided to buy some organic strawberry lemonade, and I'll add it to our popsicle molds when we are at the shore. I also found some salt water taffy at Trader Joe's. It's made with coconut oil and is colored with vegetable extracts.

5. Have healthy drinks available

We bring our reusable water bottles everywhere so that we aren't tempted to buy sugary drinks. I'm also going to bring some kombucha flavored with sparkling clementine juice and coconut water for beach days.

6. Be prepared for upset tummies.

When we're really careful about what we're eating at home, I've noticed that I'm more sensitive to the artificial junk when we indulge and eat out. I'll be bringing our probiotics and my Young Living peppermint and Di-Gize essential oil blend to help with digestive issues. I found this to be a helpful article for what supplements to bring on vacation.

7. Relax and enjoy!

My family and I will be eating home-cooked meals during the week, and we'll have our snacks and drinks from home for beach days and outings. If we decide to have ice cream on the boardwalk one night, I'm going to join in and thoroughly enjoy it. A few special treats during the week are not going to undo the benefits of our regular healthy diet. Shore time is time to make memories, and I plan to play with my family without worrying about food.

Resources for Healthy Living at the Jersey Shore and Delaware Beaches

1. Health food stores in New Jersey

2. Farmer's markets in New Jersey

3. Rainbow Earth Foods - Rehoboth Beach, DE

4. Farmer's markets in Delaware

After such a long, snowy winter, it's wonderful to taste fresh, ripe, red strawberries! We typically get our strawberries from local Amish farmers, but today we ended up getting a flat from Fifer Orchards in Delaware. Now strawberries are #2 on the dirty dozen list for pesticides, so I would love to always get them organic. However, I learned a few things about Fifer's strawberries to make me feel better about their conventional produce. First, they till the soil in their strawberry fields every year, so they aren't trying to use pesticides for weed management like they do in no-till farming. They also use black covering between the plants to reduce weeds. I figured I was going to use a produce wash on the strawberries as well, so we would enjoy local and seasonal food, even if it wasn't certified organic. My mother-in-law just paid $4.50 for a quart of strawberries from one farm, but we got the flat of 8 quarts for only $30. Always ask about wholesale prices!

Produce Wash

I found a pin on Pinterest for produce wash, and I wanted to give it a try. The recipe said,

"Just a few drops of Essential Oils will wash off germs and parasites. Let your produce soak in this Fruit & Vegetable Wash or spray it and let sit for 5 minutes: FRUIT & VEGETABLE WASH RECIPE In a BPA-free Spray Bottle Add: 1 cup Water 1/4 cup distilled white Vinegar 2 TB Sea Salt or 1 TB Baking Soda 5 drops of Young Living Essential Oil (Lemon, Lime, Purification or Thieves)."

Since I had so many strawberries, I decided to use my kitchen sink. I washed the sink first, and then added 1 gallon of purified water, 4 cups of white vinegar, 16 TBL of baking soda, and about 10 drops of Young Living Lemon essential oil. After soaking, I hulled the strawberries, placed them on parchment lined cookie sheets, and I popped them in the freezer. Did you notice I may have missed a step? The directions didn't mention rinsing, but they should have! After finishing 2 quarts, I popped a strawberry in my mouth and it was gross. :-( A good rinse with water was all they needed. I pulled the cookie sheets out of the freezer, rinsed, and put them back.

This produce wash works. Here's the amount of dirt that came off of just 2 quarts of strawberries! By soaking in vinegar, it kills mold spores on the fruit, so the fruit will last longer.

Since I realized I needed to rinse after soaking, I changed my routine for the rest of the strawberries. Here's my recipe.

Produce Wash Recipe for 1 quart of fruit

Ingredients:

4 cups purified water

1 cup white vinegar

4 Tablespoons baking soda

5-10 drops of Young Living Lemon essential oil

Fill large glass bowl with ingredients and stir to combine. Add enough fruit to fill top of bowl, and soak for 5 minutes. Rinse fruit well in colander. Repeat with rest of fruit.