FOOD DIARY - What a plant-based family eats on a weekend away

Finally, a blog post where I get to include as many photos of my dog as I can! The New Zealand Agility Nationals were recently held over a long weekend and we decided to have a weekend away with the dogs and the toddler. The dogs and I went to agility each day and my husband and the toddler got to have much needed quality Jensen and Daddy time exploring Hamilton. 

As always when traveling with a toddler I was apprehensive about him settling in a new place. I find agility hard enough without being even more sleep deprived than usual! But he was great (sleeping better than when we are home!) and we had a fabulous weekend.

We have two dogs, Buffy who is nearly 10 and still competes at agility, but isn’t exactly competitive. And Spike, who is 10 months old, and was along for the ride to get used to agility shows. The Nationals is an open event so anyone can enter and there were over 600 dogs competing! Buffy and I had a great weekend, we only managed one clear round out of six, but she performed well and was enthusiastic all weekend. In the end we got two top 10 finishes in our height class so I was happy with that. 

Now on to the important stuff - what did we eat while we were away? 

Being plant-based has become normal for us and we are used to having to be a bit more prepared when traveling. We took a lot of food with us and only ate out for the three nights that we were away (I think Jensen and Jase may have had a few lunches and soy fluffies while out and about in Hamilton!). Since we live semi-rural and can’t easily go out for dinner it was a real novelty to walk down to town for dinner. It turns out the hardest part of finding somewhere to eat for dinner was that nowhere seemed to have licensing for dogs to be outside. Finding plant-based options wasn’t a problem, go figure huh!

I’ve been doing agility for years with Buffy and have a pretty set routine with what I take to shows. I assume that there is nothing available for me to eat at a show (it’s usually typical Kiwi fare like ham and cheese toasties and BBQ sausages), and pack enough to eat for the day. Shows start early so I will also pack a breakfast to eat in the car on the way there. I keep it simple as I’m usually too nervous to be thinking about food too much anyway!

Breakfast: Packet of Zoaties and a pre-brought green smoothie. 

Morning Tea: I treated myself to a bag of Hubbards Granola. I don’t usually buy cereal as a bag will only last me two days! It’s not cost effective compared to a $2 bag of porridge that lasts over a week. I love cereal though, and enjoyed having it for morning tea at the show with some oat milk. 

Lunch: Peanut butter sandwiches. I didn’t even bother making these beforehand, just packed a knife and loaf of bread. This saved me some time and then I could make as much as I felt like each day too. 

Afternoon Tea: Another packet of Zoaties or Frooze Balls and some fruit. I kept it simple and took bananas and apples with me. Buffy loves bananas so it was a nice treat for her at the end of the day as well. 

Dinner: We ended up getting Thai takeaway every night for dinner. I was so hungry the first night I ate a whole serving, but what we ordered on the second night was enough to feed us for two nights. We had intended to go somewhere nice for dinner on the second night but couldn’t find anywhere to eat with the dogs. The ‘happy toddler clock’ was ticking so we ended up getting Thai again. I stuck with a plain tofu and stir-fried vegetables with rice. Thai cooking tends to not use dairy, so any vegetarian options are more than likely going to be plant-based. We don’t stress about it too much as we don’t eat out that often at all. Jensen had some rice but wasn’t interested in dinner while we were away. 

Toddler Supplies: We took what Jensen usually eats at home with us. This included fruit, some extra baby food pouches for breakfast as I wasn’t making porridge, oat milk to drink during the day, various crackers, and some pretzels as a treat. He did his usual of grazing during the day and eating small tidbits of our plates.  

Dad Supplies: Jase is 90% plant-based and is also happy with simple food. For Daddy we packed crumpets, bananas, and potato chips!

Overall, we had a great weekend away and enjoyed it so much we’ve booked to go to another agility weekend in December. Eating healthy and plant-based doesn’t need to be difficult when traveling. You may need to be a bit more organised and occasionally make compromises. Our boxes of food might have also included a few bars of dark chocolate! A well-earned reward after a hard day at agility.