“Beautiful”. The words slipped out under my breathe as I looked out onto the skyline.
The open spans of luscious fields stretched out far, decorated with dainty yellow flowers and tall, wavy grass. Beneath this expansive hill sat the ancient city of Bath – magnificent and majestic in its architecture reflecting its rich Georgian, Victorian and Roman influence throughout the centuries. As quaint as it may seem, this city was a dream for a romanticist like me. This was the kind of “Europe” I had always dreamed of seeing and experiencing.
We spent hours taking pictures, posing, trying to capture every moment before they fade into memories, fearing we might forget this day. Even the pictures could not do justice to the beauty that was before us.
The sky was cloudy and dim threatening to rain any minute, but it offered shelter from the blistering sun from the day before. The strong wind swept up across city blowing everything in its path towards the city. It, however, did not deter us from our hike. 
When lunch time came around we found a beautiful stone wall on the side of hill to enjoy our simple lunch. Without access to our regular kitchen, we decided to go to the nearest Waitrose store to pick up everything we needed. We wanted to make sure it would be a healthy lunch that would power us through the rest of the hike.
On a whim, we picked out:
A bag of corn cakes (basically rice cakes but made with corn), Good Quality British Ham Slices, a mixed salad, Creamy Hummus, Guacamole, Pre-cut Carrots. My sister also grabbed a loaf of Gluten Free bread for herself.
Our meal was fantastic. Unlike regular rice cakes, these Karo corn cakes are much thinner and crispier and best of all they taste like tortilla chips. We slathered hummus/avo on our corn cakes; then layered the delicious ham and mixed salad on top. The salad was a cheat way of getting some greens into our “sandwich” without having to chop up anything! The salad mix also contains a mix of tomatoes, peppers and different things to add on. On the side we had some carrots dipped in hummus which is one of my favorite snacks in the world.
So if you are the kind person who often experiences sugar crashes after a meal OR want to watch your carb intake, these corn cakes are a the perfect alternative to the usual bread. They are also only made out of 2 ingredients, corn and salt! (unlike gluten-free bread where there is a whole list of items added to it: oils, sugar, gums and additives).
Other great things to bring on a picnic would be fresh fruit (strawberries, grapes, apples, tangerines); dark chocolate bars and granola bars. These are all things you can find at the grocery store without having to prepare anything.
The wind was blowing so hard that our things kept falling off. But it made for the perfect weather to be out. As we enjoyed our little lunch on the rocky wall, we definitely got a lot of stares and confused looks as cars drove past. I guess most people would be indoors on a gloomy day like this – but for us it was a beautiful opportunity to be amongst nature.
Like almost any vacation, because of jet lag, change in diet and hectic schedule, it is so easy to get sick. The first day my dad had to stay in because his back was hurting too much. The next week I started to feel sick too.
Zoe and I decided to stay in one night for dinner, whilst sending the rest of the family out for dinner. We picked up a few things from Waitrose after a trip up to the British Museum. You can tell I am in love with Waitrose. They carry so many options of gluten free, vegan, paleo products that I would never be able to find outside of Europe.
Shopping for food on vacation can be quite a challenge when you want to make something good but you don’t have any of your usual pantry staples. Our apartment didn’t even have salt and pepper! So after walking through the aisles of Waitrose for over 30 minutes, we finally picked out a few items. We wanted to keep this dinner relatively low-calorie and healthy to compensate for all the delicious food that we have been eating in England.
Using a jar of green curry paste, fresh chicken wings, mixed vegetables, fresh garlic, fresh basil, salt and pepper we threw together this delicious meal. We marinated 4 chickens wings with store-brought green curry paste and topped it off with slices of fresh garlic. While they were baking, we stir-fried vegetables with fresh garlic, before mixing through a bunch of chopped basil. Once the wings were done our entire apartment smelt incredible. The garlic chips on top became crispy whilst the chicken wings were charred beautifully.
Seeing how beautiful it was we couldn’t resist plating it on a normal chopping board and taking some snapshots to share. I was so glad we did because these chicken wings are probably one of the best I have ever tasted – perfectly spiced, crispy and juicy. I think I may need to try it at home again to come up with a perfect recipe for it.
Tip 1: Let me just say if you want to buy seasonings curry paste works wonders. They come in small jars, they are already fully blended with so many aromatics that you probably won’t need to buy anything else much to season. So if you’re on vacation they are one of the best things to purchase! You can make a curry with meat or use it as a marinade in vegetables it is absolutely phenomenal!
Tip 2: Try and buy try seasonings. The good thing about spices/ seasonings is that you can pack it into your luggage so you can take them home with you.
For breakfast, we have been enjoying the abundance of free range/organic eggs. Eggs are one of my favorite things to eat in the morning because they are packed full of good protein and fats. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever get tired of them. The Paleo Bible actually considers them as a “superfood”. We like to scramble, boil, poach them to change things up a bit. On the side, we served it alongside some stir-fried kale with cauliflower (you can even do tomatoes or even mushrooms). On vacation it is often hard to get in your greens so we like to have them in the morning.
LOVE,
Zoe & Mia
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This site was… how do I say it? Relevant!!
Finally I’ve found something which helped me. Kudos!
Thank you! So glad it was helpful!