California Getaway Part Two: Vegan Traveling Tips & What I Ate

After the Part One post of my recent southern California trip to Laguna Beach, I’m sure you can tell how much I love the lifestyle out there! Who wouldn’t?! Sorry this post is late by the way – Thanksgiving festivities got in the way of me posting last week 🙂

As far as the food, I honestly thought it would be easier eating vegan out there than here in Chicago… ended up being about the same though. Maybe it would be easier in the L.A. area more so than Orange County because they probably have more vegan restaurants in general? I had to customize my own meals most of the time – which was totally fine! It could be the places we went to eat and there were a few vegan spots I wanted to try that we didn’t get to.

I just figured California was geared more towards fresh plant based foods but lots of the restaurants didn’t even offer non-dairy milk alternatives.. which still surprises me but at the same time, it doesn’t surprise me. Most restaurants had vegetarian options that could be made vegan without the cheese. Overall, traveling and sticking to a vegan lifestyle is always interesting, no matter where you go!

I’m sharing my Top 5 Vegan Traveling Tips – they really help! As long as you’re prepared – it’s much easier and totally doable. Here’s a few snacks I love (in picture below:) That’s It Fruit Bars, SquareBars, YumButter Organic Superfood NutButters.
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Top 5 Vegan Traveling Tips:

Research Places to Eat Before You Leave.

Use Yelp and HappyCow to find restaurants and vegan friendly places in the area of your destination. If there aren’t any places nearby, don’t worry! Most restaurants are happy to prepare something for you. Choose vegetables that you see from any dish on the menu and pair it with brown rice, pasta or quinoa along with a plant protein like a veggie burger, black beans, garbanzo beans, tofu, lentils or even avocado. Get creative! All you have to do is ask, which I know can be intimidating at first, but after a while it’s no biggie at all. I promise. There are so many allergies and dietary restrictions nowadays that chefs are accustomed to creating special meals for special diets.
Bring your own food and snacks.

Don’t rely on airport or plane food! I ALWAYS bring snacks along because you never know. My must-haves are snack bars, fresh fruit such as apples and oranges, trail mix or granola, the travel-friendly YumButter superfood nut butters, plant based protein powders, small bags of chia seeds, hemp hearts and gogi berries (they’re easy to sprinkle on anything). I also bring my own little packets of oatmeal for an easy breakfast or snack. A couple bars of dark chocolate never hurt either 😉
Find a local grocery store and stock up on essentials.

I make sure to pick up lemons for my morning lemon water, baby carrots, hummus, crackers, extra fruit and veggies to snack on, raw & cold-pressed juices, premade veggie salads etc.
Stay hydrated.

It’s easy to get dehydrated while traveling because it can throw off your routine and how much water you may normally drink. I love my Brita water bottle from this post to make sure your drinking filtered water. Plus, it light and super easy to travel with!
Exercise As Often As You Can!

Inevitably, eating out means lots of excess oils and salt etc. (unless you ask for otherwise) so make sure to get active and sweat. I don’t normally cook with oil at all so I didn’t feel that great after getting back home but we walked a lot and I exercised in the hotel room with my mom which really helped! We also had quite a few drinks 😉 so a good workout while traveling is essential to feel your best.

What I Ate:

All of the restaurants were accommodating and while I didn’t take pictures of all my meals due to bad lighting, I tried to take as many as I could!

Breakfast:

I made sure to drink lots of lemon water every morning before eating anything. We went grocery shopping when we first got there and picked up lemons Usually we kept it easy with fresh fruit and wheat bagels from the local grocery store because we had a small kitchen at the hotel. We ate out for breakfast once and I made up my own order of a veggie burger with red potatoes, mushrooms, spinach and bell peppers. At the airport on the way back to Chicago, I ordered a yummy cup of oatmeal with berries, raisins, dried cherries and nuts. Airport food is a hit or miss but I was pleasantly surprised with a healthy vegan option.

Lunch:

This was always the easiest meal of the day. Salads are a perfectly yummy and obvious choice. I ordered lots of kale salads like the one below which I made up! The chef added extra veggies for me – it was delicious and definitely filling. With dino kale, green beans, cucumber, dates, yellow tomatoes and almonds plus a light lemon dressing, it was perfect and I kinda want to recreate this for you guys. YUM. You can always ask for fresh lemon and red wine vinegar on the side instead (and olive oil, if you wish) of the dressing that comes with the salad. We ordered guacamole as well – the perfect appetizer to please anyone! The pictures are from The Deck if you’re wondering where we were. Amazing ocean views, great food, yummy drinks and nice people.

We also had a girl’s lunch before the wedding at an adorable lunch spot (with vegan options!!) called GG’s Bistro. They had my new favorite drink – a Cucumber Margarita. For an appetizer we ordered spicy olives and for lunch I ate the Vegan Pita with saut?ed eggplant, carrots, zucchini, bell peppers and tomato drizzled with balsamic dressing. I didn’t eat the yogurt sauce (not vegan) but the pita was so good! That Cucumber Margarita though..

Dinner:

Looking back at my pictures, I didn’t snap any shots of dinner, unfortunately 🙁 🙁 The first night we ate at Tortilla Republic which was delicious! I drank jalape?o margaritas and ate the Vegetarian Enchiladas made vegan without the cream sauce and cheese. The next night we ate at Watermarc where I had a roasted beet salad and a plate of saut?ed vegetables with red potatoes and mushrooms.

We had the wedding the next night! With the many food allergies of people attending the wedding, they offered plenty of vegan options including veggie sushi rolls, black rice, plenty of green veggies & potatoes and even vegan chocolate desserts, plus lots of champagne for me! For our last night, we went to Nirvana Grille and ended the night at the newly opened SpyBar (which I HIGHLY recommend!) At Nirvana Grille, I loved the Passion Margaritas and the Nirvana Vegetable Plate (no cheese or butter).

Overall, our time in Laguna was more than amazing. I can’t wait to go back for a longer stay!!!

Morning Mimosa’s at The Deck with my momma!

What are your favorite travel tips?! Share them below!