Honey, I’m Home!

It’s true, I’m home! I’ve got some big news on a few different fronts coming your way in the next few weeks — and I will be totally honest, I’m nervous about spilling the beans on one particular bit of news…but I’m guessing that’s just me being me! Anyhoo — because of all this big, over the top stuff we’ve got going on {On top of our regular Wedding Photography + Web Design business and being just well…us} we needed to take a little mini-vacation. We’re famous for stay-cations. We’ll totally rock out day trips, sitting at home in comfy clothes and watching movies and eating almond butter out of the jar… but for the first time since Mr. Not So Paleo and I got together {almost 8 years ago..} we decided to just go on vacation.

So how on a budget did we afford it? LivingSocial.com my friends! In January we found a great Living Social deal for an Inn in Kennebunkport, Maine and jumped on that bandwagon! It ended up equaling a buy one night, get the second night free w/ Breakfast both mornings! Best part? We got to stay in a little cottage separate from the main building that had a whirlpool tub, fireplace and a ginormous bed! Talk about feeling all fancy… and we all know I’m the farthest thing from “fancy” hahah 🙂

So my tips for an affordable Vacation? Set. A. Budget, let me repeat – Set A Budget! Because we had already pre-paid for our room with the deal all we had left to spend for the room was taxes + fees. We set ourselves a $200.00 – $225.00 budget that had to include said taxes and fees {which ended up being $42.00}, 2 Lunches, 2 Dinners, Drinks and any other things we wanted to buy {like coffee and souvenirs!}.
Don’t forget to let yourself live a little — just because you’re paleo doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy vacation because of dietary restrictions. I may have wiggled around the paleo-rules a little …. but it was vacation and I wanted to enjoy it… and that meant I splurged on beer and gluten free – flour-less chocolate cake — and I have absolutely no regrets! 🙂

So I was actually a good little blogger while on vacation and took pictures of all my food! You’ll notice for breakfasts that I got a few really borderline items {like Gluten-Free Pancakes & muffins} so in the spirit of vacation I tried a little, but didn’t finish them and won’t be eating them again! {I learned I’m not a fan of things turned “gluten free” unless it’s in the form of chocolate! :)}

So without further ado…my meals!

Day One

So here’s Day One’s Dinner + Dessert! Lunch for Day one was eaten on the road and I totally forgot to take a picture — it was however 3 scrambled eggs w/ bacon, sausage and ham mixed in with feta on top — yumm!

Dinner pictured above is Salad w/ Grilled Steak + Artichokes with feta, tomatoes & red onions. I declined the pita bread that came with it as well as the “greek dressing” and asked for oil & vinegar.
Not pictured: Mr. Not So Paleo and I split a Ship Yard Beer {locally made}
Dessert was to-go and it was the flour-less chocolate cake, which we split — and man was it good!

Day Two

Day Two’s Breakfast {included with LivingSocial Deal, delivered to our room! See I told you, Fancy!} – Gluten Free Pancakes, baked apples {yumm!}, bacon, and a crust-less baked frittata sorta thing, it was good! They also gave me fruit — I ate the strawberry and cantaloupe and gave Mr. Not So Paleo the rest 🙂

Day Two Lunch: We split another Ship Yard Beer {we got the export Ale…wicked good!} and I ordered a “Peach BBQ Burger” that I got w/ sweet potato fries instead of the regular fries and asked for no bun. I asked for the Peach BBQ sauce on the side, I just wanted to try it and see what it tasted like, it was way to sweet for my taste, but the onions and bacon on my burger were more than enough! And of course, Mr. Not So Paleo “helped” me eat the sweet potato fries {he is such a champ!}

Day Two Dinner {sorry the picture stinks! it was dark in there!}. I got a grilled chicken Salad that had goat cheese, strawberries, blueberries, onion, tomatoes and cucumber on it — served on a spinach instead of lettuce. I opted this time for the balsamic vinaigrette dressing to change things up!
No adult beverages w/ this meal — we both decided to just stick with water 🙂

Day Three

Day Three Breakfast! There was a gluten free muffin {had a bite, didn’t like it}, ham, onion & mushroom omelet and roasted potatoes. Instead of a fruit cup this time we had grilled grapefruit which came with a cherry on top. It was good, but I only had a few bites and didn’t eat the cherry!

Day Three Lunch on the way home wasn’t photographed — but we stopped at chipotle on the way home and man was that ever good! Their guacamole has bacon in it and is so worth the extra $1.00 to add to my burrito-bowl!

Not pictured was also the coffee I drank — you know me, so you know there was lots to be had!

And because we went to the beach… Here’s a obligatory beach picture! It was cold, but so worth it 🙂

Anyways, that was my vacation in a nutshell, we had a blast. I stayed pretty freaking paleo, and managed to stay on budget. Which for all parties involved equaled an epic win!  We’re both refreshed and happy to be home {we missed the puggle and kitty!}.

Now off to get a ton more work done so I can share my big surprises with you guys {hopefully I won’t combust trying to keep it a surprise for another few weeks!}

Hope you all had a fantastic week!