What I Ate In Florida + The Rest of Our Trip

Hope y’all had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend. We arrived home from Florida at 9:45a on Saturday morning and it was really nice to essentially have a full weekend after coming home from vacation. We definitely made the most of it but before I jump into that (next post!), let’s backtrack to what I ate in Florida and the last few days of our trip. I know a lot of you like to see what my dad cooks!

I’ll start with dinner first and then work my way back to lunch and then to breakfast.

DINNER

Mu shu pork served with hoisin sauce and flour tortillas. I haven’t had this dish in sooooo long and it was an awesome dinner! Mu shu pork is so flavorful and delicious wrapped up in a tortilla. My dad used this recipe and said he likes a lot of recipes on this blog for authentic Chinese cuisine. I will definitely be trying out some other recipes!

Mu shu pork is a mix of thinly sliced veggies (cabbage, carrots, celery, mushrooms, etc) with sliced pork and a savory sauce. It’s finished with fried egg strips. My dad used a boneless pork chop for the pork and this is a link to the hoisin sauce that he likes that was recommended by the blog I referenced above.

Smoked ribs, homemade potato salad, baked beans and braised kale. Some of you will remember that my dad is quite the grill master and did a ton of cooking on the Big Green Egg. Unfortunately in Florida his grilling is limited because he cannot have a grill on his balcony. He’s played around with various other devices over the year and is recently really into this smoker.

He has smoked pork ribs, beef short ribs, Italian sausage, chicken thighs and more. He’s having a lot of fun with it and these ribs were delicious!

So good that we had this dinner twice! He reheated the leftovers in the crockpot and that seemed to work well. Note on the kale, my grandmother loves kale braised like this until it’s super soft and we’ve been eating this since I was a child – long before kale became a fad and more popular in it’s raw form. She always preferred kale over collards for whatever reason. Another fun tidbit about my grandmother, she adores eating cold leftover baked beans on saltine crackers for lunch. It’s her favorite part of my dad making them, haha. That was quite the tangent but I think food choices and traditions are so interesting.

I need to post the recipe for our family’s potato salad and my dad’s homemade barbecue sauce. Good stuff!

We went out to dinner one night because my child LOVES to go to “hush puppy restaurants” when we are in Florida. I had grouper parmesan and Finn had the kid’s fried fish with fries and hush puppies…when on vacation at the beach! 🙂

Funny story with this one that my dad gave me liberty to share – “feel free to tell the world I accidentally picked up cinnamon and almost ruined my bolognese sauce.” My dad planned to make homemade bolognese sauce one evening from an old favorite recipe he hadn’t made in years. The recipe calls for nutmeg and he accidentally picked up the cinnamon instead. He spent the whole afternoon working to try and save it and while it was a completely different sauce by the time he was finished – it was still good! Just with a definite hint of cinnamon. 😉 I think we have all done things like that while cooking!

LUNCH

Mixed greens with balsamic, olive oil, avocado, deli smoked turkey, goat cheese, edamame, pickled beets, pistachios, almonds and dried cranberries.

Smoked turkey, avocado, cheddar, tomatoes and mayo on my dad’s homemade sourdough.

Charcuterie board snacking lunch. My grandmother loves these!

I even packaged one up and left it in the fridge for her as a surprise on the morning that we left so early. 🙂

BREAKFAST

Yogurt bowl with a FAGE 2% peach greek yogurt cup, my dad’s homemade granola, fresh figs, peanut butter, bananas and raspberries.

Cottage cheese scrambled eggs, avocado and mango.

A ready-to-eat frozen Sambazon açaí bowl topped with granola, bananas, raspberries, coconut flakes and peanut butter. I don’t make smoothies when we are in Florida (too many ingredients to buy and I’m partial to my Vitamix) so I will pick up these bowls sometimes as a substitute.

Cottage cheese scrambled eggs, a toasted and buttered sourdough English muffin and fruit.

Our flight departed at 7:05a so I brought a salted caramel Perfect Bar with me for an easy breakfast. I grabbed an oat milk latte in the airport.

THE LAST DAYS OF OUR TRIP

Lots of boogie boarding! We got a little beat up out there one day but both loved it.

Full moon.

We took a walk after dinner one night and stopped by this house where they’ve collected hundreds of thousands of shells and strung them along the trees in their front yard.

4.5 miles of humid running. I didn’t workout much on this trip and it was a good break for my body.

Movie night and Mema snuggles. They watched The Good Dinosaur.

Sunset sky.

6a at the airport and all smiles. Best little travel buddy.

Heading home.

THE END + QUESTIONS 

I hope this short week is a good one!

Did you travel for Labor Day Weekend? 

Have you ever grabbed the wrong spice or ingredient when cooking? 

What’s your current favorite type of bar?