We did not like how the meal planning blog turned out last week. So we are revamping how we want it to look and did not come up with the right format this week. We made the decision to take the meal plan we made for this upcoming weekend while we are out of town and are feeding a competitor and a couple of bored kids.

We had to take two major factors into this plan. The first is money. We are already stretching to do this meet with gas and with the hotel. We wanted to try and keep the weekend under $150 for food. The second is we are at a swim meet so we need to make sure we are planning around the needs and nutrients needed for a swimming athlete. This plan covers from Friday afternoon all the way into Sunday evening. Included in the plan is snacks both for Zoey and for the other kids while at the pool.

We will meal prep and cook and set up all meals on Thursday and take it in our Cooler and cooler bags we have.

Friday

We do not know our exact leaving time yet, but I think it will be around noon if not right after, so we plan on eating lunch at home. For Zoey, both lunch and breakfast have to be lighter and mostly full of light carbs and simple sugars. Zoey can not be heavy going into Friday nights 500m swim. I don’t think we will take much for snacks for the kids on Friday as it should be a quick night, but Zoey will take a banana for 30 minutes before her swim for energy. We will have a protein shake post swim for her because she is only swimming one event that evening. We will be going back to the hotel after and having a meal of beef stir fry. We are purposely loading Zoey with carbs and the lighter protein from small beef strips, and the vegetables will be great for her and also the rest of the family loves stir fry so it’s a win win

Saturday

Breakfast will be the hotels full breakfast because we are staying at a nicer hotel with a great breakfast. For Zoey it will be more fruits and a small oatmeal.

We will take snacks with us to include cut veggies, cut fruits, applesauce, and some chips. These are for the other kids and ourselves. For Zoey, she will take bananas for the first swim and granola bars and an applesauce pack between swims. She is only in 2 events that will probably be far spaced apart, so the biggest strategy here is to not bored eat for her and eat at the right times the right things for energy.

We, as a family, will be bringing the stuff for Ham Sandwiches in our cooler bag so we can make sandwiches for lunch.

For dinner this night, we will have chicken fajitas. Again, this is a great source of carbs and a little lighter of a protein because she will have done less swimming that day, and we have one more day of events left.

Sunday

Breakfast will again be the hotel breakfast. Again, controlling Zoeys’ plate will be key here as she will want to eat like her sister and eat a muffin and pancakes and waffles, but as of this time I don’t have the swim heat sheets so I don’t know if she has time to digest that heavy stuff and still don’t think it’s a good idea either way as it’s in her best interest to eat light and full of fresh options.

Snack will mirror the day before probably leave some behind the first day so snack king Timmy doesn’t destroy the stash in 3 hours. Same for Zoey as she only has 2 events this day too.

We should be heading home at a decent time on Sunday so we should be able to eat at home but for safety reasons and for just in case we will be bringing an extra meal of Spaghetti because you never know and it’s a cheap and easy option for the family if we get hungry any of those other nights.

One last thing to mention is we will bring a couple of Gatorade for Zoey to dilute and drink between matches, and for us, we will bring water. For the wife and kids that water bottles and gallon water jugs for me that a case of water. We are in a water kick here and trying to drink more water than anything else.

We did the math and found that we should be able to do all of this for about $100 but less than $150.

I am posting this late because I fell asleep before I finished last night, so here is a little taste of our thoughts on nutrition and travel. I’m sure we will grow and get better at it, but I am proud we did this in the first place.