Also about: places to eat in Seattle.

We just got back from a five-day visit to Seattle. Our motto and mission on vacation always has been: “Go places and eat things!”

We succeeded.

If you’ve read my blog for long, you know I believe in eating healthy most of the time, but making allowances for the occasional bending of the rules. For me, vacation definitely falls under the rule-bending side of things, but I don’t want to completely throw all rules out the window, every meal. One of my main strategies is to start the day off with a decent breakfast. In other words, some protein and healthy fats, some fruit and/or vegetables, with a minimum of carbs and sweets.

It would be easy to rationalize cinnamon rolls and french toast for breakfast every morning — after all, it’s vacation, right? But I know that starting the day out that way will make me hungry (and probably cranky) by mid-morning, and set me up for bad decisions all day long. So here’s my advice for starting the day out right on vacation.

7 tips for eating a healthy breakfast on vacation

1. Eat well before you leave home. On our day of departure, I allowed myself enough time to get up and have my normal, healthy breakfast. For me, this is two eggs with sweet potato hash. Because I always have onions and already-cooked-sweet potato diced and ready to go in the fridge, this is quick and easy to throw together. (I didn’t actually bother with sausage and avocado the day we left. This is an old pic. #latergram)

2. Be prepared with healthy snacks. Before we left, I stocked up on my favorite version of trail mix: mixed nuts and diced prunes. Laugh if you want, but prunes are some of the lowest glycemic dried fruits — and that extra fiber can’t hurt when you’re traveling!

Oh, and by the way: most of these shots are not going to be beautiful. Part of keeping vacation relaxing for me means I don’t work too hard to get a perfect shot; one or two shots as-is. Case in point…

This turned out to be my lunch on our flight there and my dinner on our flight home, so I’m glad I came prepared!

3. If possible, stay in a place with a kitchen. And 4. Eat what’s fresh and local. We found a great apartment on airbnb that was 9 minutes from the main attractions, at less than half what a cheap hotel room would have cost! On top of the great price, we had a fridge, microwave, stove and dishwasher. Enough equipment to have some eggs and fresh local fruit some mornings…

Other mornings it was eggs and this amazing local yogurt…

If you’re ever in Seattle, track down some Ellenos Greek yogurt! It’s the mildest, creamiest yogurt I’ve ever had! My favorite flavor was marionberry, but the plain sweetened with honey was great, too. (This is not a sponsored post. I just truly love this stuff!)

5. If you can’t get a kitchen, try for a mini fridge and microwave. Then pick up some pho the night before. Our first night in Seattle, we went to Ba Bar, where they have phenomenal Vietnamese pho (pronounced “fuh”), a bone broth featuring various ingredients; mine had ramen noodles, duck confit, mushrooms, and lemongrass. The broth and ramen noodles were so delicious, I ordered extra to take “home,” and had this for breakfast the next couple days. (This photo is terrible, but the breakfast was not!) On the side, I had peaches and strawberries with a drizzle of cream. So, slight bending of Paleo rules – noodles, cream – but still a whole-foods, low-carb, no-sugar breakfast. And quite delightful! I did not feel one bit deprived.

If you can’t find pho, egg-drop soup would probably work well, too.

6. When you’re in a pinch, just make the best choices you can. One day, we were stuck with nothing in the fridge and no ride for a couple hours, so we walked to the nearest place — which happened to be a Starbucks. (No surprise, in Seattle!) This is the best I could do there: a low-glycemic KIND bar, and water. Not a great breakfast, either from a health or satisfaction standpoint, but it was enough to get me by till we could get something more substantial.

7. Bend rules: sometimes a little, sometimes a little more! One of the days, we ended up having “second breakfast” at a place called Oddfellows. While there were lots of bready things on the menu — even gluten-free biscuits — avocado toast sounded delicious to me. It came on whole-wheat bread, sprinkled with pepitas and sprouts, and shaved radish. I removed the latter (not a radish fan), then cut up the bacon I ordered on the side, and added that on top. Yum!

Our last day, we ate at Glo’s Cafe; a very small mom-and-pop diner type place. One of my MOST favorite things to order for breakfast is eggs benedict, not just because I love it, but also it’s something I never make myself. The white bread English muffins that come standard with bennies are definitely not Paleo. I’ve tried benedict without any bread at all, but then so much of that yummalicious yolk-and-hollandaise sauce goes to waste on the plate! So my compromise is to order it on whole wheat toast — which works out quite nicely. I also order a side of avocado to healthy it up a bit. Glo’s has really good eggs benny, and it comes with a heap o’ hash browns…

I’m not the huge hash brown fiend my husband is, but I do enjoy them if they’re crispy. So bending the rules a little more, I enjoy the crispy bits, and leave the rest behind.

This was a fully satisfying, delicious, treat of a breakfast, but still with no guilt.

Some other places to eat in Seattle

Just to be real, I DO bend the rules more during the rest of the day on vacation! On this trip, I enjoyed street tacos at Tacos Chukis, creme brullee at Ray’s Boathouse, Molly Moon’s ice cream, and more!

My husband really enjoyed the coffee and quiet at Storyville Coffee. I may have had a sip or two. Cream and sugar included.

Although it wasn’t a meal, my favorite food discovery was the Quintessential Gourmet tasting room, where you could taste wines, hard ciders, olive oils, and — the thing that made me giddy — almost 20 different flavors of balsamic vinegar! Strawberry, blueberry, espresso, chocolate, cranberry-pear. Mix them with orange-infused or lavender-infused olive oil, or any of the several other flavors. Oh, we had fun, and walked out with a ridiculous amount of small bottles!

My favorite meal of the week, though, was a picnic we enjoyed at Gas Works Park, feasting on smoked salmon that tasted like bacon (from Pure Food Fish Market), nothin’-paleo-about-it pastries from Peroshky Peroshky, and drippy-ripe slices of nectarine dipped in my aforementioned new love, Ellenos! (All of which we discovered on the Seattle Bites Food Tour — also highly recommended!)

I do confess to pigging out on the yogurt. It was our last night, and we couldn’t take it on the plane!

So I did not live a regimented life while we were there. But I just find that making the effort to start the day with some good protein and minimal sugar keeps my energy and mood up all day long. And who wants to spend vacay tired and cranky?!

How do you bend the rules on vacation?

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