This weekend is one that my husband and I (yep, that’s us in the picture… isn’t he a looker?!) have been looking forward to for MONTHS!  We’re taking a weekend to relax in the mountains… unplugged from everything.  No computers, no cell phones, etc.  It is so important that we do something like this on a regular basis.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the stresses of daily life that we feel like we’re about to explode (I’m imagining a tea kettle that whistles when the steam gets too heavy inside… this weekend will be a little “lift-of-the-lid” on the tea kettle of our life!).  One of my new year’s goals was to STRESS LESS, and quarterly weekends away are a great way to keep the “steam” from becoming too heavy.

This weekend could not come at a better time… The week has definitely been pretty stressful, thanks to a big lightning storm and a few other unusual events!

As confirmation of the importance of this goal, Chris Kresser posted a fantastic post on stress earlier this morning… Read it HERE.

.

So what will we do?

Well, we’re planning to watch a basketball game after dinner tonight (GO NC STATE!), and we’re going to see The Hunger Games sometime tomorrow.  Other than that, we’ll be doing a lot of sleeping, eating, resting, reading, taking walks, and just spending time together.

.

What will we be eating?

Several people have asked lately if we throw off the Paleo “guidelines” when we’re on vacation.  The answer is “NO… why would we want to feel like crap while we’re vacationing?”  I can’t imagine eating any better than we usually eat, anyway.  Who needs sugary doughnuts and greasy pizza to be happy?  Not us!  Though, we will have a few gluten-free “treats” with us (dark chocolate, etc.).

.

Our Weekend Menu

 We always try to plan on eating some “favorites” while we’re vacationing.

.

Friday: Today I’m making a big pot of chili so that we’ll have dinner when we arrive tonight, and lunch for tomorrow.

I’m bringing lots of avocados so we can top our chili with lots of guac!

Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert… YUM!

.

Saturday: Tomorrow we’ll wake up and make bacon!

My husband has also requested that we have cereal (he has really missed cereal).  I’m bringing a box of puffed rice cereal (with no additives), and some home-made cinnamon-almond milk.

For lunch, we’ll have leftover chili and guac.

In the afternoon, I’m making some bacon-wrapped dates!

For dinner, I’m making Paleo Comfort Foods‘ Spicy Chicken Wings.  This will be a first-time recipe for me, and we can’t wait to try it!  As sides, we’ll have roasted asparagus and sweet potato fries.

.

Sunday: Breakfast will include BACON again!  I really stocked up when I grocery-shopped yesterday.  We’ll probably have the rest of the sweet potato fries, and some leftover asparagus along with it.

For lunch, we’ll finish up the rest of our leftover chicken wings and bacon-wrapped dates, and I’ll make a salad.

We will probably go out for dinner before driving back home.

.

What else are we taking?

I’m bringing some bone broth for us to sip throughout the weekend.

We’ll take a bottle of red wine from our favorite vineyard.

Dark chocolate!

Pineapple

Kombucha

Plantain Chips

Sea Snax

It’s sure to be a fun weekend with some good eats!  You won’t see me on my Facebook page, but I do have a few blog posts that will publish automatically this weekend (including the menu for next week!), so stay tuned!

So when is your next getaway?