Did you hear how it rained for 22 days straight in the Tampa Bay area?

I believe I began to suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) due to a lack of sunshine, daily ominous dark skies and unusually large amounts of rain. The unusual weather pattern redefined the phrase “tropical depression”.

Luckily, my neighborhood escaped the severe flooding, but other areas were not so lucky. Several neighborhood  experienced mass flooding and some roads and worse yet, some homes are still submerged.

Westshore Blvd exit ramp off I-275

Thankfully after weeks of heavy rain, the sun is shining once again. And even better yet, my family and I finally made it to Universal Studios after postponing our trip last Sunday due to heavy storms.

While Florida lives up to its name as the “Sunshine State”, my family and I will be exploring a new-to-us part of Florida –Navarre Beach (about 7 hours from Tampa) and taking our last big road trip before school begins to sink our toes in the soft sugary sand along Florida’s panhandle. We have a few excursions and day trips planned, but I’m mostly looking forward to soaking up the sun in some unfamiliar territory.

Navarre Beach, Florida

As much as I love to pair our family adventure with a foodie adventure, I’d rather avoid the unhealthy, typical beach pub grub options.  There are only so many Grouper Rueben sandwiches and baskets of fried fish and chips I can wash down with craft beer before I start to look like a washed up a beached whale.

Instead of pub grub, we’ve decided to partake in our own healthy beach grub. Since our condo at the Summerwind Beach Resort has a full kitchen, it makes it easy to eat healthy while traveling and it’s cheaper too. As intrepid foodie explorers, we’ve been known to travel with a cooler packed with homemade margarita mix, marinating meats and a reusable grocery bag full spices and olive oil. Whenever there is a nearby supermarket and a full size fridge, I always stock the fridge with fresh fruit and veggies and other healthy snacks as well as healthy breakfast foods too. Since the resort also offers a grill, we’re a planning a couple of evening with sunset cookouts. Doesn’t that just sound sunny and yummy?

With that, here’s our healthy and beachy keen dinner menu for the week.

Sunday – Family Day at Universal Studios (Dinner at The CowFish)

Meatless Monday – Skinnytaste’s Spicy Black Bean Burgers

Tuesday – Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches with Low Fat Cole Slaw

Wednesday – Sticky Asian-Style Ginger Grilled Wings with Asian-Style Broccoli Slaw

Thursday – Grilled NY Strip Steak with Chimichurri and Oven Baked Parmesan Truffle Fries

Friday – Pizza

Saturday – Summer of Rum Fest (Win a pair of General Admission tickets here.)

What are some of your healthy eating travel survival tips?  What’s on your dinner menu this week? What recipes are you pinning and planning?

Follow Run DMT on Pinterest for more kid-approved healthy recipes and healthy living tips.