Hello, hello! You may have noticed I took an unintended but highly rejuvenating five-day break from the Internet world – other than updating my Instagram with my vacation eats, beach yoga poses, and overall Mexico awesomeness, I was MIA from blogtown and it felt good.

Vacations are a reminder of how important it is to recharge, turn inward and give ourselves a god damn break once in a while. You can ask my family (all 12 of them that I was on vaycay with) how long it took me to fully unwind, and they will surely tell you it took me until the middle-end of our trip to be at peace with the relaxation.

On our first day I woke up early and set up shop on the couch overlooking the water. I wrote a blog post, responded to countless emails, reviewed TBV Apparel photos, worked on TBV Summer Cleanse, scheduled meetings for when I’m back in NYC, and next thing I knew my family was sitting down for a late lunch and I had missed the whole morning with them. (Below was my view from the couch… not bad, eh?)

To be honest it freaked me out a little bit to see how fast our precious time flies by – on vacation or not. I got a lot of work done, but I was a (super pale) wound up stress ball! My family was laughing, sun kissed, bonding and on the road to unwinding – oh, and relatively tipsy off of delicious margs and pina coladas.

That afternoon I decided to ditch blog-a-holic, uber-focused, super-excited-about-new-TBV-installments, writer-centric Jordan and focus on relaxing with my amazing family. I read three books (one of which, Happy Belly, I will be giving away on TBV this week… get excited!!!), paddle boarded, did a whole lotta beach yoga, took a vodka shot or two, got silly with my nieces, unwound with a beachside massage, ate lots of yummy vegan food prepared by the most incredible chef around, and had a total blast with my fam. How cute are they???

I was planning on writing to you today about my Los Angeles vegan adventures from the week before last, but since Cabo is fresh on my mind I am going to start there. My LA eats will be allll over the bloggy this week, so don’t you worry. But I promise these Mexico deets will have you just as excited and drooling in your seats!

Another fun thing on the blog this week? Traveling as a vegan/health nut/healthy on a budget… made easy and delicious. Stay tuned!

What I Ate in Mexico:

I got a lot of questions from people on Instagram this week asking where the heck I was staying – a hotel? A bed and breakfast? A timeshare? Certainly not at the Bahia in downtown Cabo San Lucas, where I stayed with my friends in college for the last two years of Spring Break…

I stayed at a house in San Jose del Cabo within the One & Only Palmilla Resort. The house is independent of the resort, but if you know the area then that gives you a little bit of a reference point. The chef at the house is a woman we love and admire deeply, and we told her before our arrival about all of my eating difficulties and restrictions (whoops).

Good news was, not only was she up for the challenge of making me different meals from the rest of my family, but she was excited about it! And she did an absolutely stellar job. 100% vegan and gluten-free, and nearly 100% oil-free, sugar-free and salt-free. (God, I’m a pain in the ass…!)

Breakfasts:

Breakfast each day was a green smoothie, a bowl of fresh fruit (mainly berries for me with some pineapples and mangoes thrown in! I’m not a melon person), and her super delicious homemade granola. She does use a bit of brown sugar in her granola recipe, which at first gave me extreme anxiety, but I loosened up after the first day (remember how I decided to breathe and let the uptight shit go?) and indulged. I stick to about ¼ cup granola with any meal as a general rule, since you know I am prone to go overboard with anything granola-ish or nutty and delicious.

Green smoothie ingredients: spinach, kale, chard, cucumber, cilantro, pear, and banana. I am not sure of the exact measurements she used, but boy was it good! (Another eating idiosyncrasy of mine I had to let go of was my fear of combining fruit with nuts in one meal… not absolutely perfect combo for my digestion, but when on vacation loosen up a bit. I’ve learned that if I just loosen up and let my fears go, my body will respond much more positively to any meal or food combination.)

Olivia & Jeff modeling Liv’s yummy layered smoothie:

Lunches:

My lunch on vacation generally consisted of a green salad, veggies, and either a veggie soup, a lentil dish or a quinoa dish. By lunch each day I was pretty much starving, because we ate breakfast around 9 a.m. and lunch was at 1 p.m. That’s a nice long time between each meal, just like my nutritionist recommends for me to do with my tummy problems, but a full four hours when only having fruit and a bit of granola for breakfast calls for a very hungry gal!

Since I was so hungry at lunch each day, it means I enjoyed each meal to its very fullest. It’s a fantastic way to eat, really. I am going to try to bring those mealtimes back with me into my everyday life.

Veggies wrapped in jicama with fresh guacamole and pico de gallo:

Butternut squash soup with ginger, turmeric, almond milk & pepper:

Avocado soup and fresh green salad:

Dinners:

My dinners consisted of salads, veggies, lentil or quinoa dishes, soups, and on the last night a delicious baked tofu dish with a side of sweet potato puree. Heaven.

Roasted cauliflower and squash with a lentil, pumpkin seed and veggie salad:

Roasted pear, avocado pumpkin seed green salad:

Baked tofu drizzled in a mango cilantro salsa, sweet potato puree (pureed with almond milk, cinnamon and a touch of coconut oil), and a side of roasted veggies.

Desserts:

Ummm, hello, my favorite part of every meal! Most nights dessert for me consisted of dates and nuts (while my family ate lemon meringue pie, chocolate cake, etc… #veganwillpower, baby) but on the last two nights she made me a delectable chocolate chia seed pudding! And don’t get me wrong, I adore dates and nuts. I could eat them all day long!

Chocolate chia seed pudding: chia seeds, almond milk, agave, banana, cinnamon and coconut water. Topped with fresh berries.

Grapefruit, amaranth, coconut shreds & dates! Mmmm

Vacation Highlights: 

It wouldn’t be a Younger family vacation without people spontaneously launching into yoga poses and/or dance moves at any given moment:

Can ya tell crow pose is one of our faves?

Don’t drop me, bro!!

My rockstar yoga students:

My brother’s daughter Kealey has gotten so big since the last time I saw her (Christmastime). It makes me sad to be so far away, but lucky me she warms up quickly! She calls me “Juju” (for Jojo), which is just about the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.

The only dude I know who is as weird as yours truly:

And this chick is my life (my niece baby boo Bella and best friend in the world):

And, last but not least, a huge shout out to the two most giving, selfless, loving, fun, hardworking and supportive people that I know. My mamacita and daddio. If I ever make someone’s heart half as full as they make mine every frickin’ day, then I will be satisfied. I am so beyond grateful for the opportunities they have given me to live my dream. And get excited for some REAL exciting news about my extremely stylish mother’s soon-to-be-entrance into the blogosphere… OMG I can hardly wait.