Weeks 39 & 40 – recovering from Las Vegas

IMG_4478.JPGI didn’t get a chance to write my meal plan last week, as I was jetting back from Las Vegas, where Andrew and I (finally) finished celebrating his 40th birthday. There wasn’t much to the meal plan anyway, except lots of fruit and vegetables to try and counteract some of the damage caused by my Vegas diet.

Anyone who has been to the USA will know that even the best intentioned people will find the sheer volume of food hard to resist, and I was no exception.

We started our first evening with a salt and pepper squid starter at one of Gordon Ramsay’s steakhouses at Caesar’s Palace:

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Followed by burger and chips, which was, if I am honest, nothing special:

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Breakfast the following morning was at the Bellagio hotel’s buffet, which wasn’t amazing but did include freshly made pancakes and waffles (I had mine with maple syrup and greek yoghurt):

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And a large selection of cookies – I couldn’t resist trying them all!

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We had dinner at the Wynn hotel buffet that evening, which had a great selection of food and included a package for all you could drink as well. We were all quite tired though so I am not sure we got our money’s worth.

On a road trip to the Grand Canyon the next day we had Burger King for breakfast (this was included in the tour and would not have been our choice otherwise, but actually their breakfast muffins and hash browns were really tasty), and when back on the road we encountered some fast-food that we were not tempted by:

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Although I did want to take these home with me:

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Lunch, at least, was with a view and a half:

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We did the Canyon sunset tour with Grand Adventures, which I highly recommend if you are ever in Vegas. Look at this spectacular view – my photos don’t do it justice:

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We didn’t arrive back to the strip until midnight so didn’t bother with anything else to eat, so next stop was breakfast at Denny’s in Freemont Street the following morning. This was one of our best meals, with eggs, skillet potatoes and toast for me:

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Steak and eggs for Andrew:

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And big breakfasts for some of the others (of course including pancakes):

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After an afternoon of boozing in Freemont Street (at Hogs and Heifers, which was a fantastic laugh), we tried to counteract our early-evening hangovers with another burger in the Mirage, and I was starting to feel like red meat was my enemy, so barely managed a quarter of it (that might have been something to do with being drunk as well):

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Our next  breakfast was at a bar on the strip, but I didn’t bother taking pictures as it was dark, the food wasn’t great, and I was feeling delicate. Andrew then wanted to watch Wales v England (he was a very happy chap about the result) so we ventured to an English pub nearby called the Crown and Anchor, which was great fun.

We still hadn’t recovered our appetites so just grabbed a sandwich back at the hotel and headed off out to Freemont Street again for our final night in Vegas, gambling on the old-fashioned machines:

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My last breakfast at the Paris hotel was corned beef hash and poached eggs, but by this time my appetite had completely defeated me and I could barely manage half of it:

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So when I arrived home I made a big batch of broccoli soup for lunches, and got back to the gym. I need to do a lot to undo the Vegas damage though, so this week I’ll be making another big batch of soup for lunches – swede, carrot and onion.

Breakfasts this week will be my new favourite of porridge with coconut sugar and seeds:

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And the rest of our menu is looking a bit like this:

  • Monday – meat free Monday is back with pasta and peppers
  • Tuesday – Thai yellow prawn curry with brown rice
  • Wednesday – chicken stew and dumplings
  • Thursday – we’re off to see Tom Jones so will have dinner out
  • Friday – scampi
  • Saturday – I am having some friends over for the day so will be making an indulgent help yourself (so I need to make sure I earn it by being good all week)
  • Sunday – Andrew bought some faggots back from Wales, so I think we’ll have these with jacket potatoes and peas.

What’s your strategy to recover from holiday excesses, or do you behave when you are abroad?

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