Plant-Based Eating Virgin Islands Style

Hi guys! It’s been a while. I was lucky enough to be away the last two weeks visiting the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was a wonderful vacation. The U.S. Virgin Islands are made up of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix. We visited both St. Thomas and St. John. They’re both beautiful but St. John is home to some of the most spectacular clear waters I’ve ever seen in my life! Snorkeling there was unbelievable. The water honestly looked like a dream. You can see that crystal clear water and other pics from my trip below. Now, as for the food, I think this might be the first time I’m ever saying that it was actually hard to maintain my plant-based diet. Not because I wanted to be eating other non-vegan foods, but because at a lot of places…veg friendly foods just weren’t there. Because the islands are so far from the mainland, and they don’t have enough viable soil to be farming their own produce on a large scale, organic, plant-based foods are a lot harder to come by. But, once I got into the groove of things after being there for a few days, I figured out how to keep it plant-based…and I felt a lot better! So I’m sharing three tips for eating plant-based while in the U.S. Virgin Islands that, had I known ahead of time, would have made eating healthy down there a lot easier!

Trunk Bay, St. John. Still can’t get over this view!My sister and I during our snorkeling adventure off of Hawksnest Bay, St. John. This is about 150 yards from shore and the water is still so clear! And yes we did drag that pool mat all the way out there with us. 🙂Gorgeous Cinnamon Bay, St. John.I met so many animals while I was there. This cat, that we named Earl, lives at the Ritz Carlton St. Thomas. He was friendly as can be and well taken care of. I loved him!These iguanas are all over the place and their colors are beautiful.I met this pup (check out those eyes!) at the Humane Society of St. Thomas. He is up for adoption along with about 70 other dogs, plus cats, birds, fish and even a sheep, at the shelter. I’m going to leave some information about this shelter at the bottom of this post in case you are interested in learning more.
Coconuts picked right from the trees.Veggie tacos at Coconut Cove at the Ritz Carlton St. Thomas.Beachside hummus platter.
Some of the plant-based items at the Bleuwater breakfast buffet.
A typical hotel breakfast for me.

Tips for Eating Plant-Based in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

1) Load up on those breakfast buffets. Lunch and dinner can be hard to eat plant-based on these islands because the menus are so seafood and meat heavy. Each time that I ended up eating a little seafood because I couldn’t find anything else, I did not like how I felt. After eating plant-based for over two years now, you can really tell how much animal products weigh us down when we eat them. I feel so much lighter and cleaner when I eat all plants! That said, breakfast buffets normally have lots of fruits, veggies and potatoes. I would eat a lot of those items for breakfast to fill me up. The different fruits offered variety and eating lots of potatoes kept me satisfied and happy. Just a simple combo like lots of fruit, veggies and potatoes ends up being a healthy, hearty meal that kept me full until lunch time.

2) St. John is where it’s at. Even though St. John is smaller than St. Thomas, it had way better food and way more plant-based options! Waterfront Bistro was great and they offer both a veggie burger and a crispy tofu caprese burger on their menu (hold the mozzarella to make it plant-based). Cruz Bay Landing was another restaurant that offered multiple veggie friendly options including a veggie burger, hummus plate, and chickpea and pumpkin rotis. Funny enough when I walked up to this restaurant to check out the menu there were two women sitting at a table and I noticed both of their shirts said something about being vegan. I went up and asked if they were and they both said yes. Small, small world! They ordered the chickpea and pumpkin rotis (a traditional Caribbean dish) and said it was great. Plus, the beaches here are absolutely not to be missed. Good (healthy) food and gorgeous beaches are always a winning combination in my book.

3) Modify if you gotta. At the hotel I was staying at in St. Thomas, there really weren’t plant-based options besides a hummus platter. The hummus platter was good, and I had one almost everyday, but I needed some variety too. So, I asked for some modifications and voila: plant-based foods! The restaurant had tacos on the menu that I asked if they could modify to be vegan veggie tacos. They did, and they were delicious! I also ordered pizza for room service one night and had them skip the cheese. That was pretty good too. Even with the most non-veg friendly menus I was able to make modifications when necessary, and they resulted in some pretty delicious dishes like those veggie tacos.

xo,

Tedi

P.S. The Humane Society of St. Thomas is doing hard work to help stray and abandoned animals, but they could still use a lot of help. My sister and I stopped in to help on a rainy day and we were pretty sad to see how many animals were in the shelter. Plus they have no air-conditioning. It was a sad sight to see. If you’re looking for somewhere to donate this holiday season, HSST is a great option.