The food of my travels

Over the course of my stay in New Zealand I have actually done a lot of cooking at the hostel instead of eating out. This is especially true for my stay in Kaikoura - I haven't eaten out at all. Unfortunately, as you all know I am not the best cook & the New Zealand grocery stores don't have everything. So here's a list of what things I'm sick of eating & what foods I wish New Zealand had.

Things I've eaten way too much of:
- Pasta with tomato sauce: it's super cheap & quick & easy to make. Plus pasta is nonperishable so its great to travel around with.
- Stir fries: while traveling with awesome vegetarian chef Ashley she made enough stir fry dishes to last me a year. That girl loves her veggies.
- Jelly: I have this on toast every morning & on PBJ everyday for lunch. I think I'm starting to turn a light shade of strawberry.
- Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches: going along with the above, I have eaten this at least once a day almost my entire time in New Zealand. Some days I had it for breakfast & lunch!

What I wish New Zealand sold:
- Plain tortilla chips: for some reason New Zealand likes to flavor all their tortilla chips so that they taste more like Doritos than regular chips. They've got slim pickins on salsa too.
- Alfredo sauce: New Zealand does not have any white, cream sauce at all (except for nasty cheese sauce stuff, but its not the same). And apparently they don't sell Alfredo sauce in Ireland or the U.K. either. Maybe its a US thing, but I sure miss it. It would spice up my pasta meals too.
- Ketchup: here they serve tomato sauce, and I miss good ol' Heinz Ketchup! I bought a bottle in the grocery for my use at home, but out & about its all nasty tomato sauce. To top it off in many restaurants you have to pay extra for condiments.

The other thing I would have added to this list is Kraft Easy Mac! I had been craving it earlier this trip & could not find it, but today when I was not looking for it at all I ran across some Easy Mac. They actually had 3 different flavors (who wants Easy Mac with Chicken? Gross) So I'm a happy girl now that I've got the ultimate lazy persons quick fix to hunger. And it will be delicious with some of my Heinz Ketchup on top!