After a year of designing, planning, and curating, I’m so excited to finally introduce Ambitious Home! My love for vintage home goods started when I moved to Chicago in 2014, and led me to build a curated online vintage rug shop to share my passion with the world. Welcome to Ambitious Home! It has been [...]
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Wondering what to pack for vacation? Here’s how to plan a travel capsule wardrobe, with packing tips for Europe and other summer vacation destinations! Affiliate links are included below.
(Blue Wrap Dress; Beach Sun Hat, Naot Pixie Sandal)
Alex and I just got back from a 3 week trip to Europe, where we toted 1 1/2 year old Larson around to Italy, Croatia and Spain. We went for the food, the views, and time with friends and family. But what so many of you have been asking after seeing our photos is something we didn’t expect: Tell us how to pack a travel capsule wardrobe! This was a surprise to us, because we’re food bloggers! So this article is outside our typical healthy recipes. But you asked–and we did learn a lot of helpful tips from our packing list for Europe! So what to pack for two or three weeks in Europe? The three of us traveled to Europe for 3 weeks with just 2 suitcases! Here are our secrets to the best travel capsule wardrobe and packing tips for Europe (including the best comfortable and stylish walking shoes)! Links in the Packing List section below.
Bring enough to wear each outfit two to three times.The top tip we learned from seasoned travelers about a travel capsule wardrobe: only bring enough clothes to wear each outfit two to three times. What, two to three times each? YES. Our goal was to travel light since we’d be visiting several places and much of our luggage space was taken up by kid stuff. So for 3 weeks in Europe, that’s outfits for just 7 days! We stayed mainly in Airbnbs, so we were able to do laundry when necessary. If you stay in hotels, my parents (who are world travelers) wash things by hand in sinks, or sometimes there is an afternoon in a laundromat.
For us, it helped that it was summer so most of our clothes were on the small side, not bulky sweaters like in cooler weather. As a woman, my main clothing pieces were: 5 dresses, 1 maxi skirt, 3 shirts, and 2 pairs of shorts. I mixed and matched these throughout the trip — scroll down to “My packing list” for links to exactly what I packed!
Before you start building a capsule wardrobe for any destination, determine: what’s your vibe? The vibe of your travel capsule wardrobe depends on both your personal style and the location you’re traveling to. What to wear in Europe in the summer? Honestly, my first thought was the movie Under the Tuscan Sun and Diane Lane’s gorgeous vintage dresses. So, I decided to stick with a sundress theme with dresses and skirts that were vaguely vintage-inspired. My own personal style is pretty feminine, so I feel most comfortable in a sundress. Perhaps you have a more casual personal style: and that’s perfectly ok! The style in Italy and Spain is a bit dressier so what I chose fit right in. However, do make sure that you’re location appropriate. We took a trip to Alaska a few years ago, and you wouldn’t want to be caught dead in a sundress there! It was flannels and boots all the way.
Next, consider a color theme. This is only important because it allows you to mix and match pieces and bring less clothing overall. In my everyday wear I generally stick to neutrals: white, black, grays, and neutral blues. But for a summer vacation to Europe, I added a few splashes of color to my neutrals inspired by the Mediterranean: bright blue, yellow, and orange red. Every piece of clothing I brought fit into this color schema, which made it easy to mix and match! Now, how to find these pieces…?
(Blue Wrap Dress; Madewell Carryall, Naot Pixie Sandal)
(Red one piece swimsuit; Beach Sun Hat)
Buy just a few new pieces.Confession: Alex buys pretty much everything I wear. Eeek, I said it! Yes, my husband buys all my clothes online. This happened out of convenience, because I’m a terribly slow shopper. I have a hard time finding things and a harder time making up my mind. Alex happens to be amazing and efficient at Google searching and finding anything online. So, we’ve resorted to Alex picking out and buying all my clothes. It just works better that way! Over the years we’re changing to buying higher quality pieces that are a bit more expensive but that I love and can wear for several years. No more Target runs for shirts that fall apart in a few months! While my individual pieces may be a bit more expensive, the size of my wardrobe has been significantly reduced over the last few years.
Important: DO NOT feel like you have to go out and buy an entirely new wardrobe! Quite a few of the pieces that were part of my travel capsule wardrobe were pieces I’ve owned for years.
(Beach Sun Hat, Naot Pixie Sandal, some look alike dresses below)
Some online shopping tipsNow, Alex has been asked by my friends for YEARS what his tricks are for online shopping for clothes! Since I didn’t know myself, I asked Alex for his secrets to online clothes shopping. Here are Alex’s best online shopping tips for a travel capsule wardrobe:
Sign up for email newsletters from online stores; they’ll often email about sales as much as 40 to 60% off. Don’t buy too much at once, since it can be overwhelming to return things when you have a lot of pieces. Shop at sites that have easy returns (either free or cheap, like $5). When you’re browsing for clothes online, use the filter and sort features to narrow to the size and colors you’re looking for. Only keep things that you absolutely love and want to wear all the time. Just because it looks great, don’t keep a shirt you’ll only wear once or twice.Some of the online clothes shopping sites we frequent are: Everlane for high quality ethically made basics, Madewell for cute and unique pieces, and Asos for bargains with a European flair.
One of the most important things I wanted to find for my travel capsule wardrobe was stylish walking shoes for travel. Since we’d be walking many miles per day, I wanted to find comfortable walking shoes for Europe that also didn’t scream Tourist! Alex scoured the internet in search of the perfect stylish walking shoes for travel, and found a brand called Naot. It’s based out of Israel and they’re all about comfort and style. Alex picked this Naot Pixie stylish wedge sandal for me, and when I put it on, it truly felt like I was walking on air! And they held up: I wore these sandals walking XXX miles through Europe and never did my feet get tired. Some days we did 25,000 and the Naot Pixie still kept up. Aside from flip flops, this was the only pair of shoes I brought. Since it’s a stylish walking shoe, it worked for dinner as well!
Find it: Naot Pixie Wedge Sandal
Here is my best tip for ladies for looking good with no effort on vacation: wear a sun hat and sunglasses. I know, it sounds deceptively simple. But honestly, you don’t have to do your hair or have your eyes open in photos! Not only does it block out the sun and keep you cooler, a sun hat is the perfect accessory to any outfit. Win, win, win! The best packable sun hat we could find was this one, and as you can see from these photos, I wore it just about 24/7. This covered up my beach hair and the days I didn’t shower! Most days I preferred to be out adventuring instead of spending time doing my hair.
Find it: Lanzom Women Beach Sun Hat (Fedora style)
(White Eyelet Button-Down Dress; Beach Sun Hat, Madewell Carryall)
Find a durable purse / bag.Another thing I wore just about every day was my purse / handbag. I’ve never been good at finding a bag I liked, but I think I finally found one in this Madewell carryall. It’s made of leather so it’s super durable, but it’s stylish at the same time. I prefer having a large bag so I can carry lots of things, and found this bag was the right size for me. I use it in everyday life not just vacation, and it truly goes with any outfit style.
Find it: Madewell Zip-Top Transport Carryall
(White Eyelet Button-Down Dress; Beach Sun Hat, Madewell Carryall, Naot Pixie Sandal)
Bring a steamer.Living out of a suitcase for three weeks is no fun. As you’d expect, things get pretty wrinkly. My parents are expert world travelers and much of what they buy is fabric that doesn’t wrinkle. A few of our clothes were less wrinkly material, but it made my head spin to try to find pieces all in wrinkle-free material. SO, we got a travel steamer! We LOVED it until we fried our steamer due to the European voltage. Alex has since found a travel steamer with worldwide voltage, so we’d recommend this one. For the remainder of our trip, we made do with Airbnb irons, which also did the trick: so this is optional. But we found it to be helpful (also, we’re terrible at ironing)!
Find it: Travel Smart by Conair Pro Portable Garment Steamer
(White and Peach blouse, Madewell Jean Shorts, Beach Sun Hat)
My packing list for a travel capsule wardrobeWith those tips in mind, here is my travel capsule wardrobe for Europe in list form. Again, caveats are that this is for women only (sorry!) and summer specific. (Are you interested in what Alex and Larson packed? Let us know.) What to pack for two or three weeks in Europe will obviously differ from different countries and seasons that you’re travelling in, but hopefully this can help to give you a starting point. For the pieces that I had existing or were not available, we’ve provided some look alikes!
5 Dresses:
White Urban Outfitters Abbie Eyelet Button-Down Dress Blue Polka Dot Antonia Wrap Dress Yellow Mango Tie Back Mini Dress — look alike Navy Blue Dress White Wrap Dress1 Maxi Skirt:
Gray ASOS Design maxi skirt or Gray Missguided Tall hammered satin pleated midi skirt — look alike3 Shirts
Yellow Cimiez eyelet top White and Peach Hanslet blouse Black and white striped New Perfect Fit tee shirt — look alike And 1 long sleeve that I only wore on the plane (it was hot!)2 Shorts
Madewell Jean Shorts Yellow Eyelet Shorts Ten Sixty Sherman — look alike And 1 pair of jeans that I only wore on the planeAccessories
Naot Pixie Sandal Madewell Zip-Top Transport Carryall Red swimsuit 2 other swimusits (they’re small!) Lanzom Women Beach Sun Hat (Fedora style) Underwear and bras: I took enough for 9 days and did laundry a few timesOther
Travel Smart by Conair Pro Portable Garment Steamer Samsonite Winfield 2 Hardside 28″ Luggage Samsonite Winfield 2 Hardside 24″ LuggageA Couple Cooks - Recipes for Healthy & Whole Living
Want to learn how to make delicious green tea frozen yogurt with all natural matcha? Check out this simple recipe and start experiencing the goodness and irresistible flavors of this exotic superfood. Packed with antioxidants and protein, this matcha green tea frozen yogurt recipe is a sure way to supercharge your days!
So, where did my love for matcha come from?
When I was a kid, my parents would take us to dinner at this small hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant at least every other week. It was in an abandoned strip mall, next to a laundromat and a bar.
And it wasn’t in the best part of town. I think the windows even had bars on them.
Looking back on it, I wonder how my parents even found out about it, but it sure had delicious food. So, once inside, you forgot about all of it.
We’d all sit down and start rubbing our wooden chopsticks together to remove all the splinters, in preparation for the amazing meal we were about to enjoy.
We must’ve eaten there a good 100 times from when I was 6 to 12 years old and, every time, we all ordered the same thing: Salmon Butter Yaki. It was salmon, lemon, bean sprouts, and some other vegetables (I can’t remember them now), wrapped up in a parchment paper bag which held in the amazing flavor and fragrance.
OMG it was so yummy.
But, as good as it was, I was even more excited to order my dessert. Because that was when I got to have my kid’s scoop of green tea ice cream.
Oh, how I loved their green tea ice cream.
I realize I had absolutely no idea what was in it and wondered how it tasted so delicious and was such an interesting shade of green when the green tea I drank looked and tasted nothing like it. But I loved it nonetheless.
Every time.
As time went on and I went out to dinner with my parents less and less, the sweet little Japanese restaurant went out of business and so went our Salmon Butter Yaki and Green Tea Ice Cream.
But my love for green tea ice cream has remained strong to this day.
If it’s on the menu, there’s a good chance I’m gonna order it – it’s just too good and holds too many warm memories for me to pass up.
In an effort to enjoy the same flavors (and the memory), but not sacrifice my clean eating lifestyle, I wanted to create a healthier green tea ice cream. One that wasn’t loaded with heavy cream, condensed milk, or sugar.
So I turned it into a frozen yogurt using my go-to plain full fat greek yogurt and just 3 other ingredients. Just like I did with my Strawberry Frozen Yogurt and Fresh Peach Frozen Yogurt. Made with only four all-natural ingredients, this matcha green tea yogurt is naturally gluten free. If you’re looking for a vegan-friendly option, just substitute the greek yogurt with a soy or coconut milk based yogurt.
There’s nothing better than homemade frozen yogurt when it comes to healthy summer desserts. Not only is this green tea frozen yogurt packed with goodness, it also has a creamy texture and an irresistible aroma. Check out my other equally delicious and healthy homemade frozen yogurt recipes.
Peach Frozen Yogurt
Looking for a fun school holiday activity? Spend an afternoon with the kiddos making this peach frozen yogurt from scratch. You get the natural sweetness from the juicy peaches, a hint of tartness from the lemon juice, combined with the creamy texture of Greek yogurt. I absolutely adore eating this peach frozen yogurt as a dessert on a hot summer day. Garnished with fresh mint leaves, this peach frozen yogurt looks pretty as a picture with its bright colors without any artificial ingredients.
Strawberry Frozen Yogurt
Strawberry + Greek Yogurt is my idea of perfection, you guys. Refreshing, sweet, and so delicious, it’s hard not to love this strawberry frozen yogurt. You get your dose of Vitamin C with the fresh strawberries and your protein fix with the creamy Greek yogurt. Made with 100% real food and a touch of honey, this is another homemade frozen yogurt option.
Want to keep your diet in check and your sweet tooth satisfied? Join the club! One serving of matcha frozen yogurt is under 300 calories, making it a skinny treat that’s packed with protein you can turn to all summer long. Besides, did you know matcha actually helps you burn calories? Matcha is a fine powder ground from tea leaves, which speeds up your metabolism. The tea’s natural buzz make this frozen green tea yogurt a natural energy booster!
Can I Make Matcha Frozen Yogurt Without an Ice Cream Maker?Despite what most people think, matcha frozen yogurt can easily be made without an ice cream maker! All you’ll need to do is first freeze the matcha yogurt mixture in an ice cube tray and then add all the frozen matcha yogurt cubes into your processor and pulse. The smooth, thick, creamy result is a wonderful, healthy snack or dessert. Watch the video or check out the recipe to see the simple steps.
It takes about 4-6 hours for matcha yogurt to freeze. Take out the matcha green tea cubes about 10 minutes before serving, and pulse them into your “frozen yogurt” texture. To extend the shelf life of your matcha yogurt, make sure you store it in an airtight container in your freezer, and it will last you for another 1-2 months.
Its clean, free of refined sugars, processed ingredients — and doesn’t require an ice-cream maker. My homemade strawberry frozen yogurt is the light, refreshing, and fuss-free dessert for all your summer entertaining needs.
Guys, this 4 ingredient Matcha Frozen Yogurt is BEYOND delicious. It’s everything I wanted it to be and more.
Nowadays, I top it with some toasted coconut for texture and it’s. just. heaven.
For those of you who are looking for a healthier green tea ice cream, try this 4 ingredient matcha frozen yogurt recipe and be amazed at the flavor and texture.
Such a great memory to live on.
Make this simple matcha frozen yogurt recipe with all the same flavors as green tea ice cream, but in a healthier, super easy frozen yogurt recipe. No ice cream maker required!
Transfer this mixture to an ice cube tray mold or two. (You could also use an ice cream maker at this point, if you’d prefer.)
Once you’ve filled all the ice cube blocks, transfer to the freezer and freeze until solid, about 4-6 hours. Once frozen, remove from the tray and transfer to the bowl of a food processor. Process until all the cubes are completely broken down and you have the creamy consistency of frozen yogurt. (You may need to scrape down the sides of the food processor a time or two to help it along and it can also help to let the cubes sit for a minute or two to slightly thaw.) The matcha frozen yogurt is ready to eat now, or you can transfer to an airtight container and freeze for later.I love to top this frozen yogurt with some toasted coconut flakes for a little texture. See notes for how to make toasted coconut.
To make toasted coconut, spread 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or tin foil and place in preheated oven at 325 degrees F. for 5-6 minutes, tossing halfway through. Watch carefully as they can burn easily. Coconut is ready when light golden brown and fragrant.
This post contains affiliate links for products I use regularly and highly recommend.
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