If any of you follow me on Twitter, then you know that I recently decided that it was time to start planning my New Years vacation. Last year, Jeff and I spent the holidays in Australia visitng my best friend, Karla. We had a blast and I’ve been hoping this years holiday would be as memorable. And then I received an email from said bestie to plan an adventure. Just the two of us. In South America.

Not long ago I posted about regrets and one of those was never studying abroad. Now when I’m offered the opportunity to travel I jump at it.  So when Karla emailed me, there was no way I could say no. The next few months will require some planning and big budget cut. My goal is to not rely on my credit card for this trip, and in order to do that I will be putting away money each week.

Now the question is where am I going to get this money? Lately I’ve been dropping lots of dough on food, buying lunch more than I like to admit. When I do the math, I spend nearly $50 a week. Plus about $10-15 on water and snacks. If I pack every day, I should be able to put away $50/week. Which means in 4 months I’ll have saved $800 for spending. Wow! That makes me not want to eat out at all. I can’t believe I spend that much just on lunch!

Which brings me to a new feature, Travel Tuesdays. Each Tuesday I will feature updates on this trip, my savings plan, interesting tidbits and Global recipes. I hope you’re as excited as I am. The first Global recipe is Asian inspired, a shrimp and veggie stir fry. Jeff and I enjoyed this last night and it was ah-mazing!

Shrimp and Veggie Stir Fry

• 4 tablespoons Bragg’s Liquid Amino
• 4 tablespoon dry white wine
• 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 eggplant, sliced
• 1 green pepper, sliced
• 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small red onion, sliced
• 2 oz Kombu (kelp)

Start by mixing 1 tablespoon of Bragg’s LA with 2 tbsp white wine (I use two buch chuck). Pour this mixture over the shrimp and set aside to marinate.

In the meantime, make the garlic stir-fry sauce by whisking the remaining LA with the wine, garlic, sugar and red pepper flakes. Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat for about 4 minutes. Add your oil and raise heat to high. Once the oil is hot, cook the shrimp until opaque, about 2 minutes. Transfer your shrimp to a plate.

Add the eggplant and green pepper; stir fry 3 minutes until slightly tender. Add the mushrooms and onions and stir-fry another two minutes.

Finally add in the Kombu, stir-fry sauce and shrimp; let mixture bubble about 1 minute. Serve over a grain of your choice (we went with quinoa).

Alrighty, time to work. See you all later!