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How to Eat Healthier While Traveling

September 8, 2021 by Tasha Hackett Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

paleo while traveling

Remember when I shared how I survive road trips while eating paleo? We can eat healthier while traveling by planning ahead, eating before we leave the house, and pack our own homemade delicious snacks… but sometimes we are just hungry and we’re miles away from resources and a kitchen and there are business all about with their flashy signs and great deals and what’s a girl to do but order a medium potato óle? Again, I urge you to set your boundaries and know why you chose to eat the way you do. If you’re doing the Whole Thirty challenge. You can not afford to go off-plan. One sip of a milkshake will set back two weeks of the dairy and sugar cleanse you are on. It can take 30 days for your body to fully rid itself of the dairy and up to 90 days for gluten. But if you’re just trying to lose 5 pounds, you may give yourself a treat here and there. I get it.

If finances are tight, eating out ever can wreck your food budget.

I’m not here to talk you into anything. But I’d like to encourage you in your healthy food journey! Let’s hear it for REAL FOOD! Where can you get real food while traveling? There are some ways to eat healthier from fast food. Some offer salads that aren’t half bad. But if you’re counting calories, you’ll be surprised what you find in the dressings or add-ons. I don’t count calories, but I do avoid most commercial dressings.

The #1 way I eat healthier while traveling is to “eat out” at the grocery store.

Go to the grocery store! Just pretend the grocery store is a huge buffet. Grab a cart, bring all the kids inside and walk around the outer edge of the store and buy lots of things that you can eat immediately. Get some fruit. A few vegetables. Some protein. I promise this will save you money and keep you feeling great. My husband will argue that he doesn’t get full this way, but I argue it’s because he just didn’t eat enough—and next time he will need to get a rotisserie chicken or some other hot meat.

What do we actually buy to make a meal for the family?

Anything we want! And we don’t just do this for traveling, we swing by the grocery store to grab food for picnics, parks days, play-dates, etc. Here are a few meal suggestions that I’ve bought in the past:

Romain lettuce, lunch meat, guacamole, bell peppers, dill pickles, grapes, oranges, carrots. My total was $23 and we had enough for two full meals. We used the lettuce to make wraps with the guac, meat, peppers, and pickles and ate the fruit and carrots on the side. (Hint: I usually have a knife handy to slice bell peppers, cucumbers, etc.)

Last time we splurged and spent a whopping $45 dollars. We bought oranges, apples, bananas, guacamole, Nuthins, Ritz crackers, salt & vinegar potato chips, 12 pack of Lärabars, lunch meat, almonds, and a jug of water. Oh, and The Wonky Donky.

My kids are currently 9, 6, 5, and 2 years old. The six of us generally eat paleo, but nobody but me reacts to gluten, dairy, or sugar, so they’re allowed to eat whatever they want. I prep them before we go inside the store: “Don’t ask for a bunch of things you know we’re not going to buy. I will let you know when it’s time for you to pick something out. You will stay with me and not run off down the aisles. Let’s go get some yummy lunch!”

Here’s a $12 dinner: Small jar of peanut butter, jelly, loaf of bread, bag of oranges, and a 6-pack of ice cream sandwiches. Even though it’s still processed food, it goes better for my family than buying a meal’s worth from a fast-food joint. And you will probably have leftovers of everything but the ice-cream sandwiches!

A few grocery store recipes to eat healthier while traveling:

1) Single serve apple sauce, yogurt cups, deli meat and cheese, Hawaiian rolls, carrots, grapes.

2) Hot chicken from the deli, clearance French bread, sliced cheese, rocket apples, dill pickles.

3) Premade salad mixes, a $1 bowl, can of chicken, small bottle of dressing, ask for forks at the deli counter.

4) Fruit/veggie pouch for the toddler, variety of Naked or Bolthouse Farms juices to sample, bag of chips and jar of favorite dip, box of Lärabars, container of mixed nuts.

5) A protein, a vegetable, a fruit, some add-ons to make the meal fun.

6) Yes, sometimes I still find myself munching down on a handful of potato óles and I have no shame in this.

healthier food while traveling

Don’t make food while traveling harder than it has to be. Just . . . pick out some yummy healthier foods and eat.

My favorite is to let each kid pick out something. One kid will get to pick out his favorite vegetables, while another is in charge of the fruit, one helps decide which type of meat or nuts. You get the idea. They’re much happier this way and so am I.

Is this something you have ever done? Can you bypass the fast-food and grab lunch at the grocery store and eat at the park? Or the trunk of the suburban? Or your friend’s backyard?


Tasha Hackett Tasha Hackett is a friend of Laura and author of Bluebird on the Prairie. When Eloise and Zeke meet under an extremely embarrassing circumstance, Eloise is fine with pretending the whole thing never happened. But they continue to be thrown together when Zeke lands a job working for her brother and it appears God has other plans for this couple. Find a copy of this touching romance wherever books are sold.

To connect more with Tasha and her historical fiction writing, you can find her at www.TashaHackett.com.

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Let’s Talk About Eating Out – I Need Your Input!

February 12, 2015 by Laura 96 Comments

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Let's Talk About Eating Out

I’m working on a new project that I’m hoping will:

  • Save you $$ by helping you avoid falling back on take-out as frequently
  • Save you $$ by helping you avoid unnecessary trips to the grocery store
  • Save you time by helping you easily prepare tasty meals for the freezer which can be thawed and cooked with little effort
  • Save you even more time by making your dinnertime meal prep take 10 minutes or less
  • Save your energy when you’re tired at the end of the day
  • Make your family meals times a blessing

I want to equip you with everything you need, from grocery list to check-list. And of course, I’m playing with new recipe ideas that your family will love. My men happen to love this part of my job. ;)

Before I get too far into this project, I’m hoping you’ll answer these questions for me:

  • How long do you spend cooking dinner each evening?
  • How many nights per week do you “not feel like cooking?”
  • How often do you throw your hands in the air and say, “Forget it. Let’s go out.”
  • About how much money do you spend for your family to eat a meal at a restaurant?
  • What kinds of recipes would help you eat at home more instead of resorting to going out?

By the way, you’ll receive no judgement from me about your eating out habits. :)  As you know, our family eats out here and there when we’re on the road and shucks if I don’t love me a good burger and fries as a treat when we splurge like this.

But since you and I are working together to become healthier, to feed our families well, and to save money and time while doing so – I think we can all agree that eating out should be a treat, not the norm. Not to mention the deliciousness of home-cooked food. Melt-in-your-mouth goodness, that’s what it is. Thus, we will all benefit from this new project I’m working on.

Thank you in advance for helping me by answering any or all of the questions above. :)

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The Traveling Casserole

February 6, 2011 by Laura 27 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

When we travel, I always pack quite a bit of food. This takes some effort when you’re getting ready to go on a trip, but we find the work is worth it as we save a lot of money on eating out. Plus, it’s a lot easier on our systems. (Don’t even get me started.)

Aside from good ol’ sandwiches, here are some other food items that we have found travel well:

  • Pizza
  • Burritos (either breakfast, meat and cheese or bean and cheese)
  • Quesadillas (just cheese or cheese with chicken)
  • Tuna Salad with Crackers
  • Corn Dog Muffins
  • Sloppy Corn Bread Muffins
  • Scrambled Egg and Cheese Sandwiches on English Muffins (at breakfast time)
  • Breakfast Cookies
  • Chewy Granola Bars
  • Muffins
  • Fruit
  • Carrot Sticks

In January, after our 3,800 mile road trip, you could say that we were just a little bit tired of traveling and eating in the car. We’d eaten packed food, fast food, snack food and well…a few too many beans. Vegetable soup and salad from the comfort of our own kitchen had never sounded better.

And yet, just three days after our return home, we needed to make a two hour (one way) trip to one of Asa’s basketball games. Matt and I tried not to groan as we discussed our food plan for the day. The idea of eating out or eating concession food made us turn green. Packing sandwiches didn’t appeal to us in the slightest. Nothing sounded good. Even the kids, who normally think eating out or having sandwiches and chips is a big treat, curled their upper lips at us.

What to do…what to do…because we did need food.

Enter….The Traveling Casserole:

I’ve gotta say…I’d never thought of this idea before. (I didn’t think of it this time either…it was Matt’s brilliant idea.)  He dug out the very cool Pyrex Dish with Insulated Carrier that someone had given us as a gift. Why couldn’t we just make a “real meal” and keep it warm in this until we were ready to eat?

Did I mention that my husband is brilliant?

One of the boys suggested Cheesy Beef and Rice…also brilliant. Cheesy Beef and Rice is not messy or runny or gooey or likely to cause stains on basketball uniforms.

I made it, baked it and packed it up just before time to leave. I grabbed a serving spoon, some paper plates and plastic forks….tossed in some yogurt and fruit and we were good to go.

When we were ready to eat, I just served up paper plates and passed them to the back of the van. Not one bit of casserole was left at the end of the night…and not one of us was whining about having a stomach ache or about having to eat a sandwich…again.

So…all that to say…think outside the box just a little bit when packing food for trips. There is no limit to the traveling food ideas.

Except for I don’t think I’d ever want to pack spaghetti. Or anything you’d have to eat with chop sticks.

Like we ever even eat with chop sticks when we’re at home at the table?

I have no idea why I just said that.

What are  your favorite travel foods?

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Eating Out Less

August 29, 2010 by Laura 46 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

simplesteps

Here’s what I’ve decided as I’m writing the Simple Steps Toward Healthy Eating series:  These steps can be taken in any order. There is not necessarily one step that should come before any of the others (except perhaps deciding that you need to take steps??!)

If you find yourself stumped as to where to start on your healthy eating journey, read through the Simple Steps posts I’ve written so far…and just pick something. You might start with drinking more water (and less soda or juice). You might start by eating an extra piece of fruit each day. You might start by eating out less (like we’ll talk about today). The point is that you start.  Pick something, set a goal and work toward it. Once you’ve accomplished that step, take another step. Go at a pace that works well for you. You can do this!

Okay, now let’s talk about eating out less. 

I did actually address this topic quite a while ago, so I would like to suggest you go read what I wrote previously too! The thing is…eating out is addicting. I have found that the more I eat out, the more I want to eat out. Or should I say…the less I eat out, the less I want to eat out.

I used to crave it. I used to sit at home dreaming of french fries from my favorite restaurant. I used to go out of my way to find a chance (or a few dollars) to eat out. And of course, I’d take big time advantage of the free Pepsi refills!!!

It’s amazing how the additives in fast food restaurants (and beyond) make your body crave more. And I don’t think I need to tell you that food from restaurants is hardly ever good for us? Do I need to say that? Okay, here I’ll say it:  The food from restaurants is usually rancid, poor quality, full of MSG, fried in nasty oils… Should I go on? 

How about expensive? In my experience, eating out costs more than eating at home, no matter what kind of value menu you order from or coupons you use. If you’re having a hard time figuring out how you can afford to eat healthy foods, you may find you have extra money for good groceries if you eat out less.

Now, am I suggesting that you don’t eat out at all? No, of course not. Sometimes it’s a necessity. Sometimes it’s a treat. Sometimes it’s fun. Our family enjoys the very occasional dinner out…and sometimes I go out and have a nice lunch with a girlfriend. Eating out isn’t evil…I’m just suggesting that as a step toward healthier eating…you may want to look into eating out less often.

You’ll save money and I promise that even if you aren’t eating the absolute best foods at home, eating at home is still better for you (generally) than eating out.

Okay, those are my thoughts. What are your thoughts about eating out? Do you find yourself wanting to eat out often? Have you ever craved certain fast food or restaurant food?

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