Want to know what I’m doing right now? I’m running from basketball game to basketball game, cheering for my boys and their teammates while they play at their big end-of-season homeschool tournament. There are teams here from at least 4 different states. This is big time.
Why do you care what I’m doing right now? Because you are super curious about what I’m eating. Right? You’re like, “So…basketball tournament in another state. Running from game to game for three full days. Sitting in bleachers all day, shouting for your boys. Are you eating concession stand hotdogs and nachos?” Yes, that’s definitely what you were wondering.
The answer to the hotdog/nacho question is, “Not if I can help it.” My thinking is: If I’m going to eat junk, it really better taste good. (Ever heard of Freddy’s? That is junk worth eating. Rarely. But yum. One of our meals out this weekend WILL be at Freddy’s.)
The thought of eating out (or eating hotel breakfast) nine meals in a row makes my stomach turn wrong side out – as does the thought of paying the bill for that because we are the Coppingers and we eat large. We’ll feel better and save money by eating food we’ve packed to take with us, and we’ll enjoy eating out a few meals with the team, too. If nothing else, we have loads of fruit and vegetables packed with us to help us avoid the 500-pound lead gut feeling that happens after eating out. This is why God made blueberries.
But here’s the thing about packing the food: I had exactly three days this week to do six days worth of work so I could be gone from Thursday to Saturday at a tournament. Plus we needed to prep and pack the food to take along. This required a huge group effort in all things food between Monday and Wednesday of this week.
That’s not even everything. We made pizzas, breakfast sandwiches, and
turkey sandwiches after we took this picture and took a break!
How can I say this more emphatically? If my boys didn’t know how to cook and weren’t able to help me in the kitchen – I wouldn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t, I just, I don’t…well, the thought of it makes me cry. I can’t do this without their help. And I can’t always even stop and help them anymore because my work load is heavy and I need them to sometimes take the reigns and be independent in the kitchen. They can and they are and the thought of that makes me cry too. (I get weepy during tournament time. There’s just something so endearing about being here supporting our entire team who has worked so hard and grown so much this year.)
Wow, he’s tall.
I can’t tell you the huge blessing it is to me that my kids have learned so many kitchen skills through the years and can be so helpful and productive. I am sitting in the bleachers eating an amazing chef salad because my boys can cook. They didn’t learn everything overnight. But they certainly wouldn’t have learned it had I not chosen to teach them. (Justus -16 – made an amazing honey mustard barbecue chicken for our salads. So much yum.)
My 14-year old has become a Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait expert.
The Kids Cook Real Food eCourse? I’m not just talking about it this week because it’s cute and sweet and fun and a priceless way to spend quality time with the kids. I’m shouting hard-core about it because this is a skill our kids will need for their entire lives. They need to learn to cook more than they need to learn just about any other skill. Food is part of every day, forever.
Here’s Malachi, showing off his expert cutting skills, thanks to the free Knife Skills Series.
The funny thing is, I really was teaching my kids cooking skills because I knew it would benefit them. I had no idea how much it would benefit me, too. That’s been the serendipitous blessing in this. My boys are now a huge help to me in the kitchen! I can’t do it all without them.
So. My boys are awesome (on the basketball court, in the kitchen, and daily just because they are God’s and they are mine). I’m sitting in a hotel room eating a Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait that my 14-year old made on Wednesday. It is so good I might pass out. This is the kind of travel food fit for kings (and queen).
Food We Made to Take on the Road
- Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait (3 each because we are all addicted)
- Turkey Sandwiches
- Chef Salads with Homemade Ranch and Honey Mustard Barbecue Chicken (created by Justus)
- Homemade Pizzas (that we’ll eat cold)
- Breakfast Sandwiches that we heated and ate on our way down
- Sliced cucumbers, sweet peppers, and kiwi
- Summer Sausage and Sliced Cheese (protein in case hotel breakfasts are all empty carbs)
- Peanuts, Cashews, Crackers, Blueberries, Applesauce, Peach Cups, Pear Cups, Clementines
All of this took a couple hours of working together, and it was worth it! It’s always fun to hear about food you pack for the road too, so leave a comment with your ideas!
Kristin says
Hi Laura! I hope you are enjoying your weekend tournament! I just wanted to say how much I love these posts about your boys learning to cook and helping out so much with the cooking. They have inspired me to really make an effort to teach our nephew (who lives with us) cooking skills. We are starting late in the game, as he’s almost 16, but now is the time. He is making great progress and is really a big help. So thanks to you and your boys! Any chance Justus will share his honey mustard bbq chicken recipe with your readers? It sounds delicious.
Lori says
You couldn’t have posted this at a better time! We have a vacation this month and while we’ll have access to a kitchen, it’s not my idea of a vacation if I’m having to cook the whole time! Great ideas. Thank you!
Cindy says
Perfect timing as I prepare to head to our week-long Nationals Basketball tournament on Sunday! Yay for Homeschool Basketball and the many opportunities they have across the country!
I was thinking about bringing my crockpot and some prepared dinners to put in it. Anyone ever used a crockpot in a hotel room?!?!?!? Tips?
Kimberly says
Oh, what a great idea! We will copy this, too. :-)
Kimberly says
I just realized I didn’t answer your question, and I’m sorry. (The children’s wrestling nearby was a wee bit disturbing!)
I would think there wouldn’t be any problem at all with using the crockpot in a hotel room while you’re gone (even all day)–just like at home. What a genius of an idea!
Joanne Flood says
just be wary of using a toaster – yes I asked for one in my hotel room one time so we could have toasted bagels – it has some old crumbs in it that burnt and set the smoke alarm off – not a good thing in a hotel.
Love all the great ideas – with 3 boys in sports this will come in handy!
Donna says
Check with the hotel first. Some allow them some do not. It is a fire hazard in their eyes. We have used them and it is wonderful to not have to eat out.
Ashley says
If you are on a long drive and have a power converter to plug into your dash, you can potentially use your crockpot while you drive. I wouldn’t do soup or anything splashy, but baked potatoes or something like that would be easy.
Kimberly says
Oooooo….this is SO inspiring that I could DO this!! We’re all tired of “the lead-gut feeling” we get when traveling that you describe. Thank you so much. :-)
Alison says
On our last out of town trip I took a big container of frozen homemade vegetable soup. It acted as the ice block for the first two days of the trip and then gave us much-needed veggies on the trip. You can heat it in the microwave (or use the above crock pot idea).
Rhoda says
So glad to know that someone else carries food with them. My son use to do competitive taekwondo and we would carry food and water to tournaments. Most people thought we were crazy. We figured we saved time, expense, and our health. We once traveled for 9 days (to and from Nationals). We planned on eating out once a day (Chinese gives lots of veggies). I also froze all our water before hand too. This did three things–ice packs for the food, and clean water I knew the source of before we left, plus one more way to save money as we didn’t have to buy our water. I estimated pretty well as we had food and water for all but the last day. And friends we visited briefly on day 8 stocked us up on water for the remainder of the trip. Yeah for friends! Oh–word of warning–make sure your ice chest doesn’t leak before you set it down on the hotel room floor! Not a good way to discover the chest leaks. Thank you for all your encouragement Laura, in so many areas. It’s been fun watching your boys grow up.
amanda says
I love it! My mother makes fun of me for packing food, she thinks eating out is the best part of the trip. I hate restaurant food, gross food grosses me out. I order beef sticks and Salami from USwellness meats for road trips, turkey wraps, hard boiled eggs, cheeses, yogurt cups, fermented veggies, and paleo cookies. Soup stays hot in thermos’ for like 15 hours too! I even bring our own raw milk and homemade waffles for hotel stays. I recently took a road trip ALONE and still brought my own cooler packed full.
Laura says
Hi there! I like to pack pasta salads with salami, cheese, olives and vegetables. We also pack hummus to go along with tortilla chips and vegetables. I make granola and protein bars as well.
Amy says
How do you continue to keep your cold food cold the whole trip? Hotel fridges usually aren’t that big.
Laura says
A cooler with ice worked well for us. :)