One of the most difficult times to try to plan meals and keep healthy eating on track is when you are traveling. In the case of our family, we are currently moving across country and stopping to visit a few family members along the way. It isn’t exactly conducive to our usual rhythms in the kitchen and at the table.

Fortunately, we were able to pack a bit of food for the road. I don’t really plan full meals around this food, but rather use it to keep us afloat. Sometimes entire meals result from these specifically chosen foods, but more often than not they supplement some less than stellar quick grab food.

For this reason I think of them as supplements and completely necessary. So in my road food cooler you will find foods full of protein, healthy fats, enzymes and probiotics – things not usually found when you eat out at randomly chosen places.

My road foods of choice include:

Kombucha. Buy it from the health food store or make a large batch yourself before your trip using a starter culture.

Raw Cheese & Cultured Dairy. Finding good milk on the road is hard enough without trying to make something from it. These two items provide all of the protein, fat, enzymes, and probiotics in one tasty food.

Fresh Fruit. Berries and apples are our fruits of choice to keep sugar in check. Spread with nut butter or added to some good yogurt, these make excellent additions to meals and snacks.

Minimally Processed Meats. Trying to find pre-cooked lunch meats that aren’t really full of salt, preservatives, and other weird stuff is a bit of a budget challenge, but worth the money for the good quality protein.

Probiotics. These are my go-to supplement for an everyday boost or in cases of illness. As I type my son and I are on the final mend from some sort of food poisoning or stomach bug. I credit probiotics with a much, much shorter bout of illness than I would have expected.

So those are my must-have foods for the road.

What do you pack to eat and stay well on the road?

Photo by Ava Lowery

I don’t know about you, but as summer wears on, I’m finding us stuck in a summertime snack rut. I’ll admit that I like easy snacks, but I’ve been looking for healthier alternatives, since most of what you’ll find on the grocery store shelves either has high fructose corn syrup or artificial food dyes, and the organic varieties that are available tend to be so expensive.

So to make it easier for us to make our grocery list and prepare things ahead of time, I’ve made a cheat sheet for myself with snack ideas, divided by effort and preparation required:

Easy Peasy

• Grapes or frozen grapes, known as popsicle grapes here
• Whole apples
• Apples or bananas with peanut butter or sunflower nut butter
• Cheese and crackers
• Fruit salad in an ice cream cone
• Pretzels with peanut butter or cheese
  *you can build lots of fun shapes with cheese cubes and pretzel cubes!

Make Ahead

• Frozen fruit pops
• Cinnamon tortilla chips
• Apple, granola, peanut butter sandwiches
• No bake raisin carrot cake bites
• Sweet potato & beet chips
• Homemade goldfish crackers
• Homemade fruit leather

What are your favorite summertime snacks?

Photo by DC Central Kitchen

The Environmental Working Group has updated their “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen” lists with recommendations on the fruits and veggies that contain the highest and lowest levels of pesticide residue.

If you can only afford to buy some things organic, you’ll want to prioritize the items on the Dirty Dozen list. I don’t know about you, but I’m really bummed that apples is on there since that’s one of our most common produce purchases!

Here are the 2011 lists:

The Dirty Dozen

1. apples
2. celery
3. strawberries
4. peaches
5. spinach
6. nectarines
7. grapes
8. bell peppers
9. potatoes
10. blueberries
11. lettuce
12. kale

The Clean Fifteen

1. onions
2. sweet corn
3. pineapples
4. avocado
5. asparagus
6. sweet peas
7. mangoes
8. eggplant
9. cantaloupe
10. kiwi
11. cabbage
12. watermelon
13. sweet potatoes
14. grapefruit
15. mushrooms

I’ve also put together a handy cheat sheet you can carry with you! Download and/or print it here. I recommend using cardstock so it will hold up better in your purse or wallet.

Are you surprised by any of the items on these lists?

This is the drink that quenches my fruit craving down to the tips of my toes.

I cut two or three grapefruits in half and scoop out the pulp, then toss it into the vitamix with a cup or two of frozen strawberries and let it go for a few minutes until even the tiniest strawberry seeds have been pulverized into the smoothest, sweetest, tangiest elixir.  While I’m making it I get so excited I can hardly wait for it to be done!

It really is divine, like a less tart, smoother, more refreshing strawberry lemonade.  And I have no scientific basis for this, but it seems like it must be a really cleansing concoction.  I just feel SO good every time I drink it, which will be pretty much daily for the next week or so given the number of grapefruits on my counter.Another family favorite is pineapple (fresh or frozen) with handfuls of spinach and a little ice, if you like. It’s vibrantly green, but tastes like dessert and toddlers slurp it down with abandon! 

Ginger and lemon elevate the basic carrot-apple combination to sophisticated heights, and beets make everything better.  I love the deep pink beets add to juice and their earthy sweetness is such a pleasant surprise. Try sneaking a few sticks of celery into your sweeter juices; you may not even notice!  We also love cucumber with apple and cilantro; it’s sweet, but unusual.

What are some of your favorite juice combinations?