Photo Courtesy of Mammothmountain.com
I love to travel, but no matter how much I enjoy traveling, doing so is stressful…the packing, running to catch a plane or being in closed quarters in the car for hours, making sure the kids are ok, etc. The last thing I want to do is get sick on a trip or come home from a trip with a cold as a souvenir.
So…there are a few things I do to ensure that I stay well. On our last skiing trip to Mammoth two of the pieces of luggage that accompanied us were coolers. There are of course times when it is possible to pack for every meal, but on this trip I knew I would be limited to a mini-bar fridge. Since I knew my storage options were limited, I chose to bring the most nutrient dense foods possible to balance the restaurant food I knew I would be eating.
Green juice and green smoothies were on the top of my list. When I got to the Westin Monache, they went straight into the mini-bar freezer. Each night before bed I would take them out of the freezer and they were thawed and ready for me in the morning.
My Green Smoothies & Green Juice
I also brought a healthy dinner of veggie soup, kale salad, and fresh baked bread. I myself will probably stick to the soup and salad. I don’t know about you, but my family is usually too tired to go out to dinner on the first night of skiing, so I always like to bring a healthy dinner with us if possible.
Our After Skiing Meal (veggie soup, kale salad, bread...no bread for me)
When I made the soup a home I vacuum packed it and froze it flat. The soup was then able to act as my “ice” for the cooler and thus did not waste space. It doesn’t look very appetizing in the picture below, but trust me, it was yummy!
Vacuum Packed Frozen Veggie Soup
You would be amazed what you can pack into a mini-fridge. My fridge has eggs, whole wheat tortillas, Daiya cheese, kale salad (the soup is still in the cooler), prepared oatmeal, peanut butter, gluten free bread, gluten free rolls, coconut water, almond milk, green juice and smoothies (in the freezer section), avocados, blueberries, and strawberries.
Packed Mini-Fridge
Close-up of Packed Mini-Fridge
The next time you go on a road trip, don’t forget to bring your powerhouse foods!
Of course traveling by plane changes it a bit, but I have tips for that too…more on that later.
how on earth did you warm stuff up/cook (i.e., eggs) in a hotel room. Please don’t tell me you heated everything up in the room’s coffee machine?! 😉 Although, wouldn’t that be really funny if you headed up the soup all day in the coffee urn and poured it out into the mugs ;)!!!
Hah! I guess I left that detail out…there was a tiny 2 burner cooktop.
Gretchen, summer is coming and a lot of us will be traveling or taking mini-vacations. Would love to get more tips. Especially when we’ll be hanging out a family who don’t prescribe to our way of eating (think big Italian family) and possibly lots of meals in restaurants. We’re trying to stay vegan while not appearing to be pains in the you know what to our relatives. 🙂