This year we’ve been making an ardent effort to increase the value of your abcteach experience by blogging on various aspects of teaching and classroom prep. We’re proud to present our first “Guest Author” entry below by Angelle Batten, MEd, HHC & Susan McCreadie MD of NourishMD.com. REAL Food Travels! comes just in time for your summer planning by providing practical vacation tips that benefit the total health of your child and family. Enjoy!
REAL Food Travels!
Just because you’re hitting the road this summer for vacation doesn’t mean you have to give up healthy eating. When planning your vacation, whether traveling by car, train, bus or airplane, remember to make time to plan on feeding your family REAL food while you’re on the road. What do we mean by REAL food? The food your great-grandma would have had in her kitchen – animal protein from healthy animals, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruits. Much of what is in the grocery store is the opposite – Fake Food, from factory farmed animals loaded with antibiotics and hormones or filled with a lot of additives like artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners. When you feed your child REAL food, not only will you feel good about it, your child will feel better too, which usually means better behavior and more fun for everybody.
Just like eating REAL food at home takes planning and prep, eating REAL food on the road does too. As you are planning your trip, whether it’s a weekend of camping, a few days at Grandma’s or a week at Disney, remember to think about how you will feed your family REAL food 80% of the time. Of course you could decide not to eat healthy on your trip and justify that you’re all on vacation and so healthy eating is not a priority, but planning on eating healthy on the road is another opportunity to show your child that people who want to be healthy make conscious decisions about what they will be eating most of the time. It’s an investment of time before the trip, but you’ll appreciate it when you have fewer sugar meltdowns in the middle of the amusement park and less cries of “I’m hungry!” while waiting in the long line to get into the museum.
Here’s how to make your vacation a successful REAL food trip:
One: Search out health food grocery stores and farmers’ markets in the area you will be visiting. Use the Eat Well Guide. Just by typing in a zip code you’ll quickly have a list of farmers’ markets, restaurants, and other local REAL food resources.
Two: If you are staying in a hotel choose accommodations that have a refrigerator. If you can get a room with a small kitchenette so you can do a little cooking – little being the operative word since it is a vacation!
Three: Two weeks before your trip, plan a menu, including how many times you anticipate eating out. You may not follow it exactly, but it will allow you to prep some ingredients or whole meals ahead of time, which makes eating REAL food easier and faster than hitting vending machines or fast food drive-thrus. Remember to follow our Recipe for a Healthy Meal or snack.
Four: Make sure you have a list of all supplies you may need depending on your accommodations: cooler, glass storage dishes, large bowl, small bowl, sharp knife, cutting board plates, napkins, utensils, wax paper bags (or plastic if you must), etc. Also, include condiments like Celtic sea salt, pepper, garlic salt, etc.
Five: One week before your trip start prepping foods that can be frozen or stored: muffins, cookies, trail mix, oat pancakes or waffles (or the mix made up with directions taped to container), fruit & nut bars, frozen smoothies, turkey muffin cups, cooked quinoa or brown rice, etc.
Six: A day or two before your trip, prep foods that will keep in a cooler until you get to your destination: cleaned and chopped veggies, ranch dip, salsa, hummus, yogurt with flax seed and berries, roll-up sandwiches, scrambled eggs, hard-boiled eggs, chicken quinoa salad, layered bean dip, homemade chicken nuggets, etc.
Seven: The night before you leave, make sure to have a ‘car pack’ of easy to serve picnic foods and snacks: apples, homemade popcorn with coconut oil or butter, trail mix that includes fresh ingredients like blueberries and carrot slices, Chocolate Coconut Bars, roll-up sandwiches, cheese slices, etc.
REAL food travels as long as you take time to plan and prep. Unfortunately your food prep won’t do much to help you with “Are we there yet?” or “She’s touching me!” but you’ll definitely be ready for the “I’m hungry!” cries.
At NourishMD.com we show you HOW to feed your family REAL food everyday and HOW to solve health problems holistically. As a holistic health coach with a masters in education and a holistic pediatrician, we share our expertise as well as our daily experiences with our own families. Visit us at www.NourishMD.com today!