On the Road Again

I made another one-night jaunt over to the west coast and knew I'd have limited access to decent foods. So I think I actually packed more food than clothes. I took:

Barley and split pea soup with roasted onion and nutritional yeast
2 bananas
2 TB cocoa powder to dip bananas in
Spinach/chickpeas/tomatoes/onions atop quinoa
1/2 cup walnuts
3 peanut butter sandwiches (2 pieces whole wheat 50 calories bread with .75-1 TB PB)

I had some fruit at the event I was there for, but because I went a long time without eating, I was starving by the time I got back to the airport. And then my flight was delayed. So I ended up buying a bag of jalapeno chips and a hummus/veggie sandwich in case the plane didn't have any food I could eat. However, I lucked out- United offers snackpacks that aren't horrible for you. My RightBite included:

Bumblebee Sensations Lemon & Pepper Seasoned Tuna Medley (3 ounces, 110 calories)
Late July Organic Crackers (1 package, 100 calories)
Wild Garden Hummus (1 jar, 73.5 calories)
Stacy's Multigrain Baked Pita Chips (1 ounce, 130 calories)
Fino Selections Gouda cheese (1 ounce, 101 calories)
Newman's Own organic California raisins (0.5 ounce, 45.5 calories)
Mini-Toblerone (12.5-gram bar, 66.5 calories)

The Blog is Back!

The past 3 months have been insane with travel taking up nearly 50% of my time. So now I've decided to go back to food blogging- but really only because I've been eating some good things and can't remember them. So, no, it's not about the 10 of you who actually read this. It's about my failing memory....



One of my greatest creations that saved me on 2 separate trips in November was lentils, green beans, and whole wheat pasta with some salt and garlic olive oil. I simply made it the night before (well, the 2nd time I made it the morning I left), let it sit and marinate, then enjoyed on the plane as everyone else was eating the crappy plane food. I even got desperate the second time and grabbed some canned green beans and it was still delicious.



This week I also experimented with stuffed acron squash and lentil loaf. Yes, I said lentil loaf. I followed this reciple for the squash, but made it my own so that it ended up being:



2 gigantic acorn squash

.75 cup wild rice, .25 cup brown rice

2 veggie bouillon cubes 2 cans veggie broth

2 tablespoons olive oil

a large yellow onion

2-3 stalks of celery

1/4 cup (or so) chopped walnuts

2TB each fresh tarragon and sage

3 cloves garlic

1/3 cup fresh cranberries

salt

ground black pepper to taste



Then I followed the general cooking instructions, adding the cranberries at the same time as the walnuts and the herbs as close to the end as possible. I either undercooked the rice inititally or overcooked it when reheating in the oven because it was pretty crunchy, which was a little less than ideal. But it was still very tasty.



The lentil loaf was lentil, yes, but not loaf. I think some of my issues were that I didn't know if 2 cups of lentils meant 2 cups dry, cooked, or 2 cups of cooked lentils. Then I didn't have breadcrumbs so I substituted 2 pieces of stale bread. And I had no marinara sauce, so I added some tomato paste and chili powder. Looking back, I should have added more tomatoes and spices and let it sit in the loaf pan to cool. Instead, I wasted no time in turning it out onto a plate where it quickly became lentil mush. But I didn't touch it, mostly because my dinner guest had to postpone until the next night. So the next night I got it back in the loaf pan to heat it up (I'm scared of the microwave) and it was more loaflike, but less flavorfull than I hoped. I made a sauce for the top that consisted of 3 roma tomatoes, cilantro, chili powder, and 2 tb tomato paste blended together. It was alright the first night but inedible the second night. You know I still ate it though.

California Dreamin'

I recently spent 10 days following the Amgen Tour of California (where I met Patrick Demsey- are you tired of seeing this picture yet?) and worried a lot about what I'd be able to eat along the way. Since I was there for business, I never knew where or when my next meal would come, so I tried to plan ahead as much as possible.



It started on the plane when I pulled out some cooked/cubed sweet potato I'd made the night before in my successful attempt to clean out every single edible thing in the fridge. I thought nothing of opening my container and chowing down until my coworker sitting next to me look in bewilderment at me and asked what I was eating. Then we decided, yeah, it's weird to bring sweet potato on a plane. But that doesn't mean it's not smart. It was quite tasty.



My options on the long plane ride were really limited: a chicken ceasar sandwich, a fruit and cheese plate, or a transfat box that contained popular killers like breadsticks and "cheese," chips and salsa, and candy. I had to choose the lesser of all evils and went with the fruit and cheese plate.

On the actual trip, I was fortunate enough to, in the beginning, be able to run for an hour through each city before stopping to get my new favorite food- a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter. As the trip went on, it got a littler harder to find this little delight, but I got by...Being in California was nice, there were a few good places to get tasty food that won't kill you, though I think I overdosed on fish while I was there, since that's the only animal that I ever really eat anymore, and that's typically once a month or so. Looks like I don't need to eat anymore of that for a long, long time.

When I returned from my trip I had to go grocery shopping almost immediately since I'd done a great job of clearing out all food. Luckily I had something I'd made and frozen that I ate for dinner the night I got back.

Usually after a trip I spend a billion dollars at the grocery store. On a regular trip I spend about $20-25 weekly with a random $60-75 to stock on up stuff every month or 6 weeks. After a trip I easily spend $100. This time, however, I barely spent $50. And I splurged.

I decided to branch out and buy some regular tofu (as opposed to silken), some veggie pepperoni, and Toffuti Better Than Cream Cheese. I'll let you know how that goes...