While sandwiched between a guy hogging the armrest and glued to Yellowstone and a woman officing on her tray and furiously typing into healthcare spreadsheets, I (discretely) enjoyed my feast.
“How could that be??”, you ask, since hot airplane food is a thing of the past…
You all know the answer—I bring it!
I promise that you can do it too and you will be happy and satiated…
Here’s the spread:
Appetizer
Berries! Fresh berries do not travel very well. They are vulnerable to mold and squishing so I found a better solution: buy bags of frozen berries (blue, black, rasp, straw…), defrost them overnight, and pack them into a thermos.
Here’s my snack at the gate to cheer me up after my flight was delayed an hour.
Chicken breast:
Marinated in lemon and parsley and cooked for dinner two nights before trip. Heated 30 minutes before Uber arrived and transferred into a thermos. (Marinated chicken breast is juicy enough to survive a second heating).
You can always substitute ready-to-eat meat like packaged organic turkey slices, but they’re processed and highly salted.
Sweet potatoes:
This is my go-to. They’re filling, succulent, and so nutritious. Lotsa bang for the buck. Don’t peel, just wash and plop them whole into a glass casserole dish in the oven at 450 for 90 minutes. That’s it! If you want them caramelized, leave a bit longer…tastes like candy. The crispy peel contains a ton of fiber and extra antioxidants so you should learn to like it 😜
Roasted beets:
Peel, chop any-which-way, and toss into glass casserole dish in oven at 425 for about an hour. If you like them extra tender bake them longer. Eventually they crisp around the edges. Experiment and see what you like. I drizzle a little olive oil over them before cooking.
Roasted carrots:
Slice into rounds, toss into casserole dish in oven at 450… I usually add raw to salads but it’s good to change it up a little. And they’re less noisy to eat cooked when your neighbor’s ear is 3 inches away…
I mixed the potato, beet and carrot into a container for a festival of sweetness. This meal is exploding with anti-oxidants which is exactly what you need when you fly on a plane exploding with bacteria and viruses!
Option to entice kids:
Mash it all up together with dark chocolate chips.
Other things I like to bring:
- Cubed cheese
- Raw nuts
- Pumpkin seeds (when roasted and salted they are addictive)
- Cukes—great for hydration. Peel and chop.
- Fruit salad, if you have time to make in advance. Otherwise just grab and wash apples and stone fruit. Not bananas— they get banged up.
Now you know how to feed yourself and your family well on a flight! Don’t be tempted by the canola-oil fried snacks! Traveling is challenging for the immune system so you want to support it, not weaken it!
Don’t be intimidated
I’m the laziest cook in the world and never follow recipes. Almost any veggie becomes tasty in the oven with a little olive oil and salt! Just start with recently-harvested, local-farm ingredients. Most of mine came from a farmshare so weren’t sitting on a truck from California for 3 weeks languishing and losing nutrients. Makes all the difference.
I even bring my own teabags—easy to pack a few in your purse or even pocket—so I can have my favorite warm hydrating drink…turmeric is anti-inflammatory and ginger is anti-viral!
And lastly, chocolate!
So many choices! I like dark Hu chocolate chips which I transfer into a user-friendly sandwich bag….Note that I am NOT HAPPY that this artisanal brand sold out to Oreo-maker Mondelez foods and I expect that their quality will begin to decline as often happens when a family business is acquired by a commercial behemoth) so I will start looking for a new chocolate chip and will keep you posted!
Note:
Keep in mind that when traveling, consume meat first, then cheeses and other perishables; fruits and veggies are more resilient, especially uncut. After around 5 hours I dump what’s left.
Eat well, always,
Your GFF
FUN STUFF!
- Watch my Power Smoothie Dance!
- Don’t forget to check out the first and only card game that gets kids into veggies!
- Get the free Power Pantry eBook when you subscribe.
- I have a whole store full of cool stuff!
- Check out the Good Food Fighter comic strip.
- Get all kinds of fantastic resources to live a cleaner life.
- Here’s my son, the incomparable Chef Sizzle-Snap, making Korean Bibimbap
GFF, you’ve done it again!
From throwing heated up chicken into a thermos to helping us all not be intimidated to try some simple cooking: “Almost any veggie becomes tasty in the oven with a little olive oil and salt!” – your quick (and entertaining) tips make eating healthy so much easier!
Thank you!
Hi BJ,
Thanks for reaching out and for your kind words. I’m so pleased that my tips have been helpful for you.
Keep up the good work,
-your GFF
Great suggestions for any kind of travel! I’m driving to East Texas next week. I will be taking chicken and vegetables.
Thanks Kathy for chiming in! Let me know how it goes and what works best 🙂
-your GFF
Is a farmshate the same as CSA? Essentially, buying from a local farm?
Yes, Sameer! CSA stands for Community Sponsored Agriculture and people often refer to it as a farmshare. It’s usually a locally/neighborhood organized endeavor where the person who orders all the food benefits by getting a complimentary share.