Unlike the 1986 movie "Planes, Trains & Automobiles", our travels don't take us on misadventures. But a recent road trip to Vancouver and Connie flying to Florida today has had us putting together food that we love when travelling. We thought we'd share that with you this week.
Join us to hear more.
Vancouver is a 5 1/2 hour road trip for us including time to charge our EV, so we plan to eat something along the way. We find that there is nothing we can buy on the road that matches what we make at home and can take with us on the drive.
Over years of road trips, what we've found we like the best is hummus. We do it with veggie sticks: carrots, celery, red pepper and cucumber, as well as Corn Thins and lettuce. We find it really satisfying and not heavy, so it doesn't make me sleepy when driving.
Another thing that works well for us is an avocado sandwich. We put this together when we stop to charge so it's freshly made right before we eat it. We start with a thin-sliced, sourdough rye bread that we get at London Drugs. We make it open-face so only one piece of bread, add a little mustard, then crush the avocado on that and top it with sliced tomatoes, onion and a piece of lettuce. It's fabulous!
We also take a mix of nuts, seeds, dried fruit and granola in a zip-lock bag to munch on. When we've been sitting for a long time, even that small amount of movement to get the food out and munch a bit feels good and breaks the monotony.
That's what we take in the car. And we often take additional food in a cooler to make meals in our room. It's gotten to where restaurant food, even at a good vegan venue, doesn't satisfy us like a simple meal we can put together in our room.
For this, we'll take some canned beans, tomato, onion and salsa that gives us a great Mexican meal quickly. And if we have a kitchenette, which we often pay a bit more for, we take greens to steam up with each meal.
We also take our Vitamix since there's plenty of room in the car, and do green smoothies for breakfast. Another simple breakfast we do is fresh fruit and granola or rolled oats.
When we're flying, it's a different situation. Security doesn't let hummus through anymore, so we've had to get creative. To get around the security issues, we take a Fruit Salad or a Carrot and Beet Salad. And Greek salad makes it through security as well.
If the trip is more than 4 hours, I'll take a baked sweet potato. I put it in a zip-lock bag so I can push it up to eat it out of the bag and not need utensils. I find sweet potatoes very satisfying for long trips.
Another thing we do for longer trips is a wrap. We stuff it with some combination of avocado, onion, tomato, cucumber, cooked mushrooms and sprouts along with a spread of some type. This is a way we get a little hummus or other spread in our meal without a problem.
And there's a little trick to keep the wrap crisp for a number of hours. We wash and pat dry a few large leaves of lettuce. Then we lay the lettuce down on the wrap and spread the hummus, white bean dip, or whatever on it. Then the veggies on that and the lettuce isolates the wrap from the moisture of the veg so it doesn't get soggy.
We also take a few packs of protein powder that we can add to a mango drink or something like that at an airport and make an instant smoothie.
With these combinations of food, we never encounter the kinds of misadventures that Steve Martin and John Candy had in their movie exploits "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." With these foods, our trips are truly a delightful adventure.
The recipe this week is a White Bean Dip. It comes from our memory of a white bean dip a friend used to make, but we never got the recipe for. So Connie started playing with what she remembered it tasted like and, voilá. This is a great bean dip.
To your Amazing Health,
Connie and Bill
White Bean Dip
- 3 cups cooked Cannellini beans
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 lemon juiced
- 3 tablespoons capers
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 2 teaspoons brown rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon no salt seasoning
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Add all ingredients to a food processor and process until smooth.
This is a great dip to use with:
- Veggies sticks
- Corn thins, rice cakes or crackers
- As a spread on an avocado sandwich
- As the spread in a wrap or lettuce wrap with other veggies