A few weeks ago I returned from another long haul flight, and because of previous bad experiences and mistakes with my kosher meals, I wanted to do things differently this time; I decided I was going to prepare my own meals to take on the plane in case there was another mistake. But because not all food can be in optimal condition for long hours without refrigeration, I needed to pick wisely. Today I’ll share with you 4 travel-friendly meals that will survive your next long flight!

It was the third time traveling with this particular airline and they have already forgotten twice to order my kosher meal, so I planned to make food for an army because we are talking about an 8+ hours flight and I am travelling but a boy that eats like an adult sometimes. At first I wasn’t sure, but when I arrived to the airport and I was told the flight was delayed almost 2.5 hours plus the voucher given to us needed to be redeemed at another area of the airport (I needed to pass security again and we were already tired!…No thank you!), I knew it was actually a good thing. We had a lovely dinner at the airport and we still had food for the plane. Yay!

You probably may be thinking, why would I bother to cook when I can just buy whatever on the airport or just bring snacks?

Well, if you follow the blog for a while you know I love to have my snacks ready for traveling (You can see what I usually pack for snacking in this post and this one) but this time I wanted FOOD (You know what I mean? I wanted salty-satisfying homemade food, not just easy to chew snacks or fruits). I bothered to cook because usually the options at the airports are very limited (usually to bread and flour in every form possible and sugary stuff), and the “healthy” food is usually just salads (something that I can make at home for 1/3 of the price!)

Things to consider when cooking your own food for the plane

There are a few things you need to consider when traveling with food:

1. Take food that can do well for a long time without refrigeration like pastas, rice, potatoes and some veggies like blanched or roasted broccoli and carrots as well as whole grape tomatoes.
2. Don’t go overboard with smelly stuff: You certainly can use spices and herbs (nobody wants bland food!) but try not to use ingredients that you can smell a mile away like smoked anything, or fish, or onions and garlic.
3. Limit your sauces: You cannot pass liquids through security so make sure whatever you are bringing has minimum liquids and they are in containers no more than 150 ml.

Now, let’s talk about the meals. So far I have tried these ones:

Roasted Potatoes & Chicken (or meat substitute)

For this meal I seasoned the potatoes with salt, black pepper and turmeric and added 1 tablespoon of olive oil. I then roast the potatoes for 30-40 minutes or until they were cooked through (and I would say a bit soft). Let cool down completely and store in the fridge until ready to go. I cut my potatoes not too thick not too thin, so they cooking time may vary depending how you cut. You want your potatoes to be thick enough that they will hold the shape and thin enough that they will be soft when thawed ( because nobody wants to eat dry-cold-hard roasted potatoes that could cut your throat. lol)

For the chicken breast, I seasoned with salt, pepper, soy sauce and paprika and let marinate overnight (if don’t have time just mix well and cook right away). I oven baked it this time but you can pan fried, steam it or whatever method you prefer.

This meal passed the taste very well. I even had leftovers that I ate at home once I arrived from the airport 😛

Basmati Rice & Veggie Burger (or some random meat)

For this meal I coked basmati rice with turmeric (I love it!), curry and chickpeas and serve it with a vegan burger I found at the grocery store. I originally made the rice plain because I wanted to make sure it would last long hours, but it looked so boring and unappetizing so I ended up making another batch of this yellow rice. You can also add roasted cashews to add some crunch (I will add them when ready to eat) and I garnished with some parsley to give it a pop of color. I won’t recommend making rice with certain legumes, like beans or sweet peas, because if the weather is too humid they can go bad. I like the chickpeas and cashews (or roasted almonds) for this rice because they hold very well and will make your rice delicious.

If you have on hand, you can use couscous or quinoa instead of rice and if you prefer, you can make some boneless chicken tights or chicken breast or even vegan meatballs (like Gardein) instead of the veggie burger.

Mashed Potatoes with Cheese

This is one of the combos that never gets old and what I personally call “the lazy combo” haha. I mashed the potatoes with cream cheese, salt, and a little bit of black pepper and topped with some cheese slices. I doesn’t looks so fancy but it made my cheesy dreams come true, plus you can eat it cold or at room temperature.

Marinara or Pesto Pasta with Almond Meal (Vegan)

For this occasion I made the super easy Sweet Potato & Tomato Pasta Sauce to which I added almond meal. I am a fan of almond meal because it gives such a nice flavor and texture to pasta dishes (no wonders why italians use nuts in their pesto! Yum!) Also, it adds on protein and healthy fats and it makes it very satisfying. I love Anthony’s Brand almond meal (have been using it for years now! Delicious!)

I like to cook my pasta al dente, add some pasta sauce (I haven’t tried pesto pasta for travelling but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work)

A post shared by Hannah Abreu (@foodiemomdreams) on Feb 16, 2017 at 3:57am PST

Believe or not, this time the airline didn’t forget my special meal but unfortunately the food was too spicy for me or my son to eat (I am allergic to hot peppers!!) I finally realized bringing my own food was a good idea; I placed my favorite over the mini table and enjoyed it while watching Sherlock Holmes.

What about you? Have you ever brought homemade meals to the airplane? What are your favorite ones? Let us know in the comment section below and don’t forget to follow on instagram and pinterest. We appreciate your support!

Until next time!

Hi There!

Finally back to the habit of writing after a few weeks without posting…So sorry about that! (after 3 weeks on vacation on USA, I came home to find a dead laptop (that finally decided to turn on last week) and 2 days after that, a broken smartphone. Well, I’m still trying to find a good deal on the “right phone” which apparently is like seeing a shooting star, but hopefully, we are going to start posting regularly again soon! 🙂 Enough tragedy for now… lol.. Let’s move on…

It might sound crazy what I am about to say but there is something fascinating about the whole travelling experience that gets me excited. I don’t know if it is the fact that I am learning something new, or that I want to push myself to do certain things differently (like packing lighter and lighter every time, or finding healthy foods for travelling…) or just the fact of being on another country and experience a different culture, but it is just SOOO cool! 🙂 I was also very excited to see my mother-in-law and finally eat proper caribbean food not cooked by me. Wohoo!

On our way to USA we spent one day in Berlin. The trip is just 1 hour by airplane so, even though I took my healthy snacks with me, we didn’t eat that much. Once in Berlin, I had the opportunity to finally meet a facebook friend, we have being fb friends for around 5 or 6 years. She kindly spent the day with us and showed us a few city landmarks. We went to The Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag which is home for the Parliment now, and to the Memorial of the Murdered Jews of Europe (picture below).

Then, our friend invited us to an extravagant hindu restaurant where I had the most amazing vegan meal I’ve ever tasted: Vegetables Tutong; which is a blend of vegetables (mine had brocooli, potatoes and peppers) in a massaman curry with coconut milk and roasted peanuts. Oh my! It was so delicious that I almost ate the bowl, lol. I will have to make a rendition of this in the near future because it seems to be easy and honestly so filling and yummy.

After that, we headed to the Fernsehturm, close to Alexanderplatz which is now a radio station and is the tallest building in Germany (It was surreal looking it from the ground because I could see it from the airplane! O.o)

 

It was a long day, we walked a lot so we were really tired, but before heading to our airbnb room (Did you know that airbnb is awesome solution for people traveling on a budget? We have had a great experince so far!), we stopped by the supermarket to replenish our snacks vault for next day long flight. So, This is a ”sample” of what I prepared for snacking:

CLICK HERE to Get €30 (US$40) off your first stay with Airbnb

Cakes Slices / Muffins
I had already on hand some pieces of cakes (2 fruit cake slices (made with plums) and 2 coconut cake slices) that our lovely friend who took us to the airport in amsterdam gave us early that day. What I loved about these cake slices is that they were homemade and had just the right amount of sweetness. Also, because they were made with a lot of plums and the other one coconut, they were an excellent source of fiber, which for me is great 😛

Fresh Fruits
To those cake slices I summed up a couple of fresh fruits.

– Bananas (I got 6): I love bananas for travelling because they are like a complete meal and my son loves them too so I always take some bananas. Only con is that they can be smashed easily if you just throw them in your bag. To avoid this what I do is I store them in a plastic bag and then, I put them on top of everything else in my personal bag.

– Apples (I got 3): Apples are probably the most travel friendly snack because they can survive almost any condition of temperature and you can just throw them as is on your bag without them getting all smashed.

– Grapes: (I got 1Kg Seedless Grapes): Grapes are just super travel friendly as well, easy to transport and eat withput getting all messed up.

– On our travel back to holland I packed the same fruits mentiones before plus some kiwis

– On our return flight I also grabbed 1kg of fresh cherries which I recently discovered that 21 cherries (which is A LOT) are just 100 calories. They are full of vitamin C, full of flavor and delicious.

Roasted Nuts / Seeds

Roasted almonds are definitely one of my favorite healthy snacks. They, again, are super travel-friendly and of course very nutritious. They provide you with energy, plant-based protein and healthy fats. Of course you can replace almonds with your favorite nut / seeds of a blend (My favorite Almonds, cashews, walnuts and Macadamia)

Cookies / Crakers:

– Store-bought Coconut Cookies (hubby’s favorite): Well, this are not a “healthy option” but is just something I grabbed from the supermarket to please my husband, but of course they are tons of healthy options out there. Look on the health isle or the protein isle on the supermarket.

With those healthy snacks we always have more than enough snacks to survive. It is not like we want to stuff ourselves with all that food but I just want to make sure we have enough in case our son don’t want to eat the meal on-board (he is usually vegan and extreme in his choices) 🙂 Anyways, As for today we never have gone out of healthy snacks while travelling, on the contrary! (usually we have fruits left lol)

Good to see and feel a poweful sunny day when we arrived to Miami. It was much needed after spending a rainy day in Berlin.

So, this is all for today guys!
Now tell me, what healthy snack do you prefer while traveling? Let us know in the comment section below and on instagram! 🙂

Until next time…