Your whole food, plant-based life.

Eating Healthy While Traveling

www.Rawmazing.com

A view from the road. Driving through Eucalyptus Trees. Heavenly.

Smokey Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe, blanketed in a layer of smoke from the Yosemite fire.

We just got back from a successful (vegan, mostly raw) trip up to Lake Tahoe. I’m surprised at how easy it was to stay 100% vegan (not an option for me to nudge that one) and at least 75% raw. All it required was a little pre-planning and packing a few tools.

The big challenge for this trip was having very little packing space. We were driving in a small two-seater that has a trunk about the size of a suitcase. It’s amazing how many clothes you can leave behind when healthy food is a priority. A small insulated lunch box in the car filled with energy bars, bananas, sliced apples and water did the trick while we were on the road.

In anticipation for this trip, I bought a Nutri Bullet. I have been dying to try one out to see if it lived up to the hype. The Magic Bullet has let me down a bit for green drinks. I liked it so much, I am going to get another one and do a give away for you! Stay tuned.

I was impressed by the Nutri Bullet. You can pick one up for about 100.00 and it’s worth every penny. It does a decent job with greens, makes great smoothies (although small batches), good cashew creams, and if you just need to grind some oats into flour, or grind up some flax seeds, it is fantastic. I am finding that for some small jobs in the kitchen, I grab the Nutri Bullet instead of my Vitamix. (That said, I could not live without my Vitamix. )

I am eating almost all gluten free these days which can be even harder than vegan when traveling. I try to stay away from processed foods and the gluten free choices in the store frighten me with their extended lists of non-nutritious ingredients. I do like Rudis Gluten Free Spinach Tortillas because they don’t have a laundry list of ingredients. I can stuff them with a ton of raw ingredients when I want something more than a salad. You can also try these!

One of the keys to our success was doing a little advance research. I found quite a few restaurants that served vegan and even raw food! Simple Bliss Cafe turned out to be a favorite in South Tahoe. When ordering vegan food out, we found that we still had to be really careful about making sure it was healthy vegan food. My sweetie ordered a lentil loaf that was supposed to mimic meatloaf and they deep fried each piece. Really? Was that necessary?

All in all, we had a wonderful trip, sans the smoke from the Yosemite fire, and were able to eat healthy the whole time. It didn’t take much effort and it was wonderful having the extra energy that eating this way gives us!

10 Travel Tips

 

1. Do some advance planning. Happy Cow.net  is a great place to start. You can plug in a city and they will come up with a good selection of restaurants where you can find vegan food.  I would also do a search for vegan and raw food in the city where you are going. That simple step gave us a list of restaurants in South Tahoe and we were not disappointed.

 

2. Prepare some of your favorite, easy travel foods. Some of my favorites are linked at the end of this post.

 

3. Plan to make the grocery store one of your first stops.

 

4. See if your room has a fridge. If not, a small ice chest will do in a pinch.

 

5.  If you have a gathering to go to, eat before you go. It helps, believe me.

 

6. I love taking healthy tortillas. It is so easy to load a wrap with fresh, raw food. An easy      way to make a meal.

 

7. Make sure you are drinking a lot water. Very important, especially when traveling.

 

8. If you can’t find restaurants that do serve vegan, call ahead and see if a restaurant you choose can accommodate. Sometimes just an advanced call will do wonders!

 

9. Look for menus on-line. It is a great way to see if you can “create” a vegan / raw meal in a non-vegan restaurant.

 

10. If you are flying, pre-pack some food in your carry-on. It comes in very handy when those snack carts are going by.

 

Some of my favorite travel recipes:

Collard Wraps

Cacao Goji Oat Balls

Rawmazing Doughnut Holes

Cacao Goji Energy Bars

Cinnamon Orange Energy Bars

Cinnamon Ginger Truffles 

 

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26 Comments

  1. Evelyn Midyette wrote on August 31, 2013

    Dining out and socialzing and hearing ” Oh, you’re one of those people “, and maintaining my life style of raw and fresh juicing. Much work, however, well worth the feeling of wellness and spirit.

    Reply
  2. Devin Richards wrote on August 31, 2013

    Thanks for your travel suggestions! Being consistent with my preferred eating style is my challenge. The size, weight and power of food prep equipment has been an issue. I am very mobile. The Ninja & Magic Bullet are not very powerful… the Vitamix is too heavy & bulky to travel with… When I tried the NutriBullet with a friend… I was amazed!
    Deep gratitude for all that you share!

    Reply
  3. Margaret wrote on August 30, 2013

    Biggest raw food challenge for me is the prep time for preparing meals. When I’m trying to go all raw I find myself eating a lot of salads. Of course, salads aren’t a bad thing to eat but I do find myself craving mroe variety. The alck of spontaneity with raw foods is hard for me.

    Reply
  4. Cynthia Inson wrote on August 30, 2013

    I love the creativity of eating and making raw recipes. The most difficult thing for me it to get the chewing texture right. Thanks for sharing so many amazing recipes.

    Reply
  5. Angie Lipscomb wrote on August 30, 2013

    The thing that is hard for me is the cost of fresh fruits and veggies in Minnesota and availability in the Winter months which can last 6 months.

    Reply
  6. Gabriela Hydle wrote on August 30, 2013

    Hola! The most challenging is when I am out of the country, because while in the US (most of the time) you can always find something. When we go backpacking through Europe, or I just came back from a month stay in Mexico and also when I go back to my hometown Guatemala gets tricky. I usually don´t know who to ask for places with raw options. We love to visit markets so here were is were I usually find some colorful, amazing tasting, juicy fruits and vegetables and I would love to be able to bring the Nutri-Bullet to have more options…hopefully will fit and not be to heavy in the backpack 🙂

    Reply
    • Susan wrote on August 30, 2013

      Please leave your comment on the give-away post or it won’t count. 🙂

      Reply
  7. janet wrote on August 30, 2013

    Susan, thank you for your great tips – and very timely for me! I am planning a trip in October and I plan to take my Nutri-Bullet with me. My dilemma is that I will be traveling by air – and attempting to get by with the carry-on rather than checked bags – I’m wondering if my Nutri-Bullet and food items will leave any room for clothes and other necessities – hmmm. This will be interesting.

    Reply
  8. Eliška Kostková wrote on August 30, 2013

    Hi!
    because i love your sites, your recipes and also the nutribullet:-) i will write you, what is my biggest chalenge in beginnng with raw food.The biggest challenge in beginning with raw food is not to buy every book and every simple stupid little thing (that you just must have, f you want to be raw:-) Of course, the money stops me usually:-D but i can feel the tickle as i want to learn more and more about raw food, about world, people, love and life. Thank you.Eliška

    Reply
    • Susan wrote on August 30, 2013

      Hi, Eliska, You need to leave this comment on the post with the blender. Just click on comments at the end of the post. 🙂

      Reply
  9. Debby patterson wrote on August 30, 2013

    I work in a fitness club and all they offer in our kitchen is a toaster and yuk microwave, I make foods at home but getting up at 4.30 to do this is a pain. Using this wonderful appliance would be promoting how easy it is to my staff and want to be healthy customers.

    Reply

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