I’m headed out of town on the weekend for the better part of next week, and that means I’m gearing up to prepare food on the road.

Among other things being packed for the trip, my Vita-Mix is making the trek. Yes, it’s that critical to my life! :) My whole household goes into withdrawal when we can’t have smoothies, sorbet or hummus on a very regular basis.

I’m also making a big batch of the Super Healthy, Super Delicious Banana Oatmeal Cookies for the road, and I’ll likely pack up some homemade hummus and cut veggies to tide us over as well. I’ll also be hitting the local Whole Foods when I reach my destination so that I can make full use of the kitchen in our hotel suite while I’m gone; being on the road doesn’t always mean you have to make do with just *anything* in the way of food, after all.

I used to think traveling was a time to eat junk food and sample all the local restaurants, but these days I do things differently to take care of my health and my waistline.

For starters, I expect far more nutrition from my food than you can find at most restaurants, though I’m always glad to be pleasantly surprised with what I find. Restaurants with salad bars are always a plus, on the one hand, though the ones in this area that I’ve found are rarely nice restaurants overall. And otherwise, I occasionally have luck at nicer bistros (steamed veggies!), better Chinese restaurants (which often have healthy options with no added oil or salt in my area) and Mexican restaurants (though there’s added salt and oil in the prepared foods, beans, guacamole and salad fixings are otherwise decent choices, for the most part).

Due to food sensitivities and allergies I wasn’t always aware of, I have to avoid pretty much most prepared foods at restaurants unless I’m able to review the ingredients first; one additive found often in the “healthy” food options such as salad dressings in particular makes me violently ill for several days, for example. (This isn’t something most people have to worry about, so I’m not mentioning it here for that reason.)

And last but not least, by the time you end up finding a place that will make you vegan, no-oil-added, no-wheat-or-gluten-added, no salt added, even just semi-healthy food, most of the time, you could have made the meal yourself in less time than it took to place your order at a restaurant, and it will taste better and be better for you if you make it yourself.

With all that in mind, I know it might sound like a lot of trouble to prep your own food on the road, but I do a lot to save time and effort on food prep all the time, and particularly on the road, and I’ll be sharing more of those ideas in posts to come! I’ll be back to blogging in a couple days once we’re settled in.