Meals for the Sky
I travel a couple of times a year with my husband and kids. Flights are never too long (I can’t bear to go over four hours with them just yet), but long enough that we need a couple of solid meals in the kids while we are enroute to our destination.
Seeing that the food options in airports is almost impossible to navigate if you are wheat free, I have now taken to making food options for all of us and bringing it in my carry-on. It is most definitely a hassle, but I feel that everyone, including me, is in a better mood when they have had nutrient-dense food for the trip. Pre-prepared meals means less tantrums, less whining and less headaches! The hassle the night before is worth it!
Below I share my carry-on meal plan for a family of four! Make sure you have a bag big enough to fit all the toys, crayons, books and food containers.
FOOD PLAN
Two ziplock bags filled to the brim of freshly cut up organic carrots and cucumbers (each kid gets a bag and parents can share with kids)
Nuts! My kids adore nuts of all kind. Organic raw cashews and almonds are their favourites. They are a great airplane snack seeing as they are high in fats and protein and will hopefully keep their bellies satisfied while they munch away. I prepare a small bag for each kid.
Quinoa Salad and Kale Salad. The salads are obviously the biggest prep. Olivia loves the quinoa salad (I generally feed her on the airplane to avoid a huge mess) and Charles tolerates it. ;)
I did not have time for this trip, but I also like to make some sugar free chocolate chip cookies as treats to give out throughout the trip (feel free to bribe with them). I make them as mini cookies so the kids can feel they are allowed more throughout the trip.
Directions for the Quinoa Salad
I am always trying to clean out the fridge right before we go away so I generally use the Quinoa Salad as a fridge clearer. For this trip I diced up:
Green Pepper
Carrot
Celery
Kale
Cooked Yellow Beets
Dice everything up and add to 1 cup of soaked and cooked organic Quinoa. If you want to add in some extra fats, add in some avocado (just make sure the avocado isn’t too ripe so the pieces don’t become mushy in transit)
Add a couple of pinches of sea salt and pepper.
You can then either do one of two dressings for the salad. The first is simply a whole organic Lemon and good quality Olive Oil mixed together. The second is Olive Oil, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard mixed together.
Mix everything together and then transfer to containers. I like to do a container per adult and then the adult can help kids eat it.
Directions for Kale Salad.
Take one whole bunch of green kale. Dice it up (as per my Kale Salad recipe in an earlier post). Add in the salad bits that you want/have in the fridge. I skipped on the red onion as I didn’t want to be eating onion in tight quarters on the airplane! I added toasted pine nuts and shredded parmesan cheese.
Then you can add one of the two dressings as per above.
Make sure that you pack spoons, forks and napkins for everyone!
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