By Heather from Rookie Moms
I have many fond memories of eating fast food growing up. I remember those salty fries, the cheap toys, and begging for it all the time. The best thing about road-tripping was that my mom would stop putting up a fight.
Now that I’m a parent of a three year-old and a five-year old, with Alice Waters-influenced eating standards, I’ve made eating on the road tougher for myself. It’s harder to turn up my nose at fast food when there are two whining monkeys in my backseat, yet I am stubborn that way.
For healthier meals on the road, I encourage you to do three things:
1. Pack and hoard. Bring along some nuts and a small cooler of chillable healthy food: baby carrots, snap peas, hummus, {link} hard-boiled eggs, cheese sticks. As tempting as it is to pack snack bars and other foods that come in their own cartoon character-adorned containers, make sure you’re bringing protein and grains that will keep everyone’s energy level on even keel. Anywhere you stop, you’ll have a healthy picnic ready to go.
2. Preview your route. Can you find a few healthy chain restaurants along your way? We often use Yelp on our phones to search for “fresh-mex restaurants”. A black bean and cheese burrito will fuel every family member for the next hundred miles or so. The website companion for Eat This Not That! Restaurant Survival Guide scores various fast food restaurants and shares tips to avoid extra salt, calories, and bad stuff.
3. Be realistic. If a constant stream of treats is what keeps the monkeys quiet (and in turn the driver’s blood pressure in check), you can always resume eating well when you get home. And your monkeys will have their own fond memories of road-tripping as the only time you ever gave in to their demands for junk food.
To be a savvy parent, sometimes you must plan ahead and sometimes you must chill. Going on vacation should be relaxing for you too. Vegetable consumption may suffer.
Guest bloggers Heather Flett and Whitney Moss are authors of The Rookie Mom’s Handbook: 250 Activities to do With (and Without!) Your Baby. They also share crazy fun activities at Rookie Moms and 510Families.com. They each have two children and live in Berkeley, CA.
