Healthy Travel- Dos and Don’ts for Airport and Airplane eating

Since I’ve been up since 4:30, (I kind of like Euro jetlag) and it’s fresh in my mind, I thought I’d offer up my two cents on airplane travel with examples from my most recent trip to Amsterdam.

Outbound 8pm flight

I’ll admit, I felt virtuous as I prepped for this trip. With no kids to pack for, it was an opportunity for selfish self-care.  I planned to take Le Pain Quotidien’s frittatas (they boxed them up with sliced avocado) and cut veggies to consume pre flight.  Best-laid plans…while sitting in traffic on the way to JFK, I realized my Eat Play Rose’ bag with frittatas and crudité had stayed home. I called my (yes my babysitter, kids are away) babysitter and she popped it all in the freezer. I still bitched and moaned for the remaining hour to the airport. Marc finally snapped at me, “you’ll live” I wasn’t so sure.

At the airport, I had to forage. Not only was I meal-less but the long-weekend traffic had delayed us. I ended up with a very red onion heavy tuna with capers and olives (first class sodium) and a small container of Caprese salad I scarfed these at the gate, bringing tuna and onions on a flight is an aroma offense I wasn’t willing to commit.

Once on board, I chugged a bottle of water, put on noise cancelling headphones, and a cashmere scarf, and airplane socks. I know my next move flies in the face of typical nutrition advice (oh well) but when the drink cart comes around I get a scotch and a glass of water. I take magnesium and Zyflamend nighttime (anti inflammatory with valerian root), use a disposable toothbrush and go to sleep.

I have a strict no airplane food rule (just like Anthony Bordain) so no dinner or carb-inental breakfast they offered. I’ll have more water and coffee before landing.

Return flight 10:40am

The way back our flight was during the day, which can be tricky. It’s easier to avoid eating when you’re asleep. We always try to have a hearty meal before take off. Luckily, we found omelets with ham and green smoothies. Once on the plane I had water whenever it was offered, Wakaya turmeric tea and New Primal jerky halfway through the flight. My husband had a Yes Bar and jerky.

We both felt energized having kept our eating lighter. Once home, we went for a bike ride and early dinner to acclimate.

What’s your airplane eating routine? Any road rules to share? 

Coconut milk at Starbucks YOSA (yay or step away)?

You know we are coffee junkies around here but personally I’ve never had a Starbucks habit. My fam tells me this makes me a coffee snob, so I guess I’m a snobby junkie then. I say it’s all Lauren’s fault “be choosy with coffee and anything you consume daily”.  I will admit, Starbucks does an ok job in a jam such as  an airport. The protein plate and a KIND bar have saved many a meal and their Blonde roast, crazy high caffeine, does make me feel like I can take over the world.  But as a daily, multiple-cup coffee drinker, I’m pretty much a psycho about using organic milk or organic half and half and those aren’t available at Starbucks. Lets be honest, Starbucks is all about quantity and not quality.

 

Then I heard about Starbucks coconut milk menu addition that debuted this month. Clients were curious, I was skeptical. If something sounds too good to be true it probably is. And then almost immediately, this ingredient label showed up on my news feed:

Ingredients: Water, coconut cream, cane sugar, tricalcium phosphate, coconut water concentrate, natural flavors, sea salt, carrageenan, gellan gum, corn dextrin, xanthan gum, guar gum, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin d2.

 We weren’t the first to question this coconut milk. Many articles called Starbucks’s bluff in its non-dairy alternative. “Starbucks debuts coconut milk that isn’t coconut milk” and in “Why Starbucks and I Are ona Break” our friend Alyssa Hertzig says “I'm not sure why corporations assume that people who can't have dairy automatically want their coffee to taste like birthday cake”

So what exactly is wrong with their coconut milk? First, milk (dairy or non dairy) doesn’t need a laundry list of ingredients. There are also 3 different gums (if there are “probiotics” these are “con-biotics" not good for intestinal flora) corn (probable GMOs), carrageenan, lots of sugar and very little coconut (so less of that good fat). The first ingredient listed is water. So basically everything is wrong.

Lauren has blogged on carrageenan before. It’s difficult to digest particularly for anyone with GI issues and a carcinogen. Sometimes it’s cited as seaweed derivative but it’s a definite “STEP AWAY” ingredient in nut, seed or coconut milks.

Starbucks sells this as “single origin Sumatra coconut milk…from the tropical Indonesian island of Sumatra.” We call bull-Sumatra on this one!

Don’t fall for any sketchy Starbucks marketing… in our “yay or step away” analysis, we say step away!If you’re on the hunt for an easy-to-find coffee spot, we like the almost all organic Le Pain which can be found all over NYC.  Joe’s coffee/  uses good quality milk too. 

OR  you can DIY at home with Grady’s and homemade coconut (all you need coconut and water) or almond milk that will  save money and gnarly ingredients.
So are you a coffee snob? How do you take your coffee? What else would you like to see YOSA’d? #yayorstepaway? Have you tried Starbucks coconut-ish coffee?

Meet Harissa

I love condiments, particularly spicy condiments, so I’m wondering why it took so long for harissa and I to meet. Harissa is from North Africa and I’m from North America but since when, in 2013, does geography throw a wrench in our eating plans? While I’m all for local bounty, I also love coconut water, matcha and Himalayan salt. So it was probably just bad luck that harissa and I hadn’t crossed paths.

My first harissa spotting was at Le Pain Quotidien. I enjoyed what I tasted but their harissa is very thick, almost a paste. I was intrigued and ordered harissa from one of my favorite sites mouth.com.This was the Mina brand harrissa and I have to say I fell in love. I've since learned this harissa is widely available even sold at West Elm (a desk and some condiments anyone? weird).

I dipped veggies in harissa, added it to scrambled eggs, folded some into my sardine/avocado combo and used it on grilled chicken breasts. For every ingredient I tested harissa on, it passed with flying colors. I want to try this recipe for salmon, kale and harissa next.

As much as I love to cook, I’m not someone who feels you have to DIY for everything if someone else can make it better. I’d cop to laziness but it’s really, without getting too deep, about insecurity. Can mine be as good? With Harissa, I didn’t think so but because of this blog post I decided to try. I used this recipe.

On a 100-degree day I cranked up my oven to 500

Roasted my peppers

Diced my chilies (not the Thai chilies the recipe called for but long green hot peppers). Remember the chili pepper/metabolism connection?  I also used ground coriander versus seeds (it’s all I had).

blurry, spicy chilies and garlic

 Combined everything in the Vitamix (recipe says to do in 2 stages but needed the volume for Vitamix to work).  I spooned the blended harissa into a weck jar,  refrigerated it as directed and you know what? Just as good as Mina’s.

Have you already met harissa? Do you make it yourself? What do you use it for? What's your current favorite condiment?