As you may or may not already know, about 90% of my year is spent on the road, traveling for work. Most of the time it’s for CS’s job and we take the camper and I go where ever he goes… We’ve been to some really awesome places (Connecticut in the Fall) and some fairly less desirable destinations (West Texas in the icy winter)
Every once in a while there is a deviation in the schedule and we head in separate directions for work…like right now for instance: CS is working off the coast of sunny Florida, (poor baby) and I am trapped in the forever-winter of Southern New York.
I left West Texas the last week of January with my Jeep, a seasonal variety of clothing options and my little dog… It took 3 nights and 4 days of driving but I eventually made it to my sister’s house in S. Vermont, before heading straight into NY. (I would have gone to my parents house on Cape Cod, but unfortunately it was the middle of a blizzard when I finally hit New England and since the roads coming into and off of The Cape were all closed, I detoured to Mary’s house in Brattleboro.)
Anyways, my point here is: just when I got comfy and cozy in my housewifery routine of cooking every meal in my regular kitchen, and making my meal plans to include likeable options for both my (semi) picky, meat & potato loving cowboy, and for my low-carbing self, now I was suddenly finding myself not having to tend to anyones my by own diet. Now, left to my own devices I am admittedly sometimes tempted to eat a can of tuna, or a handful of snap peas and call it a meal but I have been down that road before and a lack of preparation can easily lead to binge eating a bunch of bullshit convenience foods and I’m not taking that route this time!!
While I was actually traveling, being low-carb was the hardest. I genuinely don’t prefer to eat fast food. I know I can have a hamburger without the bun, or a salad without the croutons but I’m very picky about knowing exactly what is in my food, and exactly whos hands have touched it (not in a crazy person kinda way) LUCKILY i found THESE little gems at Love’s Truck Stops all across the highways on my trip (almost 3,000 miles of highways, by the way)
Good sized cups of fresh vegetables, olives, pickles and a little cup of ranch dressing. How convenient is THAT?! They also had other cups of salami and cheese cups, fruit and yogurt cups and leafy green salads in a cup. THIS along with bottles of water, sunflower seeds and the occasional bag of beef jerky are what fueled me (and Oscar Dog) on our cross-country. voyage.
Fast forward to right now. I have been working 12 hours a day (14 if you count commute time…which I DO!) for 6 days a week and one of the many chores I squeeze into my short day off every week is a major meal prep. I know, that if I don’t take the time to prepare at least a few meal options I will try to live off green beans and lunch meat.
First order of business cook some eggs.
Last week I boiled a dozen eggs and every day I either cut them in half and ate them with mustard, or smashed them up in a Ziploc bag with some mayo and a little mustard powder and made egg salad (I mention the ziplock bag smashing method because I want you to know what a classy and fancy chef I am.)
Pre-Scrambled Eggs and Sausage
For lunches, my biggest meal of the day because I get home so late and don’t ever want to eat anything big before I go to bed, I usually make something a little denser – something that will tide me over from 1pm to about 7pm.
Chicken “pot stickers”
Italian Sausage and Broccoli Rabe
Chicken Piccata
Noodleless Lasagna
And finally, for dinner I will usually have things like a bag of cooked & thawed shrimp, some mixed up tuna salad, a disassembled head of lettuce for some lunch-meat lettuce wraps or sometimes – if I’m feeling particularly famished – a tortilla pizza
Buffalo Chicken Flatbread
Is there anyone else out there who works long hours with this lifestyle? I am always looking for new make ahead meals, or ANYTHING to simplify the task of meal making on limited time! Please, share away!!
Lonestar Lowcarb 