As I promised from our vacation post, I said I would make a post on how to make a salad entirely from convenience food. When we’re on vacation, it can be really hard to eat right. However, if you stack the deck in your favor, you can have healthy meals every day. Here are some tips to making a healthy meal on the road.
- Go somewhere where you have access to a grocery store. In Marquette, we had access to several grocery stores. We were able to stock our room with healthy foods without packing several coolers.
- Get a room with a refrigerator and microwave. The room we stayed in had a decent size refrigerator and a microwave. We were able to store the healthy food in the room with easy access.
- Finally, bring a set of plastic measuring cups and spoons. I WAS NOT going to bring a scale with me. The measuring utensils could easily be packed and I made sure to buy food that could be measured easily.
Now for the convenience food salad. If you are looking to build a salad that is filling here is the basic formula:
- Bagged lettuce (any type)
- Fruit (any type)
- Cheese (any type)
- A protein (any type)
- And a low calorie salad dressing of your choice.
The salad I made consisted of the following:
- A 5oz can of chicken breast
- 1/3 cup of canned diced mango (drained)
- 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- Enough lettuce to fill a container
- 2 Tablespoons fat free Italian dressing
The total calorie load was 305 calories and 38g of protein. The sodium was a little high at 745mg. If you are watching your sodium intake, you may want to choose lower sodium ingredients. At home I would never use canned or pre-cut anything. On the road, it made sense and the salad was surprisingly good. Tony said it was one of the best I’ve made yet. If you add the lettuce first, then the cheese and finish it off with the chicken and fruit, it was easy to pack. Just add the dressing when ready to eat. No wilted salad greens.
The next time you go on vacation, stack the deck in your favor by eating healthy food on the go. Let us know in the comments how you would build your healthy on the go meal!
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