Eating Healthy Away From Home Sunny Anderson’s Tips

Apr 18, 2016 | 0 comments

It’s that time of year again!  Many of us are busily making our summer travel plans. We’re booking airline, hotel, and car reservations; shopping for summer wear; mapping out routes; and doing all the other pre-vacation stuff that needs to be done so we can enjoy the trip.  One of the things many of us forget to plan are the meals we will eat while away from home.  Most of us end up grabbing calorie laden meals at fast food chains and other restaurants; pretty much resigned that at the end of the vacation we’ll have gained at least 5 pounds.  We’ll it doesn’t have to be that way!

Eating Healthy Away From HomeThe other day I had the pleasure of chatting with Food Network Star Sunny Anderson.  We talked about eating healthy away from home.  She had some awesome tips not only about eating healthy away from home, but saving money too!

So whether you’re jetting off to some exotic location, spending a week at a theme park,  or planning a road trip for a family reunion here are 5 of her tips that I find very useful:

  1.  Choose a hotel where you can cook!  Extended Stay America is one such place.  All their properties have complete kitchens in every guest suite!  That’s where Sunny stays when she’s on the road!  And when they say kitchen, they mean KITCHEN!  The suites are equipped with a full size fridge, stove, microwave, pots, pans, dishes, and everything you need to cook and serve food while away from home.  They even have coffee cups that double as measuring cups!  I haven’t had the pleasure of staying at one of these hotels, but I’m searching for a location at our summer destination!
  2. Pack your own spices!  This was my biggest issue, buying expensive full size jars of spices at my destination so I can cook away from home, then what to do with the left overs.  Sunny showed me a whole new way to look at my pantry!  Buy small plastic bags or pill keepers at your local pharmacy and fill them up with the spices you like to cook with.
  3. Don’t leave open boxes of cereals home, they’ll just be stale when you return.  Pour them in ziploc bags and take them with you!  That way when you get to your destination all you need is milk.  You can take along open packages of breadcrumbs, flour, and other dry goods too, anything you use when you cook.
  4. Take advantage of farmers’ markets for fresh fruits and veggies.  Just about every destination will have them.  And don’t forget every destination also has supermarkets, discount outlets, and chain stores.
  5. Don’t throw your money in the trash!  Take those chicken fingers the kids didn’t eat back to the hotel, you can turn them into a nice healthy salad for the next day’s lunch.

This doesn’t mean you have to cook all your meals while you’re on the road.  You’ll want to try new places, that’s one of the joys of traveling!  But you can save a few bucks and eat healthier too if you can at least cook a few meals at your hotel.

Being able to cook away from home is very important for my family, specially when we travel with my grandson Jett.  He’s got multiple food allergies and eating out can sometimes trigger them no matter how careful we are. Cooking meals gives us full control of the ingredients, no hidden triggers hence no allergies.  Also to be honest after a week or so of fast food and other restaurants I miss my home cooking!

Check out this video of my chat with Food Network star Sunny Anderson!

 

 

Thanks Sunny for these great tips!


Eating Healthy Away from home

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