February 03, 2009

There's no place like home, especially for meals


Lately I've been a bit of a gypsy going back and forth to New York for my weekends of school at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. It's ironic that during these weekends I'm forced to eat some of my least healthy meals, often while riding on a long bus ride! Not exactly the loving home cooking that is recommended...

Sometimes I do a really good job of finding real food. Sometimes I cave to whatever is available. The way I see it, every meal is an experiment. Here are some of my very scientific discoveries!

Pictured above, top left:
This was a surprisingly good Harvest Rice Bowl from Au Bon Pain that I ate on the bus ride down to New York. Have you been to Au Bon Pain? As food court food goes, Au Bon is one of my favorites. There are a few vegetarian options and this salmon curry rice bowl had brown rice and no dairy of any kind. Pretty sweet.
Meal grade: B

Pictured above, top right:
This meal I'm very proud of. Using Yelp.com (a fab resource) I hunted down the tiny Green Symphony market and found myself amidst a buffet of all natural dinner choices. All the ingredients were listed, making choosing easy. I went with some kale, beansprouts, chickpeas, and a turkey meat hawaiian meatball. Random! But it was a great meal costing only $5.50.
Meal Grade: A

Pictured above, bottom left:
I've written about Souen before so just let me reiterate how much I enjoy their food! The thing about eating a macrobiotic meal is that you know you are going to get an excellent variety of real, whole food. In this case I went with their Planet Platter and a side of pickles. No fear of scary sugar/fat laden sauces or anything that would upset my stomach. Score!
Meal Grade: A+

Picture above, bottom right:
Ok, ok. I had this awhile ago but I need to confess. During the holidays the only place open at the highway rest stop was McDonalds. I was curious about this Big N' Tasty burger...seemed like a stab at a slightly healthier burger option. Turns out they just stick an extra large piece of lettuce on it. Way to go, Mickey D's!
Meal Grade: D


When you travel, how do you handle food on the go?

9 comments:

Culinary Wannabe said...

Only one bad meal - that seems like a good outcome to me! It's so hard to find decent food when you are traveling. And the Au Bon Pan at the airport here is soooo disgusting!

Anonymous said...

i always pack all meals. breakfast through dinner. it makes for lugging around sometimes a lot of food... and a lot of extra planning. but it always saves money and you know you're eating healthy!

Vered said...

"Turns out they just stick an extra large piece of lettuce on it." Haha why am I not surprised. :)

Erica said...

Hey girl! It is sooo hard to eat on the road! I traveled for work every single week, 5 days a week, for almost a year! My plan of attack was on the way there to pack snacks and bars to eat. When I arrived, I headed to the foodstore and got healthy food for the week that I could prepare in a hotel room. I always requested a mini fridge (and usually got one) so I could eat healthy all week!

Michelle said...

Culinary--really? Au Bon is always pretty good wherever I've tried it.

Armoftheland--well, that's pretty awesome. good for you!

Vered--seriously. i don't know what I was expecting.

Erica--wow, what did you used to do for work?

jesse said...

Yikes, I feel your pain! Looks like you've made great choices so far though... I used to pack bento boxes for school, but now that I'm a lazy bum, I just cram as much fruit as I can into my bag and munch on them throughout the day. =X

Erica said...

Hi again :) Email me at itzyskitchen at gmail dot com and we can chat about my belly issues :) Its not exactly food blog friendly haha.

Anonymous said...

Hi Michelle,
My name is Michelle and I am currently going to IIN too. I love your food post. I really want to check out those place you mentioned. Thanks for posting and if you are interested in swapping health histories and are available during the day, I would love to hook up. mmmichelle2006 (at) yahoo (dot) com,

Deborah said...

I'm impressed! Eating away from home is definitely a downfall for me, but it looks like you were able to mostly do really well!!