Has it really been over a month since I graduated from college? Graduation was close to what I expected: an emotionally-charged weekend of celebration with a background of solemn goodbyes and, to borrow a phrase from a friend, extended see-you-later's. Perhaps it hasn't fully hit me that I've graduated because I still plan on visiting friends this summer, and I'll be headed back to school in the fall. In fact, maybe it won't really hit until I move all of my things from my house in Virginia Beach to an apartment in Nashville, where I'll be attending Vanderbilt for graduate school. Fortunately, I have a couple of months of summer before that happens, and since I've sadly found that PhD programs, and real life, don't really give summers off, I'm making sure I enjoy my last one.
I've been on a road trip around the great Northeast with my boyfriend, Matthew, for the past few weeks. Thanks to a bit of graduation money and an utter lack of responsibility, we immensely enjoyed the trip, which had honestly been a dream come true (and Matthew could tell you that I've been dreaming, and irritatingly planning, this trip for months). After a month on the road, I'm back at my house, where I'll spend the next month relaxing and, more likely, stress-planning about graduate school.
I found our trip could be measured in many ways: about 4000 miles, or 50 hours, of driving. About $400 in gas. A 30-hour playlist, and two audiobooks--David Sedaris's “Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls” and Michael Pollan's “The Omnivore's Dilemma,” both of which I highly recommend. Five camping sites, and six Airbnbs. Two countries and 11 states. Of course, with my forever-food-oriented mind, I also see that trip in the amount of food we ate: three bags worth of car snacks and camping food, about 20 restaurants, and four trips to the grocery store. This means two things for this article, and you, the reader:
1. Most of what I ate was nonperishables, so I was greatly looking forward to making myself some nice fresh meals when I get home; thus, this post includes a wonderful salad recipe that I was craving (and I promise, you'll crave too. The more you feed your body good, real food like fruits and vegetables, the more you're going to crave them.)
2. I have been thinking about a lot of tips for eating healthy on the road, and I'd like to share them with you.
We'll start with the road trip tips. One of the main things we found on our very long road trip was that it's relatively easy to avoid unhealthy snacks and fast food meals if you a) plan ahead and bring lots of healthy snacks with you and b) stop at a few grocery stores, instead of convenience stores, along the way. About once a week, we stopped in a grocery store and picked up some fresh fruit and vegetables for the day, as well as some snacks with longer shelf lives: nuts and dried fruit for trail mix, nut butter and jam (and I brought some PB2, which is powdered peanut butter that you mix with water and really is pretty good, especially in smoothies. I'll post one of my favorites, a peanut butter banana smoothie, soon!), as well as one of our favorite car snacks: oranges. Buy fruit that will last in the car and is "prepackaged" in its own skin: oranges, bananas, grapefruits, kiwi, apples, and even melon (if you're bringing a knife) can be good snacks for the road. Since we did a lot of camping, we also brought some food to cook: cans of soup, including a vegetable soup we made; pasta, marinara, and pesto; rice, onion, sweet potato, and green chiles. If you are cooking on your trip, there are plenty of shelf stable vegetables you can bring. I definitely missed fresh green leafy and crisp, cool vegetables, so it was nice to have a few to bring with us: onions, sweet and white potatoes, carrots, and canned vegetables such as tomato sauce, corn, etc. As you as you do a little planning for the healthy foods you want to eat, you'll have plenty of ways to find unhealthy foods, and your road trip food will be a little more balanced.
As I said, I really missed the fresh vegetables, especially salads (which aren't very conducive to traveling for a month). Here's a salad that I absolutely adore, because it have a mix of raw and cooked vegetables, different textures and temperatures, and vibrant warm flavors. I first created this recipe when I began experimenting with roasted vegetables, which was one of the best tips I've ever seen for making craveable salads. Who wants to eat a big bowl of raw lettuce everyday? This salad is sweet from the butternut squash, salty and zingy from the lemon dressing, and crunchy enough the be the base for a meal.
Warm Butternut Squash and Kale Salad
Ingredients
1 large head cauliflower, cut into little florets (about the same size as the butternut squash)
1 bag Trader Joe's cut butternut squash (or half a butternut squash, cubed. Go ahead and cube the entire butternut, and put some of the extra roasted squash on oatmeal or a granola-yogurt parfait in the morning.)
1/3 bag kale: I chopped this up even smaller (because kale can be really tough) and picked out some of the thicker tough stems (this kale works well because the oil from the dressing and the warm roasted vegetables both soften it a little so it's not as tough. If you really can't do kale, try baby kale, which has a gentler texture similar to spinach, or a mix of greens. Just make sure to eat the salad soon after you make it.)
Olive oil
2 lemons
Fresh mint (about 8-10 leaves)
Fresh basil (about 8-10 leaves)
Oregano
Salt and Pepper
2-3 tablespoons honey (if you want to make it vegan, use a different sweetener)
About 2 tablespoons grated onion (I use a small cheese grater… you want the onion to form almost a paste)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced finely
1/4 cup pecans
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 450 F.
2. Place cauliflower florets and butternut squash on a baking sheet. Toss in 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, salt, and pepper and place in the oven.
3. Place the kale in a large bowl. Toast the pecans (toss them in a dry skillet on high heat for a few minutes, watching carefully so they don't burn). Sprinkle the pecans on top of the kale and set aside.
4. Make the dressing. Put the zest and juice of two lemons in a bowl. Add honey and taste; it should be a little tart but not too sour (add more honey if you want). Add about a teaspoon dried oregano, salt and pepper, and mix until honey is thinned by the lemon juice. Slowly whisk in about 4 teaspoons olive oil. Add garlic and grated onion. Chop the fresh mint and basil and add that too. If it's too thick, add a little more olive oil (but it's okay if the fresh herbs make the dressing thick).
5. Watch the vegetables in the oven. You can leave them in there for probably about 20-30 minutes, and they will start browning but won't burn. After about 20 minutes, take them out and move them around so that they cook evenly. They could take about 30-45 minutes to cook. I suggest every five minutes or so take them out of the oven, move them around, and taste the bigger pieces to see if they are cooked through. You should also watch the small pieces from burning, but if they do burn you can just pick them out before you add them to the salad.
6. When you're about ready to take the vegetables out of the oven, dress the kale and pecans. It won't seem like much dressing, so keep tossing it around to coat everything. You can taste it now too; you might need to add some salt or pepper.
7. Take the vegetables out and add them to the kale, tossing them to coat them in dressing.
