I’m traveling for work this week for the first time in months!  I was always very strict about carrying my food with me when I was prepping for a competition.  Now that my goals are a little different, I’ve relaxed that habit a bit.  This trip was an easy one to bring my meals along, though – I’m staying in an Airbnb with a fridge and microwave, and working out of my firm’s Boston office where I can easily reheat meals at lunch too.  My food also isn’t covered on these trips, so saving a little money (versus eating out) was a pretty good motivator, too! 

I’ve spent hours in the kitchen in the past, cooking up a few different from-scratch dishes to carry with my on trips.  But, a family commitment popped up and Evie’s decided to join Team No-Naps this weekend so meal prep took a backseat. 

This week’s meals came together in less than half an hour (and most of that was pasta cook time) and are still exciting enough to keep me motivated to eat the food I brought with me instead of eating out at every meal.

IN THE BAG

2 portions of spaghetti and meatballs, made with red lentil ziti, a low sugar marinara (I think the Trader Joe’s organic marinara has some of the best macros out there), and frozen turkey meatballs that I defrost to ensure the whole dish can reheat in the same microwave time.

1 portion of teriyaki chicken & broccoli, made with Jasmine rice (I use the precooked frozen rice from Trader Joe’s that comes in 2 serving pouches) topped with some low sodium Teriyaki sauce, frozen Tyson’s Teriyaki chicken (bought in a bulk pack at Sam’s Club), and a separate container with steamed broccoli.

And some dry goods to round out my macros each day, including:

• 2 servings of whole wheat Goldfish for easy carbs
• ONE chocolate chip protein bars
• Pure Protein bars (not as tasty as the ONE bars, but the best ratios I’ve found)
• Whole wheat Ritz crackers
• Mini-Nutella pods (I blame Jane Carole for starting that habit!)
• True Lemon lemonade packets

I’ll grab an egg on an English muffin at the office for breakfast. We were out of egg whites, otherwise I would have packed cooked egg whites with instant grits for breakfast.

It all fit easily in my six meal IsoBag, with room to spare! You can read here about the different bags I use to travel with food.

A quick tip I’ve found from traveling with my food often: I always bring a meal or two fewer than I need. When I plan to eat out once or twice, I’m much more apt to eat what I have with me for my other meals. My office cafeteria makes amazing omelette on Thursdays at lunch, so I didn’t pack anything for that meal, knowing I’d prefer to have that.