Travelling Required For New Job...

[Felidae]

Instead of getting frustrated or sick when I have to travel for my job. I have to stay in motels in hick towns. I am going to bring a kettle and camping (freeze-dried) foods. I have found one company that has some gluten-free and dairy free choices, Mary Jane's Organic. Does anyone know of any other Gluten-free Casein-free companies? Or does anyone have any other ideas on what I can eat bringing only a kettle and maybe a cooler.

I was thinking I could put some powdered chicken stock, rice noodles and spices in a couple of containers for meals. Then I could add some fresh veggies.

It's mostly supper ideas. Breakfasts I will have rice cakes and peanut butter. Lunch will be corn tortillas and some sort of veggies, fruit, canned fish, beans or salami.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated. I only sleep at the motel and I work in the bush during the day.

[eKatherine]

I suggest you invest in a Japanese-type programmable rice cooker that will have your rice ready when you want it, keep it warm for hours, and can also be used to stew things. I have a zojirushi and a little teakettle I travel with. I can make tea and rice for any meal, just like the Japanese do. I bring both brown and white rice with me for variety, but you can cook other grains, like buckwheat. You can also use it for boiling eggs.

[gfp]

The psychological boost of a hot meal is hard to overstate.

I have a mix of things Ive done from gluten-free to being a poor student trying to get a ski vacation....

The simplest suggestion is tinned food which doesn't need cooking just warming like a tin of soup... simple but you just need a good ziplock bag to pre-warm it in a sink on the hottest setting and finally in a little camping pan/plate combined (just a shallow 4" pan with a little handle) you can sit in boiling water from the kettle after pre-warming with some boiling water.

A healthier suggestion is make your own broth but really thick ... get some good nutritious beans or lentils etc in it and reduce it until there is almost no liquid. Freeze the whole thing in a ziplock

Follow the warming up suggestions but at the end you can add some boiling water to get it a bit warmer ... you can also add your noodles ..

Another tip is to use the gluten-free bagettes the type you have to oven finish for 10 mins but wrap them in foil and take them out after 8 and let them finish cooking in the foil so they retain moisture and stay fresh a little longer.

With a bit of practice and a pencil and string you can suspend the little pan inside a kettle...

Another great thing, especially with the noodles is to steam some vegetables a small seive placed over the top of the kettle with some aluminum foil covering it is ideal. I'd be real careful boiling eggs in the kettle directly they will be real hard to get off the element if one cracks during cooking...

[Nantzie]

Thai Kitchen has a line called Noodle Cart, which is a life-saver for me. It's rice noodles and thai flavored sauces. It comes with a plastic container with a vented lid, as well as a fork. You put the noodles in the container with some boiling water, close the lid. Wait 5 minutes and pour the water out through the vent holes. Then mix the oil and sauce packets in. It's a life-saver.

I took some on vacation with me. We stayed in one of those big hotels where the hot water from the tap gets ridiculously hot. Since rice noodles soften up pretty easily, I was able to just use hot water straight from the tap.

I also keep one in the car at all times for when I end up places where I can't eat anything; friends or family's houses. Then all I have to do is borrow a microwave and I've got my dinner.

Nancy

[Felidae]

I suggest you invest in a Japanese-type programmable rice cooker that will have your rice ready when you want it, keep it warm for hours, and can also be used to stew things. I have a zojirushi and a little teakettle I travel with. I can make tea and rice for any meal, just like the Japanese do. I bring both brown and white rice with me for variety, but you can cook other grains, like buckwheat. You can also use it for boiling eggs.

I have a rice cooker, but space is kind of limited which is why I was just thinking of bringing a kettle and maybe a small cooler. But it is a great suggestion.

[Guest cassidy]

I would talk to your company and the hotel about your concerns. Maybe you can get a fridge and microwave in your room so you can have Amy's frozen meals at night.

I travel for business and my company has been very supportive. They have bent over backwards making sure that I have safe food.

[VydorScope]

When we travel, we drive our SUV every where (next month will be over 2000 miles of drving), and pack a DC powered fridge/oven that we got at Walmart fro like $50. Its big enough to pack all the persisble foods we would carry, forget exactly how big, but its bigger they your typical Igloo cooler. We aslo packe a Goerge forman style grill, and well basicly a small kicthen. I even have a power invertor for my tuck so I can plug things in. I know that Americans are hooked on the idea of fast flying everywhere, but we just find it easyer and cheaper to drive. With the carrying space inmy SUV we literly can pull over on the of the road make a meal, and then get back to driving. Most often we wait till we get to where we are staying to cook anything and stick with dry foods, sandwhiches, and the like in the car.