Plane Travel and Raw Food

I am about to take off for a week to visit my family in California and celebrate my mom's 70th birthday. In anticipation of a long flight I have been running around like a banshee this morning chopping, pureeing and blending. I've created quite a cornucopia of snacks that I wanted to share with you. What will go in my airplane food bag:

some grapes
2 raw food bars
some dried fruit and nuts

And now the food that I made. All of the recipes come from The Complete Book of Raw Food: Second Edition.

The first is a Kale Mixed Green salad. Quite good and because it is primarily kale it won't get soggy sitting in dressing for hours on a plane (before I eat it of course).

Ingredients

1 to 2 bunches kale
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 red onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 to 1 lb. mixed greens (I only put in a little of the greens since I'll be taking it on the plane and it will just wilt)

For the dressing:

namu shoya to taste
lemon juice to taste
olive oil to taste
honey to taste

Directions:

First tear the kale into bite-size pieces. Massage the kale gently to begin to break down the fibers.

Gradually work in each of the dressing ingredients starting with namu shoya and moving down the list. As you add each ingredient continue to massage the kale. After adding the honey massage kale until it is limp. (don't worry, it can handle it).

At this point there should be some extra dressing on the bottom of the bowl. (I didn't have any and it tasted great - I like to err on the side of less dressing. Dress according to your tastes).

Then add the remaining ingredients. Gently toss the salad and test for flavor. Add more dressing if necessary. Serve.


Next I made the Best Ever Almond Nut Pate. I disagree somewhat with the name. It is a good pate but best ever...well, it's a strong statement.

Ingredients:

2 cups almonds, soaked overnight
1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked 4-6 hours
3 carrots
3 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 finely chopped red onion
1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt

Directions

In a food processor blend nuts, seeds and carrots.

Transfer to a bowl and add remaining ingredients.

A little on the dry side but tasty and portable. Just what I am looking for.


And lastly, Pepper-Corn Boats. I just so happen to have an abundance of red pepper at the moment (I should always be so lucky) so I looked for pepper recipes.

Ingredients

2 avocados, peeled and pitted
2 or more fresh ears of corn kernels, cut from cob
2 large red bell peppers, seed and stems removed, cut in half lengthwise

Directions

Mash the avocados with the corn in a bowl. Spoon into red pepper.

On this one I made a few adjustments. Victoria Boutenko recommends that every dish have include an ingredient from all five flavors - spicy, sweet, bitter, salty and sour. This salad tasted a little bland so I added salt for saltiness, didn't need sweet (with corn and pepper), sage for bitter, dill for spicy. and lemon juice for sour. In the book 12 Steps to Raw Foods, Victoria gives a list of possible ingredients for each category. Very helpful. And the salad was definitely the better for it.


For the plane I will chop up the red pepper and throw it in with the corn, avocado mix. A bit easier to transport and certainly easier to eat when sitting right next to a total stranger in a very small space.

So now I am off to gather the rest of my things before I head out. A six hour flight may not seem like a vacation to you but as a mom with two small kids, six hours on a plane by myself sounds like heaven. And that's just the beginning.