Road trip food

Because of Celiac Disease and other food sensitivities in my little family, we pretty much never go out to eat. There is one all-GF restaurant in our town which is basically the only place we go, but it’s kind of meh any ways so we mostly just eat at home.

This is quite possibly the hardest thing about traveling for us these days, even with three little kids and potty training and diapers and nursing and…

So for the big road trip we have coming up, I’m already planning ahead.

What this mostly means is that I’ll be making a few PB&J sandwiches and cutting up some summer sausage to serve with crackers. I’ll also bring lots of fruit and a few healthy snacky sides. I’m contemplating bringing my mini blender so we can have green smoothies in the mornings. The kids will be getting fruit-and-veggie baby food pouches (they call them smoothie pouches) and easy veggies, like baby carrots, and we’ll supplement it all with health food store trips in whatever towns we’re stopping to eat in. 

We’ve come to terms with the fact that it’s expensive, but it’s worth it to us if it keeps everybody healthy.

In my excitement for the trip, I jumped at the chance to review Roadfood by Jane & Michael Stern. I was hoping to randomly find an all-GF restaurant somewhere on our route through this book but alas, there wasn’t anything. I did find a coffee shop we’ll be researching though!

Still, I think I can give this book a pretty fair review but checking out places we’ve lived/explored in the past, and by employing a little help from some family in other states! =]

That said, I do think this is a good book. I think there are a TON of places I would personally have included in the book if it were me writing it but I also understand that A) they of course haven’t eaten at each of those places and B) Not every good local restaurant could make it into the book even if they had. And really, C) just because I had a great experience somewhere doesn’t mean they did!

These are the places we/I have tried that were in the book…

Brandy’s Restaurant & Bakery and Bun Huggers of Flagstaff, AZ- I grew up in Flagstaff. I ate at Brandy’s many times because I went to high school across the road-ish from it, and later worked and had my first apartment within walking distance too. I even met Ryan’s mom there for the first time. I also ate at Bun Huggers one time. I have to say, I would not have put either of these places on the short Flagstaff list and can think of a ton of other places that would have made the cut instead if it were my book. Still, Brandy’s got a lot of praise from other locals so I think this is fair. I’d say Brandy’s has about a 50/50 rating among the Flagstaffians in my life. 50% love it, 50% could care less. I don’t really know anyone in Flag who talks about Bun Huggers as a favorite. Actually, I had forgotten all about it before the book reminded me of it!

Red Rock Café of Sedona, AZ- I have eaten here a few times but I don’t really remember anything but the pie… which is mentioned in the book =]

Hell’s Kitchen of Minneapolis, MN- Ryan and I enjoyed a lunch “date” here when we happened to see it on a Food Network kind of show while staying in Minneapolis. The baby was asleep in the stroller while we walked around downtown so we headed over there to eat. Getting the stroller in there was kind of a nightmare but I do remember the food being amazing. The “Hell” theme made me pretty uncomfortable but I still enjoyed my lunch. This place would definitely have been on my Minneapolis list, though I admit a couple other places would have been higher up.

Meltz in Coeur d’Alene, ID- I actually wrote about Meltz on the blog when we had our babymoon during my pregnancy with Baby B! This place is amazing and very much deserves to be in the book.

We may not try any of the restaurants, but I’ll definitely still be consulting this book before road trips in the future. I can always find a good coffee shop with a cool local atmosphere in it, and who knows, maybe there are all-GF places tucked away in here where we’re least expecting it.

You can find the book here, and you can read about some of our travel adventures here. =]

I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.