Snacking, Noshing, Tasting

What Are Good Road Trip Snacks?

August 7, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 1 Comment

Eating While You Drive Can Be Tricky

Have you ever tried to eat a sandwich with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and pickles? It’s hard enough to do when you can eat over a plate on a stable table – trying to eat it in a car means ending up holding two pieces of bread with a lap full of pickles and tomatoes.

Road trip food should meet certain “save your clothes and car” requirements:

It won’t fall apart, isn’t sticky or slimy, isn’t juicy/watery, and won’t break into a million little pieces when you try to eat it
It fits into a cooler (remember ice packs) or doesn’t need to be refrigerated
It’s reasonably healthy and tasty
It’s grab and go –you don’t need a knife, fork, or spoon to eat it (unless you pull over and have your own picnic) and it doesn’t need to be assembled
It doesn’t stink – how long do you want to drive smelling of onions, garlic, or stinky cheese.
Remember napkins, moist towelettes, and something for garbage.

Road Trip Snacks That Are Easy To Eat

Grab and go food is the name of the game. It’s dangerous to be distracted while you’re driving, so if you can eat something that’s non-messy and easily held in one hand, the food distraction is minimized.

Candy bars and bags of chips are pretty easy to eat — especially if you don’t mind chocolate smears on you and your car, fingers stained orange from chips, and crumbs everywhere you look. But how do you feel after eating them? If that candy bar is going to make you feel drowsy or lousy, maybe something that’s a little more nutritious and packs some protein is a better idea.

Some Suggestions

This is by no means an extensive list – it is meant to get you to think about what fuels you and leaves you feeling energetic, not grumpy and tired.

Anything in a pita: Pick your favorite protein food and some not too slippery vegetables and pile them into a pita. Make sure you just create a pocket and don’t cut all the way through. The pocket and the texture of the pita hold the interior ingredients in nicely.

Cheese and crackers: Try some cheese sticks or the smaller easy open wax encased snack-sized cheeses (Baby Bel). Bread sticks and whole grain crackers pair well with cheese and fruit.

Grapes, cherry or grape tomatoes, baby carrots or any other hand held fruit or vegetables: Great road trip fruit and vegetables because they are bite-sized and not messy – with no residue. Apples and pears are easy handheld food, too, although you have leftover residue (easily solved with a garbage bag) and possible juice down the arm.

Nuts: tasty, nutritious, with some protein – and easy to eat one by one. Pairs well with some dried fruit and/or cheese.

Peanut butter (or almond or sunflower butter) and jelly sandwiches: choose dense bread that won’t get soggy. Sandwich the jelly between the nut butter – spread the nut butter on both pieces of bread and put the jelly inside so it’s less likely to ooze out.

Jerky: High in protein, comes in single serve portions, and easy to eat while you’re driving.

Leftover pizza, grilled chicken, or other meat.

Already peeled hard-boiled eggs.

Whole grain cereal with crunch: combine it with some dried fruit and/or nuts and you have your own trail.

Granola or protein bars: they come in lots of flavors and textures – just read the label, especially the grams of protein to make sure you’re not eating a candy bar in disguise.

Popcorn: check the label for added ingredients, but popcorn can be a great crunchy snack that’s not a caloric disaster (unless it has a lot of added fat and sugar).

If You Hit the Vending Machines for a Snack or Two …

It’s almost inevitable that sooner or later you’ll have your next sharing moment with a vending machine: you share your money and the machine shares its calories.

When you’re tempted to kick a vending machine when it’s swallowed your money with no food in return – be gentle — they actually have a holy history!

Around 215 BC the mathematician Hero invented a vending device that accepted bronze coins to dispense holy water. Vending didn’t really became economically viable until 1888 when the Adams Gum Company put gum machines on New York City’s elevated train platforms. You got a piece of Tutti-Frutti gum for a penny.

Now they’re everywhere: in your hotel, in train stations, and just about every rest stop. They call your name when you’re especially vulnerable: you’re stressed, tired, bored, and your blood sugar is traveling south—all of which means the sweet, fatty, and salty junk food behind those glass windows is all the more alluring.

When a vending machine calls your name, choose wisely. There are good, better, and best choices to be made.

Even Though Your Options Aren’t Perfect, Make The Best Choice For You

Try to pick something with some protein. Too much sugar will spike then crash your blood sugar making you cranky, drowsy, and hungry for more sweet and fatty food. Not good for driving or for the other passengers in the car.
You can almost always find packages of nuts, or popcorn, or pretzels, or dried fruit.
Your choice depends on what you want: protein or sweet satisfaction, fill-you-up fiber or salty crunch.

Common Vending Machine Choices

Crunchy

Baked Lays Potato Chips: 130 calories, 2 grams of fat, 26 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

Baked Doritos, Nacho Cheese: 170 calories, 5 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein

Cheez-It Baked Snack Crackers: 180 calories, 9 grams of fat, 20 grams carbs, 4 grams of protein

Ruffles Potato Chips: 240 calories, 15 grams of fat, 23 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein. 12 Ruffles potato chips have 160 calories, 10g fat

Cheetos, Crunchy: 150 calories, 10 grams of fat, 13 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

Fritos (28g, about 32 chips): 160 calories, 10g fat

Sun Chips Original: 210 calories, 10 grams of fat, 28 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein

Snyder’s of Hanover Mini Pretzels: 160 calories, no fat, 35 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein.

Rold Gold Pretzel sticks (28g, 48 pretzels): 100 calories, 0g fat

White Cheddar Cheese Popcorn, Smartfood: 120 calories, 8 grams of fat, 11 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

Nuts/Seeds

Planters Sunflower Kernels: 290 calories, 25 grams of fat, 9 grams of carbs, 11 grams of protein

Planters Salted Peanuts: 290 calories, 25 grams of fat, 8 grams of carbs, 13 grams of protein

Planter’s Dry Roasted Peanuts, one ounce: 170 calories, 14g fat, 2g sugars

Blue Diamond Almonds, one ounce: 170 calories, 14g fat 0 sugars

Planter’s Nut & Chocolate Trail Mix, one ounce: 160 calories, 10g fat, 13g sugars

Cookies/Pastry/Bars

Mini Chips Ahoy: 270 calories, 13 grams of fat, 38 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein

Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts (2 pastries): 410 calories, 10 grams of fat, 75 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

Hostess Fruit Pie, apple: 470 calories, 20 grams of fat, 70 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

Fig Newtons: 200 calories, 4 grams of fat, 40 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

Quaker Chewy Low-Fat Granola Bar, Chocolate Chunk: 90 calories, 2 grams of fat, 19 grams of carbs, 1 gram of protein

Nature Valley Granola Bar, Crunchy Oats and Honey (2 bars): 190 calories, 6 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

Candy

Skittles: 240 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 56 grams of carbs, no protein

Twix (2 cookies): 250 calories, 12 grams of fat, 34 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

3 Musketeers, king size: 200 calories, 6 grams of fat, 36 grams of carbs, 1 gram of protein

Peanut M&Ms: 250 calories, 13 grams of fat, 30 grams of carbs, 5 grams of protein

Snickers, regular size: 250 calories, 12 grams of fat, 33 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

Is there a road trip in your future?

The Summer issue of Eat Out Eat Well Magazine is ready to help you eat well when you’re in the car or grabbing some food at rest stops or roadside diners.

Get it now from iTunes or the Google Play Store for $1.99 an issue or $4.99 for a yearly subscription (four seasonal issues).

A Dozen Fascinating Food Facts

August 5, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

[Source: Today I found out]

So, What’s An Egg Cream?

August 1, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 1 Comment

It isn’t made with eggs or cream. It has a complex taste – sort of like what’s left over in the bottom of your glass after you eat the ice cream out of an ice cream soda. You can’t find bottled egg creams – although companies have tried – because the ingredients separate, the fizz disappears, and the taste just isn’t the same.

A recent article got me thinking about egg creams. I’ve made hundreds of them. My parents owned an old-fashioned soda fountain in Flushing, Queens (NY) – the kind with a long counter with revolving stools. We sold lots of fizzy drinks: thousands of egg creams, ice cream sodas, cokes and cherry cokes (vanilla cokes, too), and for those with upset stomachs, old fashioned bromo seltzers that you poured from glass to glass to really get a fizz going.

Historically, fizzy water (essential to an egg cream), was considered medicinal. The first commercial carbonators were found in pharmacies and pharmacists added mineral salts to water to mimic those found in naturally carbonated water. To make the fizzy stuff more tasty and profitable they started flavoring it with sweet syrups (and in some cases — a long time ago — some not so benign stuff like cocaine and alcohol).

What Happened To Soda Fountain Drinks?

There is some speculation that the bottle cap was the death knell for soda fountain drinks. When fizzy soda in a bottle could be conveniently bought at the gas station, soda mixed at the fountain lost some of its appeal, although, in my experience, people would come for conversation and camaraderie along with the soda.

Lately there’s been a resurgence of soda fountain drinks – many made with home-made syrups, fizzy water, herbs, and organic milk when the drink calls for it.

So, What’s An Egg Cream?

An egg cream is sweet and fizzy and initially was made almost exclusively in New York City. Most people think chocolate is the only flavor— a lot of New Yorkers insist on iconic Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup — but they can be made with vanilla or strawberry syrup, too.

Interestingly, some egg cream purists insist on using only Kosher For Passover Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup and not the regular Fox’s U-Bet, made in Brooklyn year round. The reason? Regular U-Bet is made with sugar and/or corn syrup but the original Fox’s U-Bet, made only with refined sugar, is only produced during Passover.

Most of the “new” makers of egg creams – as well as “old-timers” — agree that only cold seltzer made from a carbonator with taps — not from the push button soda gun you see behind bars or from bottles of club soda — gives the popping and lively bubbles that make the best drinks. Our fountain had big gas tanks to provide the seltzer water – which inevitably needed changing (by my father) during a very busy lunch hour!

We always used the iconic coke glass for our egg creams and that’s what I remember an egg cream being served in when I ordered it in other places, too. An egg cream needs to be drunk quickly – gulping is okay – because it’ll lose its fizzy head if it sits too long.

Ingredients for a home made egg cream:

Cold whole milk (low fat or skim won’t foam well)

Cold seltzer: a soda siphon with a cartridge that carbonates water is great – otherwise, use very cold seltzer

Chocolate (or vanilla or strawberry) syrup

Preparation:

The Original Brooklyn Egg-Cream (from Fox’s U-bet)

Take a tall, chilled, straight-sided, 8oz. glass

Spoon 1 inch of U-bet Chocolate syrup into glass

Add 1 inch whole milk

Tilt the glass and spray seltzer (from a pressurized cylinder only) off a spoon, to make a big chocolate head

Drink up!

Will The Food Sitting In Your Hot Car Make You Sick?

July 25, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Can food that stays in a hot car for a long time make you sick?

It’s hot outside. When you open your car door after it’s been sitting in the parking lot you’re hit with a blast of heat that seems hotter than an oven.

The Temperature Rises Quickly Inside A Closed Car

Very quickly — even when it’s only moderately warm outside.

A study found that at 9AM when the outside temperature was 82 degrees, the temperature inside a closed car was 109 degrees. At 1:30PM, when the outside temperature rose to 112 degrees, the temperature inside a closed car reached 124 degrees.

Cracking the windows helps, but only a little bit. With four windows cracked, at 10AM when the temperature was 88 degrees outside, inside the car it was 103 degrees. At 2PM when the outside temperature rose to 110 degrees, the internal temperature rose to 123 degrees. Certainly not safe conditions for living creatures, especially kids and dogs both of whom are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat.

Hot Weather and Food-borne Illness

Hot weather and food-borne illness can be evil partners. Forty-eight million people are affected by food-borne illnesses each year which, in the US, result in an estimated 3,000 deaths. More than 250 food-borne diseases have been identified. They are common and preventable public health challenges.

Most food-borne illnesses can be prevented with proper cooking or processing, both of which destroy harmful bacteria. It’s really important to keep cold food cold and hot food hot because food that stays set out for a long time can enter “The Danger Zone,” or temperatures between 41˚F and 140˚F where bacteria multiply most rapidly.

What About The Prepared Food You Just Bought?

Extreme heat is certainly not a safe environment for fresh and prepared food, either. Pity the poor groceries or take-out you just bought that’s sitting in extremely hot temperatures in the back of your car. Shelf, cupboard, and boxed food may be fine, but for meat, deli, dairy, cut food like fresh fruit, and prepared foods (salad, fried chicken, Chinese take-out, pizza) it’s not a good situation. Why?

When you give bacteria the conditions they like: warmth, moisture, and nutrients, they’ll grow. A single bacterium that divides every half hour can result in 17 million offspring in 12 hours.

Consequently, the food you just bought might spoil because bacteria present in the food have multiplied like rabbits in your car in the hot conditions that are ideal for food spoilage. Perishable food can stay safely unrefrigerated only for two hours if the air temperature is under 90 degrees – and only for one hour if the temperature is 90 degrees or higher. Follow this rule for picnics, barbecues, and buffets, too.

Take Pity on Your Food and Protect Your Family and Guests

Be aware of the type of food you’re buying. If you have perishable items, take some of these steps:

Think about your route and how many errands you have to do. Stop at the cleaners or for coffee before grocery shopping — not afterward when your groceries will be baking in the car.

Make wise choices. When it’s hot outside, take your perishable items straight home. If you know you can’t go straight home take steps to keep your purchases cool – or buy food that doesn’t need refrigeration.

To be on the safe side, think about keeping a cooler, cold packs, or insulated bags in your car for perishable items. Make sure the cooler hasn’t turned into a portable oven because it’s been sitting in the car for so long.

Buy a bag of ice if you need to for keeping cold stuff cold and frozen stuff frozen on the way home. Or, bring some frozen gel packs with you.

If you’re on a road trip, remember that food in your car is vulnerable. The trip to the beach and then spreading your food out on a table or a blanket means that if it’s not in a cooler, it’s been in hot conditions for a long time. Just think — in the winter your car might be colder than your refrigerator. Then there’s no problem stopping for coffee on the way home!

Road trip: is there one in your future?

The Summer issue of Eat Out Eat Well Magazine is ready to help you eat well when you’re in the car or grabbing some food at rest stops or roadside diners.

Get it now from iTunes or the Google Play Store for $1.99 an issue or $4.99 for a yearly subscription (four seasonal issues).

Calories and Alcohol In Beer: How Many and How Much?

July 17, 2014 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Have you ever noticed that alcohol doesn’t fill you up the way food does? Here’s why: it doesn’t register as “food” in your GI tract or your brain.

The bad news: it doesn’t fill you up but it does have calories — 7 calories a gram – more than carbs and protein which have 4 calories a gram and fat which has 9. So, even though it might not seem as though you’re putting calories into your body, you could be taking in a lot of calories and not feel stuffed (perhaps drunk, but not stuffed).

How Much Alcohol is in Beer?

A standard drink in the United States is equal to 14.0 grams (0.6 ounces) of pure alcohol. Generally, that’s the amount of pure alcohol found in:

12 ounces of beer
8 ounces of malt liquor
5 ounces of wine
1.5 ounces or a “shot” of 80-proof distilled spirits or liquor (e.g., gin, rum, vodka, or whiskey)

Is Beer or Wine Safer to Drink than Liquor?

No. Don’t be fooled. One 12-ounce beer has about the same amount of alcohol as one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5-ounce shot of liquor. It’s the amount of alcohol consumed that affects a person most, not the type of alcoholic drink.

How Many Calories Are in Your (12 ounce) Beer Bottle?

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale: 330 calories
Samuel Adams Boston Lager: 180 calories
Guinness Extra Stout: 176 calories
Pete’s Wicked Ale: 174 calories
Harpoon IPA: 170 calories
Heineken: 166 calories
Killian’s Irish Red: 163 calories
Long Trail: 163 calories
Molson Ice: 160 calories
Samuel Adams Brown Ale: 160 calories
Budweiser: 144 calories
Corona Light: 105 calories
Coors Light: 102 calories
Heineken Light: 99 calories
Budweiser Select: 99 calories
Miller Light: 96 calories
Amstel Light: 95 calories
Anheuser Busch Natural Light: 95 calories
Michelob Ultra: 95 calories
Miller MGD 64: 64 calories
Beck’s Premier Light: 64 calories

Calorie Saver:

Analyze your beer choice. Since there’s a very wide variation in the calories in beer, can you be satisfied with one of the lower calorie brews?

Road trip: is there one in your future?

The Summer issue of Eat Out Eat Well Magazine is ready to help you eat well when you’re in the car or grabbing some food at rest stops or roadside diners.

Get it now from iTunes or the Google Play Store for $1.99 an issue or $4.99 for a yearly subscription (four seasonal issues).