New Trend in Nutrition: Eating Out of a Truck

Has anyone else noticed the food trucks that are popping up all over the place?

Up until now, we had limited options for a quick, cheap lunch: fast food, a hot dog stand on the street, or maybe grabbing a pre-wrapped sandwich at a convenience store in the lobby of your building. But some chefs are daring to compete with these options, and they are succeeding. They are taking high-quality food and fancy recipes, and selling them out of carts or trucks in heavily populated areas. And it’s working! If you can get a $2 short-rib taco made with all fresh farmer’s market ingredients, why would you ever go to Taco Bell again?

This concept is successful for a couple of reasons. People love high-quality, nutritious food, but they also love affordable food. Cooking and selling from a truck is one way to meet both of these demands. The overhead costs are very low, and they can keep the menu simple enough to suit all tastes.

I think this is a great concept, and I encourage you to support the people who are trying to make it work. Some trucks are independent, while others are affiliated with great local restaurants. In Denver, The Gastro Cart serves a $7 gyro made up of roasted lamb, tzatziki sauce, napa cabbage, guajillo-mint foam, and naan (classic bread from India). Sounds delicious! You can also get fresh waffles from a street cart (it’s worth it to walk past the cart each morning just for the smell), and there’s even a vegetarian/vegan food cart that sells favorites from a great local restaurant.

Some of these carts or trucks use social media such as Twitter or Facebook to notify fans of their whereabouts or what the specials are on the menu for a particular day. For example, the delicious Cake Crumbs shop in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood recently started operating a cupcake truck. The driver makes his way throughout the city each day, and tweets his location and how long he’ll be there. People show up to buy cupcakes, and he usually runs out before the day is over.

Anyway, I think this is a great concept and could help replace an unhealthy lunch with something that is a touch more nutritious, much more tasty, and still very affordable. I recommend googling your city and “food trucks/carts” to find out what your options are. If you live in a major city, you’ll have many!

School Lunch

This is not directly related to nutrition but it’s something that was brought to my attention last night, and I wanted to reflect.

While Ed was making dinner, three of our darling neighborhood kids knocked on the door. They were selling Nestle cookies and Sally Foster things for a school fundraiser – to raise money to take a science class field trip to Keystone for a couple of nights. I invited them in (don’t worry – we know them and their parents well) and spent $40 on things we do not want or need, and then just talked to them about school.

Apparently they have a new principal this year, and she has come up with some new rules that they don’t approve of. One of them is regarding lunch and recess time. They get 5 minutes for lunch, and 10 minutes of “organized play” for recess, and that’s it. They’re in 4^th and 5^th grade. Now, I realize they could be exaggerating on their allotted lunch time, but I trust these kids. They’re smart and wouldn’t lie.

One of the girls said that yesterday, by the time she got through the lunch line, the bell had rung for recess. She told her teacher “I need to eat my lunch” (good for her!), and her teacher said “You can bring it back up to the classroom”. They have a friend who is diabetic and needs to test her blood sugar levels before eating, and they said she never gets time to eat because the testing takes a few minutes, and then lunch is over.

I don’t have kids. And when I do, they will follow all of the rules at school, whether they – or I – like them or not. But, this rule would really upset me! Five minutes is NOT enough time for a child to eat a lunch. Kids should not be encouraged to rush through their meals, and they’ll learn better throughout the day if they’re allowed some social time with their friends while they eat. (I’m also not crazy about the “organized play” at recess, but I’ll stick to the lunches here).

For those of you with kids in school, do they also have rushed lunch periods? They must be starving by the time they get home! This is just another reason why breakfast should be emphasized as a very important meal, and you should send them out the door with protein (not sugar) in their bellies so they can make it through their day.

Anyway, this was just something I found really interesting. I’m totally siding with the neighborhood kids here – they deserve a longer lunch period! Even 15 minutes would be appropriate. I can't remember how much time I got to eat in elementary school, but I know it was enough time to eat and be social with my friends, then play a full game of kickball at recess. I never remember feeling rushed!

Ideas for Homemade Lunches

Yesterday, I blogged 10 (of many) reasons why I think it is important to make your own lunch for work every day, instead of eating out. (Please note the correction to the first reason I listed: I meant to say it’s $15-$25/week to make your own lunch, NOT $50-$25/week).

The first and most important step is committing to do this. If you currently eat out every day, start with a realistic goal of making your lunch twice a week. Even that will make a big difference in your health and your bank account.Once you commit, you need to figure out the best time to make it. Or, delegate the work. During my college years I spent my summers at home working at a printing company (best job ever!). My dad and I would take turns making lunches: sometimes I had to make two, but other times he’d make both. It was a good system and saved us both time. Anyway, figure out what will work at your house. If you have kids, you may have them help out. You can form an assembly line or assign them one task while you do the rest.

If your kids are resistant to bringing their own lunch, try setting up a system where they get to pick one day each week to buy school lunch, and the other four they will bring a homemade lunch. That way they won’t feel deprived, and they can get exciting about looking at the lunch menu and choosing their favorite meals.

What to pack?

The first thing I think about is the protein. Some ideas include:

• Leftover dinner (steak, chicken, beans and rice, salmon, spaghetti, etc.)

• Hard boiled eggs - these are always good to have on hand – just boil 6 eggs as soon as you get a new carton, and use them for quick breakfasts, lunches or snacks; egg salad is great too – Ed has an awesome recipe that he has perfected over the past year and a half, perhaps he’ll guest blog about it soon (HINT HINT Ed!)

• Nut butter (or, sunflower butter!), either on whole wheat bread with honey or banana, or in a tupperware with a side of veggies or apples for dipping

• Sandwich or wrap with any of the following (get creative with what you have – you may be surprised at how good it tastes!): smoked salmon (one of our favorites), turkey, ham, salami, chicken, beef, kale, tomato, onions, sweet potato, cabbage, cheese, cream cheese, goat cheese, stone ground mustard, etc.

• Brown rice or quinoa, topped with chopped almonds, some veggies, maybe some meat if you have it, and a little soy sauce

• Yogurt or cottage cheese topped with nuts, seeds, fruit, etc.

2 things I include in every lunch:

• Fresh veggies

• Fresh fruit (a little something raw is always good to start a meal off with so your digestive enzymes get a head start)

And of course, many people like to have “a little crunch” with their meals:

• Mixed raw nuts

• Rice or seed crackers

• Sunflower or pumpkin seeds

• Apple or banana chips

• Hummus with veggies

I usually shop the bulk isle of Whole Foods and buy whatever nuts, seeds or dried fruits are on sale, and make my own “trail mix”. This week it is raw cashews, pecans, raw almonds, and goji berries. Homemade trail mix makes a great afternoon snack as well.

Now for the packaging... with bags like the ones below available at so many different stores, I don’t know why you’d ever need to invest in brown lunch bags again. Use tupperware whenever possible. Plastic bags are easiest and we use plenty of them at our house.

A quick list of things to try to avoid: frozen meals (they are very processed); sugary yogurts and puddings; Lunchables or other pre-made items; and sodas or juice boxes (water or milk is better).

So is anyone going to make a small change in their daily lunch routine? Even just one day per week? I hope so. Keep in mind that most lunches can sit in your office fridge for at least a night. So, if your coworkers suddenly decide to go out and you’d like to join them, just save your homemade lunch for the next day. Don’t use your unpredictable schedule as an excuse not to make your lunch.

Good luck! Tomorrow: homemade breakfasts! They’re even MORE important than homemade lunches!