How to eat well on the road. On a budget.

When I was working highway construction, we used to put canned chili or whatnot on the truck and air compressor engines for a hot meal. Gets the job done when the convenience of an inverter and microwave aren't available.

 

When I worked construction it was a normal sight to see a row of foil packages laid out on the hot tar spraying machine the road paving crews ran. I never tried any of their food, but it must have tasted of tar...not that they would notice as that stuff stunk to high heaven and they were always covered in it.

Weirdest "cooking" method I tried was a "butt" sandwich. Make your sandwich, wrap in saran wrap or foil, then sit on it. anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Body weight and heat would press the sandwich and warm it up. You may not want to do it where people can look on and question your sanity...or if you have severe flatulence.

 

Elk Stew

Local Sav-A-Lot (Spencer, Indiana) had 8 oz. package of 'Elk Stew Meat' for $3.99 yesterday. Says raised without added hormones or antibiotics, free ranged, 'never confined to feed lot.' Recipe on back says to brown in large pot, I put in turbo convection oven for 10 minutes. Calls for diced onions, diced carrots (I sliced 1/4-inch), garlic cloves thinly sliced, 2-inch orange peel (don't have), 1 bay leaf (I have but really wouldn't know why, why not), tablespoon sugar (skipped), sea-salt and coarse ground pepper. (I have Redmond 'natural sea salt' mined in Utah. Skipped for now. Did grind some pepper.) and beef stock. Well, I had chicken broth (stock). Used that.

Have on low setting (Off-Low-High-Warm), which gets very hot over time.

You could do this on a truck. If tastes as good as smells, euphoria. Hopefully not like coffee that smells delightful, tastes horrible. But smells really good.

Probably bake a potato or two later in the micro, slice up and add.

Have fresh celery, parsley and cilantro might add towards end, too.

 

Do you have a brand name for that elk meat? I'd like to track down the supplier and see if I can find their retail distribution to buy at retail or buy a case from them direct. I wonder if they also have bison or venison?

 

Black Wing Meats, 17618 W. Edwards, Antioch, Il 60002, 800-326-7874, www.blackwing.com. Comes nicely packaged. We have bison, deer and elk farms near here and can get same kinda inner vacuum-pack. This has a nice, colorful box that would store well, too. Beth Allison Kaplan, Vice President and Executive Chef with message on back.

Says 130 calories, 22 g protein, 4.5 g fat and 60 mg cholesterol. Compare beef 220 calories, 23 G protein, 14 g fat, 70 mg cholesterol. 41% less calories, 68% less fat. Beef analysis USDA.

Tellya, smells really good...

 

Thank YOU Victor! Their web site doesn't have a way to find local retailers, so I've contacted them to see if I can get a retailer list. They have lot's of other options as well, including pheasant. I LOVE pheasant.

While my intake of meat has dropped dramatically, when I eat meat now I'm normally sitting down to a nice ribeye. It's a rare thing to find alternatives to beef and I miss being able to hunt and having venison.

 

That looks good but for me olive oil does not set well on my stomach...
I could take marinara sauce and melted cheese on top of that and be fine.....

 

Speaking of sitting well with the stomach, I've been eating a lot of PLAIN yoghurt to add probiotics. This has certainly helped settle my stomach and regulate my "constitutionals". Plain yoghurt is recommended instead of flavored varieties because if you look at the label ANY flavored yoghurt has enormous amounts of sugar. My change in diet (which helped me EASILY lose 35 lbs) focused on eating yoghurt for probiotics and LOTS of fresh, uncooked fruits and vegetables.

I've also been eating chocolate for the antioxidants. If I can't find a good brand of bitter chocolate with next to no sugar I'll get Baker's chocolate. Eating 100% cacao or as close to 100% cacao chocolate is a good probiotic boost as well.

Recently I've found 100% powdered cacao from Ghiradelli. I'll add a heaping tablespoon in my plain yoghurt and add a little bit of raw honey (helps with allergies) and stir it up into a most excellent and healthy pudding.

Be sure you buy a yoghurt with as many active bacteria as possible. Brands like Stoney Farms or Chobani seem to be best and are readily available at most grocery markets, including Walmart.