Road Tripping! 

gluten free, almost sugar free travel friendly snacks :)

Carrot Sticks, Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles, and Almond Saltine Crackers

I am preparing for a journey. Tomorrow I begin my drive up to Wisconsin to work for the amazing American Player's Theatre for the summer. It's quite a drive from Texas, and as I'm driving by myself, I'm breaking the trip up into a few days. I'm also stopping off in Iowa to spend some time with Andrew - my wonderful partner in life/human test subject - whom I miss very much :) Then I get to spend two months making beautiful art with some very lovely people! Good times.

I should also say that my blog posts may be a bit more sporadic for the next 7 weeks, as I will have fairly limited internet, and therfore blogging access. In a way, this is one of the things that I've come to love about summers at APT - no internet, no television - it's a lovely detox from the over-stimulation of modern life. So I'll try my best to keep you updated, especially since one of my housemates for the summer is a very adventurous new vegan (and awesome human being) who's just about as obsessed with food as I am :) We're gonna have fun!

So I thought I'd share my road trip snack selections with you. I don't know about you, but though I always start with the best of intentions - pretzels, trail mix, fruit, pb&j -after about 5 hours in the car, I start craving sugar, salt, and things that are fried - anything to keep me awake. This usually results in bad decisions, and regrets (damn you Oreos!). However, this time I am bound and determined to succeed! I've been feeling so much better, more awake, and lighter since I've started cutting down on gluten (i.e., wheat) and sugar, and I want to keep that going. So I made myself a few of my new favorite snack foods to take with me, and help keep me on track.

The snacks I've chosen are healthy, filling, and satisfy my sweet and salty/crunchy cravings.

First off, I made a batch of chocolate hazelnut truffles. Basically mini Lara Bars (man I love Lara Bars). They're dense, just sweet enough, and pack some protein thanks to the hazelnuts. I used The Wannabe Chef's recipe for raw/vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Cakes, but just used 1 TBS of maple syrup instead of the 1/4 cup called for and added 1 TBS water to help hold them together since I wasn't adding as much sweetener. Then I simply rolled them into balls - and they basically taste like little Nutella nuggets (ah Nutella, I was in love with it during my non-vegan days - since my first Nutella smeared crepe in Paris). I've also made the cakes, and they were both simple and gorgeous, though I wasn't a huge fan of the avocado icing.

Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles

Then I made a batch of gluten-free crackers, from a recipe that my friend Melissa had introduced me to. It's a super simple recipe with lots of options for playing around with flavors. The recipe comes from a blog called The Comfy Belly, and is not vegan. However, it is very easily veganized by substituting the egg for a flax egg (1 TBS ground flax seeds + 3 TBS water). I also added 1 TBS of chia seeds (I'm a little obsessed with them at the moment, could you tell?), 2 TBS sesame seeds, 1/2 tsp garlic powder and 2 TBS nutritional yeast. And the results are a nutty, filling, slightly salty and almost cheese-it tasting cracker. I also used un-bleached almond flour, which I think makes the cracker's more flavorful.

GF Almond Saltines

And I made some carrot sticks too :) I know, I know, they make those handy little bags of baby carrots, but they freak me out. Not sure why, but they do. So I make my own!

'Cause you totally needed to know what my carrot sticks looked like :P

And can I just say that I freaking love these re-usies! No more wasted plastic baggies :)

And it's super cute.

So now I am prepared for my journey! And after I cook dinner tonight, I'll also have some leftover chickpea patties for lunch on the road. Tomorrow morning, all I'll need to do is grab a bit of iced coffee! And maybe an apple or two :)