Free Guide to Eating Healthy

Free Guide to Eating Healthy

Whether you’re driving your route or just taking your family vacation, eating on the road is neither the most healthy nor the most pleasant culinary habit.  Because restaurants are too expensive and take too long, you’re left downing greasy fast food hamburgers, soggy truck stop cold cuts, or bags of Doritos and chocolate covered peanuts. But from in-cab coffee makers to crock pots, and from phone ahead to fax ahead orders, eating on the road is getting a whole lot simpler.  

According to etrucker.com, “cooking for yourself can be a healthy, cost-effective, and creative alternative to fast food. The website offers recipes, like this week’s featured dish of Texas Fajita Beef and Chicken, that give cooking instructions in both hours and miles.  

But, of course, in order to make great tasting recipes like the one found on etrucker.com, trucks need to be equipped with an adequate “kitchen.”   

A number of 12-volt kitchen appliances that plug right into your cab are available from a variety of stores and websites. Roadtrucker.com lists a portable oven and Pizza maker among its selection of in-cab cooking gear. With dimensions that allow a whole pizza to be cooked within the oven, and settings for cooking or warming, the oven is ideal for a variety of types of cooking.  

But eating Pizza every day probably wouldn’t be much healthier than stopping at every McDonalds on your route. Luckily, several other cooking devices are available from Roadtrucker.com, including a microwave, stove that heats to 300 degrees and comes with disposable foil pans for cooking, grill, saucepan and popcorn maker, and frying pan. Of course, all of these appliances plug right into your cab for power whether you’re cooking while you drive or relaxing during a break.  

One of the better appliances for truckers who want to cook on the road is a 12-volt slow cooker or crock-pot. Crock-pots are great for the person who wants a home cooked meal, but doesn’t have time to do the cooking. Just throw your ingredients into your crock-pot when you wake up in the morning, and by dinner you’ll smell the cooking!  Crock-pot recipes for the cooking novice can be found in a variety of bookstores, in addition to on the Internet. Additionally, many favorites, like fajita mix or pot roast, can be adapted to cooking in a crock-pot.  

Of course, if you’re going to be making your own meals, you’ll probably need to invest in a good portable refrigerator to keep all your ingredients fresh. In this mobile era, portable, 12-volt refrigerators are not as uncommon as they used to be. Norcold makes a unique model, a unit that can be used as a refrigerator or a freezer that lies down like a cooler. With automatic temperature control installed on this model, you’ll be sure that your foods stay cool during even the hottest months.  

But even though so many appliances exist to make home cooking easy for the trucker on the go, some truckers might just hate cooking, and after one too many in-cab pizzas, they’re ready to head out. You’re ready for a sit-down meal, but you’re not ready to spend a lot of time. In this age of modern technology, most restaurants allow people on the go to fax, e-mail, or call in orders ahead of time so they are ready on the way out. This does not apply just to fast food restaurants, but also finer local dining. Of course, you might not know the local hotspot with the best burgers, but with a GPS system in front of you, you can be constantly checking the food options in your area. Once you find one that appeals to you, pick up the phone and place an order.  

Although McDonalds Big Macs satisfy a craving once and a while, technology has made it much easier for truck drivers to eat great on the road. Whether you’re looking for some fine dining or to make your own soufflé, these options will make satisfying that hunger a little bit faster.

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