I love road trips. I love not going to work every day. But eating on the road is difficult. In fact, I’d say it’s the biggest challenge of having food allergies. We drove for two days to get to Denver from Portland. To accomplish this, we brought along a cooler and some food we had made ahead of time like hummus, white bean dip, raw veggies, some raw crackers, and cans of tuna and olives. We also have an amazing thermos that keeps tea amazingly hot.
But when I’m out on the road, I want to eat. I want to explore. And I explore the world through my tongue. After a nice lunch of veggies and bean dip, I want a real dinner. I want to get out of the van. I want water served in a glass and a toilet.
On the journey to Denver, and it was a journey–they closed I-70 through Wyoming and we had to backtrack and reroute through Colorado–we ate at a decent Mexican place and a steakhouse for dinner. I find Mexican to be do-able if they serve something like pork adobada or carne asada. I have beans too. A steakhouse is also safe–steak and salad no dressing.
When we went sightseeing in Denver, we decided to lunch at the local health food store, Vitamin Cottage. Here’s what we had:
This was the first time I had goat yogurt. Not bad! I’m convinced goat butter and goat milk are the most underutilized dairy products in cooking today. Man, they are fabulous! Tell me that goat butter on your baked sweet potato isn’t the best ever. But maybe I just haven’t had cow dairy in so long that I can’t remember. When I can eat sweets again, I am sooooo looking forward to trying goat butter chocolate chip cookies. Oh, and I promise that recipe is on its way to this blog very soon. After I get my road trip documented.
Outside of Vitamin Cottage we spotted this clever Homelessometer for Denver’s Road Home organization. You can deposit money in it. The text on the face of the meter explains how your money helps the homeless. Portland needs some of these.
