Traveling and trying to eat well and be really difficult. Especially, if you are trying to stick to particular diet or way of eating.

This summer we are planning on doing a number cycling events and will be staying in a few different hotels before and after these events. So, to save money and stay on track with our eating needs I created "Tanya's Traveling Kitchen."

We gave it a test run on our trip to Santa Rose to ride in the Amgen Breakaway Ride, Stage 2 last weekend. Although it needs some tweaking it was a pretty big success. We ate 3 meals with the "Traveling Kitchen" and probably saved ourselves at least $100 by not eating out and felt strong and well nourished for our ride.

Here's is an aerial view "Tanya's Traveling Kitchen" on top of a desk in our hotel room. Most of the things are pretty obvious, but here are a few tips for creating your own traveling kitchen:

What NOT to bring:
1) Plates: You can eat everything out of a bowl, plates will just take up extra room. If you want to be extra prepared bring bowls with lids - you never know when you might have to store leftovers.
2) Cups or mugs: Most hotels have some glasses and/or mugs in the room so don't bring your own. We always travel with water bottles as well and they are good back up.
3) Your whole knife set: You don't want people to see your kitchen coming down the street with clanking pots and pans so keep it really basic. Bring only one knife, one cooking spoon, one cutting board, one pot etc.
And don't forget:
1) Multi Plug Extension Cord: Hotels don't have a ton of extra plugs sitting around for you. Sometimes you have to decide between TV and charging you cell phone. So, bring along an extra extension cord with a few spots to plug into. That way you can use the lights, watch TV, charge your phone AND cook dinner all at the same time!
2) Cleaning Supplies: Somehow sponges and soap can end up at the bottom of the list. Also, bring a few extra small dishrags; you never know when you might have to clean up a spill and you don't want to be a jerk and get tomato sauce all over the hotel towels.
3) Call Ahead: Call the hotel and find out what all will be available in your room. We were lucky and had a small fridge in our room and a coffee maker. Know what to expect so you can come prepared.

Since we were going to be limited in what we could make at the hotel I prepared most of our ingredients ahead of time.

For dinner I had made ahead Mini Turkey Meatloafs and pasta at home. At the hotel I quickly boiled some cauliflower we had leftover from a few days earlier and then tossed those veggies together with cut up meatloaf, jarred tomato sauce and pasta. (That's Dani with her HUGE bowl of pre-race pasta).

For breakfast we planned on having quinoa breakfast cereal. I had cooked up some quinoa in our rice cooker at home and prepared all pre-measured dry ingredients in small tupperware containers. This included; chopped almonds, sunflower seeds, raisins, ground flax and hemp seeds. I tossed them into our warmed quinoa and added almond milk, chopped apple and honey. (Cinnamon would have been a good addition, which didn't occur to me until later. Next time!) Yummm!

Two things we learned that we'll adjust for next time....

One, if you and your partner have dietary restrictions (i.e. Tanya isn't eating dairy but Dani is) defer to the person with the special needs. So, on the 2nd morning I made both of our cereals with almond milk instead of making two separate batches. This made things go much faster.

Second, bring along an extra container with a lid or extra bowl of sorts (I know, this is breaking rule #2 on what NOT to bring). Reason being is that you may need somewhere to put any overflow food while you're cooking. So, if you just cooked your broccoli and then need to put it somewhere to keep while you cook the rest it's good to have an extra bowl on hand.

I hope this will inspire you to create your own little traveling kitchen if you find yourself in a hotel. You don't have to go as far as we did. Even just being prepared with a knife and small cutting board you can cut up apples and cheese or spread some nut butter on a rice cake. No excuses for not eating well when you're on the road!