Many restaurants, fast food places and even truck stops are shut down or have limited menu options due to the current COVID-19 outbreak. There is no better time than now for truck drivers to work on their meal prepping skills so they can create and consume healthy, hearty meals through cooking in their semi-truck.
We turned to Nichole and Jackie, two chefs from our Herbs with Herb cooking series, for some easy-to-do healthy meal prep ideas for truck drivers. Here’s what they came up with:
Healthy meal prep ideas for truck drivers
Breakfast ideas:
- Homemade muffins with different fruits, nuts, oats and chocolate chips.
- No-bake energy bites.
- Pre-made muffin tin omelets or breakfast burritos that can be reheated in a microwave.
- Egg bake: Simply dump dinner leftovers such as meat, veggies and cheese into a zip lock and mix up with eggs. Pour into lunchbox cooker and cook while driving.
Lunch ideas:
- Cucumber sandwiches.
- Salad boats with fresh romaine lettuce.
- Lettuce wraps with lunch meat or leftover meat from the previous night’s dinner.
- Salads in a jar.
- Pre-made smoothie bags with your favorite fruits. Just add ice and milk and blend in a blender when you’re ready to eat.
- Buddha bowls: Cook the necessary ingredients ahead of time and assemble when it’s meal time.
- Soup.
Dinner ideas:
- Chicken curry and rice.
- Meatloaf.
- Lemon dill salmon with zucchini. Use leftovers to make an egg bake in a lunchbox cooker for breakfast the next day.
- Teriyaki-glazed shrimp skewers with summer squash.
- Baked potato with all the fixings: Sour cream, butter, green onion, cheese, bacon, etc.
Snack ideas:
- Raw, unsalted nuts.
- Hard-boiled eggs.
- Pre-sliced veggies with hummus or nut butter.
- Fruits that don’t have to be cut: Bananas, berries, apples, oranges.
- Homemade pickled veggies.
- Guacamole with cucumber slices.
- Energy snack packs (premade and portioned):
- Six pieces of cheddar cheese, handful of roasted almonds and a couple tablespoons raisins.
- Six pieces of Havarti cheese, handful of lightly salted cashews and a couple tablespoons dried bananas.
- Six pieces of Colby cheese, handful of walnuts and a couple tablespoons dried cranberries.
- Homemade trail mix, pre-portioned out.
- Sunflower seeds.
Tips for healthy meal prep: How to get started
1. Practice portion control.
When meal prepping at home before heading out on the road, portion food into individual Tupperware containers. This will prevent you from overeating and allows you to simply pop the container into the microwave when you are ready to eat.
2. Cook meat at home ahead of time.
If you are planning to make a meal with meat in your truck, pre-cook the meat to store in your truck’s fridge or freezer until you’re ready to use it. This will save time and the mess of preparing the meat in your truck.
3. Make meals that are easy to re-heat.
Things like sheet pan meals, roasted vegetables, soups and pasta dishes are not only easy to make but typically simple to reheat and usually keep well.
4. Have spices and condiments in your truck.
Condiments like ketchup, mustard and ranch and spices like salt, pepper and garlic have a very long shelf life and are easy to store in the truck. Having spices and condiments can also help add a kick of flavor to any boring meal.
5. Be creative.
Cooking allows you to have control over how you make a meal and what you put in it. Find ways to be creative when cooking: incorporate colorful vegetables, consider buying produce from a local farmers market, make substitutions to fit your likes, etc.
