Trapped In The Desert With My Kids- No food just $4 bottled water

Okay, the title might be a little misleading. But I was trapped in a desert with my two boys last week totally unprepared. The desert I am speaking of was the Dulles Desert. Named after Dulles International airport, this was a desolate region that was truly void of fresh, nutritious food. I had shown up unprepared.

The newly coined term "Food Desert" refers to areas both rural and urban with little to no access to healthy foods. Here in Los Angeles there are several, for example, East L.A. and South Central are known as food deserts. If you take drive through them you'll see why. There are fast food establishments peppered all over the place, and small markets offer very little when it comes to either fresh produce or nutritious options. Sad but true. Imagine, all this wonderful food supposedly all around you and you have no access to it. I personally moved here because of the direct access to all of the great produce available year round. Living back East, I was got sick of cooking with, and eating root vegetables all winter long.

On the trip out to New York to visit family my wife had packed enough food and snacks for our plane ride to survive a trip through a real desert. Naturally (no pun intended) when we got to our first layover in Chicago the boys had full bellies and when we got to Rochester they were still satisfied. The trip was a success ! Not only did we not have to spend $30 on three Hamburgers, but we felt great when we got off of the plane. We hit a 100% Organic target with all of the food packed. Snacks are easy to find organic these days, and they have a price point that is just about the same as non organic processed snacks for the most part. They were one of the first things to hit the market when organic foods made their slow debut over the past few years. Some great sources for inexpensive snacks can be found at you local Whole Foods or Co-op bulk section, online, or your local supermarkets private label brand. I provided a list below to give you an idea of what we brought along for snacks.

Here is the list of Organic snacks that we packed for the boys:

• Fuji Apples
• Cheddar Cheese
• Mix of Cashews, Almonds, Craisins  (from our glass jars with bulk items)
• Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches
• Yogurt Covered Raisins
• Seaweed Snacks
• Grapes
• Spicy/Cheddar Sesame Snacks

When you travel with your children it's especially important that you make preparations and plan in advance  for their meals and snacks. It's paramount if you are trying to eat only organic, trust me. By planning ahead you won't run into any let downs or surprises and your child's behavior and attitude on the trip will be that much more pleasant. I have taken a lot of road trips and airplane rides with my boys since they were babies and If there's one thing that has always remained the same, it's that they are going to be hungry soon.