When we sail for longer than 24 hours, I like to have lunches, dinners and snacks prepared in advance. Considering that I suffer from seasickness, I feel that it’s my duty to at least prepare good food for the journey. I’d love to be able to cook as we sail as it’s something to do, but I plan for the worst…and the worst is me laying in bed not moving until we reach land again!
Through the use of drugs I am no longer confined to bed but that’s as long as the sea state doesn’t get too rough
At this very moment, I’m writing this as we’re motoring from Malta to Sicily (9 hour trip). I’ve had no drugs and I feel great. That being noted, look at how clam it is (see picture below!) I’m not sure what the trigger for my seasickness is – I think it’s the wallowing that affects me. It’s when the boat is going up and down AND side to side.
So…the best sailing snack for a long cruise needs to be easily accessible and yummy whether it’s hot or cold
Furthermore, I like our snacks to have nutritional value – meat and vegetables!
While visiting my family in North Carolina during our recent refit (watch our refit video here: What happens when a boat undergoes a refit) my daughter and I went to a birthday party at a park. The usual goodies were on offer – pizza, cake and sweets. I noticed my friend, Julia, pull out something from her backpack and give it to her children. Being nosy, I asked what it was and was offered one.
The snack was simple, tasty, easy to make and could be enjoyed hot or cold
When asking Julia how she made the snack, she explained that she used store-bought pizza dough, rolled out circles, filled them with spinach, onions and brown rice and then fried them up.
After hearing how easy the recipe was, and enjoying how yummy they were, I thought they’d be a perfect snack on the boat
While grocery shopping in Greece, I easily found Pillsbury Pizza Dough and then I thought up what other ingredients would be nice. Looking around a Greek store, I found some nice mushrooms, fresh red peppers, chicken and some frozen spinach (I think it was Spinach!!! Reading Greek is impossible so I’m restricted to the picture on the front of the package).
For these snacks you could use loads of different ingredients – the options are limitless. I’m thinking next time I’ll use some sausage meat.
Also, I used the Britican Galley Chicken Blend (click link to see blend at our online store) for the chicken and it seasoned the snack perfectly. I’m actually proud of myself – this is the first culinary invention that I’ve ever created.
If you’re laughing because I’m calling something made with Pillsbury Dough a culinary invention, that’s ‘okay’ – you can laugh at me. In the past I’d never be able to make anything unless I could follow very specific recipe. I never had the ability to just throw things together. Thanks to my cousin, Loryn, who spent the first six months with us on Britican, I now have much more confidence. Loryn taught me how to ‘wing-it’ with food and I’m very grateful for her help!
Furthermore, I’m often Skyping my mom who is always giving me great ideas
Anyway, during my work-a-holic life back on land, I never saw the value of cooking. I purchased everything processed. I thought, ‘who has the time to cook?’ Since leaving the rat-race, and freeing up time I now LOVE to cook. I’m excited to experiment and I’m eager to get my daughter involved.
Not only am I enjoying food more than ever before but I’m so much healthier too
They say that it’s the simple things in life that make people happy. In the past, I didn’t have time for simple stuff and my life was certainly not as fulfilling as it is now.
So…how were my yummy pockets rated by me and my family?
Personally, I thought they were incredible. I ate my first three cold and then I had hubby warm up three more later on in the evening. A couple times, I walked by the fridge and just grabbed a yummy pocket and ate it before anyone saw me.
My husband and daughter both enjoyed them and asked me to add them to future long cruise menus
And as mentioned in the video, I was preparing the yummy pockets for our trip from Preveza, Greece to Grand Harbor, Malta – 50 to 60 hour journey. Furthermore, it was the very first long cruise that only my husband and I would be on board (and Sienna too). Previously, we had another crewmember with us.
So, the trip started out with a Force 7 with very turbulent waters. The forecast did not match with the state of the sea. I was expecting an easy voyage ending up with very little to no wind.
Needless to say, the drugs I took for the trip (from New Zealand) worked very well for five hours. They were supposed to work for 24 hours. First, Sienna puked. Then Simon puked – a very rare occurrence.
And around 2am during my night watch I finally puked
But the sea did calm right down and we had to motor for most of the trip. Fortunately, we all felt fine after the turbulent start.
And boy, did I appreciate the yummy pockets. We couldn’t boil water for the spaghetti I planned on cooking due to the state of the sea – thankfully, we had some easy, nutritious, yummy snacks to grab! If you have some ideas of mixtures for the pockets please leave a comment below 🙂