9 Homemade Meals You Can Carry on the Airplane

Are you traveling this summer? Taking a jet plane to faraway places? Nourishment often collapses as you step onto the jet bridge; food onboard is expensive and rarely worth eating, and airports offer their own torturous temptations of buttery Auntie Anne’s pretzels and overpriced beer. But a day spent in Air World doesn’t have to be an undernourished one. Here are a few specific recipes that will make it through security (psst, here are the TSA’s guidelines on what you can bring on a plane).

One tip we learned about recently suggested freezing your food before travel, so that it thaws out cold and fresh just as you’re ready to eat. This is especially useful for yogurt (which should be packed in a TSA-friendly size and in a quart bag). One chef even carries shrimp through this way. (Ooh la la — bet his fellow passengers are jealous!)

Other ideas included warming pasta with hot water from the flight attendants, and packing simple meals like sandwiches or grain salads.

Here are a few recipes from our own archives that line up with these tips — sandwiches, pasta, grain salads, and other meals that will nourish and fill you up — all without running afoul of TSA or the airlines.

And don’t forget: drinking lots and lots of water is the primary key to feeling well during air travel. Those airplanes are so dry, and our systems get bloated and wacked out during travel. Drinking plenty of water makes a substantial difference.