Because I spend months at a time on the road, food expenses are bound to be a major part of my budget. Not only does dining out add up economically, it adds to the waist line as I tend to eat more when I go to a restaurant than I would if I was at home. As a result, I’ve put together a solution that resolves both the economic issue and the health issue: a portable kitchen.

Like an interchangeable wardrobe, I pack just a few things that allow me to produce a wide variety of meals. In addition to what I bring with me, I adapt meals to what might be provided in the hotel room, like a hot water kettle, microwave or even an iron.

In my kitchen bag, I carry a plastic knife, a cutting surface, and a shredder. Other essentials in the bag are a salt and pepper grinder, sunflower seeds, assorted nuts, and occasionally some spice packets. As I travel, I may accumulate other items in my portable kitchen, but those are the bare essentials.

I started off with a Swiss army knife for cutting meat and cheese, but since I never check a bag on flights, I was always having to replace it when it was confiscated at the airport. I eventually came across a hard plastic knife with a serrated edge and a rounded tip that can’t be used for hijacking a plane but works pretty well for slicing bread, cheese and vegetables. One curiosity I found is that I prefer the serrated edge facing forward. It seems to make it easier to cut the more delicate things, like tomatoes, by pushing the knife in the direction away from me.

Immediately after my knife acquisition, I realized the need for a portable cutting surface. Most cutting boards are heavy and inflexible. One time I was shopping in a stationery store in Mexico when I came across a notebook with a thin plastic protective cover. I bought it, brought it home, and tore off the cover from the notebook. I was then able to cut off the perforated edge and use it as a light weight portable cutting surface.

The last kitchen utensil I always carry is a shredder. Strangely, this is the thing I’ve had to replace most often due to it’s occasionally being confiscated at airport security. They’re pretty cheap to acquire, though, and allow me to convert raw beets and other root vegetables into instantly edible foods. The seeds and spices I carry are simply additives to the salads I prepare.

Most of the accommodations I stay at include at least a continental breakfast, which covers that meal, but eating eggs day after day can elevate the cholesterol. Ideally, I enjoy fruit for breakfast so I’ll steal either a banana or an apple from the continental breakfast and bring it to my room.

I can slice them into a plastic container and top with some mixed nuts, peanut butter and some salt and pepper. Peanut butter is difficult to find outside the US, so I will often use yogurt instead, though it can also be challenging to find plain unsweetened yogurt when traveling, and you have to have a hotel with a mini fridge.

If the hotel has a toaster, I can toast some bread and cover it with peanut butter and sliced bananas. Even without a toaster, I’ve worked out a way to toast the bread using an iron! Though I’ve not yet tried it, I wonder whether I can make grilled cheese or paninis with two irons pressed together.

I am happy if I can limit myself to one meal out per day. Depending on the day and the circumstances, that meal will either be lunch or dinner. For the other meal, I usually make a salad using my portable kitchen. With the knife and cutting board, I can make most salads, but with the shredder, I can get more creative.

I’ve made salads using shredded beets or jicama, and sometimes I like to shred carrots over the salad for some difference in texture. The other day, I was in a hotel with a hot water kettle, and it gave me an idea. I went out to the store and bought some instant noodles, as well as other ingredients for a Thai peanut salad.

I boiled the water in the kettle and then poured it over the noodles. While they softened in the hot water, I shredded a quarter head of cabbage and some carrots. I then added cilantro and sliced cherry tomatoes. Finally, I made a peanut sauce to drizzle over it using my peanut butter, a couple cloves of garlic, and half an orange. All this because I had access to a hot water kettle.

It gets even easier when you have access to a microwave and a refrigerator. Cereal is easily carried, and milk can be bought anywhere. That’s usually my sweet treat when I can’t find cookies or chocolate. I eat it out of the multi-use plastic container I mentioned earlier. I was looking for a bowl, when I came across a round plastic container bowl with a screw on lid. This doubles as a food storage container when I have leftovers and a refrigerator.

To eat all my meals, I carry two sets of utensils that easily clear airport security. The first is a pair of chopsticks. Chopsticks can be used to eat most anything you’d eat with a fork, and they don’t raise any eyebrows at security. The spoon I carry is a wooden one that was made specifically for me by my friend Kat. It’s really light, easily clears security, and was hand carved for me so it’s particularly special.

I bring my portable kitchen on all my travels and tours. So many times it’s been nice to just stop by a supermarket to grab things so we can have a cheap picnic on the road instead of a pricier meal in a restaurant, and more often than not, the view is also better!