Training & Nutrition - Healthy Heart Cart - Wanna Help?

You may have seen my thread in foo about my idea of becoming a street vendor when I realized a lot of the junk restaurant owners put up with from their employees.

If I had to own a street vending cart it would be on a beach in S. California. I thought it would be cool to offer very simple foods that people would enjoy on the beach that are also healthy for you. NO HOT DOGS!

What are some basic and simple foods that you guys would suggest I sell? Not only would I like to sell to the general public, but also look for cyclist hot spots. I'd like to pull the trailer by pedal power and hopefully get some cyclist regulars during the day.

Some ideas for healthy and simple foods right now would be to offer:

1. Gatorade/water
2. Peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread with choice of crunchy/creamy peanut butter and perhaps a choice of strawberry/grape/raspberry jelly.
3. Garden salad with choice of lite ranch/italian/vinaigrette.
4. Assorted fruits such as bananas/apples/oranges/celery

I say simple for a variety of reasons. I don't want the customer waiting for more than 1 minute. I want the cart to be simple. I don't want to have to keep things frozen. I'm thinking of building my own cart and possibly installing a solar panel system to keep a refrigerator/cooler in it. So foods that only need to be kept cool, but not frozen are good.

Cleanliness is also an issue. If I could sell fruit smoothies/shakes I would, but I imagine that would take quite a bit of cleaning while out in the field. That requires a lot of money, water, and time per serving.

I was originally going to sell bubble tea until I noticed the time it takes to cook the tapioca balls and how they're only good for several hours.

What would be some good simple and nutritious foods that both cyclists and the general public would buy from a street vendor? I understand some foods a cyclist craves during a ride are probably not the healthiest for the public, but I'm sure there is some middle ground.


TIA. Matt

I LOVE the PB&J idea. I would so totally buy PB&J from a street vendor.
How about granola? You could scoop it from a big container and serve it in little ice cream cups. If you made it yourself, you could eliminate or limit the oil that went into it, use a natural sweetener like honey or agave, and add healthy mix-ins like dried fruit or nuts. Or you could do a healthy trail mix.

I like the trail mix idea. No on site cooking, easy storage, cheap, healthy. The granola can be high in fat though, which I'd prefer non-cyclists to avoid. I've never made it ,and, as you point out, I can keep the oils to a minimum. I still wonder how low in fat it would be though.

Current list:
1. Gatorade/water
2. Peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread with choice of crunchy/creamy peanut butter and perhaps a choice of strawberry/grape/raspberry jelly.
3. Garden salad with choice of lite ranch/italian/vinaigrette.
4. Assorted fruits/veggies such as bananas/apples/oranges/celery
5. Trail mix
6. Non-fat yogurt - If I can keep jelly cool I can keep yogurt cool. Is all yogurt healthy? I can make my own yogurt for cheap and add certain healthy ingredients for flavor like blueberries, raspberries, nuts, etc.. I presume using skim milk is the best choice. Yogurt keeps for almost two weeks too, so that is nice.

What else can I add?

guy in DC does organic burritos. always a line at lunch.

http://bakingbites.com/2008/01/mix-n-match-applesauce-granola/
That granola's fat almost all comes from the nuts, and if you leave that out, it's very, very low fat (and nuts have a lot of healthy fats anyway). It'll actually have far less fat than the trail mix and PB&J. It's pretty high in sugar though, so I would cut down on the amount of sugar you put in (keep the fruit, use unsweetened applesauce, and halve the brown sugar and maple syrup/honey). When I made it, I used unsweetened applesauce, cut out the brown sugar altogether but kept the amount of honey, and it was still very good and plenty sweet.

How about hummus on some type of whole grain?

I like the hummus idea. I can make that cheap. Then I could either serve it as a fruit/veggie dip or stuff it into a hallowed out pepper. Diced chicken seems like a good option too if I can keep it refrigerated well. Thus I could sell that as is with no fat dressing, or perhaps as something else to dip/mix with the hummus.

i love to snack on toasted sourdough bread with spinach dip. A healthier alternative to that would be great, especially since bread is usually cheap.

how bout some trail mix. Have different containers of nuts, dried fruits, etc. and the customer tells you what they want. Like almonds, dried cherries, and some yogurt chips. easy clean up and no waiting except for the customer who doesn't know what they want

I work in the dairy industry, the company I work for sells truckloads of cultured products every day. I would advise against selling yogurt (or cottage cheese) if there is any chance of it reaching 50 degrees. Once you reach that temp the product will continue to degrade, even if you cool it back down. Ideal storage for you would be ice water. Ice alone is too cold.

We cool our product within a couple hours or production and keep our product at 34 degrees. Shelf life on our yogurt is 50 days, but if kept in ideal conditions it is still good up to about 75 days. There are a number of bacteria in all cultured products, including Coliform. The worst kind of bacteria growth will NOT be obvious. Rather, it is the bacteria that most people can handle that will cause bloating of the package and bad taste.

Yogurt can be anywhere from non-fat to 10% milk-fat (greek, has the consistency of sour cream). Many brands also add a ton of sugar (or fake sugar!) and flavoring mixes or syrups that are questionable at best.

If your comparing to a cheeseburger, then yogurt looks pretty good, but if you want to sell a healthy yogurt compared to other yogurts, your going to find that you have to compromise between fat content and additives. It's impossible to make a non-fat yogurt with good body with no additives. Our non-fat yogurt contains modified food starch, carrageenan, and pectin.

I work in the dairy industry, the company I work for sells truckloads of cultured products every day. I would advise against selling yogurt (or cottage cheese) if there is any chance of it reaching 50 degrees. Once you reach that temp the product will continue to degrade, even if you cool it back down. Ideal storage for you would be ice water. Ice alone is too cold.

We cool our product within a couple hours or production and keep our product at 34 degrees. Shelf life on our yogurt is 50 days, but if kept in ideal conditions it is still good up to about 75 days. There are a number of bacteria in all cultured products, including Coliform. The worst kind of bacteria growth will NOT be obvious. Rather, it is the bacteria that most people can handle that will cause bloating of the package and bad taste.

Yogurt can be anywhere from non-fat to 10% milk-fat (greek, has the consistency of sour cream). Many brands also add a ton of sugar (or fake sugar!) and flavoring mixes or syrups that are questionable at best.

If your comparing to a cheeseburger, then yogurt looks pretty good, but if you want to sell a healthy yogurt compared to other yogurts, your going to find that you have to compromise between fat content and additives. It's impossible to make a non-fat yogurt with good body with no additives. Our non-fat yogurt contains modified food starch, carrageenan, and pectin.

Thanks for the tips. I was planning on making my own yogurt with non-fat milk and using the bacteria from some store bought yogurt with active bacteria. Then to cool I was going to run a battery/solar cell system. I'd be in So. California for this where sun can be very plentiful.

I was planning on keeping the yogurt as sugar free and keep it entirely fat free as well. Then for taste I would have the customer pick a berry or nut that theyd like to mix in. Any suggestions?

how bout some trail mix. Have different containers of nuts, dried fruits, etc. and the customer tells you what they want. Like almonds, dried cherries, and some yogurt chips. easy clean up and no waiting except for the customer who doesn't know what they want

Great idea. I love foods that are simple, but when combined can make countless variations to please many different customers.