I always say that planning ahead, especially when it comes to food, can make life a lot simpler. I hate that stressful feeling of trying to find something good to eat when pressed for time. For that reason, I usually pack my lunch for work and school, I almost always have snacks in my purse, and, when I have extra time, I like to prep things for future use.

Yesterday was one of those days where I had to take advantage of that planning ahead. I had work from 9-1:30, followed by a doctor’s appointment way the hell uptown, and then about a half-hour to get ready before rushing right back out the door to go meet my parents in New Jersey for the Carol King & James Taylor Troubadour Reunion show.

Chris was kind enough to throw together a smoothie for us, using some of the frozen blueberries and peaches I’d put aside a few days ago. There was also a little plain yogurt and blueberry sorbet in there. Seriously, I don’t know how he does it—his smoothies are the best I’ve ever tasted.

Luckily, I made my bus on time and there was little traffic, so I arrived at my parents’ house just in time to hop in the car and head to the show…but not before making salads to eat for dinner in the car. We didn’t know whether there would be a restaurant at the venue and my mom and I agreed we would rather pack something than try to make do with overpriced hotdogs and french fries.

My salad contained baby spinach, tomato, half an avocado, and a spoonful of a quinoa salad my sister made. I also cut up a cooked Boca burger and topped it all off with salsa to give it a nice kick.

My mom’s salad was a leftover mix of kale, grilled radicchio, and a few other things, plus the other avocado half and some of the quinoa salad. She’d also packed some homemade banana bread for us to munch on.

Turned out there was a restaurant with a buffet (we sampled a couple of the mini desserts while my dad ate meat and…more meat) and the most giant glasses of wine I’ve seen in a long time. I ended up trading in this asprin-tasting chardonnay for a slightly more wine-like pinot grigio. Ah, swill…

We were lucky to have really great seats. I was easily the youngest person there, but I had a great time. My musical taste is stuck in the ’60s and ’70s, so this show was right up my alley.

Afterwards, we went backstage to say hi to James (long story—my dad’s done a lot of work with him over the years). My childhood fear of the stove seems to come up in conversation whenever I see him (that’s an essay in and of itself), and it only recently struck me how ironic and hilarious it is that so much of my day involves cooking and food now. It’s somehow very appropriate. The last time I saw James, I was killing time in music PR and wondering what the hell I wanted to do with myself .What  a difference a couple years makes…