Healthy road trip snacks

meganreid163

I go on long road trips 3 times a year and I struggle eating healthy because we often stop at fast food places. Anyone have tips.
Or ideas of what I can premake and bring

Crafty_camper123

*Bring healthy snack foods that travel well, or travel well in a cooler. Apples, hard boiled eggs, veggies and dip, etc.
*Maybe instead of an entire bag of chips/cookies/etc. Buy single serving packets. This way you're limited to what's in the bag.
*Make sandwiches ahead of time, or bring sandwich fixin's in a cooler.
*At fast food places, just pick stuff that fits into your calorie goal. I find the value menu helps me out with this greatly. I can get a cheeseburger and fries and diet soda and typically be under what a regular combo would be. You could also just order a sandwich only and skip the fries. (or mooch them off some one else )
*Maybe just don't have snacks. Just eat when you need to stop and re-fuel and go to a resturaunt.

Either way you slice it, you can have whatever you would like to eat on the road, just count it into your calorie goal for the day. And have fun.

ximenavictoriaxo

When I did my roadtrip to Florida (15hr), I had a huge cooler and filled it with a bunch of ice. Just make sure your food is tightly sealed. Even if you do go to restaurants, usually they have a healthy options. BUT to save you money, I'd suggest just bringing your own fruits, yogurt, and for meats I had cut up rotisserie chicken, pepper jack cheese, and would add that to my salad.

I'm not much of a salad eater, but I love the Santa Fe style salad, I copied it from Chopt.
-Spring mix (whatever type you like really, but it's better with Romaine)
-Pepper Jack Cheese
-A little bit of chipotle ranch
-Fried onion rings, very minimal. This just adds the crunch
-Chopped up chicken
-Optional(1/2 Avocado)

melodyvegan

Being vegan, road tripping means having to be very creative since most fast food joints don't have options (although that's changing rapidly). When I road trip I usually stock up before I go on nonperishable items like jerky, nuts, energy bars, vegan deli meats I can usually eat straight out of the box for protein. I also premake at least a few sandwiches and keep them in a cooler. On the road, I stop at grocery stores instead of fast food joints: I buy crackers, hummus and bean dips, veggies for dipping, premade salads, nuts, fresh fruit, energy bars, fruit cups, peanut/almond butter, occasionally some bread in small quantities, and if the grocery store has a cafeteria/restaurant section, I order food there. On the occasional fast food stop, I look at the menu ahead of time and try and get the item with calories that fit within my budget -- that typically means stopping at fast food joints that have relatively healthier options, like Taco Bell or fast casual places if I can find them, like Panera, Chipotle.

If you're able to take a cooler and stop for ice when you get gas, it helps a lot!

missysippy930

Jerky, fruit, raw veggies, string cheese, raw nuts,

AnnPT77

The groceries at gas station mini-marts are getting better and better. In those, I go for V8 juice, Greek yogurt, hardboiled eggs, whole fruit, individual pickle packs (both cucumber pickles and others veggies are available, often), unsweetened iced tea, and sometimes *small* packets of nuts.

Others have outlined some good take-alongs, so I won't repeat those.

Fast food is more of an issue (I'm vegetarian), but some useful things are:

* chopped salads at Subway (you can get any sub as a salad instead);
* quite a few items at Taco Bell (use the calorie/nutrient calculator on their web site in advance of going there; there are lots of options that aren't on the menu-board in the restaurant, and you can add or leave out things; avoid the crispy-fried ones);
* McDonald's has some options if you go the add/remove route (now that they have breakfast all day, I often get a two-egg Egg McMuffin with no meat, plus a salad, or oatmeal; but for meat-eaters the smaller burgers are manageable, too, if you skip the bun or eat only half; many (not all) locations have skim latte now, too.
* Wendy's has baked potatoes (watch the topping choices), plus for meat-eaters the chili and some of the burger variations aren't bad.
* As a sit-down chain, Panera has some nutritious lower-cal options;
* Starbucks has some OK things (and I like skim lattes for protein plus caffeine );

Look for salads with grilled chicken at several places, not crispy chicken, to manage calories; and almost all have a low-calorie vinaigrette-type dressing.

It can be helpful to look at some of the web sites, and plan ahead for some options you can order. It's more manageable than you might think.

deputy_randolph

Cooler with: lunch meat, cheese, bread, fruit, nuts, hard boiled eggs.

echmain3

What do you mean by “healthy”?