What food do you take on road trips?

alittlebitofkate
alittlebitofkate Posts: 7
in Food and Nutrition
My husband and I are setting off on a multi-state road trip and we're going to have space for a decent cooler, and dry goods. Now that I'm logging again I don't want to pull off at every McDonalds we see. Sandwiches are the obvious choice (or even wraps or whatnot) but I'm seeking verity, 3 days of sandwiches doesn't sound...great.

Replies

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Well I'm going on one in 3 weeks... Pretty much 17 hours of driving each way. It's going to be hot even with the AC on and I don't really trust a cooler to keep the food cool enough for one day, let alone two... So we might bring sandwiches for the first lunch, but after that we'll just check restaurants when it's time to stop, many chains have lighter menus nowadays so I'm not worried about it. We have kids too though, and we'll have to stop so they can run around a bit too anyway.
  • nvpixie
    nvpixie Posts: 483 Member
    We usually just bring a cooler with beverages, some fruits like bananas or apples, granola bars, chips. Nothing insanely healthy, but we often will stop at a regular restaurant rather than fast food when we want a full meal. That way, we can get salads and soup rather than always burgers and fries.
  • sugarlemonpie
    sugarlemonpie Posts: 311 Member
    I bring coconut water to help stay hydrated and curb munching cravings from boredom. As for meals, you can make those salad mason jars and they should pack pretty well in the coolers. I make bbq pulled chicken the night before to have as sandwiches, or you can just eat it without the bread. Kinda running short of ideas, don't really go on long roadtrips anymore...

    Basically, I'd search up picnic foods, as those would hold up the best.
  • dt3312
    dt3312 Posts: 212 Member
    nuts, turkey jerky o beef jerky, fruit, trail mix, crackers, water
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    We usually do a lot of planning in advance to find restaurants along our route that we really, really want to go to. It is very rare on a road trip for us to have a "necessity" meal like Subway or tacos. We will even drive 20 min out of the way to visit a desired restaurant!

    But, there are often little gaps where we do get hungry on the road. Waiting an hour or two longer than usual for a meal, stuff like that.

    We usually bring along bottles of water and string cheese, dried plums, and a small stash of Zone Perfect bars (or something similar, Clif Z bars or Atkins or Designer Whey...whatever's on sale at Big Lots).

    Last weekend we were on the road for about 12 hours and I also grabbed a 2-pack of boiled eggs at a convenience store. It was pretty good!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    We usually do a lot of planning in advance to find restaurants along our route that we really, really want to go to. It is very rare on a road trip for us to have a "necessity" meal like Subway or tacos. We will even drive 20 min out of the way to visit a desired restaurant!

    But, there are often little gaps where we do get hungry on the road. Waiting an hour or two longer than usual for a meal, stuff like that.

    We usually bring along bottles of water and string cheese, dried plums, and a small stash of Zone Perfect bars (or something similar, Clif Z bars or Atkins or Designer Whey...whatever's on sale at Big Lots).

    Last weekend we were on the road for about 12 hours and I also grabbed a 2-pack of boiled eggs at a convenience store. It was pretty good!

    Yeah I started looking at restaurants too. Found a nice Greek restaurant for dinner for our first step :laugh:
  • cyoka13
    cyoka13 Posts: 288 Member
    My husband, 12-year old son and I just took a road trip that rounded out at 3,300 miles. I packed baby carrots, cut-up strawberries, cut up cheese, granola bars, salsa with beans, hard boiled eggs and sandwich supplies. I found the trick was preparing the produce ahead of time to make it easy to eat - i.e cutting up the strawberries, baby carrots and even cutting up the cheese. The salsa had beans in it, which gave us a bit of protein and kept our tummies satisfied a bit longer ;)

    For breakfast, we had a granola bar, strawberries and a hard boiled egg. For lunch, had sandwiches or salsa and chips with fruit. We ate most of our dinner at restaurants.

    I also brought two coolers and split the food in half.. One was used to store food that was extra and the other one was used to get into regularly. This helped the produce stay fresh a bit longer.

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