Road trip food

[starxlr8]

My hubby and kids could live on gas station junk and fast food, but alas, I cannot (nor can our budget). We're departing for a 3 day road trip on Thursday - do you have any good/creative/tasty ideas for road food - mostly snacks and lunches?

Our crew will consist of me, DH and 3 teen boys (13, 14 and 18).

[melwilson]

We make candy pretzels all the time...it's quick, easy, and cheap!

I use a pound bag of little twist pretzels and some candy coating. The candy coating can either come from the craft store or my grocery store had some really inexpensive bark coating in chocolate and vanilla this week. It's basically the same and is yummy!

Melt the coating and either drizzle it over the pretzels (super quick) or dip the pretzels. Let them dry and done!

My kiddos love them and we always make them for gifts, too!

[KristinCB]

trail mix is always a good choice! you could make a few different kinds :)

[starxlr8]

We make candy pretzels all the time...it's quick, easy, and cheap!

I use a pound bag of little twist pretzels and some candy coating. The candy coating can either come from the craft store or my grocery store had some really inexpensive bark coating in chocolate and vanilla this week. It's basically the same and is yummy!

Melt the coating and either drizzle it over the pretzels (super quick) or dip the pretzels. Let them dry and done!

My kiddos love them and we always make them for gifts, too!

Yum! We've done this with white chocolate too for holidays. Good idea.

[ajf9597]

I was going to say Trail Mix or Chex Mix

[SmallMoments]

trail mix is always a good choice! you could make a few different kinds :)

Yep, we always have a bag of "mix" with us on trips. I usually go through the cabinet and use what we have. It usually has some of the following: chocolate chips, white chips, peanuts, pretzels, goldfish, raisins, marshmallows, chocolate covered peanuts/raisins, M&Ms, almonds, craisins, popcorn, cereals... it can pretty much be anything!

Other ideas...
granola bars
individual packs of goldfish or cheez its
apples
bananas

If you want to bring a small cooler...
danimals
baby carrots

If you want to be daring...
celery with peanut butter. :)

[starxlr8]

If you want to bring a small cooler...


Small cooler? hah! We're bringing the biggest one we have, perhaps even two!

[pewtertm]

Trail mix, nuts, and fresh fruits are things we generally bring along. Hubby likes his chips, and Rachel (3yr) likes fruit snacks too. And I have to admit that we don't generally take a trip without stopping for some beef jerky (the real deal...not that pressed and formed stuff).

[robinforman]

String cheese
Hummus with veggies/crackers/pita- Our costco sells individually sized ones that I love
Grapes
Melon slices

We do a chex mix that has the cereal coated in a chocolate/pb mixture and then tossed with powdered sugar- might be a little messy, but you could cut down the mess by having individually sized bags of it.

[starxlr8]

We do a chex mix that has the cereal coated in a chocolate/pb mixture and then tossed with powdered sugar- might be a little messy, but you could cut down the mess by having individually sized bags of it.

We call this "puppy chow" - is that what you call it?

[Nettio]

Small cooler? hah! We're bringing the biggest one we have, perhaps even two!

I was going to ask if you were bringing a cooler. Guess so! :D

For lunches, we always just take sandwich-making stuff and make our sandwiches on the road. Just pack bread, lunchmeat, condiments, etc and you're good to go. Then you can just find a nice park or rest stop and eat. It's great because it's cheap, easy and it avoids the whole soggy and/or warm sandwich problem you can get from making them ahead of time.

As far as snacks I always bring lots of fruit and chips to go with lunch as well crackers, chex mix, etc. I try to avoid anything that can melt like chocolote. It doesn't take much when stuff is sitting in a hot car with the sun beating down on it and the last thing you want is a big sticky mess to deal with.

[MissKim]

We're not much for eating on the road, but when we stay in a cabin, we do grapes, cheese, crackers, meat (we always get pepperoni because my son loves it).

[starxlr8]

I was going to ask if you were bringing a cooler. Guess so! :D


My husband drinks diet pepsi like its going out of style. We'll need a whole cooler just for beverages.

[Serendipity]

If you bring a cooler you could make sandwiches, pinwheel roll-up thingies (I like salsa and cream cheese in mine but you could put anything in a tortilla, roll it up and nom nom nom), grapes, carrots/celery w/ dip. Cheese (babybel YUM), nuts, jerky, crackers...

[nun69]

I didn't look at all the suggestions but these are things we pack...

1. sliced fruit...or grapes or peeled tangerine slices
2. slim jims
3. we do PB7J sandwiches
4. Ritz crackers
5. Gioldfish
6. Pretzels
7. snack size chip bags or you can buy a large bag of chips and then seprate them into ziplocs
8. I ALWAYS pop like 3 bags of popcorn int he microwave and put them into snack size ziplocs {always a big hit for everyone int he car}
9. peanuts
10. the cheez it snack packs
11. pickles {I put these is individual ziplocs because the kids always want them at different times}
12. I always make apitcher of juice and keep it int he front with me to refill cups {not sure how old your kiddos are but I still have 2 that drink out of sippy cups}
13. capri suns for the older kids
14. cookies...oreo's, chocolate chip,
graham crackers, peanut butter, etc.....

we don't eat very healthy on road trips, figure as long as I can keep them happy and we can stay on the road, it works ;)

p.s. don't forget to take a small thing of wet ones or baby wipes to wipe off messy hands and I always take like 4 of the plastic grocery store bags to throw trash into and then pitch it at a rest stop :)

[Stacey42]

I just came back from a road trip. We packed lunchmeat & wraps. We packed cheese in slices & cubes as well as hummus, artichoke dip, pretzels and wheat thins. We also had apples, bananas, juice and water. Then at some point we stopped at Sheetz & got yogurt & a premade fruit bowl (strawberries & pineapple with dip) and a big bag of M&Ms

[starxlr8]

not sure how old your kiddos are but I still have 2 that drink out of sippy cups

Mine probably should drink from sippy cups, with the messes they make, but they are 14 and 18. We're also bringing along a 13yo friend. All boys plus my DH.

Have already stocked up on the Wet Ones!

[sczos911]

I was going to say
sandwiches & I was going to say wraps as the bread can get smooshed. :)
cheese & crackers
beef sticks & summer sausage
individual peanutbutter and apples, pretzels to dip
individual ranch dressing & carrots or even french onion dip
I ♥ the little packs of pringles. :)
juice boxes, little bottles of water are good to have on hand, too.
dried cereal - those little boxes come in handy
cheese-its are always a fav
cut up watermelon since it is in season. peaches are too. YUMMY!

I typically get a few items that we don't eat on an everyday basis as a "treat".

[Megan Turnidge]

Great question! I'm leaving on a road trip later this week! I don't have any fabulous ideas to add though....

[stacey99]

We always have the little cereal boxes (they're helpful when you arrive at your destination, too).

Two new products are out that might be handdy: Ritz Crackerfuls (whole grain and real cheese) and Lunchables has new little twin packs of mini Ritz crackers with turkey and mozzarella.

DH makes up a big batch of everything but the kitchen sink lol - Rice chex, Cheerios mix, Goldfish, pretzels......

[scrap2day]

These are all good ideas. I sometimes get cookies for after lunch/dinner as a treat. And I always keep baby wipes in the car because you just never know...

Just wanted to put this idea out there. Depending on the trip we stop at groceries along the way. This is especially good when it is too hot and you know the meats, etc. are only going to make it in the cooler for limited hours. Although, you have to know that you will be going by a town with a super easy to find grocery for this to work. We aren't big "roughing it" types so usually there is an easy to find grocery by where we are staying for the night.

It's funny. One time we stayed at a hotel with a microwave and we lucked out with kid requests for going back to the room and making mac & cheese instead of getting something to eat while we were out. Honestly, we couldn't believe our luck on that trip. The kids were little but they were truly excited about microwave mac & cheese at the hotel.

I would have to say even now we might have a "special" meal out but many times we get food and take it back to the room and share.

Have fun on your trip!!!