Food for the Road

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I’ve honed the food I take with me on road trips during the pandemic…until recently wanting to have everything I would need to eat in the car. Now I am more likely to be comfortable getting takeout for a meal. The motivation is shifting to 1) the types of foods that are often hard to find on the road (fruits and vegetables) and 2) minimizing the time stopped for food during the driving day.

My favorite veggies and fruits for the road are ones I can prep to eat while I am driving: celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, grapes, carrot chips or sticks, turnip wedges, bell pepper strips, small cucumbers with the ends cut off. Apples are OK but they need be cleaned, labels removed…and there is a core afterward.

I’ve tried freezing grapes – using them as part of the ‘ice’ when I first start the trip; they aren’t as easy to eat going down the road after they thaw (too squishy and sticky). I

t takes some prep to get the veggies into shape for going down the road. Sometimes I pack them in jars/bins…but they are easier to eat going down the road in Ziplocs; I am accumulating a collection of reusable, resealable bags! Otherwise, the ice chest has water (frozen in the bottom of the bottles). Soft drinks are very easy to buy from vending machines or places I stop to buy gas….no need to take ice chest space for those.

Outside the ice chest – I always have dark chocolate, protein bars and mixed nuts for the road…bags of microwave popcorn for the hotel rooms (the rooms I book always have a small refrigerator and microwave).

My favorite quick meal along the way is a McDonalds Breakfast Burrito. I can eat it while driving and one is a perfect size for my 2nd breakfast!

Sometimes I have a protein in the ice chest – some chicken salad or microwavable frozen chicken/veggie nuggets. If it’s just me, I often decided that I really don’t want to leave the hotel once I am there….it feels good to not be out and about after driving all day!

A road trip with my husband will require more takeout meals but hopefully after we get to our destination for the night. The food he likes to eat going down the road is more limited than mine…skewed toward fruit rather than veggies. I’ll take a larger ice chest to make sure we both have foods that we like to eat while we are going down the road!