Road Trip Food - Snacks and Meals for the Journey

Food for the Journey

Summer is here, and it's the perfect time for road trips and picnics! When money is tight and you still want to is to control your food spending. If you can eat out only part of the time and bring along some food for your hungry like activities and souvenirs. With a little planning and creativity, you can avoid lots of fast food, convenience store, and coffee shop stops and save a small fortune to have fun with when vou reach your destination.

Start by packing a small "chuck box' of equipment and supplies. You can probably fit these items into a large zipper-style plastic bag. Pack a small cutting board, a small paring knife, a can opener (and you may wish to include a corkscrew), several sizes of zipper bags, a plastic or vinyl tablecloth, and a small bottle of dish, a lot of paper cups, and a baggie containing jelly, salt, pepper, sugar and coffee creamer. Add in a roll of paper towels and a packet of wet wipes or unscented baby wipes, and your kitchen-on-wheels is complete.

Now, pack a wheeled-cooler or opt for a soft-sided cooler or warehouse cooler bag. Before you leave for your trip, freeze a gallon of milk to use as an ice pack and throw a few thermoses of juice in the freezer as well. As long as these stay frozen, they will help keep your cooler frosty, and when they thaw, you will have milk for cereal and milk and juice to go with snacks. Top your cooled off with a bag of ice as needed to keep it cold. Stash a large plastic container with a lid on it in the car to use as a trash container for messier trash like apple cores and banana peels, and get in the habit of emptying it into trash cans at every rest stop.

Take along a sturdy, insulated coffee carafe. On the morning that you leave home, make a pot of coffee and pour it into the carafe. This will ensure that you don't need to hit pricy coffee shops along the way to get your java fix. Bring along several reusable water bottles and cans of everyone's favorite drinks. (Find good prices on these at warehouse clubs.) You can use the paper cups and some ice from the cooler to fix drinks, and refill the water bottles at water fountains along the way so you have water for the times you're in the car. (You might choose to pack a filtration pitcher or special filtration bottles if you have them and if you prefer filtered water.)

Now for the fun stuff it's time to pack the food! Put perishables in the cooler, secured in zipper bags to prevent moisture from seeping in. Include cold cuts, fresh fruit, and cut up veggies and dip. In a large bag or backpack, pack bread and peanut butter, plus any baked goods like cookies (breakfast cookies are a good alternative to granola bars if you feel like cooking); salty snacks such as nuts (you could make spiced almonds), pretzels, chips, trail mix, or homemade snacks like batches of roasted chickpeas or seasoned oyster crackers and sweet snacks such as fruit leather, smack cakes, or sweet snack mixes.

You're all set to go! Take off on your road trip, and you can stop at rest areas along the way to stretch your legs, use the restroom, and have a picnic. Spread out the table cloth (more festive and much cleaner than a plain picnic table) and have a feast, then play Frisbee, tag, or ball for a few minutes before returning to the car for more travel. If anyone gets hungry along the way, snacks should be readily available and you can avoid junky and pricy fast-food pit stops.

Don't be too militant about this - once in a while, it's nice to stop somewhere for a vacation, after all. But by buying some treats at home, in bulk, that you don't normally allow your kids to have, you can provide novel treats while foregoing some of the pricy items at tourist areas - and skip those long food and beverage lines. Have a great trip!