Real Meals on The Road
We just returned from a road trip to visit my family in Southern California! We somehow end up down there to visit family almost every summer. It’s the perfect vacation for me, because I love the beach. My kids tried surfing, paddle boarding, and kayaking and loved every minute of it.
The drive down from Utah is 10 hours, sometimes 11. We caravaned with my sister who was able to take a brand new 2013 Honda Accord from Ken Garff of Orem that she was test driving. I was jealous because we drove a car that barely got 20 mpg, while hers was getting 40!! Kind of hurts my stomach to think about it!
Normally, when we take that drive we end up eating out once or even twice. Not this time though! I did not want to stop for food on the road. In fact, I was anxious to try to make it the entire vacation without eating out! We succeeded in eating our own food for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was more difficult, but we made it a few nights. The whole trip was already going to cost a small fortune (with our poor gas mileage) so cutting out the eating out was the best way to save a little money.
Here is what we ate:
BREAKFAST: Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits (our McDonalds Copycat meal)
- The night before our trip, I spent a good amount of time washing and slicing strawberries.
- You could make your own, but we bought Chobani Greek Yogurt and Granola.
- We left at 4am for the drive, and around 8 we took the yogurt and berries out of the cooler and made ourselves Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits.
- We ate this for breakfast ALL WEEK! I had to buy more berries at the grocery store during the week, otherwise, we had enough. I made sure our hotel had a fridge too!
LUNCH- (Sandwiches- Our Subway Copycat)
- I bought shredded lettuce
- Sliced provolone
- Sliced deli meat
- mini thing of mustard
- Different breads- we had whole wheat hoagie bread, bagels, and one day Asiago Hoagies. We had to keep buying this during the week, because we didn’t want to bring all the bread and have it go bad. The sandwiches we made on the road were on bagels because they hold up so well for traveling.
- and I cut and pre bagged carrots and cherry tomatoes- 3 for each kid. One for the drive, and two more for the week.
- We ate this all week! Disneyland, the beach, AND on the road!
SNACKS- Fruit and Nuts-
- I chose grapes and almonds. The grapes were super refreshing.
DINNER- To-go Salad (Fast Food Copycat)
- I boiled eggs, chopped veggies, bought shredded lettuce, and pre-assembled 5 of these for the drive down. We didn’t eat this all week, just on the road.
- We brought a small bottle of dressing.
I think we did pretty well!! We went out to eat only about 3 times the entire trip. One dinner in Disneyland, one dinner at the end of the week, and dinner on the drive home. The meals we prepared on our own were way better than what we would have bought at any Fast food restaurant!
I like the variety of fruits and veggies meal on the go. This sure beats fastfoods junk. Great post!
I like the bagel sandwich. Looks very tasty.
I live in Switzerland (20 years now) my kids are dual citizens, me too cause Papi is Swiss. I love you’re tips, eating out here almost never happens it is WAY too expensive. Aand boring. I say BRAVO to your site and insight!
Great tips! You can also sneak extra packets of condiments when at a restaurant which are perfect for sandwiches on the road…same for salad dressing!
We LOVE to pack food from home for road trips. Aside from diet/allergy issues, we like to eat clean/real food, and it’s hard to find that driving in the middle of nowhere! Our usual car-fare is homemade “bistro boxes” (hard-boiled eggs, sliced apples, PB or almond butter packets or cups from home jars, Morning Rounds or homemade whole wheat bread from the bread machine – SHK’s recipe!), cut veggies and small cups of dip or hummus, Chobani yogurt and homemade granola, pre-made sandwiches (if we’re going a long way), and always some yummy homemade cookies… you gotta have a little treat now and then! 🙂 We have found, over the years, our kids (and we) do so much better on long drives with good, nutritious food from home. There’s no stress of trying to find food that will work with our diet/allergy issues, especially when we’re in the middle of nowhere (and there’s nothing but a random gas station), and we can eat at regular intervals to keep blood sugar levels steady and avoid “hanger crankies”. Minimizing eating out is obviously more cost-efficient. Plus, we don’t have to worry about the inevitable “travel tummy” (because who wants that?!).