Food on the Road

Last week, we took a road trip of about 600 miles with the kids.  Road trips are always an adventure, but even more so when you are trying to be conscious of your actions while travelling.  We try to stay environmentally and pocketbook friendly, and also keep it healthy.  This can be very daunting, though, especially on short notice, as this trip was.

One of the ways that we are able to cope with this is by having a supply of items that live in the van for moments like these.  First is the Coleman propane stove.  This makes life much easier when eating away from home!  To go with it, we have a set of pots and pans.  Our set has a coffee pot as well and we have supplemented it with a toaster.  And, last but certainly not least, a picnic basket full of dishes, and silverware.  We also keep a spray bottle with soapy water and a stack of wash rags in the van.  With these supplies already packed, I can grab food at the grocery store and we can have a picnic lunch if we are out on errands, or add a cooler full of food and we are ready for a road trip!

When we stop for a meal, we try to find a nice open space where the kids and the dog can get a good stretch.  We pack a tie out for the dog so that he can stay safe and yet have some room to move.  Our first stop this trip, we pulled off an exit and found a Home Depot with a little used side road that ran along with about 2 acres of grass on the other side of the road.  We parked the van with the door opened towards the grass and told the kids to run.  We utilized the restrooms in the Home Depot, cooked our dinner on the grass, and ate at the table in the van.

Our picnic site and dishes for our four legged friend.

The table in the van in the process of picnicking.

Daddy washing dishes.

All packed back up and ready to go!

I forgot to take pictures of the actual food prep.  I guess we were too hungry for that!  But, you get the general idea.

Our travel food consisted of:
*a lot of dried and fresh fruit
*hot dogs
*lunch meat
*our gluten free bread
*biscuits
*peanut butter
*jelly
*rice milk
*trail mix
*hard boiled eggs
*bagels
*Enjoy Life brand fruit bars
*a bagged salad
*cherry tomatoes

And probably some things I'm forgetting here.  We ate bagels for breakfast, sandwiches or hot dogs for lunch or dinner, along with salad, and lots of fruits and "peely eggs" while we were driving.  Each child got a "snack bag" by their seats and we put in snacks for them (since we can no longer reach them all of the way in the back seat!), and toys.  This way they had access to things even when we couldn't stop for them.

The trip was good, the food was good, we had no fast food and we had no allergen exposures while we were driving!  Plus, we handled the entire trip with little trash from packaging, as we would have had we been buying all of our food along the way.

How do you eat when you are on the road?