Things You'll Need:
- small to medium cooler that is easy to open one-handed
- frozen gel packs
- paper towels
- paper trash bag, optionally inside a plastic bag
- drinks
- wide variety of bite-sized finger food
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Step 1
Start by selecting a good cooler. The kind with a flat-topped hinged lid is easier to open with one hand while driving than the kind with a pushbutton swivel. Plan for it to be on the floor of the front passenger area, or in the narrow floorspace between the driver seat and front passenger seat (depending on what kind of car you have). It can't be too big or it won't fit, and you want to be able to reach everything in it without too much searching.
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Step 2
You'll also want several of those gelpack things that thaw slowly and help keep the inside of the cooler cold for a long time. Put all the gelpacks into the freezer the night before the trip. If the cooler has a screw-in water bottle, fill it and put it in the freezer too. Don't bother with the gelpacks that are shaped like soda cans - those take up too much room that can be better filled with edibles.
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Step 3
Aside from a cooler full of food, bring a roll of paper towels. Those can be used as napkins and to wipe up unexpected spills. Have an empty paper bag for trash - paper because those are easier to reach into one-handed without looking, as they stand open by themselves. If there will be a lot of wet trash, put the paper bag in a plastic bag. Place the paper towels and trash bag within easy reach of the driver seat. A good place is directly behind, since you won't generally need to look at them while you're using them.
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Step 4
Bring a variety of drinks - water, juices, sodas. Plan to drink only the caffeine you absolutely need to wake up and get going, to minimize the number of times you will have to visit rest stops. Try not to fill more than half the cooler with drinks, so that there's room for the perishable foods.
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Step 5
Bring a variety of bite-sized finger foods that can be eaten one-handed, require no utensils, have no sauces, are not too messy, have minimal packaging, and cover a range of tastes - sweet, salty, fruits and vegetables, meats, moist, dry. A lot of these don't need to stay cold, and you can bring as much as you'd like (or have room for in the front passenger area of your car). Pre-open all packages before you start driving.
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Step 6
Examples of sweets would be snack-sized candy bars, hard candies, small chocolates, granola bars. Good salty choices are potato chips that aren't too crumbly, pretzels, nuts (not pistachios still in the shell - too much shelling), popcorn, corn nuts, trail mixes. Dried fruits (raisins, craisins), sticks of celery or carrots, grapes, or bananas will work well, while wetter fruits like apples or strawberries may also work if you keep a paper towel in your lap to catch drips while you eat them. Oranges take too much peeling and leave too much detritus.
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Step 7
Meat sticks and jerkies are excellent, as are peanut butter sandwiches and cold meat sandwiches that have nothing in them that will drip. Cut sandwiches into quarters. Turkey, pepperoni or salami are better than meats like ham or bologna, because those won't spoil instantly if left in the sun on the dashboard or passenger seat instead of properly put back in the cooler while not actively being eaten. Pre-peeled boiled eggs will work if you're careful to keep them cold.
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Step 8
A few foods that require utensils will work well if you're careful. In general, these are thick, homogeneous foods without runny sauces. Examples are cups of yogurt, cottage cheese, potato salads, some fruit salads. Be sure their containers fit into the car's cupholders before you start driving - if they don't, consider moving them into containers that will.
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Step 9
Then there are hot finger foods that can be bought at fast food drive-throughs, like french fries or chicken nuggets. Go for things that can be dropped on an unstable surface without making a mess, or in a cupholder between bites. Eat them plain to avoid having to handle ketchup or dipping sauces.
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Step 10
These tips are mainly intended for lone drivers trying to cover as much distance as possible in a minimum amount of time. A much wider variety of food is possible if someone else will be in the car to open packages and keep things unlittered, or if meal stops are planned in. Also, much of these are geared toward not making a mess in the first place rather than having to clean up afterward.
Families travelling with small children or pets may also find these tips useful, but plan for longer and more frequent stops along the way.
Comments
ramblin62 said
on 10/15/2009 Some good ideas here for how to eat well on non-stop road trips. Making your own snacks to take can help you eat healthier on the trip too, and keep you more alert. tx.
PABechko said
on 1/30/2009 Great suggestions. I rarely eat at restaurants on road trips. Good food in the cooler is much better!
JSimpson said
on 1/27/2009 Baby carrots are a great snack for traveling as well. They keep in the cooler and are a great crunchy food to wake you up! Thanks for the tips.
robertsloan2 said
on 1/19/2009 Brilliant ideas. I've been on a lot of road trips, and every one of your suggestions is sound -- adapted to the individual of course. My daughter and I tend to prefer getting the coffee and making pit stops for refills on it, since that also gets us out stretching our legs.
Also you can make your own granola in little bags rather than pay for expensive granola bars, cheaper. We used to make a stop at a whole foods place and get some rolled oats and crunchy stuff, then toss in this and that and do up a pretty big bag of it in a ziplock -- never the same twice, always with lots of the extras, and even at a pricy place it didn't run as high as those little bars.