questions on food for car travel....please help if you can

[kfeusse]

I want to offer more healthy snacks while we are traveling in the car. So I am planning on cutting up some cheese and sausage to eat with crackers, boiling eggs and at some point cooking some chicken breasts for sancking on too. I have 2 questions:

 

1) how can I keep my sliced cheese from sticking to each other and

 

2) what are some other healthier and more fulfilling snacks can I offer that won't make a huge mess in the car??

 

thanks.

[KungFuPanda]

I'd just make sandwiches and cut them smaller. Have some large lap napkins on hand. Sandwiches are easy, filling, and much less messy than crackers. It's the crispy stuff, like crackers, that gets messy. I think cheese cubes, non-drippy fruits, sandwiches, and water can get you anywhere. Dried fruits are nice for the car, but control them so you don't have bathroom issues if you realize too late that your 4-year-old ingested a bag of dried apricots by himself. Get those pop-up wet naps if you use them or a Tupperware container with wet cloths.

 

That said, whenever I go on a road trip, I feel entitled to a cannister of Pringles. My daughter thinks they're gross, but somehow Pringles are road trip food in the same way that pop tarts are camping food. I blame my parents for giving us processed food so seldom that there is something magical about when you do have access. We also weren't allowed to have sugary cereals, and to this day I view lucky charms or captain crunch as the best midnight snack ever.

[PentecostalMom]

Carrots, apples, celery, grape or cherry tomatoes, grapes.  Take into consideration that I don't know the ages of your dc.  I buy Annie's Organics snacks for my toddler, he cannot really do the harder vegetables in the car.  We also do Cheerios.  They are full of iron and even though they do spill they are not sticky!

[kfeusse]

the ages of my kids are 12, 11 and 9....so they can control a mess pretty well...and the crackers I chose are Triscuits...so those not too messy.

[Laurie4b]

 

 

Other suggestions: cheese sticks, homemade trail mix or just plain nuts, granola bar type things. Apples or bananas (if disposing of the core or peel is not an issue), grapes, carrot sticks (if your kids will eat them plain). Buying an insulated lunch bag should take care of your sticking cheese problem--or you can buy pre-wrapped cheese.

[LibraryLover]

Pre made sandwiches to start, hard boiled eggs, cheese sticks, seeds & nuts, baked pita chips, apples, bananas, Cliff Bars, or other not-too- junky granola or protein bars. Jar of nut butter, loaf of bread. Everyone has their own water bottle.

When the children were younger I'd also make individual baggies of treats; various dry cereal mix ( maybe honey Oatioes, Puffins etc) with little pretzels, 'organic' fruit chews, a few M & M's, which are not as melt- y as chic chips. Those bags were very popular. The kids only had such things on road trips, so I would hand them out when we were wanting to 'make time'. We got quite a long period of absolute silence because of those bags. :) A little protein before the baggies kept blood sugar in check. I also used to buy and freeze stoneyfield yogurt tubes. (I don't know if they make those any more, and as a mini rant for the day, I'm pretty upset at the amount of sugar in organic yogurt, so I've stopped buying flavored yogurt altogether, although I probably would still pack the SF tubes if I had little kids.)

[Jennifer in MI]

We buy cheese sticks for road travel.  More expensive, but they don't stick together.  

 

Will you be needing lunches and/or dinners in the car too?  I usually make up rolls with tortillas, mayo, meat, and cheese.  Sometimes I cut them into pinwheels.  Other times I leave them as whole rolls.  They are good and filling!

 

I make up little cups of yogurt.  I don't like all the sugar in the premade kinds, so I buy the plain Greek yogurt and add honey or jam to it.  I have individual serving size cups.  Yum!  

 

I also found my kids will eat pasta cold!  I cook it and put it in individual size Ziploc bags.  Hand it back with a fork and, voila!  A meal!

 

Fresh fruit cut up and ready to eat in individual bags (easy to pass back).  Blueberries, strawberries, watermelon, cantelopue, oranages.  

[LibraryLover]

Yes, oranges. I would peel many before we left the house to keep the struggles over peeling down, and just hand sections to little ones. Very sticky car and booster seats. I actually don't miss that or hosing down those things. ;) strawberries not so much. Our road trips were often in winter, so it was not easy to find organic strawberries etc. for the heck it, my youngest loves plain Greek yogurt. My others don't as much, but they do like it with maple syrup. I think it tastes too much like sour cream, so i cant eat it with a spoon. Too many years of putting it on burritos, I guess. ;)

[Jennifer in MI]

Yes, oranges. I would peel many before we left the house to keep the struggles over peeling Dow, and hand out sections to little ones. I actually don't miss that. . ;) strawberries not so much. Our road trips were often in winter, so it was not easy to find organic strawberries etc. for the heck it, my youngest loves plain Greek yogurt. My others don't as much, but they do like it with maple syrup. I think it tastes to much like sour cream, so i cant eat it with a spoon. Too many years of putting it on burritos, I guess. ;)

My dd will eat the yogurt plain too!  My boys?  Nope.  I've never tried it with maple syrup though!  My dad's neighbor sells it to him by the gallon for $35!!!  So, we have a TON.

[LibraryLover]

It's pretty yummy. Reminds me of the original Brown Cow Cream on Top Maple Yogurt. Why has the sugar count on yogurt gone so sky high? Those baby yogurt cups have over 20 grams of sugar. That's insane. PS I tried to fix my typos.

[zoobie]

Cheese sticks or cubes

Trail mix

Homemade granola bars

Nuts

Grapes

Apple slices

Beef jerky (homemade is so good!)

Fruit leather

Refillable water bottles

 

Each kid has a cheap lap desk thing that lives in the car. We keep a pack of baby wipes and a roll of paper towels too.