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We always pack nuts, protein bars, yogurt, water and fruit in a cooler. We take some fairly long road trips and I have to have my "goodies".

We usually take blanched green beans and other veggies, sushi rolls (California roll is great and has no raw fish), stuffed grape leaves, olives, grapes, and blueberries. Also, sesame oat sticks are great as a snack and can be found in most bulk food areas of grocery stores.

Depends on the distance, but musubi and mochi are great for a short distance. On school field trips, my mother used to pack a few musubi with salmon or ume in the middle individually wrapped in plastic wrap so my fingers wouldn't touch the rice. It doesn't require refrigeration and it would stay in the hot bus in my lunch box for 3-4 hours.

Rice Krispie treats aren't substantial, but they aren't messy either.

For longer distances, I usually eat in restaurants, but I might be an oddity. I eat small meals every few hours and don't snack (pick at food)...unless there's an office party where someone has brought something scrumptiously evil that plagues my mind with temptation all day.

I have this insulated lunch bag and I pack some " rel="nofollow">pressed sandwiches, maybe dips (like guacamole, hummus, or something made with cream cheese) to eat with some chips and maybe some fruits (grapes, strawberries, etc.) and pieces of cheese to accompany those fruits (like extra sharp cheddar or gruyere). To drink - water and fruit juices...

Now, I pack something to eat even when I am flying somewhere. Keeping it solid to avoid issues at the airport.

Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking

On our annual 7 hour trek to the beach, I pack the usual suspects (energy bars, pre-portioned fruits, nuts and veggies), but my DH has this quirk that I've tried without success to change. He "times" himself each year and tries to beat his best time. Yes, we've gotten 2 speeding tickets, but this doesn't faze him. Bathroom stops are out of the question, so we go slow with the beverages. (One year when my son was three, DH made him pee in an empty McDonalds cup while moving. My son's production exceeded cup capacity, and I ended up with my feet on a saturated floor mat. No, we didn't stop!) I digress.. Since my teenage son's metabolism burns right through the aforementioned snacks, I make lots of teeny sandwiches. I buy King's Hawaiian bread little rolls and make turkey and swiss, roast beef and chedder, etc., wrapped in plastic wrap and coded for content. They're just the right size for a snack, not messy, and son can nibble the whole way there. DH will gulp a few himself, and doesn't have to take his eyes off the road.

As a side note, keep us in your prayers the second week of August, and get in the right lane if you see a white Jeep bearing down on you on the PA Turnpike LOL! (Not really thatttt bad!) Happy vacationing all.

Josdean - OMG - and I know you're not alone. My father and my brother. When I was a child, we used to go to see my very ill grandparents every weekend and made a yearly trip to Canada. Dad would tell us to watch for a restaurant on our 3.5 hour jaunt to the poconos. The three of us would keep our eyes peeled and yell out in plenty of time, but he was never quite able to stop in time, so we had to watch out for the next one. I guess hope and gullible stupidity overcame common sense? Mom did pack food for the Canada trip - that used to take about 16 hours. Anyone else ever have corn flake "fried" chicken? It was good!

My brother drove for a 4.5 hour trip one Thanksgiving and refused to make a potty break on the way home and we were all adults crammed into the back seat of his comfy (maybe for him) little gas economical car. I wasn't sure which would break first, my back or my bladder. Must be a male hereditary thing?

When I travel, I like to take instant oatmeal packets for breakfast in my hotel room and use the coffee maker for hot water. I also like to travel with the individual/small boxes or soy/rice/almond milk and PB and cracker. And I need some kind of fruit in my day so I bring along some apples just in case I can't easily find fruit when I'm traveling.

I've had a lot of luck with raw almonds for something crunchy and savory, dried fruit for something sweet, those little packets of flavoring for water bottles (it made train water palatable, thank goodness, even though normally they're kind of scary), and FIG NEWTONS. Fig newtons are a meal replacer, as far as I'm concerned. Please don't burst my bubble. I only eat them when we travel. :)

the last time we took a long train ride I made a batch of rolls with Martha Stewart's olive oil bread recipe. I used them to make small cheese sandwiches that lasted for days and days and days. there's nothing quite like olive oil to keep sandwich bread soft! These were fabulous and I'd recommend this tactic to anyone who had to make snacks for a few days at a time. One of the sandwiches was pork rillettes, and that gets my vote for something that tastes good and keeps acceptably at room temperature. Obviously this one got eaten early on. :)

@Josdean--LOL, I'm like your husband...the less time I spend on "breaks" the happier I am. My husband on the other hand needs to stop every two hours, like clock work. I just drove (by myself) from Indy, IN to Fairfax, VA in record time and my husband flew out a couple of days later. On the return trip we drove together and his company added two hours to the drive...LOL.

@Lakeloverhh--Right! I was thinking the same thing. I LOVE crunchy cheetos, not the puffy ones. The only time I have them is on long road trips. Orange fingers be damned, I'm eating my cheetos in the car. With a full sugar Coke. It's the only way.

Since I don't like to stop unless I have to, I stock a flexible sided cooler before the trip. Semi frozen bottles of water, Starbucks Double Shots, almost frozen Coke, a simple sandwich, carrot sticks, grapes, with a couple of freezer packs. Everything stays nice and cold. Then a dry bag for Cheetos, paper towels, hand sanitizer, individual wet naps, gum.

Love this topic. Love road trips. I've got to have my chocolate Odwalla bars. They've helped me many times when we've gone on trips without stopping for "real" food until the late afternoon or evening! My husband also is one of those guys who would rather drive and drive than stop somewhere. Though, we recently made an all-night trip to Oregon from California and stopped at an IHOP at 3 in the morning. It was desperation. We were exhausted and hungry, and neither of us had eaten dinner. But normally, yes, I end up "holding it" until I'm about to burst.
When we came back from Oregon, we had gotten coffee drinks at a drive-thru coffee place. So naturally, an hour later, I had to go. We stopped at two gas stations and both bathrooms were so repulsive I ended up holding it for another two hours or so until we got home because hubby wouldn't stop again!
When my husband and I drove around Ireland earlier this year, we stopped at Euro Spars or Spar marts to get snacks -- usually cookies and muffins. We tried to get things that were different than what we have here and noticed that the soda -- made with real sugar and not high fructose corn syrup -- tasted much better!
So, it tends to be that when we're on road trips, we don't eat healthy food. There's often some point where we stop at a gas station and buy ice creams and Starbucks coffee in a jar or soda -- that's usually at night when we're getting sleepy.
I've packed salami and cheese in a cool chest with bottles of water. About a day later, it starts smelling gross, and I'm too repulsed to drink the bottles of water. So, I have to get better at packing road trip food!

DH just arrived home from traveling all week. We are headed to Maine for Labor Day. I informed him of my latest decision. 1/2 way up, he must stop for lunch at a fine dining restaurant and I will have a couple of yummy glasses of wine and a superb meal. After a quick trip to the LR, I will gladly get back in the car and snooze the rest of the way. I will pack water and maybe a few small sweet snacks, but that's it. I am not sure what the look I got means.