We are a few short days away from our epic road trip to take us from Nashville to Denver. I’ve been planning a healthy-ish in-car menu to save on fast food stops and to keep us fueled for two seriously long days of driving. I’ve never been in Kansas before but I’m not particularly looking forward to it, as I’ve heard it is long and flat. Our entire second day minus about an hour is in Kansas. That’s how long it is. Oh well, we have good music, each other, two (hopefully sleeping) cats, and the following yummy foods.
The first thing I did was order 2kg of dried organic mango slices from Essential Living Foods. I’m a big fan of their products and the mangoes come and go with the season. As soon as I got the email that they were available, I purchased, and it’s a good thing because they aren’t available now. Nom nom nom. Sadly, I don’t have a pretty picture to show you but imagine a vaccuum sealed bag of about 2 feet by 1 foot bright orange fruity goodness. Big bag but these are so tasty, they go fast around our house. I haven’t let Racer K open the bag before the trip, just to ensure we have plenty.
A few weeks ago I made some homemade quinoa granola bars. These are full of good stuff like chia seed, steel cut oats, quinoa, almonds, rolled oats, almond butter, and some dark chocolate bits. Somehow, I also failed to take pictures of these. Alas, a post sans pictures of food. However, I vaccuum sealed these to keep them fresh and they will provide us plenty of protein and carbs plus some dark chocolate to deal with any candy cravings.
Other items I plan on packing are carrots with hummus, olives dusted with cumin, cheese with crackers (I prefer Mary’s Gone Crackers), maybe apples with almond butter, and some tortilla wrap sandwiches. These sandwiches are always special to me, even if their ridiculously simple, because my momma tends to make them for parties so they always make me think of her.
We will also have lots of our distilled water in thermoses to cut down on how much bottled water we go through but unfortunately, there is some bottled water involved. I drink A LOT of water! Plus I won’t waste our delicious, organic, fair trade coffee on tap water. Tap water utterly changes the taste of the coffee so only distilled water, free of pollutants like chlorine and fluoride works for me.
In addition to all that, we have a couple Starbucks gift cards to blow through, so that will take care of coffee on the road and perhaps a hot breakfast out of Kansas City next Monday. We are also planning on a hot dinner when we stop in KC overnight. There’s a few chain restaurants and we’ve chosen a Carraba’s we can walk to. Not ideal but after a day of cold snacks, warm food and a couple cocktails will do us well so we can crash out early and get back on the road dark and early the next day.
17 hours in the car is a long time, even spread over two days. I think these foods will keep us nourished and fueled so no one gets hangry. Trust me, my husband with low blood sugar is not a pretty sight! 😉 Then again, neither am I. I think we are pretty ready for our multiple days of sleeping on an air mattress and living out of suitcases.
So, what do you like to pack on long road trips?
Tortilla Wrap Sandwiches
- 1 pack flour tortillas (or make your own)
- 1 8 oz package cream cheese (I prefer a cultured organic cream cheese), room temperature
- Some sort of sandwich meat, preferably something from Applegate Farms that is nitrate/ nitrite free
- Sliced cheese (we use Applegate Farms muenster)
- Spinach or arugula
The directions for these are so easy. Place a tortilla flat on the counter. Spread a layer of cream cheese (you could use hummus instead, if you like). Add a couple pieces of sandwich meat and sliced cheese. Add greens of your choice. Roll the sandwiches up like a pinwheel. Then slice into 1 inch thick pieces. Super easy, and great finger foods because they don’t spread crumbs the way a normal sandwich would.