Make Ahead Meals for Road Trip

Make-ahead Meals for Road Trip

This post will give you some ideas for healthy make-ahead meals for road trip. These travel meal ideas or snack ideas are all simple recipes which most people should be able to easily put together.

They can also be used to prepare a picnic day trip.

I hope you will be inspired to prep some tasty food to ensure you have the perfect road trip or day out!

 

 

I will now go through some ideas for you to consider if you are needing some inspiration for make-ahead meals for travelling.

What are the best road trip meals to pack?

So, what makes good road trip meal planning? What food to pack for a road trip? Which make ahead meals for road trip to prepare?

From our experience, the best food snacks to eat on a road trip are the ones you can easily make yourself at home.

You know exactly what has gone into them, how fresh they really are and you can prepare your own meals to eat in the car before you leave.

 

Obviously the products that stay fresh on the road are also to be recommended.  Think about stuff you can bake at home, prepare, wash, cut and package that is ready to eat at any time.

We will not give a road trip food list here, more a few ideas to help you plan your own easy meals.

Non-perishable snacks are a great choice obviously and are food that travels well. You can make them yourself like some of the good road trip snacks that I share below.

Make sure you have some sort of cooler box or cooler bag on your travels to keep your food cool.

 

Road Trip Sandwiches 

There is nothing easier than making some healthy homemade sandwiches for your road trip maybe?

When we travel in France, and we have done some seriously long road trips there, we do not actually prepare sandwiches upfront.

We travel with a multifunctional knife and we know we will find a Boulangerie or supermarket somewhere and buy fresh some bread, ham and French mustard mayo and make our own fresh baguette sandwich on the go.

There is really nothing better than crusty French bread, but it has to be fresh.

 

However, in other countries will tend to prepare our sandwiches beforehand, depending on the ingredients available. Here are some examples of sandwiches we would make if we were traveling from home.

We normally package them in re-sealable plastic bags or air-tight containers.

 

• Ham and Mayo Sandwich

What could be better than this simple ham and mayo sandwich (apart from one made in a French baguette of course!)? 

 

• Marmite and crisp sandwich

This crispy sandwich with marmite is a delicious option to take on a road trip. Marmite is something you either love or hate. If you have never tried it then you should give it a go. Remember to add the potato crisps just before eating the sandwich. 

 

• Ham Cheese and Mayo Sandwich

This ham and cheese sandwich is also a winner with the whole family? Sometimes the simple ones are the best.

 

• Peanut butter and jelly (PBJ) sandwich

The iconic peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a fantastic road trip sandwich due to the long shelf life of the fillings.

So it works well even if you do not have any cooler bag or box with you. 

 

• Cold Sausage Sandwich

This cold sausage sandwich is always a success. Pretty filling and even better than the hot version!

You can also just take cooked cold sausages with you wrapped in tin foil – they are also good on their own.

 

• Chicken Mayo Sandwich

This chicken mayo sandwich is one of my favourites. So simple and tasty – a great way to use your roast chicken leftovers.

 

• Egg Salad Sandwich

My girls love this. These sandwiches are quite filling and provide plenty of protein.

 

• Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich

The classic BLT. Delicious always and a good travel lunch idea. 

 

• Cheese and Pickle Sandwich

This is a typical English sandwich which always goes down well. The traditional Ploughman’s lunch.

 

• Chicken Curry Sandwich

This is a very tasty sandwich that is a great road trip lunch idea if you can keep it cool. 

 

• Cucumber Sandwiches

The classic of the afternoon tea. Make sure you slice the cucumber thinly!

 

 

I am sure you will have plenty of your own favourite sandwich recipes that you can use as well for your sandwich fillings. The possibilities are of course infinite.

 

Healthy snacks for the road

Pre-prepped vegetables are another good way to have some easy snacks on the go for your trip. By pre-slicing and peeling carrots, cucumbers, celery and tomatoes you can have some healthy food to munch on during your journey. Quick, cheap and easy.

Keep them in an airtight box to keep them fresh. These are some of our favourite healthy snacks and we keep a box like this in our fridge at home now as it is so easy to just grab a healthy bite when you wish.

 

Fresh fruit to eat on your road trip

Fresh fruit is another easy way to sort out some healthy snacks on the go. Easy to package and ready when you need it. And of course, kids love them!

They can also be transported well in airtight boxes if you think about grapes and berries, as examples. Make sure to wash them before you pack them.

• Fresh fruits

Simply wash and arrange a container with fresh fruits, check out some great containers here.

 

Bananas and apples you can always just eat as is. Oranges and kiwi fruit you can peel when you want to eat them.

 

• Fruit salad

You can also think about making a fruit cocktail and keeping it in small containers to eat when you feel like it. A great sweet treat!

These are quick and easy make-ahead meals for road trips.

 

 

Homemade Road Trip Snacks

There are plenty of make-ahead travel snacks that you can prepare up-front for a road trip, rather than buy ready-made. Here are some make-ahead snack ideas for travelling in a car that you can make beforehand. All the recipes mentioned are on this blog site and can be accessed by clicking on the relevant links.

• Cinnamon Donuts

These are delicious but do not stay good for that long so you need to eat them quickly!

 

• Flapjacks

Delicious sweet oat or granola bars with dried fruit. They never last long on our trips. Keep them in an air-tight box.

 

• Homemade cookies

Cookies are always a good idea to take with you on your road trips. They are easy to dish out and not too messy.

Homemade ones though are even better if you have time and are willing to make them beforehand. 

 

These ones below, Cornish Fairings, are one of our favourite English cookie recipes.

Or you could take some savoury biscuits like these cheese sables.

 

• Cake or cupcakes

Cake always goes down well wherever you are. It can be a bit messy, but hey!

 

• French-style pancakes

These pancakes are great to take with you – if you fill them with Nutella and roll them up you can keep them in an air-tight container and dish them out as required. 

 

• Bacon egg muffins

These little savoury cupcakes can be made upfront and eaten when required. They will not keep that long though outside a fridge so you should eat them on the first day.

 

• Yoghurt Fruit Pots

These are great healthy snacks for long car rides. You need to keep them cool but they are tasty and easy travel food.

 

• Hard boiled Eggs

These are simple to prepare upfront and will give you a protein boost if you need one.

 

• Meat balls

These are a great snack that we love to take on a trip. You need to keep them cool but they are really tasty and will not last very long.

Similar to a cold cooked sausage.

 

• Sweet dessert

After your main snack, whatever it may be, you may need a sweet dessert to finish the kids off. This one is great, as long as you can keep it cool.

 

• Cold pasta

For an easy pre-prepped pasta you cannot find an easier recipe than this one. Cool in the fridge before leaving, pack in separate containers and keep it cool until eating. Delicious!

 

• Savoury pastries

Or you may wish to try making some delicious vegetarian pastries to take with you like this one:

 

• Healthy Wraps

Or how about making a healthy salad wrap to take with you?:

 

Hot Food on the Go

If you have a well-insulated flask you can, of course, take some healthy hot soup with you if you are going to need to be warmed up. A good idea if you are travelling somewhere cold in the winter and there is the slightest risk of you breaking down. Best to be prepared – you never know…

Taking some hot meals and keeping them warm for a long time may be more of a problem though and I wouldn’t recommend it.

Thermos Stainless King Vacuum Insulated Bottle

 

• Soups

With the proper thermos flask you could easily keep a mushroom soup or a tomato soup hot for several hours! 

 

Drinks for your  road trip

 

• Cold drinks

You will also want to take some drinks with you along the way to prevent dehydration. We have some great metal vacuum insulated water bottles that we take with us which keep our water or fruit juice cold.

Normally we just take water but sometimes we will take flavoured water or a fruit squash with us. We do not take soda with us on a road trip normally as it is not the healthiest of things to drink with the sugar levels they use these days.

Vmini Water Bottle

 

 

Healthy Smoothies for on your travels

Smoothies are great healthy travel snacks for road trips. They are tasty and filling and a good way to get some clean healthy vitamins. Just be aware that you need to keep them cool to keep them fresh and that they will not last that long.

Give them a good shake before you consume them as the different constituents are likely to separate. 

 

Make ahead meals for road trip 

So I hope this post has given you some ideas about make ahead meals for road trip. 

Which food to pack for a road trip? Selecting the right food for trips is really down to: who is in the travelling party? how long will you be travelling?

Are there any allergies you need to think about? Is there any risk of a delay? How much time do you have to prepare? 

These are all questions you need to ask to put together the best healthy snacks to bring on a road trip. Bear in mind that making your own snacks and meals upfront will not only save you a lot of money, as gas stations charge more generally then supermarkets, but you will also save a lot of time.

And if you are travelling with good weather you can also stop somewhere nice and have a picnic with a view if you are lucky enough.

All the recipes mentioned above are simple to prepare upfront and your travel experience will be so much improved when you know exactly what you and your family are eating.

The main thing is not to go hungry!

Tell me; what is the best road trip snack and beverage in your opinion? Let me know in the contact section below.

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More road trip food posts:

 

Meal Prep for Road Trips