There is excitement in the air as we plan for an Alice (Sprinter Van) trip.  We look forward to exploring the country and making up our agenda one day at a time. One of the critical steps is planning our road trip meals.

When we travel, Gail is our meal planner and Head Cook.  She plans meals that are easy to prepare, fast and healthy.

We like flexibility with our meals. As an example, if we have a 10 night trip, then she usually brings food for 6 dinners.  That lets us have flexibility on our driving days and time to enjoy some local joints. The first dinner is “our get out of town” meal and she brings something fun to eat while we drive. 

Examples of get out of town meals:

• A sandwich with something on it other then chicken (because we eat chicken for lunch on the trip) and adding tomato, avocado or pickles.
• A Panini or burrito wrapped in foil so it stays warm until we want to eat dinner on the road
• Egg, turkey, or tuna salad that can be put into plastic cups and eaten with a spoon. Sometimes, we will have crackers with it.

Sample menus for the remaining meals:

Steaks – We cook ribeye steaks on the grill or over a fire with foil packets of mini sliced potatoes, zucchini and mushrooms.  She slices the potatoes thin so they cook in the same amount of time as the vegetables.  She will season the veggies with EVOO (olive oil) and spices such as garlic, onion, or Italian seasoning powder.

Pork chops – We usually eat sweet potatoes and green beans with pork.  She will sometimes roast the sweet potatoes at home before we go and put them in a baggie in the freezer, then all we have to do is warm them up.  Green beans can also be cooked ahead of time.

• Ribs – She typically buys a slab of precooked ribs so all we have to do is cut apart, warm in foil.  We usually eat this with roasted cauliflower topped with a little cheese.

• Tacos – Gail cooks the hamburger with taco seasoning ahead of time and freeze it in little bags.   We use bowls and layer in Fritos, the warmed taco hamburger, tomatoes, spinach, cheese, salsa, black olives, etc. and eat them right out of the bowls.   This is an easy quick meal for dinner or lunch.
• Chicken – She bakes chicken breasts at home the week before we leave.  She then slices some of it thin for sandwiches and uses the remainder for dinners like BBQ chicken or chicken burritos. Since the chicken is already cooked, it is fast and easy.  For chicken burritos she warms a spinach tortilla, adds chopped chicken, fresh spinach, roasted red pepper (roasted and frozen before trip) cheese and salsa. 

• Scrambled eggs – Eggs are good for many meals. Gail cracks and whisks the eggs and adds seasonings then puts in a plastic bottle that fits on the door of our refrigerator. She usually adds meat and vegetables to the eggs for our meal.

Our goal when traveling is to eat as healthy on the road as we do when we are home.

Lunch consists of sandwiches with meat, cheese and spinach.  We like hummas or mustard on our bread.  We also eat fruit and vegetables with our sandwich.  Since we are always on the go during the middle of the day we want food that is easy to pack and carry with us. 

We generally have two different kinds of breakfast.  If we are in a hurry, then we will have cereal and bananas and berries. This is a treat for us because we do not eat cereal at home.  If we have more time, we will have some type of eggs, toast, and fruit.

Snacks consist of: veggies, pretzels, hummus, nuts, popcorn, trail mix, and always homemade peanut butter balls and chocolate chips cookies!

By planning the menu and preparing some of the food at home, we can spend more time hiking, biking and exploring. This gives up more time to do the things we really want to do!

For other posts on road tripping go to: 10 Tips for a Successful Road Trip