The tagline for this post? Those were words that actually came out of my mouth earlier this week. We were on a nine-day road trip to Wyoming, and back, for my youngest brother’s wedding.
We took three days to drive in each direction, and logged a round-trip total of 36 hours on the road.
Totally worth it, by the way. A big congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Spencer!
Lyle and I make a great traveling team.
He loves to drive. I don’t.
I pack the snacks. He eats them.
In preparation for this epic road trip, I packed plenty of snacks. Bags of mixed nuts, airpopped popcorn, apples, and protein bars. Oh, and chocolate.
This stash was supplemented along the way with almond crackers, rye crisps, roasted edamame trail mix, sliced cheese, and cottage cheese.
Geeesh, I sound like a dietitian.
While not necessarily organized when we departed, I took my job seriously as the commander of “snack central.” I passed the time by keeping stock of our vittles1 and soon had them divided and organized into categories in gallon zip-top bags: one for proteins, one for healthy fats, one for carbs.
I know. I can’t help it. It’s how my brain works.
And this is where the post tagline comes in:
Lyle, from the driver’s seat: “Hey babe, can you pass me up a snack?”
Me: “Do you want the bag of proteins? Fats? Or Carbs?”
Lyle: laughs
Me: “Hey, I’m going to write a post about how to pack snacks for a road trip!”
Lyle: laughs again
(For the record, neither one of us can remember what he ended up choosing)
In all seriousness, finding ways to eat healthy-ish on the road is a topic that I’m asked about from time to time.
Here are my thoughts:
First, redefine what you consider a “snack.” For many people, it conjures up visions of chips, candy, and candy-studded trail mix. These are fine sometimes, but won’t serve you well as your go-to foods on the road for hours or days at a time.
Second, be aware of the tendency to reach for road trip snacks out of boredom, travel anxiety, or habit. Mindlessly snacking, whether in the car or not, often leads to cycles of overeating and losing touch with hunger and fullness cues.
Third, use a stash of healthy-ish snacks to stand in for meals when your only options are less than ideal. We call this having a “snack-y” meal, and in addition to being heaps better for you than a fast food meal, it will also save you plenty of time and money.
As I wrote about in my recent post, The Breakfast Club, my go-to mealtime macronutrient “equation” is:
Protein + Healthy Carb + Healthy Fat
When it comes to snacking, combining at least two of the above components is more likely to keep you satisfied than standard carb-rich snacks alone.
Which is where my bags of proteins, healthy fats, and carbs came in.
Whether we needed a snack to hold us over until mealtime or decided on a snack-y meal to keep the show on the road, there were countless combinations to choose from to keep us from getting road trip hangry:
Apple and mixed nuts
Almond crackers and cheese
Air-popped popcorn and roasted edamame
Rye crackers & cottage cheese
Protein bar and fruit
For our extra-long road trip, we made sure to find stops near a grocery store so we could replenish our shrinking snack bags. You can even find proteins, healthy fats, and healthy carbs at most gas station convenience stores — it just takes a trained eye.
An added benefit of our road trip snack stash? I had breakfast fixin’s to pull from when I woke up before the hotel’s continental breakfast was open. Or, let’s be honest, even if it was open, there weren’t a whole lot of proteins, healthy carbs, or healthy fats to choose from. Sounds like the topic for another post…
What are your favorite road trip snacks?
Thanks for being here,
~Allison
Hi, Lyle (husband and editor) here. I thought “vittles” was either a typo or a word Allison made up. But no, it’s an old-fashioned form of the word victuals, which means food or provisions. Allison said that her grandmother used to say it all the time. In my defense, her grandmother was notorious for making up words. Maybe we all learned something new today!
This Mom/Grandma really enjoyed road tripping with the three of you! For part of your journey! And the vittle choices were great! 💗
My family’s favorite road trip snacks are fresh cut carrots, chicken salad on crackers, mixed nuts and protein bars. I’ve made protein balls in variety before and totally forgot how good they were on a trip! Thanks for the ideas as I build my snack list for our road trip to NC to meet our new grandson next month!