Wednesday, March 25, 2009

What Do You Eat On The Road?

We spent 3 days away without eating out once.

Of course, it helps that the only alternative was a suspicious bologna sandwich from the corner market!

Most of my work was done at home, giving me a true break from kitchen routine.

My recipe for make-ahead black beans is featured at Life With My 3 Boybarians.

18 comments:

Roxie700 said...

If we are traveling and stay in hotels we always look for one that offers free breakfast. I take a cooler in the car with sandwich meat, cheese, and fresh fruit. I take a jug of tea (our favorite drink) and most snack items. We snack of Chex mix, pop corn, and cookies made at home. We will stop for a meal at night, but not fast food. We just do not care for a fast food burger. We often look for Luby's or something similar.
Most of the time though, when we travel we are in our suburband pulling our travel trailer. I can cook a full meal in the trailer as I have a 3 burner stove, an oven, and microwave. I like that I can provide meals for my family. Roxie

TJ said...

Like Roxie we typically travel with our trailer, and we eat all sorts of yummy stuff while camping. From burgers and hot dogs to taco salads and spaghetti. There is no food for a good 20 minutes, and that little store is packed!

Meredith said...

I can't let my husband read your answers! He's been dreaming about some kind of travel trailer since we were married.

It harks back to an episode of King of Queens when Kevin, driving an RV for vacation, calls back to Carrie, "Honey, fry me up some Steak 'ums!"

Julie said...

I don't always like to eat out when we're traveling. It's not that difficult to prepare and pack things at home. We try to stay in a place that has a kitchen area.
Besides, when you're at a vacation spot, it seems that everyone is eating out so restaurants are crowded with a long wait time. My little boy does not like to wait, so everyone around him is miserable.

Anonymous said...

When we go camping, which is about the only time I wouldn't be around my kitchen, I do a lot of preparation. So I cook almost all of the meat. Either I make it a simple cooked ground beef with herbs, onions, celery and spices that I can toss a few extra spices into to make into tortilla wrap style suppers, or into a salad for a bit of protein.

I'll make up spaghetti sauces, chili, stew or soups and actually simple can them. [Basically hot pack them and into a hot water bath till they cool down]. Since we don't have a fridge, this allows us to go longer without refrigeration.

For picnics I'll pasta salad or potato salad. We'll have hard boiled eggs, pickles. Trail mix bars (home-made or inexpensive what's on sale ones). Fruit Leathers (same as trail mix). Since I can buy milk at cost through my husband's work, I buy them by the small serving size and use those or water. No pop here, excepting at camping. Then I buy the mini cans and we get one at the camp fire.

And fruit! Nature's power bar! :)

Roxie700 said...

If he wants a travel trailer you should look into renting one for a vacation to see if you would really like it.
When we started out it was tent camping and sleeping on cots. Then we got a pop up tent trailer. We thought we were living high. We had that pop up for many years and it was nice except NO BATHROOM. As I got older a bathroom was a must. So we got our first trailer. What a dump it was. We spent almost a year fixing it up. I made new curtains, covers for the seats, and David repaired the roof etc. When we sold it we got double what we paid for it. We got new in 1995 a trailer of our dreams. It fits us perfect. It is now 14 years old but looks brand new. We keep it nice. I love that it is our little home on the road. We have made many many happy trips with the trailer.
With a family I think camping is a good way to spend time together. There are so many wonderful parks to see. Roxie

Whitney said...

We did something similar to Roxie on our honeymoon and our vacations (which are always trips to the beach) since then. We were far from home, so we went to the grocery store and bought breakfast foods and stuff for sandwiches and wraps. It cost less than our local store. Then we ate during the day from that and enjoyed a nice dinner at night. We loved it both ways. That way we both get a break and save some $.

jodi said...

so meredith--what do you do with a 21 hour car drive with 9 people and not much space for a cooler? we can usually do two meals for the first day and breakfast the second (or we try to stay at a place that has free breakfast) but that second day--oiy!

always looking for suggestions-
jodi

Meredith said...

Bless your heart--10 hours is my limit in the car!

21 hours and I'd have to stay home, cooler or no cooler!

Kylie's Mom said...

Oh, my favourite part of travelling, even if we stay in hotels, is investigating the local markets. My kids love finding a local picnic area to eat in...or even better, if we're in a hotel, eating a sandwich in bed while you watch tv. Can't do that at home!

Harmony said...

When we're going to be eating in the car, I make kimbap rolls (Korean version of sushi, no raw meat). They're great finger food for the car.

When we're going to be eating out elsewhere, I usually pack pitas and hummus, egg salad, or some other sandwich materials that don't spoil easily and that don't require heating.

For snacking, you can't beat homemade cookies and chex mix. I love popcorn, but my husband isn't as big of a fan.

Amy Evans said...

My solution to the problem is not traveling. A vacation with 4 young kids is no vacation at all! :o)

Meredith said...

I wouldn't call this a vacation by any means--more like a fishing weekend for my husband's birthday...with kids along.

Joan said...

You are a brave woman to go on a 3-day fishing trip and sight seeing to boot with a toddler and an infant who had just had an ear infection! You are also lucky that your kids will eat black beans, rice and cabbage. My almost 3-year-old will eat rice in a Chinese dish or plain pinto beans with cornbread but won't touch rice and beans together or coleslaw.

Is it spring break for your husband? I think you must need some rest after that adventure, or maybe camping is relaxing for you. I have never gone camping and for me, it does not sound appealing.

Brenda said...

I went camping one time, my first and last trip. I hated it. I had three small children at the time, but I would have hated it anyway! We used to travel with a cooler and have picnic lunches at roadside rests. I don't think any of us would have eaten rice, black beans or cabbage! We usually had an early dinner, sometimes before the lunch prices expired to save a little more. I like to travel, but hate to camp. You must be brave. I certainly would not leave home with an infant with an ear infection!

Meredith said...

The cole slaw was for my husband!

And the 5-month-old's ear had mostly healed by the time we left.

Lana said...

We love to travel but with 7 plus sometimes an extra person, we have to be a little prepared...

Go to the link...for some awesome on the go sandwiches, refreshing yet filling. :)

I love your site and the name of it! That is my heart!

http://ilovemy5kids.blogspot.com/2008/12/easy-sandwiches-for-traveling.html

Tubo Family said...

We took our first camping trip with kids last fall. I cooked extra of a couple dinners the week before and froze them so that all we had to do was reheat. Husband likes to camp cook but limited reportoire so we had his ramen noodles and fried eggs for lunch & breakfast along with cold cereal, sandwiches, etc. We ate lunch out after packing up camp and before driving home. I enjoyed it much more than previous trips (before kids) where I cooked each meal from scratch. I missed that John had an ear infection but glad he is feeling better; my kids are usually almost all better after 2 days on antibiotics.