I’m about to drive solo on a 12 hour trip. What snacks do you suggest I bring along?
For driving, I prefer food that isn’t messy, is easy to eat and doesn’t require assembly, but is a bit interesting or engaging on some level. For example, I’m not big into crunchy food, but something to crunch on does help the boredom and monotony, and helps avoid falling asleep. For similar reasons, I always stop to try to buy some cherry sours or other sour candy.
I tend to take a mini cooler with sodas - preferably in cans because the 20oz bottles don’t fit in the dashboard cupholder in my car.
Nuts work, and Slim Jims if you find them palatable. Candy also, but I avoid chocolate as it melts too easily.
Chex Mix and water. Toss in a bag of Peanut M&Ms and you’re GTG.
If you like them, get some beef sticks or Sim Jims. They’re not too messy, you can eat them with one hand, and have enough protein and fat to keep you full.
Cigarettes! Don’t eat them, though, smoke them.
Mini carrots and/or celery sticks. Crunchy, non-fat, low sodium, and good for you. Don’t eat more than about a pound, though, or you’ll need to make more frequent pit stops. I like the Chex Mix-like mixes with cheese crackers in them, and I usually toss in some sunflower kernels. These are loaded with sodium, though, so go easy on them. Get a HUGE drinking bottle or two, fill with crushed ice, keep one out of the light (so it will stay cooler) and keep one by your side. Much cheaper and healthier than most stuff you can buy on the road. Most places will let you fill them up with ice and water for free, especially if you buy something else in the same place.
Fig Newtons: the ultimate travel cookie.
Moist, chewy, and good for your innards (since driving long distances always messes me up).
No other cookie will do.
Thank you all for your suggestions! Well, except for MrSquishy. Yuck, MrSquishy. Yuck.
My favorite car food is beef jerky, but my husband prefers cookies and peanuts. And lots of caffeinated beverages, like Starbuck’s Double Shot with Cream.
I have a prolonged road trip coming up in June. I gotta stock up!
I drive a lot. I usually bring nuts, fruit (cherries in season are good, grapes, apples, etc.) and some hard candy and some chewy candy. I personally prefer water over pop. I usually have a 12 pack of water in my car at all times. If I dont feel like stopping at a fast food place I buy a deli sandwich from a good sandwich joint (not subway) before I leave. Yum, way better than McDonalds. Stop every 4 hours to fill up with gas and unload the water and walk around a bit, then back on the road.
I take water, fruit, and a good veggie sandwich (because it’s so difficult to find good veggie food on the road). I don’t take soda because stopping for a drink is usually a good time to take a bathroom break anyway. Anything else I’m munchy for, I get when I’m refilling.
Red licorice. The road trip food of the gods.
Frozen iced tea in recycled water bottles with a drinking nipple instead of a flip or screw top [most fast food places make iced tea using the coffee urn and it just tastes nasty, and I dont like soda] so it stays nice and cold, and acts as the ice in the cooler.
A bag of pretzels, some of the small ready to eat peeled carrots, celery sticks, beef jerky, seedless grapes and maybe an apple or pear.
I like to stop about every 2 hours and just walk around the car once or twice to strech out, and will stop for meals - I cant do an 8 hour drive on nibbles, I like to have a nice lunch/dinner in the middle to break it up and get some reading time in.
Grapes. They work well unrefrigerated and there’s no peel to dispose of.
Odwalla bars. My favorites are Super Protein, Berries GoMega and Banana Nut (like a slightly denser version of banana bread. Yum!) There’s plenty of other flavors too.
The only thing I don’t like about them is they’re hard to get open. Definitely not something to try while you’re tootling down the road. Pull over, cut or tear it open, and then drive while enjoying the Odwallay goodness.
Energy juices. Bolthouse Farms has my favorites: Green Goodness and Vanilla Chai. They are healthy fillers, so you don’t fill up as much on unhealthy, sodium-rich snacks. And they now come in really large bottles!
ETA: And watch your soda intake, especially if you’re not drinking diet. Too much HFCS tends to make me very thirsty and binds me up.
Doesn’t that get … soggy? And that candy coating on the peanut M&Ms, won’t it dissolve in water after a while?
I tend to try and pack regular food. A sandwich or two, some veggies (carrots, celery, slices of cucumber), maybe a granola bar or two. I’ll sometimes take along a bag of chips to munch on to help keep me awake, but oftentimes Lifesavers or other hard candies can do just as well. I try not to eat more in the car than I would in a regular day anyways. Diet pop (Coke Zero, usually) and water, and maybe a juice box or three (orange juice wakes me up quite well, as it is pretty much always the first thing I have in the morning).
I just did a 12 hour drive last week, and 12.5 hours to come back (took a bit longer because I needed to walk a dog at every pit stop!) and I ate lunch and dinner in the car, but according to a usual schedule. I feel terrible if I just stuff myself with junk food/snacks only.
For trips in hot weather I often freeze the grapes the night before.
Chewy “granola” bars are fairly self contained, too. If I’m being nutritiously responsible I like Kashi brand. Otherwize the Quaker ones do. They’re pretty close to being candy bars without the messy meltiness.
Also, I find that a 12 oz V8 revives me more effectively than any soda with caffeine. YMMdefinitelyV since I’ve never heard anyone else say this is true for them as well.