Travel Food

We are heading out on a big adventure tomorrow. The car is packed, the stops are planned, now all that’s left is the food! A 17 hour drive takes planning and careful consideration of how to entertain a baby and a toddler. This is the breakdown of what I’m bringing.

First up: breakfast. We made some soaked, baked oatmeal for the first morning that the toddler can eat when she wakes up. I’m hoping to get an hour or two of drive time in before wake up time. Day 2 will be Grandaddy’s Oat Bran Muffin. Both are big hits with everyone in the household and easily eaten in the car. We have hard boiled eggs and strawberries too, if we decide to stop and eat.

We are going classic for lunches. There is a reason sandwiches are a staple for schoolchildren. They are portable and delicious. We are having ham the first day, and peanut butter and jelly the second. We are not planning on picking up food, because I will be by myself and we don’t want to expose ourselves to COVID any more than necessary.

I chose to cut them in triangles, because novelty is sometimes everything when it comes to a three year old. I will take all the help I can get.

Now for snacks. If you have every made a long trip with a toddler, you know that snacks can be a great distraction when the activities you brought just aren’t cutting it. 17 hour drives are when most food guidelines I have go out the window and we switch to survival mode. We are bringing several options and will probably have a ton left over when all is said and done.

This little box used to hold craft supplies, but has been repurposed as a snack box. We have gluten free pretzels, gluten free crackers, dried apricots, dried cherries, dried mango, rice Chex cereal, and Cheerios.

For dinner, we are having these cute little tuna fish kits. My toddler hasn’t had them before, and I think she will get a kick out of making it herself. We are bringing our own gluten free crackers to eat with it.