After my ode to logistics, it's about time I grounded a post in some of that nitty gritty I so love. We drove quite a ways last week, and have another, longer, roadtrip planned for later in the summer. Driving long distances with little people - both of ours poor car nappers and a bit young for audio books - isn't the most fun thing we could do, but it does open up the possibility of having a whole lot of fun once we reach the destination. And the girls are real troopers.
One way we make long car trips work is with the food we pack for the trip. We're not much for fast food, or (once you allow me to start inspecting the ingredients lists on the back of packages), gas station snacks. And when my girls are asleep, we're not about to risk waking them with a stop of any sort! So I spend a good amount of time before any trip gathering food for us to take. I usually make a stop at our local co-op, rife as it is with incredible bulk bin offerings, for mess-free, non-perishable options. Trader Joe's can be good for these, too. Everyone's glad for the variety that lots of little samplings offers, and whatever we don't eat is ready for the return trip, or for dependable snacks wherever we are. I dish them out into little snack containers or cups and pass them around whenever a snack is in order. They don't quite make a meal, so we supplement with fresher a la carte (ha!) fare. This makes traveling during fasts a lot easier, too. Nothing below is terribly complex, but I find that when it comes to feeding children, one mother's snack-time standard is another's epiphany. And so, in the spirit of sharing,
Here are some of our bulk-bin favorites:
- tamari almonds, cashews, spiced pecans
- dried peaches, dried apricots, apple rings, dried blueberries (they're tiny and eating them requires all the concentration a 22 month old can muster).
- wild rice sticks
- a sampling of trail mixes (My favorite is with pecans, pumpkin seeds, almonds, cranberries, coconut flakes and dark chocolate; J remains loyal to old-school trail mix with salted peanuts, chocolate drops, and raisins, and because he undertakes the middle-of-the-night driving, he gets whatever he wants. It is always gone by the time I wake).
- energy chunks
- peach-apricot newtons (isn't our coop incredible?!)
- pita chips
- almond butter crispie bars
We then pack a little cooler with some of the following:
- scrambled egg and avocado tortilla wraps made the morning we take off
- hardboiled eggs, pre-peeled
- a chunk of cold smoked salmon (if I know we'll eat it before the ice pack starts melting), summer sausage, or tuna jerky
- plum poppyseed muffins (from the Smitten Kitchen; they're better on the second or third day anyways, and so they always seem to make it into my pre-trip baking plans)
- little individually packaged bottles of kefir (the girls don't get much of them, but they've quickly picked up on the fact that tiny, pre-packaged things are Really Special)
- cheese cubes, cucumber slices, red pepper slices
- tomato sandwiches
- baked quinoa patties
- hummus
The very best thing about this plan? You can avoid rest areas and stop to picnic in scenic locales. For example, this last trip, we made a little pilgrimmage to Tinker Creek (!!!!!) for a roadside picnic before continuing on. Making the journey a wee part of the actual destination. We also, as you can see in the very bad photograph above, had sunflowers at home that couldn't possibly be thrown out! So we brought them with us, making the trip that much cheerier. Oh, my longsuffering husband!
I travel with a Bolga basket at my feet too :)
Posted by: Arielle | 10 July 2014 at 18:52