This post is all about cheap and easy road trip meals! When we’re traveling, I pack very simple food and focus on the sites we’re seeing instead. This isn’t the time to have gourmet meals. At the same time, I do know that we need somewhat healthy food or we can all get cranky real quick.
Road Trip Breakfasts
Breakfast we eat at the hotel (I bring my own muesli cereal to eat in a bowl with the hotel milk while the kids go through the buffet. There is nothing in the hotel breakfast that meets my standards for breakfast.) If we’re staying at someone’s house we usually eat with them or we’ll just jump in the car and leave early, eating dry cereal in the car or bagels and cream cheese in the car. If we’re camping on a road trip we’d also eat cereal or bagels. You can also make breakfast cookies or muffins ahead of time and bring those.
Breakfast options summarized:
- eat at the hotel (If they have anything healthy)
- homemade muesli cereal with hotel milk (or our own)
- eat at the house we’re staying at
- bagels and cream cheese
- dry cereal like Cracklin Oat Bran, Wheat Chex, Kix in ziplock bags for the kids
- homemade breakfast cookies or muffins
Road Trip Lunches
We eat meat and cheese sandwiches almost every day. Again, it’s not a time for fancy meals. At home we enjoy hot lunches, but on the road we gotta go with simple. We either make them in the hotel/house/campground before we leave and eat in the car, or we eat them at a picnic table at a historical site. We use Dave’s Killer Bread and nitrate-free meat. Plus top with lettuce and tomatoes for a healthy lunch. And eat carrots, celery, and apples on the side. For dessert we eat one of my healthy granola bars.
When we run out of sandwich fixins, we make chicken salad with canned chicken and leftover cream cheese from the bagels. Add in some celery and grapes and it’s delicious! I make it in the lunch meat container and we all eat out of it, dipping Triscuits and carrots into it.
Lunch options summarized:
- meat and cheese sandwiches on hearty bread
- chicken salad and crackers and carrots
Road Trip Snacks
Our favorite road trip snacks are apples, grapes, beef jerky, raw almonds or cashews or pistachios, string cheese, and trail mix. Towards the end of the trip when the fresh food is running out we resort to the snack bucket which has packaged snacks of fig bars, That’s It bars, pretzels, or other snacks. Having snacks on hand when you have little ones is essential to keeping meltdowns and boredom at bay!
Snack options summarized:
- apples, grapes or other easy fruit
- nitrate free beef jerky
- raw almonds or nuts
- string cheese
- trail mix you’ve put together at home
- fig bars
- That’s It bars
- pretzels
Road Trip Dinners
For dinner we eat food we can microwave in the hotel or we will eat dinner with the family we are staying at, which is the best option! Then we actually get good homemade food and especially vegetables which are lacking when we’re traveling. We never eat out. I feel like there’s always a cheaper, healthier option than fast food. Sometimes when we’re camping or getting to a hotel really late we’ll stop at a store with a microwave like Whole Foods and microwave one of these dinners, then we’ll have the cold sandwiches in the car for dinner. It’s fun to switch things up and good to be flexible. And still, we never eat out!
Here are some dinners I bring to hotels:
- taco meat (made with grass-fed ground beef, homegrown peppers and spices
- pumpkin chili
- enchilada soup
- white chicken chili
- any of our favorite homemade dinners like meat loaf, enchilada casserole, or pasta.
I bring paper plates and the kids can assemble their own nachos by putting tortilla chips, cheese, and taco meat on the plate and heating in the microwave. Then topping with lettuce and tomatoes. For the soups it’s best to bring paper bowls but I’ve also used the hotel plastic cups and that works fine too. You can warm up the whole container and then serve individually.
For road trips I bring the soups pre-made and in containers. But once when our trip was a 2-night stay at a hotel by my son’s college (we went to watch him in Oklahoma! performance. Blog post here. Vlog video here), I brought a crock pot with dried beans and all the ingredients and made the soup there. It’s fun coming into your hotel room after a day site seeing and having hot soup ready! The room smelled delicious!
When fresh, homemade dinners run out (I eat them the first 6-7 nights) then I resort to shelf stable dinners like:
- mac n cheese cups (either Kraft or Annie’s)
- Hormel canned chili
These take longer, but whoever is first into the hotel room starts warming their cup up while the rest of us bring in luggage, get ice, etc. Then the kids take turns warming theirs, showering, putting on pjs, reading, etc. When the cups are done they will add a few spoonfuls of chili into the cup to add fiber and protein. For the sides we eat lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, apples, and milk if we still have some. It’s less than $2 a person so it’s a lot cheaper than eating out!
Other Road Trip Dinner Ideas
Sometimes we stop at a store and get ready or easy to put together meals like:
- chicken patties and buns
- frozen taquitos, burritos, chimichangas, etc.
- microwaveable lasagna
- chicken nuggets or fish sticks
You get the idea! You can be pretty creative like cut chicken patties into strips and put on a whole wheat tortilla with lettuce and tomatoes to make a chicken wrap. There are a lot of simple meals you can make for your family in a hotel room or campground.
Simple Grocery List for Easy Road Trip Meals
Besides making the taco meat, soup, or chili, here is the food you need to buy and bring along with you.
- Dave’s killer bread
- lunch meat in plastic container
- sliced cheese
- grated cheese
- cream cheese
- bagels
- carrots
- lettuce
- tomatoes
- celery
- apples
- grapes
- canned chicken
- canned chili
- mac n cheese cups
When the plastic container of meat is gone, use that for making your chicken salad. I also use the leftover cream cheese when the bagels are gone (I usually bring 2 cream cheeses.) I also use the last of the celery and grapes in the chicken salad. To me these meals work perfectly together and are meant to be.
Road trips are so much fun and should be enjoyed by everyone no matter their budget. I hate for people not to go just because they can’t afford the high cost of eating out. Making cheap soups at home, eating nourishing sandwiches, and buying simple food at the store will help you be able to afford a road trip. Hope this post helps you have a cheap, simple road trip and create fun family memories too!
Video about how to take a road trip on a budget
Here are a few pictures of us enjoying meals on a road trip:
