What foods/drinks for 10hr car trip

npsmama

Can anyone suggest what I should cook/buy for food/drink for a 10hr car trip please? I'm hoping to save on the very expensive (and yucky) 'restaurant' food they serve at service stations.

The weather is cold and rainy so picnics are not a good idea.
I've got a travel kettle to heat up water.

A 2year-old will be on the trip too but there will also be an adult in the back to help him if needed.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

buxtonrabbitgreen

We just take bottles of water and sandwiches, maybe a flask of coffee.

tomstickland

I just pull of mway at a reasonable sized town and eat at supermarkets.
Either that or take a load of sandwiches, fruit and water.

born_again_saver

Hiya, I'd suggest taking a fair quantity of "snacky" food that isn't prone to melting or going off quickly. Food like flapjack or cereal bars (could be home-made of course), crisps, apples, nuts, all make excellent travel food - but much less so stuff like chocolate or bananas, if it's hot they will melt/go brown and yucky.

For something resembling more of a meal, since it's such a long journey, I'd take an ice-cream tub of something like pasta in a tomato based sauce, or perhaps some cous cous. Of course if you have a travel kettle then the wonderful world of instant noodles and rice is also open to you. If you do include any meat, dairy, other perishable type food in what you take/cook then you'll need to bear in mind that it will only survive for so long in a hot car - or even a warmish one, given that it's fairly cold lately.

To keep food cool for longer cheaply, wrap it up well in several layers of newspaper and then a plastic bag or two, should keep it insulated for a few hours at least from the heat (if there is any, rubbish weather lately!) - keep the food plus newspaper wrapping in the fridge for as long as possible before you start your trip to maximise the coolness of the food. If it does prove to be hotter weather, I find the foot wells of a car are the best place to store food, it tends to be a bit cooler and you can keep more of an eye on the food - the boot is often very hot, no air circulating.

Don't forget also to take enough water/drinks for everyone for the full duration of your journey, service stations can be especially bad for the prices on these.

For more ideas on food I'd recommend looking on hill walkers'/wild campers' websites - see what they take up into the hills for the day or even for overnight trips. It's a similar principle, as walkers can be out and about with no access to shops for a long time - 10+ hours in summer easily. Just bear in mind that they use up a lot more calories while walking than you will be, Kendal mint cake is not really necessary if you're sitting in a car!

overlykeensaver

For your two year old - if you have a cool bag you could take some cubes of cheese and chopped up cucumber. how about also a little bag/box of raisins and/or rice cakes? they always go down well as a snack.

We always take HM wraps with us for long car journeys -fill with some meat and some veg such as chopped carrot and lettuce, roll up and then put into your lunch box. Much nicer than the stuff you buy at the service stations.

Incidentally, if you are travelling north, one service station I would recommend is the only privately owned one in the country - westmorland tebay services in Cumbria (just past J38 M6). There is a duck pond and a farm shop and believe it or not is a pleasant place to stop and stretch your legs.

boo81

I recently did the same, we had a picnic in the car of lots of picky foods. We took:

mini chicken pies
chicken nuggets
cheese and tomato tartlets
bacon and cheese rolls (like sausage rolls)
individual quiches
orange juice
choc chip muffins
jam tarts

I think thats all! I bought some puff and shortcrust pastry and made all the pies, tarts rolls etc, the only thing we bought was the juice and the chicken nuggets. I spent one day making everything and stored it in a big plastic cool box with freezer packs as a bag would have squashed things. We each had a carrier bag to eat on but next time I would take a tea-towel each I think to get rid of crumbs easily.

We found we did eat much more than we had planned so bear that in mind. It definately didnt cost much and was much nicer than service station sandwishes. We spent less than £5 on food with preparing in advance.

Penny-Pincher!!

We are doing a 6hr trip on Saturday and in our cool box, I will be taking:

Sarnies (ham, cheese & egg)
Yogurts
Bottled water
Fruit
Cakes
Flask of coffee

For a longer journey, I would take:

Soup & Rolls buttered
Stew etc in a food flask

I never feel like eating when we are traveling, so we try and stop somewhere pretty and have a mini picnic.

HTH
PP
xx

Kimmywim

hi there, just a tip if you freeze a bottle of squash the night before and put it in the coolbag before you go, it will act as a big ice pack and your drink will stay cool for hours.

also find that just simple tuna pasta with mayonnaise and sweetcorn is a cheap easy idea.

moanymoany

For the 2 year old, think about a small plastic box or paper bag just for them. Put in a selection of tiny sandwiches that can be eaten in one or two bites, small bits of sausage rolls, anything savoury. This will keep a tot interested for ages as they thumb through. The same can be done with sweet things, bits of satsuma, cake, raisins, anything they like.

I've seen this done and it works.

Enjoy your trip.

scuzz

I would suggest a 2litre bottle of squash and maybe a flask of coffee/tea/hot chocolate

Food wise, sarnies, some fruit, HM cake of some sort, maybe flapjacks, cocktail sausages, chicken drumsticks.

Hope you have fun whereever you're going

poodlehorse

Agree with Tebay that is my fave stop, didn't realise it was privately owned though. Was going to suggest about freezing juice to act as a freeze pack and also so you will still have cold juice for LO hours later but someone beat me to it. I would also say things like Cheerios (or supermaket equivalent) are good for "scooby snax" for toddlers. I think lots of little bits is good as it will stop them being bored. Grapes (these can start out frozen too) are good for snacking, breadsticks and maybe a little pot of hummus or other dippy thing. LOADS of wetwipes and plastic baggies for putting the empties and dirty wipes in. I buy those "take alongs" rubbermaid containers which are semi disposable so it doesn't matter if you chuck them out as they are quite cheap but they do actually last for ages. There is a smaller size that is just right for taking raisins and cheerios in and would be good for lots of little bits and making sure they don't get squished. My two year old likes a drop scone/pancake in the car and he is happy to eat it without butter/jam. What about freezing some frubes? Then they can be eaten frozen or once defrosted they can still be eaten as youghurt but might last longer in the car, you don't want warm yoghurt! EWw. Little samosas maybe?
Remember to think up a few games your two year old can play, DS likes to guess which colour of car will pass us next. That can last a good while. And trying to spot cows/sheep etc although on a motorway that might not be as easy.