06/01/2026
Road trips don’t have to mean eating out for every meal. 👏
This is everything my family of 6 ate during a 3-day road trip.
Honestly, these are the same kinds of foods I pack whenever we’re going to be out of the house all day—whether it’s a beach day, a long day of activities, or a road trip. For this trip, I just packed more of it.
Before we left, I spent a little time stocking our cooler and packing simple foods I knew we’d actually eat. It saved money, made travel days easier, and kept us from constantly hunting for food.
One thing about me: I do not like running out of food. 😂 With 4 kids, you never know when someone is going to be hungry, need a snack, or just need something to help avoid a hunger meltdown. I’d much rather pack too much than not enough.
My system is pretty simple:
• A large cooler with most of our food and drinks
• A smaller insulated lunch bag with the cold foods we wanted access to while driving
• A separate snack bag so we weren’t digging through the cooler all day
Here’s what we brought:
* Homemade sandwiches for the kids
* Ham and cheese wraps for me
* Chicken salad for lunches
* Hard-boiled eggs
* Yogurt parfaits
* Oat bars
* Equip protein bars (use my code [HOMEMADEKITXHEN]) and built bars
* Lineage beef sticks (use my code [HOMEMADEKITCHEN])
* Tuna pouches for an easy protein option
* Crackers and pretzels
* Apples and clementines
* Plenty of other snacks
* Frozen water bottles that doubled as ice packs
* Our big Stanley water jug for refills
For dinner one night, I packed an Instant Pot and brought a freezer meal of red beans and rice. I used the 90-second rice pouches this time, but I would normally just bring frozen rice.
We grabbed pizza another night, but having most of our food with us meant we weren’t spending a fortune or trying to figure out meals while everyone was tired and hungry.
The hotel breakfast wasn’t great, so having eggs, yogurt parfaits, and oat bars already packed made breakfast so much better.
Comment “SYSTEM” and I’ll send you links to some of our favorite items for taking food on the go! 🤍
And if you’d like the recipes for many of the foods we packed, you’ll find them in my cookbook.
