My favorite traveling breakfast is to get a to-go coffee cup with a lid, put cereal in it, and yogurt on top instead of milk. The great thing is that once you're finished eating, your plastic spoon will fit inside and the lid closes it all up. Then it will sit safely in a cup holder until you get to a trash can. No mess, and easy to set down and stop eating for awhile.
Meals on Wheels: Four Simple Tips for Dining in Your Car
Photo: Kieran Lynam
Got one of those jobs where you are constantly grabbing lunch from behind the wheel? I've been there. Following are four simple tips to keep your sanity.
Low mess grab and takes.
These are things you can put in small sealable containers and basically eat as finger food. You may recall when I introduced the concept via the Brown Bagging in Style article. Grab and takes are anything easily packaged for a quick snack on the fly. Normally, I take this to mean things like pretzels, popcorn or cereal mixes. I suppose technically this could include finger foods as well such as precooked chicken nuggets or breakfast cookies . Linsey Knerl's pumpkin seeds would also be a winning idea.
Long lasting, prepackaged non-perishables.
I'm not much for convenience foods, but if I have to choose between protein bars and a drive through burger with regards to cost and health, then I have less of a problem dishing out for the prepackaged goodies. Snack cracker packs and containers of nuts would also work. These are also helpful to keep a stash of in your car for days when you are just too rushed to pack a single thing. Andrea Dickson also did a post on this a while back. You may want to check it out.
Travel mugs and other portable beverage containers.
Coffee, smoothies, water and green tea can all be carried successfully with this eco-friendly and frugal method. Lots of stylish ones are on the market to increase the wow factor.
Hot dog rolls to the rescue.
Learned this sandwich idea from a science author and his wife that used to live up the road from us. They were on the road frequently with book tours. Mixing up tuna, egg, chicken or ham salad and putting some into basic whole wheat hot dog buns was how they ate while driving down the highway or sitting at a rest stop. They are long and narrow, making them easy to hold, and the bottom side is always closed, reducing the chances that your lunch sandwich filling will end up in your lap. How cool is that?
Got any other road warrior tips? Post away so the rest of us can benefit. I don't have to do the car meal thing so much anymore, but when I do, these are some of the tips that make it a bit easier.
Best of Wise Bread
Not sure if I misunderstood this but looks like this article is about eating while driving.
Eating while driving is not only stupid but also dangerous. This is even worse than driving and talking on the mobile phone. People should be fined for doing these kinds of activities.
Some camp stoves are safer more convenient than others. I use a little alcohol stove made by Trangia. The stove fits nicely on the floor of the car, but I like to get out and stretch if I can. With the Trangia, your menu options include soup, hot dogs, oatmeal...
A butane stove might be even easier, but the cartridges are costly and bad for the environment. For one person, an alcohol stove seems just about perfect.
I guess I figured that went without saying. Apparently not.
When on my own, I'm usually grabbing a nibble while waiting for the gas to be pumped, or when I'm navigating and my husband is driving or vice versa when we are switching out. Also, for long stops at red lights I feel I'm not violating any safety protocols to grab a bit of trail mix. In addition, I was also referring to not having time to go anywhere and sit down to lunch. Needing to wolf down a sandwich before turning the key is an example, as is nibbling on snack mix on the way in to the next meeting or product drop off. Many people are forced to earn their living by virtually functioning out of their cars for the day, office activities and road files included.
Although, I have to say, I've never heard of doing the stove thing except if staying in the car while traveling through Europe or New Zealand.
There are only a few fruits, unfortunately, that I think make for decent car food. Most will leave you fairly sticky and in need of a good clean up. However, berries and grapes both seem to work out pretty well for me. At worst, I have to deal with the grape stem afterwads.
I have a 90 mile commute to work, and a 90 mile commute home, due to the fact that there are no jobs where I live, and no houses that I can afford near where I work (sigh)...
So I am always eating on the run. Not necessarily eating while driving, I have found that to be a bad idea if a person wants to be a conscientious driver, but there are a lot of times when the most timely thing is to eat when I gas up or something.
One of the things I do is bring things that can be microwaved, and then use the gas station's microwave to warm them up. I have found that, like the other poster said, most fruits are not good "commuting" foods, but they can be if you plan ahead--use an apple corer/slicer to divvy up the apple and viola!!!
Another convenience food I do is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I sit down and make about two or three dozen of them at once, then put them all in the freezer. When I need one, it's ready to eat in about 20 minutes of sitting on the kitchen counter, or in a lunch bag in the car!
This sounds like the introduction to a Darwin Award story :)
We've been car camping and backpacking for decades, and the conventional wisdom is to NEVER light a fire in an enclosed space. Cars (like tents) are made of flammable materials, and even if you avoid knocking over the stove (and the portable models I have used are notoriously unstable), the incompletely oxidized fuel could create carbon monoxide.
Please always use these outdoors, on a surface that is not likely to ignite.
On a related note, my father in law served in the Army in Germany in the 1950's and said that they would warm their canned rations (C-rats) on the manifold of the jeep while driving. They had it timed to miles per can, and usually got it right, so that they had hot beans or chili when they stopped. Sometimes, they forgot the can, and then had to deal with the exploded contents all over the inside of the engine compartment (and the smell too)
Good for staying on your diet or health program while on a roadtrip: prepeeled hard boiled egg, cheese sticks(Atkins diet), carrot,celery, zucchini,red or green pepper sticks, rounds of cucumber, small poptop cans of fruit or vegetable juice, cans of unsalted nuts.
If I know I am going to be in the car running errands most of the day I will pack up portable things to eat and a travel bottle with water or juice in it. I store it in one of those larger insulated lunch box six pack sized soft cooler bags with an ice pack.
Cubed up meat, cheese and cut veggies are pretty easy to do. I also keep a small plastic container of either shelled sunflower seeds or almonds in the console of the car in case I get a case of the I forgot to eat and now I'm getting low blood sugar dizzies.
When we road trip we pack things from the house in zip lock bags and buy some individual serving things from the grocery. A soda from the grocery store or pretty much anything else is going to be cheaper than buying the same thing at a convenience store. We also started packing some decent gourmet sandwiches to take with. You feel like you have the better deal when your cooler sandwich is better than any of the expensive fast food options on the road.
A tailgate BBQ? More my speed. Although, I've seen those VW vans that are like houses on wheels, so . . .
P.S. Glad to see there's another Darwin Awards fan out there. Hilarious movie!
BigRed, how did they secure the cans?
I've read about some of this, but never actually seen pictures - and I'd worry about losing it when slinging the car around hills and curves.
One story I read was about a revenue agent who found a Canadian trying to smuggle vodka wrapped in tinfoil in the engine compartment, because he didn't know where the engine was on a VW, but didn't want to look foolish.
For eating/heating: Grilled cheese sandwiches frozen, or tossed in the fridge heat up nicely on the dashboard (assuming you've got an old-school non-sloped dashboard), given the solar cooker conditions most cars are in parking lots. Toss it up there when you park in the morning, head out at lunch and get a hot sandwich. Nothing that will go bad sitting around for a day (no mayo, lettuce to get wilty, etc).
PB&J sandwiches were all I ate in grade school. Made them up on sunday afternoon (bread sales on the weekend), tossed them all in the freezer, pulled out one (or two) a day.
When we've taken car trips departing early with my son, a container of dry cereal and a sippy cup of milk makes for a portable, low-mess breakfast.
