Large family Car trips- Planning food

One of our favorite things to do as a family is to take Sunday drives.  Sometimes we only travel to the next county and sometimes we drive until the sun goes down and we are forced to turn around and go home.  These drives have helped us to keep the Sabbath, visit nearby treasures and spend quality time together as a family.  For day trips I try to plan our food ahead of time, even if it's just a grocery list of items to pick up on our way out of town.  Here are some quick foods to consider along with some tips to make meal time easier on the road.  I will have a part two coming up shortly with a list of food ideas for overnight camping and hotel trips!

• Bananas: they come in their own package.
• Frozen yogurt sticks: They won't spill if they are frozen :-)
• Frozen water bottles: used as ice packs and drinking water
• Cheese sticks
• Peanut butter and Jelly
• Bread
• Apples
• Tiny oranges
• Beef Jerky
• Trail Mix (Make a bunch of snack bags ahead of time to hand out to little ones in the car)

I make sure there are at least three plastic grocery bags on three different benches for trash!
I also pack a nice thick picnic blanket, tablecloth and a folding chair for myself.  We have stopped in some really funny places to make PB&J sandwiches including a ghost town, a cemetery or two and even on an old walking bridge!

There are times when all I bring is a huge jar of PB and food to dip in it and there are times when I feel like I go all out and make huge sub sandwiches and cookies!  I want to make sure the things I pack will have a high protein punch, low mess and low trash.  I try to keep it simple!  To keep it simple I pack pretty much the same things every Sunday, which might be boring for some, but we really want to have an affordable family day where exploration and relationship are the focus and simple helps us accomplish this!

One last note: We found that protein bars aren't really worth the cost for us.  Three of our children seem to get diarrhea from them (sorry TMI) and the others are hungry right away after eating them!  So instead of paying nearly a dollar for a fancy granola bar I opt to pack our own protein no bake cookies or just stick to PB and nuts!