Disclaimer: I want to make it clear I am not a “health expert”, not even close. When I say “healthy snacks”, I mean nutritious in that it contains mostly whole and minimally processed foods, with either nutritional value, fiber, protein, or zero processed sugar. All of the foods I list here have 1-6 ingredients. If you want real advice, I recommend paying someone with real qualifications.
I love a good road trip. In the past two years, I’ve road tripped to and through 25 different States. When it comes to snacks to keep me awake, focused on the road, and satisfied, it’s been a lot of trial and error. My favorite thing to eat on the road used to be gummy worms from the gas station (I mean—-I’ll still take some of those though). Ugh. Sour Trolli are the best. But I learned that I would just shove these into my face, not even think about it or enjoy them, and be hungry five seconds later.
Last week, my partner and I took a road trip from the Mid West to the East Coast (United States). 12 hours each way. We went camping and saw some family. In an effort to not stop at a bunch of restaurants and gas stations for food and snacks, I made sure we packed all of my favorite healthy (ish) snacks. Here are my top 5 favorite heathy road trip snacks:
Beef Jerky
Beef Jerky is an obvious answer for a camper or road tripper. High in protein to keep you full, tasty, compact in it’s packaging — all good characteristics of a wonderful road trip snackie snack. One of my biggest hang-ups, however, has been how many jerky brands have a bunch of added sugar, and weird ingredients. Friggin jerky JERKS. There are a few brands that use zero sugar, such as Tillamook Country Smoker. Another brand I really like, Stryve, air dries their jerky . The only ingredients in their jerky is beef, vinegar, salt, spices, and casing. It’s unbelievable, and tastes so good!
Parmesan Crisps
Keto bros will rave to you all day about parmesan crisps. But it’s not completely (key word: COMPLETELY) unwarranted. If you get a good brand of parmesan crisps, such as Parm Crisps, the only ingredient is parmesan cheese, and a single serving contains 9 g of protein, 7 g of fat, and 0 carbs (hence, KETO BROS). What I like about them is their crunchiness gives me the satisfaction of a chip, but they are so rich in cheese that after eating a few of them you’re like woah, I gotta stop, this is TOO much.
Freeze Dried Strawberries
Regular dried fruit can be bad news bears because it often contains of an unnecessary coating of sugar, and sometimes additional oils and preservatives. It basically takes the healthiest part of fruit (the massive amounts of water), RUINS it by drying, then ruins it some more with other added crap. Smh. Freeze dried fruit, such as my favorite option, strawberries, is the way to go. The only ingredient on this bad boy is “freeze dried strawberries”. I like these because they are tart, sweet, and crunchy, and give you a little boost of sugar without the overkill. I also love freeze dried mangos.
Pickles
Ahh pickles. Pickles are great because you can basically eat them until your mouth bleeds (?). I think. They are kind of precarious (read: juicy AF) to eat as a driver but definitely great as a passenger. And, yeah, you can eat them all day, they keep your electrolytes up I think (not that driving is vigorous activity), and their crunchiness are both satisfying and make you feel like your eating a large volume of food, a good alternative to something like chips.
Hard Boiled Eggs
Okay. here’s where things get “controversial”. Hard boiled eggs are infamous for that STANK. And in a car? Girl, are you crazy? Yes, I am. To prevent the eggs from smelling really bad when you crack them open in your already stuffy car, make sure you do not overcook them, and make sure they are 100% cool before you refrigerate them. Also maybe crack a window? They are meant to be refrigerated — so if you bring hard eggs to your epic road trip, they will only really be good for day one unless you have some kind of refrigeration (cooler?) system. If you bring a cooler with you, the eggs will last about a day, maybe longer if you have a YETI (spoiler alert–I don’t).
There’s plenty of other good road trip snacks, these are just the ones I had one my most recent road trip, and the ones that I feel are the best. If you’re a vegan–sorry. There’s other options (nuts anyone?) I did not include because I have zero self control.
What are your favorite road trip snacks? Let me know in the comments.