Have you ever been on a road trip and felt like you would absolutely not live if you were going to have to eat another greasy cheeseburger? We have too!! If you’re like us and you can’t handle the sugar crash – these healthy road trip snacks are for you!
A Few Tips on Eating Clean During YOur Adventures
There’s a lot of information around the web about eating clean and different diet plans. Everybody needs to find what works for their body though!
On our blog, we’ve suggested a ton of food recommendations from many different cities like our guide to the most epic tacos all around Louisville, Kentucky! While we love giving those recommendations and think all of these restaurants are worth a try – eating clean Keto has made us feel our best.
For us, this means having a general rule of thumb that half of everything we eat for the day should be green and the rest should be good quality meats and fats. Good fats are good quality cheeses, avocados, good oils, nuts, high-fat seafood, etc.
Foods To Avoid On Your Road Trip
So when we say we try to avoid them – we really mean that we try to eat clean during the week and then do 80% good on the weekends. Whenever we’ve eaten clean for a while and then we ‘splurge’ on something we’re craving – it always tastes a little better! It’s not easy but it is worth it!
Are we gonna eat the fried fish on a hot summer day in Louisville with a cold beer? Ya.
It’s not gonna be clean but there’s more to life sometimes than a perfectly strict diet. Anywho, here are some things we’ve tried to avoid:
- Artificial Trans Fats – Typically fats are great in a low carb/sugar free diet. Artificial trans fats howver, give you brain fog and no one wants to miss out on their adventures!
- Processed Meats – Sometimes it’s inevitable that you’re going to eat a turkey cheese roll up. (They’re delicious and reminiscent of all of our childhoods!) Typically we love charcuterie style meats – but they tend to be really high in salt. Being high in salt means you’ll inevtitably be more thirsty meaning you’ll have to stop more often. Do your driver a favor and stay away from these!
- Fried Food – Again with the whole cranky, tired, when-will-this-road-trip-end feeling?It’s so tempting to drive through a CookOut to grab a burger and a watermelon milkshake. They’ll feel amazing going down – but you’re better off with your healthy road trip snacks in the long haul!
- High Carb/Sugary Foods – One of our favorite candies in the world are Trollie gummy worms. MAN are they delicous! The only problem is they make us feel all kinds of unwell after we inevitably eat the whole bag. If you’re like us and you have no self-control – dive right on into the sugar free road trip desserts below!!
If you want more information on why we try to avoid those things in heavy quantities – see here.
Easy Veggies For Healthy RoadTrip Snacks
When we look at what kinds of veggies to take on our road trips – there are two categories. Some are good as dippers into ranch or our favorite ‘Everything But The Bagel’ Dip. Some veggies are good on their own and pair well with cheeses and wine etc for picnics!!
BONUS: All of these are sugar-free!
- Broccoli – Always cut them up before you go. You can buy big bags of just the florets if you need to keep it really simple!
- Baby Carrots – Yes, baby carrots really are just big carrots cut up. However, when you’re reaching for your favorite healthy road trip snack – the last thing you want is to have to cut it up and skin it etc. (Not grabbing the easy stuff is basicall telling yourself to slide through that McD’s drive through and grab some french fires!)
- Raddishes – These are great to dip and great for adding a healthy crunch to sandwiches! The best way to cut these up is to use a mandoline slicer before your trip. We use it constantly before every trip and it helps cut down our prep time by half! (See more of our low waste kitchen must haves here.)
- Celery – The best for a crisp dipper!Absolutely love that satisfying crunch!
- Cucumbers – Cucumbers are good all on their own – but you can dip these into almost anything and they’ll be tasty!!
- Bell Peppers – Can be sliced up and dipped in hummus, but you can also cut one whole bell pepper in half to use as a no-carb alternative to sanwhich bread! (See below for our favorite bell pepper sandwich recipe!)
The Best Fruit To Take On Road Trips
We highly recommend that you do not eat dried fruit while you’re on a road trip – and especially not in large quantities.
Have you ever picked up a package of dried fruits at your local grocery store and looked at the ingredients? Even the ‘higher quality’ brands have around 10 grams of carbs and high fructose corn syrup! If you’re looking for an easy snack for road trips – you’re better off eating real fruit!!
- Bananas – The biggest reason to bring bannas on road trips is that they are high in potassium! Potassium is the best thing for roadtrippers planning on doing alot of hiking! You’ll keep from cramping up etc.
- Cherries – These don’t have to go in the cooler which makes them ideal for saving space!
- Oranges – Easy no mess snacks for hiking.
- Apples – Great to dip into almond butter, peanut butter etc.
- Squeezable Applesauce – Get the no-sugar added, organic kinds like GoGo Squeeze! The best part about these is that they’re affordable. A box of 18 is less than $9!
- Clementines / Cuties – Like oranges but a little easier to peel if you have little hands in the car with you.
- Grapes – The hydrating and filling snack we all need.
- Lemons – great for flavoring water and squeezing over any meat you cook over the fire!! While you defintiely need snacks – rememebr at some point you may be cooking too. Always consider packing foods that can do double duty!
P.S. If you run out of fruits and veggies while on the road – one of our favorite things is to stop at roadside stands!!! Local farmers (especially if you’re in the South) are so nice too!
The Best Protein Sources For road trips
- Beef Jerkey – Try to find zero sugar brands. We don’t have a secific brand we always get –
- Hard Boiled Eggs – easily prepared and easily stored!
- Charcuteries Style Meats – We love these for healthy road trip picnics.
- Baked Chickpeas – These are super easy to prep for road trips. Figure out what flavor profile you like – toss them in some seasonings and olive oil and you have a perfectly crunchy snack!
- Cheeses – American, goulda and cheddar cheeses are always great go-tos!
- String Cheese – String cheese is the easy way to through a healthy road trip snack in your bag when you’re hopping out really quickly. Spontaneous roadside attractions are great – but no one should feel like they’re being pushed off from lunch!
- Greek Yogurt – High in protein, the best part about greek yogurt is that it can be used as a breakfast snack – or in place of sour cream for any snack you may make while on the road!
- Homemade Trail Mix – Unsweetened shredded coconut, sugar free chocolate chips, pecans,
- No Bake Protein Balls
- Tunafish – Great for when you want something a little different and packed with all of the Omega-3’s you need to fuel your adventures.
- Pistachios – Packed with good quality fats and fiber, pistachios are a great road trip snack because they don’t require much forthought!
- Buffalo Chicken Fat Bombs – Something you’ll find on roadtrips is that you’re constantly needing to tide yourself over between adctivities and the next time you hit civilization. (Because as any true road tripper knows – the best adventures are where the towns are sparse and views go on for days!!) Buffalo Chicken Fat bombs are amazing for our fellow Keto Eaters! There are only 2 grams of carbs per ball and well worth the 15 minute prep time. If you’re thinking about making them – just remember to use canned chicken or a rotisserie chicken. It makes it so much easier if you don’t have to precook the chicken!!
Dips and dippers
As much as it sounds good to snack on completely healthy veggies and snacks only – sometimes you need something crunchy!! Crackers and chips are pretty much road trip staples, but they tend to be high in all the bad stuff.
- Homemade Veggie Chips – Find a great recipe here!!
- Crackers – Get our recipe for easy low carb almond flour crackers here!!
For healthy/easy road trip dips, we recommend sticking to things that can also be used for a full-on meal. Anything that can be added to sandwiches or used for breakfast as well.
- PB Fit (Sugar Free) – One of our favorite space savers on road trips is PB FIt. It’s a peanut butter powder that can be made sugar free!
- Guacamole – Even though it’s super easy to make on your own, (literaly just avacados, a pinch of onion and garlic powders, salt, lime juice and tomatoes), it’s sometimes easier to grab little premade containers. If you’re doing this – do yourself a favor and make sure that the first ingredient says ‘avacados’. A good quality pre packaged quacamole should have less that 6-7 ingredients!!
For the best sugar-free sauces to add to your favorite healthy road trip snacks – our favorite is the brand ‘Primal Kitchen’. All of their sauces are sugar-free, gluten-free, no canola oil, corn syrup, or added sugars.
- Ranch – Ranch is one of our favorite condiments because it’s easy to find naturally sugar free, keto friendly options. Available at almost any grocery store – we’ve noticed that the more budget friendly brands seem to have no sugar!
- Sugar Free BBQ Sauce – Great for when you’re on the road and need your own sauce! We’ve been there when the smell of Chik Fil A’s grilled nuggets getcha! Planning healthy roadtrip snacks means acounting for all of condiments too.
pre-packed Healthy Road Trip Snacks
- Protein Bars – Make sure you find protein bars that aren’t high in added sugars. If you start doing some label reading – you’ll know all brands are not made the same. We like Perfect Bars, but they do have to stay refrigerated until you’re ready to eat. A couple of other great options are
- Hummus – To be dipped with celery, carrots etc. – but also a great spread!
- Almond Butter – We try to avoid peanut butter becuase it’s typically pretty high in sugar and carbs even if you get the organic kind. It’s a great alternative if you’re not into the PB Fit from above!
- Korean BBQ Seaweed Snacks – Here’s what we love about these – the individual packs of seaweed snacks make it super easy to get in the salt you need while also having a crunchy snack that doesn’t sit heavy! If you’re on a road trip – you know that your biggest enemy is getting tired while you drive. Eating high carb or sugary foods will enevitably cause you to be drowsy, and thats where seaweed snacks come in. Satisfyingly crunchy and delish!
- Sunflower Seeds – These typically tend to be really good quality snack that are sugar free even when packaged. If you’re stopping at a gas station and need extra snacks – thse are some of the bes options and available everywhere!
- Sea Salt Dry Roasted Edamame – This tasty high protein snack is great for our vegan road trip friends looking for a healthy snack!
- Annies Organic Fruit Snacks – Gluten free, and literally some of the best bunnies on the planet! If you’re going to eat sugar – you might as well grab these organic gummies!!
- Sugar Free Chocolate – Lets face it – sometimes you just need a little chocolate fix! dark chocolate, sea salted almond milk chocolate. This pack as it all!
The Best Drinks To Take On Road Trips
- Seltzer Waters – La Croix etc.
- Cranberry Juice – We love bring cranberry juice as a mixer – but also because it’s a good source of antioxidants and gets rid of any pesky UTI’s that may come up while hiking long distances.
- Coconut Water – Rids your body of free radicals becuase it’s high in antioxidants. For all of our adventure enthusiast friends, coconut water is a must! (Plus it tastes great in smoothies!)
- Wine – If you’re planning on stopping for a picnic anywhere, grab yourself a decent bottle of wine! We also pack insulated wine/co*cktail tumblers so that we don’t have to pack any glass.
- Bourbon – We’re partial to Bulleit, but just about any bourbon would do if you’re looking to warm up by a campfire somewhere!! Bulleit is also one of our favorite bourbons to drink strait – which means you don’t have to add anyhting sugary to it to make it taste good. If you need a mixer – the best thing about bringing bourbon along is that almost anything you like will mix well!!
- Water – It may seem silly to mention but it’s absolutely necessary that you pack more water than you need. Any mishaps can be safely managed if you pack enough water.
The Best Hearty lunches To Take On Road Trips
The best part about road trip snacks is that most of them can be combined to make other more filling things, as per the case with all of these hearty lunches below.
P.S. If you know us – you know that we absolutely LOVE sammiches! (AKA sandwiches for those that don’t speak ‘ridiculous’!) When we make up a delicious sammich for the road – I (Shelbs) usually bake fresh bread and it’s a delicious way to remove additives from your food.
We’ve already shown you all our beloved veggie sammich on fresh bread. So here are a few other meals that you can throw together super easily on a road trip!
- Bell Pepper Sandwiches – We just learned about this one and we’re loving it! Cut a bell pepper in half and you have perfectly easy sandwich ends to keep in all of the extra veggies and such? A Greek flair is our favoite, (feta, cucumbers, chicken, mozerella etc.) P.S. The greek yogurt you packed away to have for breakfasts is a great addition to these sandwiches!!
- Meat and Cheese Roll-Ups – A road trip classic.
- Ham and Cream Cheese Wheels – If you’re looking for some good quality fat with some protein – these are your go to! (The great thing about these is that they take up very little space!) Simply spread cream cheese into your favorite lunch meat and you’re good to go for at least an hour or two.
- PB&B Sandwich– Peanut butter and banana sandwiches are always a good go to when you need to make lunch on the road for a hike! Not only do they pack well but they stay good wrapped up in your backpack – we always take a roll of foil to make it easier to pack!
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Until next time friends,
