Food on a Camping Road trip

The camp stove I used for the road trip

At the start of my journey I had 2 medium size coolers filled with perishable food I had prepped and could easily cook on my camp stove. I had ideas of grandeur that I would make full meals for most of the trip. This lasted like 2 days and then it was a lot of gas station food after that.

However, before I left, I did stock up on a ton of hearty cans of soup (Amys, Pacific and Kettle & Fire brands) that were bone broth based or high in protein to have for dinner each evening.

My daily eating sort of looked like this:

Breakfast: Quest or One bar (these bars have about 20 grams of protein and are high in fiber)

Lunch: Subway salad (spinach based with tons of other veggies and grilled chicken)

Some small bag of chips

Snack: Beef Jerky

Dinner: Soup and often sausage or ham that I would cook and cut up and add to the soup!

I swear if it wasn’t for Subway having salads, I would not have had a single vegetable on my journey.

For whatever reason, most of the routes that I took were way off the beaten path and the grocery stores were too off course for me to feel like it was worth it to go out of my way. Prepare for this to be the case if you plan on going off the grid.

I also want to note that I traveled during August and all my Quest/One bars melted, so if you have the space to put those in the cooler before they turn to mush, you should!

Storing and Preparing food on the road:

Coolers:

I had one regular Coleman medium cooler. I specifically got this one because it was narrow but tall, allowing me to fit it on the floor of the backseat.

I also found this gem of a cooler on Amazon that actually plugs in and acts like a refrigerator. It has a dual setting that can also keep the contents warm as well. This was able to fit in the backseat floor area behind the other seat. It was important that nothing was laid on top or covering the fan that generated the cooling effect. This was a challenge, as my car was very full, and I had to regularly check it to ensure it didn’t accidentally overheat and blow a fuse.

Another tidbit of information on this cooler, it does say that you need to unplug it from the outlet each time you turn off the car. This is to avoid a surge of power when you turn the ignition back on that could potentially blow a fuse in the cooler. I remembered half the time to unplug it and it is still functioning fine.

As far as preservation of food, I would purchase bags of ice in intervals just about every other day at gas stations when I filled up. This seemed to do fine. I did end up getting overwhelmed doing this for two coolers for so many days and halfway through my trip, I condensed everything into the refrigerated cooler.

I had most of my non-perishable food and cooking utensils stored in a single bin that I had in the back of the hatchback. I found it key to have a lot of ways to store food. I had a variety of sizes of containers and Ziplock bags that helped a lot for the Tetris skills it takes sometimes to fit things into a cooler.

Preparing Food:

Knowing that I would not likely have guaranteed access to a table or surface to cook on each night, I invested in a Coleman camp table. I gotta tell you, this table was a lifesaver and a very good choice for my experience. I could easily set up a surface for my camp stove and prepare a meal then sit down and eat it right there.

My general set up for eating dinner!

I had a single burner butane camp stove that I would use to cook my food once I set up camp for the night. I did a lot of research (I watched YouTube camp stove reviews) before I left for my trip for the best stoves and ultimately, I decided butane was easier to deal with than propane.

I had a pot for heating up soup and a small 8” cast iron pan for cooking sausage and vegetables.

I had a small plastic bin that I put dirty dishes in and would occasionally use public bathrooms to wash my dishes or one the few times I stayed at hotel/motel; I would do dishes there.

As far as water goes, I had three-four 16-20 oz. water bottles filled. I had several gallons of water in the back of my car to refill any of my bottles when needed.

Water is key on trips like this, I highly recommend having at least 2-3 gallons of water at all times in some fashion in your car. I am a fan of larger containers of water (even better, the water containers that have the spout) that can then fill water bottles. This saves on plastic waste.

Additionally, having extra water on hand can be helpful for when you are dispersed camping and there’s no access to running water for brushing your teeth, washing your face and body.

What are your go to road trip/camp meals or food? Comment below!