Best tips for packing healthy food?

[momtotwolittleones]

We'll be driving for our 5 day trip in Aug, and I'd like to have some healthy snacks to bring to the park with us. I have a 9yo and a 6yo. We are staying at DLH so will have a fridge. Do they have a microwave? Here are some thoughts I had, and would appreciate feedback:

hard boiled eggs, cereal and milk (for breakfast in the room)
clif bars
dried apricots
walnuts and cashews
?????

I found apples and string cheese to be problematic last time - string cheese got hot and mushy, and I was throwing away a lot of half eaten apples at the park.

I'd love some easy to pack food suggestions!

 

[jory29]

Please don't take the hard boiled eggs unless they are pickled - hard boiled eggs spoil easily, and I don't want you to ruin your trip!! Nuts, beef jerky, instant soup in a cup, fresh fruit, fruit leather, trail mix, etc. are all super traveling foods. Individual goldfish crackers or cookies are great, as are the individual bags of cheetos, etc.

 

[disfan07]

no microwaves at the DLH

 

[jenergy]

Hard boiled eggs? That's just nasty. I'd go with the cereal every morning if that's your only alternative. As far as snacks for while you're in the park - I think trail mix would probably be the best choice. That and water is all you really need.\

Dried fruit is good but can be found in trail mix.
Clif bars I'd use as a breakfast and not as much as a snack.

 

[carolinamama]

I bought some shelf stable Horizon organic milk boxes to keep in the fridge. We're not taking them in to the park, but at least I know my DD can have organic milk in the room when we're all needing refreshment.

I also love the new little squeeze packs of applesauce/other pureed fruits. Our local store carries this kind - www.buddyfruits.com. I've even seen them at Toys R Us .

 

[WonkaKid]

We'll often bring things like whole wheat bread and unsweetened peanut butter. Then we can make as many sandwiches as needed in the morning. We'll also bring one or two other things (like tea and honey) and stash them in a locker in the morning. In fact, when we drive down from LA we'll bring something really nice from one of the great vegan restaurants. Obviously this doesn't work for multi-day trips. But it's a great thing for the first day.

Best of luck!

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

If you like bananas I'd have some of those for in the room for breakfast. I would still consider the apples because they pack well. Get the "lunchbox" size ones and just be encouraged if they eat some since it will be healthier than the French fries they might be eating later. Grapes also work ok for car ride, breakfast, and early morning park snack before they are too travelled and squished.

 

[momtotwolittleones]

The hard boiled eggs are for eating in the room - we're only a 5 hour drive, and they can be kept cold in a cooler. We do it all the time for Tahoe, and my older son loves them for breakfast.

I did lug pb&j with bread one time, but my kids weren't interested once we were in the parks. I guess that could work for breakfast.

 

[kstand]

To make pb&j more interesting and packable, try getting some whole wheat tortillas and individual justin's nut butter packets. Spread and roll. The packets are neat, organic, packable, and come in yummy flavors besides peanut butter. You can also lift some jelly packs from Denny's or somewhere or take along some honey straws to add. Sliced bananas or even dried bananas, apricots or raisins would be good on there, too.

Hard cheese, like cheddar packs better than cheese stix, shouldn't get mushy on you. For other ideas for packable, healthy snacks, check out backpacking sites like backpacker magazine.

I think hard-boiled eggs are a fine idea, but will make your room stink .

 

[Gisele]

Target has a tasty selection of trail mixes, and they are well priced. Many Target stores have recently added much variety to their market pantry too. So you will find additional foods that travel well. Such as their p b & j sandwiches. They also sell fruit now.
Target as well has a good selection of the drink add ins. As well as a good price on water. Don't forget about their dollar and $2.50 spot. Often one can find Disney merchandise there, and other useful products as well. In their camping department, you can buy collapsible drinking cups, as well as emergency rain ponchos (For water rides or the rain) for next to nothing. Both come in different colors too. Also, you can sign up for their newsletter, and find deals and specials before anyone else.
How about those lunchables? They are compact, tasty and travel well in a cooler.


Have a great and wonderful trip and visit to the land!

 

[Queen Elisabeth]

Also, if your little ones are small, try cutting your sandwiches up into cute shapes with cookie cutters. That makes pretty much anything more appealing to my young ones.

My kids also really like baby carrots, so little servings of those are always good travel food for them. Oh, and bananas as someone said before are great and travel well, as do cuties (clementine oranges).

 

[RweTHEREyet]

The hard boiled eggs are for eating in the room - we're only a 5 hour drive, and they can be kept cold in a cooler. We do it all the time for Tahoe, and my older son loves them for breakfast.

I did lug pb&j with bread one time, but my kids weren't interested once we were in the parks. I guess that could work for breakfast.

I second those hard boiled eggs, full of protein.

 

[DizMe]

We occasionally buy toddler meals (there aren't any toddlers in our group!) because the cost is pretty low and the kids share the stuff for snacks. You get things like milk, carrots, apple slices, rice, chicken, etc. It's also a lot easier than lugging it around yourself.

I like to make my own trailmix so I know what's in it. Just put together what your kids like...pretzels, raisins/dried fruit, nuts, and so on. You can throw in a handful of M&Ms to make it more appealing to kids

I really like carrots for my kids. They are easy to pack, don't squash or turn brown, and my kids love them.

I make a "granola" for myself which is very simple. Only one of my kids eats it unless it's mixed with yogurt, but the 2 of us love it. You just toast almonds on a baking sheet on one shelf of the oven and oats mixed with wheat germ on another. Cook for about 15-20 min at 350. That's it! Chop the nuts and mix them with the oats/wheat germ. Add dried or fresh fruit, mix with yogurt, etc. I prefer mine with milk and cut up dates. Anyway, it's easy to pack for a trip, either in a ziploc or tupperware container.

 

[Mugglemama]

The foods/snacks we pack for our DLR trips are:

Raisins
Dried apples (these are easy to make at home with a dehydrator)
Granola Bars
Loose granola (WinCo has a yummy cranberry granola that my kids LOVE)
Yogurt Raisins (we buy it in bulk at WinCo)
Bananas
Yogurt (our room has a fridge, though. You could take a small cooler and keep refilling it with ice from the hotel ice machine if you want to keep yogurt).

On our next trip, I'm also going to bring carrot sticks, and fruit leathers.

 

[Gisele]

A word of caution regarding hard boiled eggs.......... too many make for one stinky trip! So make sure that your windows can be rolled down in your car, or at your hotel.
My old gramps Charley once ate so many hard boiled eggs during one of our trips that when my grandma Josephina Willamina went to light her cigar there was a small explosion that occurred. What can we say.... at the wrong place and at the wrong time. It was a hoot though, because my grandparents went around for awhile looking like a raccoon, from the smoke cloud. It was a pretty big one too. Now we limit my grandpas egg intake or else history just might repeat it self.

 

[Mugglemama]

A word of caution regarding hard boiled eggs.......... too many make for one stinky trip! So make sure that your windows can be rolled down in your car, or at your hotel.
My old gramps Charley once ate so many hard boiled eggs during one of our trips that when my grandma Josephina Willamina went to light her cigar there was a small explosion that occurred. What can we say.... at the wrong place and at the wrong time. It was a hoot though, because my grandparents went around for awhile looking like a raccoon, from the smoke cloud. It was a pretty big one too. Now we limit my grandpas egg intake or else history just might repeat it self.

I don't think I'll ever be able to look at hard boiled eggs again...

 

[sasywtch]

The foods/snacks we pack for our DLR trips are:

Raisins
Dried apples (these are easy to make at home with a dehydrator)
Granola Bars
Loose granola (WinCo has a yummy cranberry granola that my kids LOVE)
Yogurt Raisins (we buy it in bulk at WinCo)
Bananas
Yogurt (our room has a fridge, though. You could take a small cooler and keep refilling it with ice from the hotel ice machine if you want to keep yogurt).

On our next trip, I'm also going to bring carrot sticks, and fruit leathers.

I love my WinCo!

 

[pixiewings71]

Hard boiled eggs are great as long as they are kept cold, which the OP will clearly do. In fact, I think I'll make some when we are in Vegas as 2 of my family members love them and will eat them as snacks or for breakfast.

We take lunch meats for sandwiches, we take PB&J and bread for bfasts, we take trail mix, dried fruits, nuts and our own water bottles. Never had any problems getting any of it in the parks. The sandwiches we do in our room, we usually eat at least 1 meal at the parks, most days we ate 2 but we tried to eat well in the parks when we did that. Eating salads and sandwiches can be done in the parks.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[mommyof2boys1girl]

Friut was easy to find at the parks - not so much with veggies - we ordered carrots and peppers from Von's grocery delivery, then brought them to the park. Also, to keep things cold, we ordered yogurt tubes, and froze them. If they melted, oh well, the kids ate yogurt. If they stayed frozen, they had yogurt freezies! It was all good either way! You could take a tiny, soft sided cooler for cheese strings as well, since they would stay cooler with the frozen tubes. I got a small cooler at wal-mart - about 8 inches by 8 inches by 3 inches - doesn't hold much, but didn't take much room either.
My kids also like home-made granola bars, so we brought some of those too. Very healthy, because I control what goes into 'em! and what the kids don't know, won't hurt 'em!

 

[pixiewings71]

The parks do have a much much better selection of fuits and veggies at their open air stands. Carrots w/ranch, celery w/ranch, they had trail mix there, fruits w/dips etc etc. But we found it cheaper to bring our own in, we just skipped the ranch.