How many times while traveling have you found yourself and your family hungry? You start looking for someplace to stop for a somewhat healthy meal only to find yourself being drawn to the delicious fast food smells.

Or, like us, you are towing an RV and find that it’s next to impossible to pull into a restaurant parking lot, so you end up at a truck stop and grab a meal there.

Here are meal ideas that you can pre-make, pack in a cooler or your RV refrigerator, and know that you and your family will be able to have a delicious, easy, and healthy meal in a rest area, truck stop parking lot, or even while traveling down the road.

3 Meal Suggestions

1. Meal Box

The great thing about a meal box is that you can put whatever you want in it. The driver can even eat this while going down the road. The kids can help you put this together, so you know they will like it. There are so many options. We love a box with a hard-boiled egg, grapes, cheese, carrots, cucumbers, and some crackers. You’d be surprised how much nutrition you can fit into a small box.

2. Premade Pasta Salad with Protein

Pasta Salad is a great option for a make-ahead lunch. You can doctor up any basic salad with add-ins to make it a satisfying meal.

Look for a pasta salad that you can boost with some type of protein, make ahead of time, and serve cold.

This BBQ Chicken Salad is packed full of flavor, veggies, and protein. It can easily be modified with a low-sugar BBQ Sauce to cut down on the amount of sugar and calories. Add some fruit, crackers, cheese sticks, etc. for a satisfying lunch.

3. Wraps – Any kind will do

Who doesn’t love a good wrap? Whether it’s meat & veggies or this sweet peanut butter and banana, a wrap is a healthy option to have in place of the burger. They can be tailored to your family’s tastes and the kids can help with this, too.

Some Great Websites with Even More Suggestions

There are so many great options out there and it really comes down to the type of meal you need for your specific situation.

Here are some great posts I pulled from everyone’s go-to for ideas—Pinterest.

1. 30 Quick Healthy Meal Prep Ideas – Whole Lotta Yum – these are great if you’re trying to eat healthily and lose weight.
2. 50 Cold Lunch Ideas – Food Lovin’ Family – Perfect for a travel day, many of these can be made the night before.
3. 30 Easy Make-Ahead Lunch Ideas – Budgeting for Bliss – If you want to take an actual lunch break, meaning getting out of the moving vehicle, this site has some great salad options and delicious sandwiches that would be easy to prepare ahead of time but difficult to eat in the car.

Conclusion

We all know the temptations and stress involved in traveling, whether for a family vacation or full-time RV living. Being prepared with a delicious, easy-to-eat lunch can at least allow you time to relax a bit before continuing on your way.

We’re Mike & Jennifer Skinnell, and together we are The Rambling Quilter. We travel the country full-time in our 41ft. fifth-wheel pulled by our F-350 – affectionately named Beauty & The Beast. Mike still works part-time, and Jennifer writes our blog, travel articles, and contemporary fiction. Our blog is purely for information and entertainment purposes. However, if you’d like to support Jennifer’s writing career, her author link is below.