Road Food

"Never eat more than you can lift." - Miss Piggy

It's hard to decide where to be frugal and where to indulge on a trip of this nature.  We want to experience as much as possible, and that includes food, to an extent.  I certainly plan to indulge in a Chicago-style pizza, a brat at Lambeau field, a cowboy steak in Yellowstone, and a Mickey Mouse ice cream on Main Street in Disneyland.  Breakfast, however, has never been an important consideration on our vacations.  We often stick to a cold pop-tart or a hastily inhaled granola bar before running off to the amusement of our choice.  I have no problem with being cheap about breakfast on this trip.  However, I think two weeks of granola bars might be a bit much, even for me.

So this weekend, as we get ready to head off to Ohio for a camping trip and Packers pre-season game, we put together a couple of options for a road food breakfast or snack.  First, we made this really tasty trail mix:

It has peanuts, raisins, golden raisins, dried cranberries, dark chocolate raisins, and M&Ms. Yum.  Ever since we made it, the kids can't wait to leave, because it will be time to eat the trail mix.  Then Nick and I whipped up a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins:

Yes, I know.  The common thread of our food is chocolate, and chocolate doesn't do so well in a hot car.  We're most likely going to bring a cooler with us on the trip, and I will buy a few of the giant plastic bags to keep food like this dry and cool. Conversely, both of these recipes could be made without the chocolate elements.  But what would be the point of that, really?