Road tripping can get tricky if you are trying to watch what you eat or for vegetarians foodies like my family. We make sure not to compromise on what we eat just because we stepped outside our home. :) Yeah right, we have our priorities set. LOL

Few thing I considered before planning a menu for the trip

Hotel suit with a kitchenette (Stove, microwave & refrigerator) **
Decided what kind of trip we wanted.
1. Last time when we went on a road trip, we booked a nice hotel with spa, we spent all 4 days in the hotel suite, enjoying amenities and relaxing. So I prepped a lot more for that stay. This time we decided to get out and keep moving. So I figured it's easier for me to think about breakfast and dinner.
Look for hotels with complimentary breakfast, being a vegetarian sometimes its hard to have breakfast choices even if hotels provides, My husband is particular about eggless breads, so we took them with us.
Number of people road tripping together.
How many stops - Believe it or not, number of stops you decide to make before you get in the car actually works.

BREAKFAST MEAL PREP

We took easy to make and filling breakfast that each person can make on their own.

Porridge - Check my multigrain porridge recipe
Oats - Oats with fruits is delicious, filling & easy.
Bread - with jam or hummus

My husband also likes to eat a slice of bread, with handful of trail mix (almond, cashew, raisins) with milk like cereal. He says it keeps him full until lunch.

SNACK

Nuts and fruits are perfect road trip snacks. Its easier to get our hands on greasy food while on road. It a great way to keep us on check with pre portioned snacks.

I like roasted nuts with chilli powder to snack on. Almonds and peanuts works great with a little bit of chilli powder.

Other way is to make a trial mix - Almond and raisins are combo made in heaven. Use this trail mix with milk and a bread slice to make it a filling breakfast.

Seasonal Fruits. Cant stress enough, on the importance of keeping fresh fruits in the cooler.

If you don't have cooler, other options are

Dates
Granola bars
Dried fruits

Note-

Pre-portion the snacks. I love my reusable snack pouch. A great alternate for ziploc
Have a treat for toddlers, too ease them while they lose patience

LUNCH

As I mentioned, I prepared lunch only for one day. It had to be our favorite, Tomato rice.

Its quick, simple and the paste can be prepped before. so it make a great place in road trip meals.

Note -

This has a good shelf life and can be stored in refrigerator upto a week.
while planning a picnic on the go, look for compostable / recyclable containers

DINNER

Plan for a dinner menu, that your family enjoys.
Pick something easy to put together.

I picked, Tamarind rice - Methi paratha - pasta. I simply switched cabbage with more fenugreek leaves for methi paratha.

INSTANT POT USES

I made

Porridge in instant pot. I simply added porridge mix, milk and cooked on porridge mode for 10 mins using PIP method.
Oatmeal - Oats, nuts, fruits (Manual - Hp - 2 mins)
Rice - Rice mode
Pasta - Manual-LP- 8 mins