After living on the road for weeks at a time, my partner and I have had to get really creative in our “kitchen”, which is usually just our stove set up in the back of our car.

On each camping trip or road trip we take we usually bring most of our own food with us just to cut down on costs.

Once or twice though depending on how long of a trip we take, we will go out for breakfast or dinner and it really is so nice to get a nice meal made for you after living out of the car for days at a time! It makes it feel just a little bit more special. And it’s always fun to see what kinds of food and restaurants are available in different cities and parts of the country.

But for all the other times when we have to make our own meals, here is my complete list of foods we make for each meal of the day plus snacks. Even if you aren’t vegan or vegetarian like us, everyone could use some easy plant-based recipes in their life!

Breakfast

• Oatmeal (we add in trail mix, hemp seeds, and agave for flavor)
• Cereal or granola with soy milk
• Peanut butter toast
• Canned or fresh fruit on the side (we eat pineapple a lot)
• Breakfast muffins (sometimes the night before our trip I will make a big batch of banana muffins and store them in an air-tight container in our snack bag for a quick breakfast)

Lunch

• PB&J’s
• Grilled (vegan) cheese and tomato soup
• Cold pasta salad with frozen veggie blend (corn, carrots, peas, green beans), cucumbers, tossed in Italian dressing (this is something I usually make the night before we leave on a road trip. I just store it in our cooler and it makes for a quick lunch)
• Prepackaged curries/ bean mixes with white rice (we usually buy the instant rice for camping)
• Gnocchi in red sauce

Dinner

• Cans of soup with saltines/ oyster crackers
• Pasta with red sauce, canned veggies, topped with grilled tofu
• White rice, premade dumplings or tofu, canned veggies, topped with hemp seeds
• Pre-cooked rice noodles with tofu, cashews, teriyaki sauce
• Rice, beans, and corn tortillas

Snacks

• Protein bars or shakes
• Trail mix
• Pretzels
• Rice cakes 
• Chips
• Pea crisps
• Applesauce packets
• Fresh fruits (apples, oranges, bananas)
• Mama Chia chia seed packets
• Baby carrots
• Granola bars

Extras for Cooking

• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic & herb seasonings
• Soy sauce
• Teriyaki sauce
• Marinara sauce
• Nutritional yeast

Especially when you’re on the go driving and doing fun activities, it’s so important to continue to feed your body. You have to make sure you have enough fuel in the tank to go on all those awesome adventures. 

I hope you were able to get some inspiration from my essentials list to get creative while cooking on the road.