“To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art” — said by the famous Francois de La Rochefoucauld and rightly so. Eating intelligently does not mean adopting vegetarianism or veganism; it simply means to remove chemicals from your food, and an attempt to eat food made from locally sourced and fresh ingredients. While at home, this is easy to do by incorporating ingredients in your meals. When you’re looking for some adventure, there is nothing quite like a road trip to get you moving. As fun as these can be, packing snacks for on-the-way are equally interesting. Here are a few ideas to get you starting on a nutritious path to packing meals & snacks for a road trip:
Popcorn
This is everyone’s all-time favourite snack. Flavour it as per your taste, and you have a perfect snack for your road-trip. Depending on its preparation, it can be a nutritious option for snacking — when air-popped and unsweetened, popcorn contains plenty of fibre, vitamins and nutrients that the body needs.
Twist — Crush up some of your favourite from Gouri’s Goodies Cereal Mixes for a naturally sweet alternative to caramel or honey. We recommend the Happy Millet and Apricot Cereal for the crunch from the millets and natural sweetness from the apricots.
Energy Bars
An energy bar is a go-to snack for any activity. Packed with nutrients and vitamins, these are the perfect meal replacements. Gouri’s Goodies Energy Bars are packed with almonds, a variety of seeds, natural sugars, and healthy oats & chocolate (depending on the options you select!). Grab yourself the Assorted Energy Bars Pack with 6 variants and 2 units of each type, you have yourself a flavour menu to choose from — Palm Jaggery & Honey, Oats & Almond, Belgian Dark Chocolate, Belgian Milk Chocolate, Belgian Dark Chocolate Orange & the Dates & Chia. Purely artisanal & produced in small batches, these bars are packed with nutrition and are a perfect snack for your road-trip with the right combination of crunchiness and sweetness!
Make your own Drive Mix
A trail mix is a combination of granola, dried fruit, nuts and chocolate, a perfectly prepared to-go snack. As the word ‘trail’ was used as a snack for people that go on treks and trails, a Drive Mix is what we recommend you prepare for a road trip. Skip the store-bought and mass-produced trail mix and make your own with a combination of Gouri’s artisanal products. Here’s how — Chop up a Belgian Dark Chocolate Orange Bar into tiny bits, mix with a Crushed Happy Ladoo (of your choice) and toss around with 1 or 2 cups of the Rice Power Cereal — the perfect mix of sweetness, fruitiness, seeds and a rice-powered crunch!
Cereal & Milk? This is how to do it!
Make small Ziploc bags of your favourite cereal mix — choose from Gouri’s various flavour options or go one step further and mix your three favourite options! Pour milk into a small set of Tupperware of your choice.
Whenever you are hungry on your journey, pour out the ready-cereal bags into one of the milk containers — this makes for a nutritious and yet delicious snack (it could also be a breakfast!).
Tip — For a bit of sweetness, crush up a Belgian Milk Chocolate bar and mix into your cereal — a much better alternative to processed sugar.
Gouri’s Pocket Size Pack!
We recommend stocking up on this big baby for an easy snacking package for your road-trips. With 2 KG’s of Mini Bites (a smaller bite-sized version of our Energy Bars — much easier to carry, consume and dispose of) and 250GM’s of each of our cereal mixes (micro-packaging for easy carrying around!). This package gives you the freedom to play around with combinations and yet maintaining various nutritious snacking portions for your trip or activities. Get yourself one and start the mix-and-match!
General Packing Ideas!
Food is important, but so is the rest of your packing. Here is a recommended packing list for your short/long road trips in the future:
· Paper maps — You won’t have a mobile network everywhere you go!
· Spare cash — Make sure to always have some spare cash, in case you cannot use your Debit/Credit Cards
· First aid kit — Basic supplies such as band-aids, antiseptic, safety pins, antacids, Painkillers & Paracetamols (Being in the car with a headache or muscle pulls is not the easiest experience)
· Flashlight — In case the car battery dies, or you need to change a tire in the night time
· Bug spray — Because bugs in the car are never fun; especially in the summer
· Large water bottles — If you get stranded, you must stay hydrated; also in case you find a spot to refill your bottles
· Toilet paper roll — always carry one; in case the loo at your rest stop doesn’t stock it
· USB chargers for the car — Always keep spare USB chargers, in case the one you are using breaks or dysfunctions.
· Hand sanitiser — This comes in handy if you cannot wash your hands at some point
· Spare towels — for everyone to use
· Fully stocked toiletry bag — if it is an overnight journey, you may need this to freshen up at multiple rest stops
· Sunscreen — In the summer, you will need to keep applying sunscreen to avoid burns
· Garbage bags — While travelling it is imperative to carry a garbage bag to hold all your wrappers and leftovers. Do not dispose of them on the roadside, it is unhygienic and in some places against the law
· Swiss army knife — there is always a use for any of the 14 combination tools
· Small size blankets — these are useful if someone falls asleep and you do not wish to reduce the coolness in the car
· Car documents — VERY IMPORTANT — License, Registration, PUC and Insurance
· Extra car key — if your journey is long, it would be wise to carry an extra car key
· Road trip playlist — Quite important for those that love music — prepare a road trip playlist so that there is no fighting over music or any stopping to select your songs!
On an ending note, as Emma Chase says, ‘Because the greatest part of a road trip isn’t arriving at your destination; it is all the wild stuff that happens along the way’. A safe but fun road trip is always worth the effort; once the ongoing pandemic is clear, of course!
Written By Gouri Gupta
Week 14, March 19
To order any of our Honestly, Delicious products, you can simply log onto www.gourisgoodies.com today!
