Eating Out of Your Suitcase: Healthy and Gourmet Edition was inspired by the original Eating out of your suitcase but with a bit of a spin. Easy food to pack in your suitcase can save you a lot of money. This list will give you an idea of the Travel Food you can pack. After our first trip to Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, where food will cost you more than your trip, I wrote a post “Eating Out of your suitcase“. After the first trip, I was pleased with how much money we saved by bringing food with us. It’s something hadn’t done since I was a broke 20-year-old traveling on a shoestring budget.
As we plan for a return trip to Atlantis I started to think about how can I make this better for me? The truth is my family is happy eating PBJ every day for lunch and my kids were so excited to get pop tarts cereal and freeze-dried fruit for breakfast that they felt it was a treat.
The hardest part about Traveling Internationally is that produce is not allowed. So how do you get around this and still eat healthily and still have it be tasteful? Easy food to pack in your suitcase can save you money and also make it easy to fight off hunger when traveling with kids. These are the best food to pack in checked bags.
Here’s what I came up with:
Whole Wheat Wraps
They are healthy and you can basically stuff anything into them to make it a more filling meal. Pick out a wrap that fits your Diet/Eating Choices and bring them with you. The wraps can also be used for leftover tacos which is my favorite easy frugal lunch when traveling.
Protein
Make sure to bring a can opener if your can doesn’t have the peel tabs. It’s also not a bad idea to bring it in case the tab breaks off.
- Canned Tuna fish
- pouched tuna
- Pouched Chicken
- Canned Ham
- Canned Beans: Re-fried, Black, Chickpea, and white beans
- Shelf Stable Salami
Sauces/Seasoning
I find the dips and sauces you get from fast food places tend to work great for traveling. Even if you are flying with only a carry on you can put them in a quart bag and count that as your liquids allowance.
- Blue cheese
- Hot sauce or Buffalo sauce
- Honey Mustard
- Ranch
- BBQ
- Italian Dressing
- Pesto sauce
Fillings
- Jarred/Canned Olives
- Sundried tomatoes- factory sealed pouches only
- Can or Jar of roasted red peppers
- can or jar of gardenia mix.
- Canned Artichoke Hearts
- Packaged prepared Quinoa (with or without sauce)
- Real bacon crumbs/bits (factory sealed)
- Canned corn
- can of Rotel
Sides and Snacks
- Freeze-dried Fruit
- Nuts: I like the mixed kinds at Aldis there are a couple of different ones so you can change it up
- Individual Parmesan cheese crisps
- Make a salad (see below)
- Individual hummus and pita chips
- individual snack olives
How to Put it all together and Make a Meal
Wraps
- Bacon Ranch Salmon or Chicken and/or White Beans Wrap
- Buffalo Blue Cheese Tuna, White Beans or Chicken Wrap
- Italian Chicken, Salami, Tuna or Salmon and or Quinoa Wrap with Chickpeas, Artichokes, Sun-dried Tomatoes, and kalamata olives. Italian or Pesto dressing. You can also throw in roasted red peppers or gardenia mix.
- Chicken and Black beans and/or Quinoa with Rotel, corn, and BBQ or Ranch sauce.
- Honey Mustard Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers and white beans
- Canned Ham, black beans, and corn with/without Quinoa
Quinoa
They sell quinoa cups as individual services. Some come with a sauce cup and others are plain. the 2 pack plane is slightly cheaper but the sauces can add variety to your meal.
You can remove the Quinoa to make it a healthy lettuce-free salad or use it as a topping with the Parmesan crisps.
- Pesto Quinoa Cup with chickpeas, sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and kalamata olives
- Red pepper Mango Quinoa Cup with Tuna or Salmon and/or white beans
- Roasted Red Pepper and artichoke Quinoa cup with Chicken or tuna and/or chickpeas
- Chicken, Black Bean, Rotel, and corn with plain quinoa cup and bbq and ranch drizzle.
- Honey Mustard Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers and white beans tossed with Quinoa.
As an alternative, you could substitute the quinoa with instant mashed potatoes. I find an Idahoan brand is a good option as it only requires hot water.
Salads
- Texas Caviar: Black Bean, Rotel, and corn
- Antipasto: Roasted red peppers, artichokes, olives, and diced salami or pepperoni-if you get the marinated artichoke hearts it’s usually enough sauce/flavor for the salad.
- Three Bean Salad
- Chickpea salad with sundried tomatoes, artichokes
Travel Checuterie or Lunch Board
Lunch Boards are a lot of fun. Add a few varieties and mix and match options throughout the week. You can also take what’s leftover and add them to make wraps.
Meat
- Shelf Stable Salami
- Beef Jerky
- Shelf Stable pepperoni
- Biltong
- Shelf Stable prosciutto
- summer sausage
Cheese
- Cheese crisps
Fruits
- Freeze-dried strawberries or apples
- dried fruit include figs, pineapples, mangos, craisins, and apricots
- Fruit spreads such as fig jam or strawberry jam, whatever you’re using for PBJ
Nuts
- pecans
- walnuts
- pistachios
Crackers
Get a variety of crackers and shelf-stable bread.
Vegetables
- Jarred/Canned Olives
- Sundried tomatoes- factory sealed pouches only
- Can or Jar of roasted red peppers
- can or jar of gardenia mix.
- Canned Artichoke Hearts
- Jarred stuffed peppers
- olive tapenade or roasted red pepper tapenade
Healthy Microwave Meals
If you have a microwave you can bring whole-grain instant rice or pasta. Any of the wrap options you can mix with pasta instead to change things up.
Healthy Travel Snacks to pack in checked luggage
- Freeze-dried fruit
- nuts
- dried fruit
- cheese crisps
- protein bars
- Beef jerky
Healthy Road Trip Food
If you are on a road trip there are over 50 cold road trip meals that you can make or bring with you. Some of these options are healthy.
Eating Out of Your Suitcase: Healthy and Gourmet Edition Summary
Eating out of Your suitcase doesn’t have to be unhealthy or boring. You can easily make some delicious healthy meal options. There are definitely ways to eat healthy on a road trip. One of my favorite easy healthy options is a nice hearty slice of bread with individually packaged guacamole- the plain kind that tastes like avocado. top with everything but the bagel seasoning. We love to bring fresh fruit and veggies if we are on a road trip. We will pack fresh fruit that can be eaten whole, carrot sticks and sugar snap peas as they are easy to eat on the road. You can also make some healthy meals that can be frozen and heated in your hotel room. We love to make chili as it freezes well, is healthy and we all love it.
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