We just returned from a road trip to visit my family in Southern California! We somehow end up down there to visit family almost every summer. It’s the perfect vacation for me, because I love the beach. My kids tried surfing, paddle boarding, and kayaking and loved every minute of it.
The drive down from Utah is 10 hours, sometimes 11. We caravaned with my sister who was able to take a brand new 2013 Honda Accord from Ken Garff of Orem that she was test driving. I was jealous because we drove a car that barely got 20 mpg, while hers was getting 40!! Kind of hurts my stomach to think about it!
Normally, when we take that drive we end up eating out once or even twice. Not this time though! I did not want to stop for food on the road. In fact, I was anxious to try to make it the entire vacation without eating out! We succeeded in eating our own food for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was more difficult, but we made it a few nights. The whole trip was already going to cost a small fortune (with our poor gas mileage) so cutting out the eating out was the best way to save a little money.
Here is what we ate:
BREAKFAST: Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits (our McDonalds Copycat meal)
- The night before our trip, I spent a good amount of time washing and slicing strawberries.
- We bought Chobani Greek Yogurt and Granola (although you could make this yourself)
- We left at 4am for the drive, and around 8 we took the yogurt and berries out of the cooler and made ourselves Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits.
- We ate this for breakfast ALL WEEK! I had to buy more berries at the grocery store during the week, otherwise, we had enough. I made sure our hotel had a fridge too!
LUNCH- (Sandwiches- Our Subway Copycat)
- I bought shredded lettuce
- Sliced provolone
- Sliced deli meat
- mini thing of mustard
- Different breads- we had whole wheat hoagie bread, bagels, and one day Asiago Hoagies. We had to keep buying this during the week, because we didn’t want to bring all the bread and have it go bad. The sandwiches we made on the road were on bagels because they hold up so well for traveling.
- and I cut and pre bagged carrots and cherry tomatoes- 3 for each kid. One for the drive, and two more for the week.
- We ate this all week! Disneyland, the beach, AND on the road!
SNACKS- Fruit and Nuts-
- I chose grapes and almonds. The grapes were super refreshing.
DINNER- To-go Salad (Fast Food Copycat)
- I boiled eggs, chopped veggies, bought shredded lettuce, and pre-assembled 5 of these for the drive down. We didn’t eat this all week, just on the road.
- We brought a small bottle of dressing.
I think we did pretty well!! We went out to eat only about 3 times the entire trip. One dinner in Disneyland, one dinner at the end of the week, and dinner on the drive home. The meals we prepared on our own were way better than what we would have bought at any Fast food restaurant!