Healthy Snacks for a Road Trip

This is the first long road trip I've taken where Oreos and Nutter Butter's were not packed! We were very excited to drive along the western and southern part of the state. We left 24 hours after coming up with the idea! With my husband's involvement and support, the day before we left, we grocery shopped together and picked out all of our favorite fruits and vegetables. Then that night we rinsed them and prepared them for snacking. We were in a small car, in the hot sun, with our dog in the back seat guarding the cooler. When the munchies set in, we grabbed some of the vegetables and they really hit the spot! Given the temperature outside and the fact that we were so sedentary in the car, the fresh red bell pepper slices were delicious, followed by fresh, organic long carrot sticks. I highly recommend buying organic carrots that come by the bunch with the stems still attached. To prepare them, just take off the stems and peel them, but don't cut them. It's too much fun to eat a whole carrot. My husband won't eat carrots but when he tried these, he ate several. They are extremely delicious and sweet. To keep them crisp, I added a damp paper towel to the zip-lock bag and they lasted several days, fresh and crispy. We also ate sliced green peppers (not as sweet as red/orange/yellow, but very snappy!), sliced cucumbers, bananas, oranges, apples, and had lemons and limes on hand to add to our water. We also packed other snacks like almonds, organic string cheese, crackers, healthy bread and a small jar of peanut butter. Some days we ate strictly from our cooler and did not eat out.
So, the trick is to shop, prepare and pack fruits and vegetables before leaving on your road trip. It made all the difference to us, and once we started, we didn't even want to eat anything unhealthy. It felt spectacular to eat so many fresh vegetables. Here is a list of what I would pack next time, including some vegetables that I wished I had packed on this trip (all organic):

• red, orange and green bell peppers
• carrots by the bunch
• cucumbers
  
• tomatoes
  
• radishes
• grapes
• oranges and apples (fuji apples are my favorite-they are very crunchy)
  
• watermelon balls
• asian pears (stay crispy longer and don't bruise easily)

Add to this list anything else you can think of! I am a really snacky person-I love munching on nuts, popcorn, dried fruit, etc. as well.