Gluten Free Road Trip Snacks

Finding specialty-diet foods can be pretty tricky in your home town. It can be a real struggle if you leave your comfortable surroundings for the open road. In fact, it can be a rocky, if not dangerous, road to travel.
Luckily, there are actually a LOT of healthy, great-tasting road trip snacks that won't break the bank and travel quite well, so you can relax and enjoy your trip without worrying about getting sick or going broke. Are you ready? Then, let's get started!

Fresh fruits and vegetables are a GREAT snack food while driving. Whether cut into smaller, bite-sized pieces, or eaten whole, they're a healthy, cheap alternative to prepackaged convenience foods that are loaded with sugar and fats.

Small packaged foods can easily be stored and ready when little ones need a quick meal or treat. Try out this adorable tote the next time you travel with kids.

Gluten Free Kids Tote by RoyalTreasury
View more Baking Bags

As you probably know, road trips often leave little room for anything beyond luggage and passengers in whatever type of vehicle you're driving. Fortunately, there are some wonderful containers that don't take a lot of space, and can help keep your foods hot or cold, depending on the needs of the food. Here are a few great choices

I have several friends in the trucking industry that rely on snacks and quicks meals for keeping themselves going strong. These are their recipes. (Thanks again, my friends!)

From Patricia - "When I had home time I made homemade cookies, such as Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oatmeal Cookies or whatever I wanted to take with me. Saved a lot of money by making it at home before going out on the road."

HOT COCOA MIX
3 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 cup powdered nondairy creamer
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

In a mixing bowl combine all dry goods and store in an airtight container.
For each serving, place 1/3 cup of the mix in a mug and add 3/4 cup boiling water. Makes about 5 1/2 cups mix (16 servings).

From Dave - "Breakfast Casserole"

1 package of velveeta chesse
2 sleeves of your favorite sausage
1 package of frozen hashbrowns
1 greased 9x13 inch baking dish
1 dozen eggs

Brown your sausage, breaking it up into small crumbles as you cook it. Then grease the baking dish with cooking spray. Cube Velveeta cheese into about 1 inch cubes. Layer sausage, hashbrowns, and cheese cubes in baking dish. Break all of the eggs into a mixing bowl and blend together. Pour the eggs over the top of your ingredients in the baking dish thoroughly covering everything completely. Cover the casserole with aluminum foil (I usually spray foil with cooking spray before covering, so it doesn't stick. Place it in fridge overnight, (works better this way.) The next morning, preheat oven to 350 and put in for 90 minutes. After 90 minutes, uncover and cook for 30 minutes more or until done. (A knife inserted in the middle will come out clean)
Let cool for 10-15 minutes. Slice and enjoy. I cut into 4 inch cubes and it lasts for a week.

From Michael - "Chex Snack Mix (cheese) mixed with Cheez-its Snack Mix (double cheese)...Can you tell I like cheese? I take an old plastic Folgers coffee container and bleach it out to get rid of coffee odor, and mix the two in it. It will sit on floor without falling over!

Please note: Obviously, Chex Mix isn't gluten free. But, you can make your own mix by substituting gluten free cereals, pretzels, rice crackers, etc. Michael was just gracious enough to share his idea, so I wanted to include it. I also LOVED his reusable container idea!

From Jerry - "Put a couple of hot dogs in a thermos. Fill with boiling water and cap tightly. By lunch time, they'll be cooked and ready to eat!"

***THANKS to those who submitted recipes for me. If you'd like to share your own, please leave it in the comments below, and I'll be happy to add them!***

Boredom while driving can cause a lot of OVER eating! Try portioning out snacks into smaller snack-sized ziplock bags, and pace yourself on how often you eat one of the bagged portions.