Our family does quite a bit of RV traveling, and we've become pros at packing an RV refrigerator for a week's healthy meals without much thought and just a little prep. We haven't had McDonalds or fast food like that in 16 years, and we don't find it difficult to avoid quick foods. Sometimes we'll splurge and do Chipotle or find a gem of a restaurant somewhere but for the most part it's just easiest and most convenient for us to pack our own foods. It’s so much a part of our lives that when I’ve purchased an RV (the last two we’ve owned), I made sure to choose ones with larger fridges.
That’s a BIG RV fridge!
It’s nice always having our own kitchen (and bathroom) with us wherever we go!
It may be an adjustment at first and maybe even require some gadgets (more on those at the end). Here's some of what we do (for RV trips where we have our own fridge; some of this we do when we are traveling via car to hotels/Airbnb’s as well and pack a cooler; scroll to the bottom for what we do when we travel via air):
Foods we prep ahead of time:
Taco meat if we'll be away for Taco Tuesday plus some for omelettes, taco salad, etc.
Chicken marinated for the grill (I use Tessamae's Ranch to marinate chicken)
Chicken salad (cooked chopped chicken + celery + Primal mayo)
Hardboiled eggs
Salads to go with dinner (like sugar-free coleslaw, broccoli/bacon salad, etc.).
Check out one of our fave healthy salads + recipe here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRPoEmHFE-U/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Breakfasts (see below)
Fruits washed off with Thieves Veggie Soak: More Thieves Products (lifestepseo.com)
Easy breakfasts:
We love these granola balls and pack a bunch for trips: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEHYP1BFyOS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
(We have since adjusted the recipe to use more coconut oil and golden monkfruit instead of honey (1/2 the amount of what the recipe calls for). We triple this recipe and have super easy breakfast balls!
My 16 year old with T1D likes to have breakfast sandwiches on the road so he preps those using fried eggs, Unbun bagels, organic no-sugar turkey bacon, etc.
Often we will prep a bunch of homemade waffles that we bring with and keep a toaster in the RV for reheating. (Watch the email newsletter for our favorite grain-free, dairy-free waffle recipe! (For my kiddo with T1D, we use an easy blender waffle recipe from this cookbook: Easy Keto Breakfasts: Ketchum, Carolyn: 9781628603668: Amazon.com: Books
We bring a cast iron skillet and eggs from our chickens as well as pre-chopped veggies to make omelets for those mornings we get to take it slow at the campground.
Some other things we bring for breakfast:
Hardboiled eggs
Keto granola
Plain whole milk unsweetened grass-fed yogurt
Organic berries
Organic sprouted nut butter
(My fave breakfast yogurt bowl: https://www.instagram.com/p/COIgZyvl_UB/?utm_source=ig_web_copylink
Sometimes I like to just have an easy breakfast shake on hand too; I like this mixed with water or raw milk or Malk: Slique® Shake Meal Replacement Shake | Young Living Essential Oils
Lunches:
We do a lot of “wraps” with organic iceberg or butter leaf lettuce leaves instead of bread for sandwiches/wraps. We love the organic turkey lunchmeat from Costco (no sugar or starches added). I put mayo on the lettuce leaf and then fill with the toppings like a sandwich. There are lots of add-in options like pickles, avocado, cheese, tomatoes, bacon (we use organic no-sugar turkey bacon), etc.
I like to cook a whole chicken or two and make some of it into chicken salad (with Primal avocado oil mayo and organic celery) for lunches.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMk8E1Hl1Al/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Sometimes we'll use Unbun bread or baguettes for on-the-go sandwiches/subs. We usually save these for packed lunches on excursions like when we went on a train ride with a lunch stop.
I like to buy organic salad mixes and bring that along with a bunch of different salad fixings for loaded salads for lunch.
Even at home, I always try to have extra cooked meat on hand for quick lunches. If we decide to randomly pack up for the day to go do something fun, the kids can easily pack a quick lunch using this pre-cooked meat, veggies, etc.
On our trip to Texas for a train ride on the Texas State Railroad, I packed our lunches for the train stop. Zevia sugar-free sodas make it extra special!
Dinners:
Sautéing veggies to go with our grilled meat
We do a lot of grilling, so we bring marinated meat, grass-fed beef burgers, Teton sausages, etc. We usually pair them with frozen organic veggies that we saute or a prepped cold salad and add in a fermented veggie like sauerkraut or Bubbie’s pickles. (We don’t use buns; we wrap our burgers in big lettuce leaves.)
My kiddos are pretty religious about Friday being pizza nights, so we bring homemade dough that we press out and cook in a cast iron skillet; add leftover taco or chicken meat + pre-chopped veggies, cheese, and finish cooking. (We have an oven in our RV but we like this way better.) If we happen to be in a city that has a Blaze pizza, we treat ourselves to that! (They have an amazing keto pizza as well as a cauliflower crust pizza too.)
Snacks
A dairy-free, sugar-free popsicle recipe I created from inside an RV with an Instacart grocery delivery: https://www.instagram.com/p/CN5yXOzFyoy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
We make a loaded veggie tray full of fresh organic veggies and homemade cream cheese dip. (I mix softened cream cheese, enough sour cream to make it a creamy texture when whipping it in the stand mixer, then garlic powder, RealSalt, and Costco’s organic no-salt seasoning.) Most of the time our veggie tray is sliced bell peppers (only organic because they’re otherwise high in pesticides), carrots, radishes, cucumbers, etc.
We always bring a jar of Bubbie’s dill pickles (fermented, not the Bread & Butter ones with sugar that aren’t fermented); those make great snacks and provide great probiotics during traveling and experiencing new microbes.
Our kids also like to make pickle roll ups for snack which is our veggie dip + organic dill pickles wrapped in organic turkey lunchmeat.
For a google doc of our favorite snacks, click the button below.
Supplies
Pretty much every time Costco has a pack of glass storage containers on sale, I grab them! Of course glass is best for storing food (like all the fruit after it’s washed off, pre-cooked meat, etc.) and some have divided compartments that work out great for packed lunches. Sometimes when we can’t bring heavy/breakable containers like those, stainless steel Bento boxes are the way to go! (Not for acidic things though in my opinion like citrus, tomatoes, etc.)
A good veggie tray is essential in my opinion! Since a large glass one is not feasible for how we do veggie trays (pulling them in and out of the fridge for snacking), I personally prefer Pampered Chef’s Large Cool and Serve tray. This one comes with freezable ice tray inserts that on the other side hold stuffed (deviled) eggs.
A large solid wood cutting board has been invaluable for our travels; we keep one in our RV and besides for cutting, we use it to put a bunch of things on it outdoors on picnic tables.
When Traveling Via Air
When we travel via air and don’t have our own kitchen and fridge, or can’t bring a cooler full of food, I plan ahead. Hotel refrigerators are generally small so I prefer Airbnb’s or hotel suites to get more fridge space. Airbnb’s are often cheaper than hotels and they usually have a full kitchen.
I scout out the closest grocery store that is most likely to have great natural food options, and if it’s going to be a long-ish trip, I plan an extra day to fly in early and do grocery shopping/food prep. For these meals as well as packed lunches in general, I keep it simple: Protein, veggies, and a fruit. Some easy protein ideas are hardboiled eggs (which most stores have nowadays), pre-cooked chicken, burger (without a bun), grass-fed beef sticks, Wild Planet canned salmon/chicken/tuna, etc.
For easy meals at hotels/Airbnb’s, we do things like:
Loaded salads with organic salad mixes, add in a protein, find some healthy dressing, etc. (We did these a lot.)
(Airbnb): Baked potato bar: We grab potatoes (sweet and regular) and some fixin’s to load them up with.
Wraps—It’s pretty easy to find paleo wraps nowadays like Siete, so we find some organic meat, veggies, etc. for wraps too.
While we don’t eat out much, I like to scope out healthy restaurants ahead of time for things like gluten-free pizzas, organic restaurants, etc. We’ve found some pretty fun finds this way! And when in a crunch, a lot of restaurants have grilled meat options as well as veggie sides, salads, etc.
Making the Change
Yes it’s a shift at first, but now it’s just second nature to us. We love how keeping things the same with healthy foods keeps us feeling great to enjoy our travels! It gets easier and faster every time, to the point where we can decide last minute to take a 12-hour trip to the ocean two days before we leave and be ready with a refrigerator full of healthy foods!
Of course we continue our supplement regimens and fuel ourselves well that way too! More on that: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz3TsXdlXRd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
If it seems overwhelming to you, start simple. Can you pack an easy meal (don’t overthink it!) on those times when you’d otherwise grab fast food?
When we fail to plan, we plan to fail.
That’s what it all boils down to.
Blessings of good health,
~Sara Jo Poff