Summer is here and with that comes family road trip time! We love road trips and everything that goes with them - silly roadside attractions, rating the quality of rest stops, cheering at the state line signs, but most of all we love the snacks. Our family lives for good snacks, in fact, we could graze our way through a whole day without actually eating a real meal. But that doesn’t mean we pig out on the latest gas station fare. I prefer that we stick to snacks that are better for you with just a few questionable choices in moderation.

These are just a few of our favorite road trip snacks:

• Apple slices with this RX Nut Butter - life changing! If you can get your hands on Opal apples, they won’t brown after being cut.

• Beef Jerky

• Grapes - always prewashed and in big Ziplock bags ready to go. Tip: put a dry paper towel at the bottom of the bag to absorb all the extra water to keep them crunchy and yummy!

• Pretzel sticks dipped in peanut butter

• Baby carrots

• Quaker Rice Cakes - have you ever put cream cheese and thinly sliced granny smith apple on a caramel rice cake? Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.

• Dried cranberries - my kids love the watermelon flavor, but I’m still a fan of the original and I love to mix them together with pecans

• Almonds - usually the lightly salted, but these are a family favorite too

• Trail Mix

• Seasonal fruit - cut up and put into leakproof glass containers (watermelon and peaches are our usual)

• Homemade rice crispy treats - I don’t mean to brag, but mine are the best, you can ask anyone.

• Triscuits - whole grain snacking FTW

• Pioneer Woman Chex Mix - totally 100% worth the time to make your own

• Pretzel chips, carrots, celery, or cucumber slices dipped in roasted red pepper hummus

• Kettle Brand Jalapeno Chips - I think our family could win an award for how quickly we can polish off a bag of these chips.

• Cuties/Mandarins

• String Cheese or better yet, Cheese Curds, if I can find some

• Frozen yogurt tubes - our kids love these

• Kind or RX Bars - I prefer the mini versions of these bars and our kids love these

• Freeze-dried fruit - only our oldest son eats this snack, but I couldn’t leave it out because they’re ALWAYS in the car with us.

• Yogurt covered pretzels or raisins

• Homemade cookies - these peanut butter cookies are our family favorite

• Pineapple spears - this grew out of our love for Disneyland snacks

• Boom Chicka Pop - IYKYK

• Local foods! When traveling we LOVE to try things from local and small businesses. We’ve ended up with mini banana bread loaves in Hawaii, huckleberry everything while up in Montana, and so much jerky in Texas. If you're ever in the Denver area and you love snacks as much as we do, please do yourself a favor, and go to Mountain Man Nut and Fruit Co. It’s like heaven!

• Water - I know it’s not a snack, but I promise the key to a happy family on a road trip is water, not soda or juice or energy drinks

What do we do for meals on road trips?

Prior to owning our travel trailer, or now when we travel without it, we will pack up a picnic lunch (or dinner) in a cooler and eat at a rest stop. We bring a quilt to sit on the grass or use as a tablecloth if we find a table to sit at. We try to stop at rest areas with playgrounds for the kids or at least some grass to run around on. When we have the travel trailer with us we are a little less picky about where we pull off to eat, though we still look for an area to play. I keep our meals in the RV fridge and ready to eat. Sometimes I will turn on the propane and make quesadillas or paninis, but it’s mostly sandwiches (we love Hawaiian roll ham sliders), salads, or charcuterie-style meals. It’s pretty rare that we will stop at a restaurant to eat and even more rare to get fast food. The one exception I am ashamed to say is that the moment we get to the midwest we are all on the lookout for a Casey’s so we can get some breakfast pizza (yes, they will make it any time of day). It is so bad for you, but sooooo good! I blame my native Iowan husband for introducing us to such things.

But for the most part, the only kind of filling up we do at a gas station is the gas tank.

Looking for more road trip inspiration?