Solo Travel: Experiencing Local Cuisine – One of the most exciting parts of our cross-country move was planning our road trip meals! I can’t wait to share how we meal planned for this seven day trip from NYC to Seattle, where we stayed and my best tips and tricks for eating healthy on a budget on the road.
I am the planner in my family, so planning road trips across the country was my responsibility. I loved every second of it. My favorite app is called Roadtrippers. I’ve used it for years to plan awesome road trips and I think it’s a great value at $25/year even if you only do one major road trip in a 12 month period. Planning a road trip with this app is easy compared to Google Maps.
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Although we could have done a much longer trip, since this was a moving road trip, we decided to do it in 8 days, following an almost direct route to Seattle. We aim for an average of 6 hours of driving per day and not a lot of sightseeing.
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If you want a sightseeing trip, you shouldn’t drive more than 4 hours/day.
We chose this route because not only is it more direct, but it also comes closer to Glacier National Park. So we planned to stay there for two nights instead of one night to enjoy the park.
We did a mix of airbnb, camping, hotels and glamping on this trip! The variety was amazing and I’m glad we branched out from Airbnb to be honest.
Having a hotel for a night was perfect after a night of camping and sleeping on the ground. And Airnbns having access to laundry came in handy in the middle of our trip, as we were quite light packed!
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Each airbnb also had a fridge which helped us carry food on this trip and prepare meals for the road.
Meal planning helped us save a lot of money and reduced stress during this trip. I approached it the same way I approach regular weekly planning by focusing on breakfast, lunch and dinner for me and my partner. It was overwhelming at first, but once I filled in where we were and thought about the amenities we have everywhere, it was easy.
While it really depends on the type of road trip you want to take, my golden rule is to eat one full meal each day.
When you’ve been sitting in the car for hours, it’s more fun to eat breakfast and it’s really nice to end the day with a big meal, instead of eating takeout several times and feeling overstuffed and sleepy in the car. This method also saves money, which is important to me (but maybe not important to you!).
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That being said, if I were planning a trip to visit different food places along the way, I would look at meal prep and takeout very differently. This walk was not a food trip, but we did make a point to try the local beer and coffee where we stopped.
Our trip was a week long, so it was easy to plan with an Excel spreadsheet. If you want to try our regular meal planning template/spreadsheet, you can download it here!
My partner and I were very focused on saving money with our move at the same time. We spent about $1,500 total on the trip, including lodging, food, gas and random/emergency supplies.
This trip was all about driving. Pandemonium definitely made things happen that we wouldn’t normally have been able to do, like local comedy shows, concerts and day trips.
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The list above includes some ingredients we bought before the trip and some we grabbed from our pantry (marked with a *). We spent a total of 50 dollars before the trip.
During the trip, we spent about $30 on food we needed to cook, such as our two camping meals and a few picnic lunches. For these meals, we only need to eat with fresh vegetables and proteins! We kept things very simple and by the end, I was a little sick of the tortillas.
The list below includes places we will eat at again, which we, unfortunately, can’t say about every place we stop at.
We spent about $200 total at restaurants during this trip! We pretty much caught our one meal a day, so we only spent $28/day on food for two. I am happy with it!
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This is more than a hack – pre-made salad kits are easy to find in high street grocery stores, and you can customize them however you like.
With our stove and access to grills/campfires, we were able to cook several meals on our trip.
We ate apple cheddar quesadillas at a rest stop! We have apples and cheddar, but you can really use anything. All you need is a portable stove, a small non-stick pan and cooking spray to make it.
You really can’t go wrong with a mashed baked potato or sweet potato. All you need is foil, your favorite type of potato, cheese and any other baked potato fix you like!
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We made these grilled veggie wraps on the grill at our KOA campsite! They taste great with just a dash of salt and pepper.
So we made a point of staying in one place every few days with access to a sink or area to clean our dishes. We brought dish soap, sponges, and paper towels with us for light camp cleaning as needed. It was no big deal! At the end of our road trip, we just loaded the dishwasher with all of our camp cooking gear for a final wash.
I highly recommend the cooler we bought for families or people going on a long road trip. It’s not great for solo travel, as it was almost too big for us!
Every other day, we put a new bag of ice in the cooler (bought at a gas station) and cleaned it before adding a new bag of ice. By the end, some of the food was definitely smelling a little inside the cooler – but not in a bad way. We may not have re-stocked the ice until the end as we should have.
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Overall, not a single meal went bad on our trip. Everything was made in seven days, and whatever we didn’t eat we could store in our fridge when we got home.
Comfortable flannel – I wore this every day of the trip! Super easy to transition from summer/fall season.
“I just wanted to send a message to say thank you so much for your plan. I’m sick of spending so much money on groceries and this past week I only spent $40, which is a lot better than the $100 I spend a week just for me and my husband (!) I am a vegetarian and my husband is not. – We both love every meal so far!
“I’m so grateful to have found WWL and I’m so happy to be a member. I originally signed up for 6 months to see if I’d like it or stick with it, now I’m regretting not the full year. It will be very refreshing!”
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“I am so impressed with how wonderful the meals are!” I shared with my mom, my boyfriend, and my work and they were all raving about how delicious they were! Also love the way you go about eating healthy! thank you so much”
“I have reduced my food waste to practically zero with your program and having less food waste makes me feel so much better about my eating!! Many thanks again for the amazing program “A culinary adventure through food from Syria reveals a treasure trove of flavors and cultural traditions. From traditional and well-loved dishes to popular street foods, the evening meal is an enticing mix of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influences. Let’s dive into the diverse and mouth-watering foods that make up the vibrant food culture of Syria.
In evening meals, a vibrant tapestry of flavors is created through the skillful combination of different ingredients. Here is a list of 10 commonly used ingredients that form the background of Syrian culinary traditions:
Olive Oil: An essential part of the evening meal, olive oil is used liberally in a variety of dishes, adding depth and richness to the flavor.
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Lamb: Lamb is a favorite meat in Syrian cuisine and is added to many traditional dishes, providing a juicy and sweet flavor.
Bulgur wheat: An important grain in Syrian cooking, bulgur wheat is used to make dishes like tabo and kabi, adding a hearty and nutty texture.
Cumin: This hot and earthy spice is widely used in Syrian dishes to enhance the flavor of stews, rice dishes and meat preparations.
Garlic: A staple ingredient in Syrian cuisine, garlic adds a pungent and aromatic element to a variety of dishes, including
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