I visit Trader Joe’s before every trip I take to stock up on essentials and road-trip snacks. Danielle Benjamin My husband and I travel often and we love to stop at Trader Joe’s before our road trips. I love Trader Joe’s frozen mac and cheese, trail mix, and beef jerky.
The chain also has great dog treats, iced tea drinks, and muffins. Trader Joe’s has become my go-to stop before I leave on any trip. Trader Joe’s is my go-to place for road-trip snacks and essentials.
Danielle BenjaminAs a full-time food and travel writer, I’m on the road a lot and I like to make every trip as budget-friendly and efficient as possible. Whether I’m traveling solo or with my husband and our dogs, I always pack the car with snacks and quick meal options for the road. Over the years we’ve perfected what snacks work great for traveling, and which don’t hold up as well.
Here are 15 things I pick up from Trader Joe’s for every road trip. Getting ready for a road trip can be stressful, so a frozen meal is perfect for the night before we leave. Trader Joe’s mac and cheese is one of the best frozen meals at the chain.
Danielle BenjaminTrader Joe’s has the best frozen mac and cheese I’ve ever had, and it’s my go-to meal before a trip. If we’re going to be gone for a few days, the last thing we want to do is cook the night before we leave. This delicious and easy-to-prep meal helps us avoid washing dishes or worrying about leftovers that’ll spoil while we’re gone.
Plus, it’s a steal at $2. 99 a box. I can’t start the day without coffee.
The cold brew coffee at Trader Joe’s is always packed in our cooler. Danielle BenjaminIced coffee is a necessity for me — especially if we’re camping and I can’t get to a cafe in the morning. The cold brew from Trader Joe’s always goes in the cooler for our trips.
At $4. 99 for a quart, it feels like a better deal than a cup from any of the coffee chains. Nothing goes better with coffee than fresh muffins.
Trader Joe’s cinnamon coffee-cake muffins are gluten-free. Danielle BenjaminI always love looking through the bakery section at Trader Joe’s and I try to mix it up for every trip. For my most recent trip, I chose the cinnamon coffee-cake muffins and they were perfect for breakfast on the road.
The gluten-free muffins cost just $4. 99 for a four-pack. My husband and I are so addicted to the chain’s white-cheddar corn puffs that we only buy them for road trips.
Trader Joe’s white-cheddar corn puffs are our favorite snack. Danielle BenjaminPerfectly light and cheesy, we go through these puffs much faster than we care to admit. But at roughly $2 per bag, I don’t feel guilty about it.
It’s the first thing we buy when we pack for a trip. Sometimes puffs are the first two things. Since we usually stop for a hike, trail mix is a must.
We often buy the Trek Mix, which has nuts and dried fruit. Danielle BenjaminI love that Trader Joe’s offers a wide variety of trail mixes. Many of them have just the right combination of salty and sweet with the protein boost we need after chasing waterfalls.
My favorite is the Trek Mix with almonds, cranberries, and cashews. A 16-ounce bag is $5. 99.
The chain’s fruit-sauce crushers are a great portable snack. Trader Joe’s fruit-sauce crushers come in a few flavors. Danielle BenjaminFresh fruit can have a short shelf life, especially when it’s being packed in a car for a road trip.
These fruit-sauce pouches are our heroes — they’re pretty healthy, easy to eat, and easy to pack. I also love that Trader Joe’s fruit-sauce crushers come in unique flavor combinations, like apple-carrot, apple-strawberry, and apple-mango. We pay just $2.
69 for a pack of four. If we do get fresh fruit, it’s always the 19-cent bananas. Bananas are easy to eat while we’re on the road.
Danielle BenjaminBecause these bananas are so cheap, we don’t get mad if one of them goes bad or gets squished in our cooler. Plus, these are easy to eat in the car without making a mess. A bunch of bananas is always on our shopping list.
Sparkling tea helps keep us awake on long drives. Trader Joe’s sparkling tea drinks hit the spot. Danielle BenjaminIced tea is one of my favorite drinks on the road.
It’s got just the sweet kick to keep me going on the longer stretches of road. That’s why I pick up a four-pack of Sparkling Green Tea with Pineapple Juice for just $3. 99.
The other flavors, Black Tea with Peach and White Tea with Pomegranate are also great options. Beef jerky is another favorite road snack. We prefer the brand’s original beef jerky.
Danielle BenjaminThere are lots of jerky options to choose from — teriyaki, hickory, beef, turkey, and more. They’re a nice protein-filled pick-me-up to keep us going on the road so we don’t have to make too many stops to refuel. Our most common choice is the original beef jerky for $5.
99. We always grab the necessities for a picnic charcuterie board. Unexpected Cheddar is an award-winning cheese for a reason.
Danielle BenjaminNothing beats eating meat and cheese on a blanket in a park we’ve never visited before. Luckily, Trader Joe’s has all of the fixings that we need. First, we grab a brick of the Unexpected Cheddar, a delicious cheese that is reminiscent of Parmesan.
The award-winning cheese costs $3. 99. We switch up our meat selections, too.
We like Trader Joe’s salame. Danielle BenjaminThere’s always a great selection of salame and other cured meats to choose from, so we mix it up each time. The above Calabrese salame costs $3.
29 per package. We complete our board with some kind of cracker. Trader Joe’s brioche toasts pair well with cheese and cured meat.
Danielle BenjaminBrioche toasts are our favorite way to complete the charcuterie board. A box of the toasts is just $1. 99, making the cost of our entire board under $10.
What goes better with a picnic than beer?You can build your own six-pack at Trader Joe’s. Danielle BenjaminI love that Trader Joe’s has a craft-beer section where you can create your own six-pack. We always grab a few favorites (including Josephsbrau Bavarian-style Hefeweizen) and some new ones.
The cans are individually priced and tend to cost between $1. 50 and $2 each. If our dogs are with us, we get them snacks, too.
Our dogs like Trader Joe’s Chew-cuterie treats. Danielle BenjaminIf the pups are coming along on our road trip, we bring them some goodies for the car, too. Trader Joe’s Chew-cuterie dog treats are one of their favorites.
A box of treats is $3. 29. I always grab a bag of dark-chocolate peanut-butter cups at the checkout.
Trader Joe’s peanut-butter cups are a fan-favorite for a reason. Danielle BenjaminPeanut-butter cups are my all-time favorite candy, and the dark-chocolate ones from Trader Joe’s are my must-pack snack. You can buy a small bag for about $1 or pay extra for a tub.
Finally, I put all my goodies in one of Trader Joe’s reusable bags. Trader Joe’s reusable bags are some of our favorites for holding groceries. Danielle BenjaminMy favorite bag is its insulated bag, which is the perfect size to hold all our cold foods on a road trip.
But if those aren’t available, the canvas bags are also wonderful. Click to keep reading Trader Joe’s diaries like this one. Read the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/what-to-buy-at-trader-joes-for-trips-best-snacks-2022-8