On-the-go Meal Prep Kit for maximizing grocery stores as an alternative to fastfood/restaurants?

[JamesR]

Recently I was driving between cities, I didn't want to waste my money at restaurants or fast food places, so I stopped at a grocery store to see what my options were. I saw the deli counter selling sandwiches or some prepared meal options from $8-$13 CAD, which didn't seem like a good bang for my buck. I ended up picking up a Rotisserie Chicken for $12 CAD and some bread to go with it for $2 CAD. That gave me lots of left overs, though it wasn't particularly tasty as I could've bought some more sandwich makings. I also didn't have utensils on hand. Looking for ideas on how to do this better.

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The hypothetical is this: You happen to be visiting another city on foot. You might not have your usual gear or setup for your out-and-about meals.

In order to save costs, you choose to skip restaurants & fast food options, and go straight to the grocery store (skipping the deli counter). What would you consider the minimum "everyday carry" to optimize making your own meals on the fly? What would you generally choose to buy at the grocery store?

I'm kind of imagining putting together a minimum set of tools & condiments that I could carry in a small pocket in my backpack - a slim portable set of utensils, a collapsable container for meal prep & storing food after, an assortment of condiments, moist towelettes, etc. Ideally a kit that weighs no more than half a pound (~250 grams).

[The Old Man]

In order to save costs, you choose to skip restaurants & fast food options, and go straight to the grocery store (skipping the deli counter).

Why are you skipping the deli counter?
Skipping restaurants and fast-food places is a no brainer. They have gotten ridiculously expensive. But, why skip the grocery deli counter?

[AxelHeyst]

Deli counter is expensive too.

Minimum kit required is nothing: cheese and crackers or tortillas and some fruit and veg. PB or hummus and carrots.

Adding a spoon and an empty PB jar opens up basically everything. Cold soak ramen which you can add nutritional yeast and olive oil to. Instant mashed potatoes are a delicious cold soak meal. My favorite cold soak meal is oats, granola, and pb. Etc. look up ultralight cold soak meals for more ideas.

[Slevin]

in line with @AH above, an insulated thermos can cook hot meals with a hot water source (usually available at coffee places / gas stations, etc) or cold soaked meals, you just have to provide the flavorings and additions to any sort of grain you want to cook. Then it can be used for liquids when you are not eating (lets call that default mode). Moderately more functional than a PB jar, but you have to keep track of it.

Mason jar meal prep is also a real thing though, and usually involve noodles + some lightly chopped veg + some seasonings. The noodles and veg can be gotten at any grocery store cheaply, so then it’s just up to you to carry some seasonings around to make it more yummy. Mixing just happens via shaking.

[loutfard]

in line with @AH above, an insulated thermos can cook hot meals with a hot water source (usually available at coffee places / gas stations, etc)

Where exactly would you get hot water for a reasonable price or even free? Maybe that's a US specific thing.

[Slevin]

Where exactly would you get hot water for a reasonable price or even free? Maybe that's a US specific thing.

Huh maybe it is... The answer here is basically wherever you can get bagged tea, which is like most gas station / convenience stores / coffee shops if you ask.

[jacob]

I'm not overthinking this. Eating only once a day makes solving this much easier than having to eat three or six times a day. When we travel $MCD has a deal where buying a burger will get you a free extra burger of the same kind or less the next time you buy one + a receipt to keep repeating the deal. This is enough to get two people to the destination for $5-7 w/o needing to bring/consider complications.

As long as junk food isn't eaten regularly, it feels like a treat. If it happened more often than once a month, I'd just bring a sandwich from home.

[delay]

The surprisingly easy answer is not to eat while travelling. My body keeps going for a full day without food even if I'm cycling the whole day.

As long as I don't eat anything it's surprisingly easy to keep up. When I first eat after a fasting period, I become hungry, and then I want to catch up. No reason to do that until you're at a place where you actually want to eat.

[loutfard]

The surprisingly easy answer is not to eat while travelling.

Most suitable answer for me too, but not for my wife. If you haven't tried this yet, I definitely recommend it!

[Quadalupe]

If you are driving, if make sure you always have some raisins, nuts and peanutbutter in your car (and a spork). Easy snacks! If you buy a loaf of bread before you drive, you're all set. The PB jar can be reused as a container as @AH mentioned. I had some of the best meals of my life eating cold soak ramen from a jar after a day of hiking and climbing with him.

[Ego]

We eat twice a day. This morning we went for a run and then came back to the hostel/hotel and made a breakfast of fruit, oats, nuts, seeds and nutmilk. This afternoon we splurged on a readymade salad from Pingo Doce (€2.89) with some fake chicken (€3.79), leftover bread (€.60), leftover hummus (€.60), guacamole (€.60), and two piri piri sauces that were left on the free shelf at the hostel. That's €4.24 each for a very healthy, large lunch which we ate on a park bench watching the world go buy.

[2Birds1Stone]

Ever since late 2019 we've been traveling around with light weight synthetic utensils from REI, chop sticks, aluminum straws, washable cloth napkin and salt/pepper packets.......the amount of plastic waste this has saved is incredible. It's also made doing what you're describing much more pleasurable, where anywhere can be a picnic.

We love grabbing a rotisserie chicken if we can score a small enough one to finish in a sitting or have refrigeration for leftovers. Most supermarkets have premade salads (including stuff like bulgar or quinoa ones with higher protein), individual high protein yogurt, muesli w/ seed milk, PB&J and fresh bread, a bunch of cold cuts and a baguette, fresh fruit and veggies that don't need to be cooked (cucumber/sweet pepper/tomato etc).

We have a lot of experience eating like this, as we are nomadic and sometimes move from town to town daily or every 2 days, making bulk shopping not possible/worth it without consistent refrigeration and/or having to carry all of the food in a backpack.

We also tend to drink more instant coffee when we are on the move.

[Scott 2]

Depending how many days you're doing this, lack of fiber can become a problem. When I'd travel for work, I'd grab a can of chili with a pull tab. It's not great cold, but it's fast to eat and effective.

[Jean]

in decroissant order of importance
knife
spork
thermos
pot
stove
cutting board
At which point you can nearly cook anything anywhere.
When travelling, a difficulty is to know what to buy.
example, in the us, don't buy bread, but tortillas.

[jacob]

in decroissant order of importance
knife

I find it interesting that "knife" always comes out on top. In a modern world of airplanes and paper, I find a pair of scissors more universally useful. This to the point where I use scissors for typical knife-problems like cutting lettuce, broccoli, pizza, ... Seems there are more cases where scissors work but a knife doesn't than the other way around.

[Jean]

scissors are great. You can really take them on a plane? Scissors are basically two bad knives, where 1 of them serves as a cutting board. A very good knife like a mora 511 can be bought for 5 dollars.
I think knife always coming on top is due to them being possibly the oldest tool crafted by humans.

[guitarplayer]

That was also my first question about taking scissors in a carry on - anyone has got experience of this working? Think tent pegs cannot be taken like this, for example.