Asian lettuce wraps. They taste fine cold, and you can do the ground beef mixture to your health needs/tastes. I would definitely add mushrooms, maybe peanuts and cilantro, too.

When we were on the road, I liked to buy a fresh baguette somewhere. Bread, cheese, fresh melon (honeydew or cantaloupe.) The melon is good for breakfast, too. Fresh sliced apples for fiber.

Hard boiled eggs, cereal and milk, fruit, bagged and prepared vegetables like carrots, celery, green peppers, cucumber spears, broccoli florettes, some nice cheeses and whole grain crackers, nuts, some bottled juice ( i have to start the day with juice) something to make coffee or tea and perhaps a salad dressed with a vinaigrette like a brown rice quinoa salad or a lentil salad, or that black bean corn thing.
A couple of bottles of a nice wine and something for dessert.
If you feel like you can find a steak or a couple of chicken breasts to cook on the camp stove....but I would be good for 2 days with just veggies, fruit and cheese and crackers....with an egg here and there.

Protein is important. Vacuum seal if you can. Sliced cooked roast beef or turkey, for sandwiches or a meal. Pieces of chicken. Hard boiled eggs. Have a separate cool, rather than iced, box, insulated or padded with newspaper or towels or quilts, for produce. Easy prep things like bagged lettuce and greens (or wash ahead yourself, dry well, wrap in paper towel, and bag yourself in a zipper bag, squeezing out all the air), cherry or other small tomatoes, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, scallions, etc. Grapes, apples, pears--fruit that can be eaten whole and doesn't get squished easily.

This is a good time for bread with dough conditioners and/or preservatives. :) Also, if you can, wrap your bread in cloth to go in the car. Plastic will heat up, make it sweat and make it spoil faster.

Trail mix in small packets (you can buy that way or make your own) makes great snacks as well as mix ins for cereal, ice cream, pancakes, etc.

For meals you intend to actually cook, think camping. Whatever you can make easily on a campsite, you can probably make fairly easily on a tailgate. If cold breakfast and sandwich lunch suits you, maybe you just need a few made ahead dinners that can be reheated. Chicken is always good for that, as is stew or chili. Lasagna is messy to eat, but in a container should travel well. You can can also make sides ahead depending on how much cooler room you have. Little vegetables like green beans are easy to carry and reheat and don't need cutting, and sectioned ones like broccoli are a near second. Cauliflower can get messy. Marble potatoes and rice are both easy to heat and serve.

Have fun!

They are only going to be gone for the weekend

I often make a shooter's sandwich, which is a long continental style loaf of bread (think broader, shorter baguette but solider inside) sliced in half and hollowed out little, filled with cooked sandwich steak and mushrooms then wrapped and refrigerated overnight with a weight on it. Slice into chunks and enjoy!

I'd make a mixture of ground turkey sauteed with cauliflower "rice", soy sauce, ginger and other assorted veggies. It keeps well, reheats beautifully and is good for lunch or dinner. Easy peasy!

Spaghetti carbonara is easy with one pot.

When we go away with our little caravan I take sous vide meat that will do us several days. Roast chicken thighs, saddle of lamb, sausages.....makes finishing off on the gas much quicker and cleaner. Veggies... courgetti keeps well in a Ziploc bag, grated carrots either forget it fries or salads.

I used to provision a wilderness outpost for my job. Nowdays, I don't want to work either my body or brain that hard. Maybe I'll just take a loaf of bread, a book of verse, a flask of wine and my Honey beside me . . . Well maybe a few carrot sticks and some hummus . . . Apologies to Omar Khayyam.

OK, here's the tentative plan I'm working on and I would love some critiques from any west Michiganders out there. We are staying in a small town in northern Michigan and plan on spending our time between beaches in and around Pentwater and Whitehall. We'll pass through Grand Rapids on the way up and back.

I've decided tonight to stop for pizza on the way up, and try and figure out if our conclusion that Michigan pizza is mediocre at best is just because that's the way it is in my small hometown. I'm torn between going old-school and stopping at Fricanos in Grand Haven, or trying some online recommended pizzas from the west side of Grand Rapid around Lake and Leonard. I used to work near there and plan on stopping and hiking around my old work place anyway.

I'm also going to make some oatmeal raisin cookies. Not particularly healthy but no worse than the trail mix we might munch on and they are SO's favorite so going to surprise him. Will put nuts in there and make them with whole wheat. Going to pack some zucchini bread I already made, some cheese, hard boiled eggs, and yogurt for breakfasts. Heading to Michigan's fruit belt so will hopefully pick up some good fruit there. I have peaches and apples otherwise. We like to go out for breakfast but if we can't find something that looks like it is worth doing, I'll throw in some pancake mix and fake sausage and maybe we can find some blueberries for Sunday.

For lunches I am going to let my garden and fridge dictate. I have some "low carb" wraps that need to get eaten up, and I'll pack some hummus, feta, avocados and turkey for fillings. I'm going to also make "Bulgarian salad" from Enchanted Broccoli forest cookbook. It's basically a riff on chopped salad with lots of cukes and fresh herbs, which I have on hand. Can be thrown in the wraps too. Will also make some crudites with the carrots, broccoli and celery I have in the fridge. Hope to find some cherry toms at a farm stand.

I'd love to make some pasta with the fresh ingredients I might find up north, but I'm too lazy for that so I'm going to pack some burgers and some baked beans since I have some organic hamburger that never made its way into chili and will please SO. I'll do a veggie burger. I seem to have more baked beans than I need in the pantry to that will help pare that down. I have some green beans that need to get used up so I'll probably make three bean salad and maybe buy a bag of coleslaw. We might find some good corn on the road. If I can also find good Lake fish, I'll skip the burgers for Sunday night at home and do the fish instead on Sat.

I think you're overthinking this. You're not going camping in a pup tent in the wilderness. You'll be staying in a motel room with a microwave oven so why not take advantage of that appliance and leave the cook stove at home? Cook some pasta and add sauce or rice w/ Asian seasonings and take in containers in the cooler. You can steam some vegetables in the room's microwave and add to the rice or pasta. Fruit, cheese, bread and cookies will keep any hunger pangs at bay. You could also warm up leftover pizza in the microwave for lunch. Try looking at the weekend as if the only method of cooking would be microwaving and see where that may take you.

I hope the weather will be nice for your getaway.

I think your plan sounds good. All of it sounds easy to make and store, pretty healthy, pleasing to SO, and thrifty for using what you have and what's available.

So, kind of funky but pretty good tailgate beach picnic grub can be made from a standard crust slice of leftover pizza (not pan, Chicago or crisp)--let it warm up to room temp, top with lots of green salad and roll up or fold NY style. :)

Nothing could beat the fresh blueberry pancakes for breakfast AND pie at my cousins though! She is a master baker and I casually mentioned I was craving fruit pie and she insisted on making one even though I told her it wasn't necessary since we went to a great farmstand and could have bought one. But I wasn't complaining when I chowed on the home made one!

L, I wish I had seen this earlier, you're right in my area, as you well know. You could have raided the garden and skipped the farm stand! Ah, but I see you were visiting your cousin, so you were well taken care of.

Annie

Awesome photos l pinkmountain

Very good location and the dish you have made looks delicious.

The food and the place both look great.

Yeah, just a quick trip up and back to see family mostly. And swim in my Lake. Only bought a cherry strudel and some cherry tomatoes at the farmstand. I have all that produce to use up at home. Can't wait to plant my own pie cherry tree someday. I have wanted to for about ten years.

I bring: hard boiled eggs, bananas, seedless grapes, celery sticks, and "meat muffins" - miniature muffins made of a combo of ground beef (pork or lamb) and spinach. My recipe is here: https://goatsandgreens.wordpress.com/2015/04/16/spinach-turnip-greens-meat-mini-muffins/ - adapted from the Well Fed cookbook (Paleo). They're good hot or cold.

I don't tend to bring cooking gear with me, so the above is great to pack or prepare in advance if you don't have time to set up to cook.