Travel Lunches Non-Heat Non-Fridge?

When I fished a lot out of my kayak I didn't really have room for food in the little ice bag I carried with drinks. I relied on salami, cheese, crackers and canned meat like potted or Vienna sausages. This worked well for me, but I'm not a big eater, especially at midday.

Anyone remember their mom sending them to school with lunch in a brown bag and no refrigeration? LOL!

If you freeze water bottles before you go, just pile them in your cold fridge all together, and they should stay frozen for at least a few days. At least you'll be able to take some fresh food for a few of your lunches.

Take a look at the "GoPicnic" boxed lunches on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/GoPicnic-Snacks-Variety-Pack-Count/dp/B00K1F24VM/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1413058757&sr=8-8&keywords=gopicnic

Those are usually about $5 or $6 in National Park visitor centers, and more in airports. But on Amazon, a little cheaper. They are a good base for your lunch, and just supplement with some celery or apples with peanut butter, or other fruit.

Not sure if you have a way to heat water on the road/trail, but check out "Pack It Gourmet" http://www.packitgourmet.com/ for some really good backpacker type meals. The fruit smoothies are the best, we used those for many breakfasts on the John Muir Trail (of course cold water is best for those.)

Jim Shoe wrote:
Three pages of answers and nobody has mentioned SPAM? Of course, nobody eats SPAM. But somebody's buying it. And now there are several varieties. Actually, there are several canned meat items that keep forever and can be eaten cold. Chicken, salmon and tuna come to mind. Grab a box of crackers and you're all set.

SPAM now comes in different flavors? Unfortunately, I gag when I even smell it - can't imagine actually putting any in my mouth!

ridingfamily4 wrote:

littlemo wrote:

toedtoes wrote:

Super_Dave wrote:

downtheroad wrote:
peanut butter (extra chunky of course) on a tortilla rolled up.

Peanut butter without an ice cold glass of milk is just WRONG! LOL!

I absolutely, positively, without any hesitation, agree ten times!! :)

Peanut butter WITH a cold glass of milk is just WRONG!
LOL I hate milk!

I absolutely, positively, without any hesitation, agree ten times!! I HATE milk too!

I love milk but it hates me.....so I've learned to adapt and enjoy PB without the milk.
PB and potato chip sandwich is good with/without milk

Super Dave-- I've thought about that quite a bit-- went to school with a metal lunch box with a sandwich that had meat in it and no refrigeration! Never got sick, also no childs seat in car. How the heck did we ever survive?

Gary. wrote:
Super Dave-- I've thought about that quite a bit-- went to school with a metal lunch box with a sandwich that had meat in it and no refrigeration! Never got sick, also no childs seat in car. How the heck did we ever survive?

Former Health Inspector here.

Take it from me: provided it's fully cooked, practically NO food perhaps excepting plain milk will "spoil" or grow bad guys if unrefrigerated for five or six hours. All those old stories about dead-folks-at-the-picnic likely involved HOMEMADE mayo, which is uncooked. Commercial mayonnaise will keep indefinitely without refrigeration. Or at least as long as it takes for one to fix, carry, and eat a sandwich.

Francesca Knowles wrote:
Former Health Inspector here.

Take it from me: provided it's fully cooked, practically NO food perhaps excepting plain milk will "spoil" or grow bad guys if unrefrigerated for five or six hours. All those old stories about dead-folks-at-the-picnic likely involved HOMEMADE mayo, which is uncooked. Commercial mayonnaise will keep indefinitely without refrigeration. Or at least as long as it takes for one to fix, carry, and eat a sandwich.

Thanks for pointing that out. I think a lot of people freak over this stuff unnecessarily.

In regards to milk, I forgot to put away a gallon jug once. Had just brought it home from the grocery store and left it sitting in the front room for about 5 hours before I remembered. I immediately put it away when I realized. It was fine. However, it did go sour within 5 days - whereas the other jug, which I had put away immediately, stayed good past its expiration date two weeks later.

This isn't as cost effective on Amazon - I used to see them at Costco all the time where they were CHEAP! But we usually have some of these along to throw in a backpack for a lunch: GoPicnic Meals

Edited to add: Target has better pricing (and a current sale). Still not as good as Costco!

So far I'm kind of looking at taking pre-packaged cheese portions, crackers, French bread, potted meat, Vienna sausage, fritos, boiled eggs (in shell), apples, ...
I'm probably looking at snacking on the individual items rather than assembling into a sandwich.
I'll pre-freeze a few cold packets at home and put in the travel fridge so if I want to carry a cold lunch I can add one to the container.