Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My husband is a courier and basically spends his entire day sitting in a car, he doesn’t get a break and normally either goes the entire day without eating or grabbing something at a fast food joint. He wants to start eating better (or basically just eating), so he’s going to start bringing one of those little coolers with him in the car. Now the only question is, what to put in the cooler? He needs things he can eat one handed since he rarely has time to stop and eat, and although fruit and sandwiches are a given, I’m trying to think of some items to mix it up so he doesn’t get bored. So PPK, what are some one handed items he can pack that are good eaten cold? Kick asparagus sandwich suggestions are also welcome.

I often eat in my car at work just to get away. Wraps are better than sandwiches because you can stuff way more fillings and veggies in. I also like bring rice paper rolls with a peanut dipping sauce, but they can get a little messy if he's eating while driving. Good old pita with hummus or tapenade is always a given, too.

i'm with vijita - wraps are often times better than sammies (burritos, too!), and pitas are great as well. pitas stuffed with white bean spread and garlicky roasted broccolini are really tasty.

it sounds weird, but sushi might be kinda easy to eat because you can just grab the rolls instead of using chopsticks.

spring rolls might work well.

chickpea cutlets made into nuggets might be fun and easy to eat as well. i think they'd be tasty cold, too.

empanadas? You could make a big batch of dough & then put in a variety of fillings. I've heard they freeze well, too.

What about some kind of paratha?

I'm glad you started this thread; Ryan's working two jobs now (helping out another program temporarily) & we're having this same issue.

pretty much anything that people recommend for road trippers.

luna bars, primal strips, carrot sticks and hummus.

If he has time to open a can of beans, I used to eat bush's vegetarian baked beans when I was on the road. It doesn't take long to open a can so I'm sure he could squeeze that in at a light or on a bathroom break.

Trail mix, or just bags of nuts and/or dried fruit would be good for him to keep on hand in the car for snacking on. And like someone else said: cliff, luna, lar, etc. bars. Home made whole grain, low fat and low sugar muffins or scones might work well. And of course whole fresh fruit that can be eaten one handed: apples, bananas, peaches, etc. are perfect; grapes and berries are doable, cherries a little harder, and veg sicks.

Cornish pasties! My mom used to make these when I was a little girl, and they are easy to veganize.

http://dumbledoresveganarmy.wordpress.c ... h-pasties/

Another wrap-on-the-road fan here. When I used to volunteer as an animal ambulance tech and we were in the car all day, my fave easy lunch was a wrap with hummus, arugula, shredded carrots, avocado slices, cherry tomatoes an kalamata olives.

cherries wouldn't be difficult as long as he pits them at home. (everybody loves purple fingers!)

on the empanada/pasty train- calzones. basically anything is delicious stuffed inside a doughy shell. i love making pizza for dinner and doubling the ingredients to make lunch calzones.

that reminds me. xmiyux totally swears by pepperoni biscuits on road trips. take biscuit dough or pizza or bread dough. wrap it around any kind of protein and bake. (he likes to make his in mini muffin tins. so you can even make a quickbread with meats inside. just shove it into a half-filled muffin tin, and then scoop a little more on top to cover.)

i was brainstorming this morning and thought of samosas & aloo tikis.

i like the idea of calzones and you could make themed ones like: curry stuffed, mexi fixins (beans, rice 'n veggies), pot pie yummies, etc.

oh, and spinach fatayers!

You guys are awesome, there are so many things that can be stuffed with other things!
He's already stocked up on granola bars and we're definitely going to go for wraps over sandwiches. I really need to give calzones, cornish pasties and empanadas a try, never made any of those at home before.
I mentioned the sushi and he said it would make him feel too fancy, although he kind of liked the idea.

Never heard of fatayers before, gonna have to look those up.

One time, I found empananda wrappers for super cheap and used them to make lazy samosas and everything else.

Any kind of empanada, pasty or hand pie works well I've found. Samosas, pakora, bhajis etc are good for travelling. And falafel too - back a little tub of dip and you can just dunk them.
If I know I'm going to be in the car for a long time, I'll try to make some healthy scones or cookies with oats, nuts, dried fruit and stuff like that. Easy to grab and they keep you filled up much more than shop bought crud.
Not sure if you are into Japanese food but for Japanese people, onigiri (rice balls/actually triangles) are the classic travel food. And they are really not as hard to make as you might think.

A good hand pie recipe is Square Meals in Simply Heavenly by George Abbot. Johnp posted about them for VeganMofo in 2008.

Square Meals Dough
http://i-40kitchen.blogspot.ca/2008/10/ ... s-aka.html

The filling possibilities are endless ...

BBQ seitan/soy curls
Broccoli & Cheez
Broccoli & Mushroom
Spicy Bean
Dal
Mexican
Morrocan Lentil
Pan Roasted Corn (with lime juice, liquid smoke, adobo, Sriracha)
Pizza
Seitan & Potato
Spanakopita
Spicy Black Bean and Tofu
What ever you want !

I drive a taxi and I'm in a similar boat. Sandwiches, wraps, fruit, grapes taken off the stems before I pack them, roasted chickpeas, Clif bars, and dried fruit (I love dried apricots and figs) are all good. Does he ever get time to sit for a few minutes? Bean or potato or pasta salads can be good if he ever has time to use a fork.

I'm on the road a lot (bus, not driving), and end up needing something that I won't spill everywhere on my 1+ hour ride to school every morning.

Lately my go-to food has been veggie dogs baked in dough. A lot of the refrigerated cans of biscuit dough are vegan (I like crescent roll dough, quite a few brands of it are vegan.) I could also see kebabs working; everything stays nice and neat on the stick, and it can be eaten with one hand.

Smoothies may also be worth looking into. If you toss some protein powder or nut butter into them they can be quite filling.

Salad in a jar + spork
Salad jars

I should ad I eat these with the jar between my knees with the spork in my hand.

You guys have awesome ideas! I was going to be boring and say pb&j or a tofurkey/veg cheese/veg mayo sandwich. Plus cut up fruits and veggies in those smaller sized snack bags. Pretzels, chips, and what not too.