Minimal Effort Travel Snacks

What I eat to feel good from start to finish

Welcome to Quaintrelle, a weekly newsletter written by me, journalist-turned-sommelier and party host, Erin Henderson.

Would you be so kind as to click that little heart above?❤️

Here, I share my my insights from decades of working in hospitality to bring back stylish, laid-back and stress free hosting.

Won’t you join us?

This is a hard pass from me.

People who know me well, know that I can’t stand going for breakfast.

The smell of breakfast places turns my stomach. Five-dollar diner or five-star hotel, it doesn’t matter. I feel like after visiting breakfast places I smell like breakfast all day.

(This very well might be the PTSD of years spent working in hospitality and the unending breakfast meetings I witnessed. Good profit margins, though.)

However, I also hate the way I feel after a buttery, meaty, greasy, large-portioned breakfast (even if I only eat a reasonable amount of the typically huge servings.)

Maybe it’s all in my head, but I think it’s more likely in my arteries and intestines.

So naturally, I am not excited to hit the road – whether plane, train, or automobile – and load up on the snacks from highway pitstops. I know this fast-food fare has become nearly a cultural institution of a road trip, and I risk a lot of people parting ways with me here, but I just can’t stomach it.

Eyes on the road! This is a common occurrence in central and northern Ontario. Last week, I saw a mama crossing with her baby.

Twice in the last month I’ve had to make a journey three hours north of my Toronto home to record my portion of a new cooking show called The Wild Grill. On both occasions, my schedule meant I would have to make the three hour drive back on the same day, for a total of six hours in the car.

Naturally, I wanted to look and feel my best before jumping in front of television cameras, so travel snacks that would satiate, not stuff, and energize, not deplete, were top priority. Not to mention bite-sized finger foods for easy eating that wouldn’t distract from driving (there are a lot of deer and big, wild turkeys up there that just love to race out of the bushes into the driver’s path.)

Here’s what I packed, in a cooler, for a 12-hour day that included six hours of driving: