Ideas for lunches while on the road?

We try and use salad vegetables on bread (or bread substitute). Tomatoe & lettuce are the main stays with a slice of chicken or Fritz roll. All of this can be sliced and cling wrapped in the morning and then added to the sandwich as required.

We take mountain bread or tortilla style bread, they seem to keep very well in their pre-sealed packaging. Filings like salami/mettwurst keep pretty well, small cans of tuna as well. Tins of chunky soup can be heated pretty quickly and is OK if the bread is starting to get a bit dry/stale. We've usually got fruit, either fresh or tinned to make the meal abit more substantial
Flies can be a problem, I try and make lunch first thing in the morning if possible when the flies aren't too bad. If the flies are too bad my kids tend to eat in the car

Depends where I am and how long I’ve been there and what I have left but the following all make an entry on the lunch menu sometime or other:

Proper bread
Pita bread
Crackers (the ones which look like a piece of cardboard)
Tomato
Avocado (buy unripe ones – will keep for 10 days+)
Tinned tuna/salmon etc
Tinned four bean mix
Tinned corn kernels
Tinned ham
Tinned turkey
Cheese
Hard boiled eggs – done the night before or at breakfast.
Butter/marg
One cold can of Scrumpy Jack’s cider

I do a smorgasbord of the above and find there is more than enough protein to keep me going until dinner.

As for flies… one of those umbrella-like netting things to cover the food and just do the best you can, if they are _really_ bad eating inside the vehicle may be the best option.

If I’m in camp (which I often am – as my trips tend to be “stay in one place for a while” trips) and especially if it’s winter in the Vic High Country, I’ll also use Continental packet soup etc. On the road I won’t do anything which requires cooking as it’s too much hassle at lunchtime. I usually use paper plates for lunch (big cheap pack from the $2 shop) to avoid washing up and you can use a second plate upside down to keep the flies off.

Mike Harding

To toast our stale bread we take a jaffel iron & often reheat leftovers from the previous nights dinner. Always cook bigger roasts than we need for one meal leaving cold meat for a few days. Fahita's are softer than mountain bread & go well with the usual Mexican toppings. Cheese & dip platters are simple & make a change from Salada's.
Planning meals is important so things like chicken are eaten early & salami used last.
If flies are bad one can sit under a mosquito net hung from a tree.
Cheers Craig............

We tend to have bigger breakfasts and dinners and just a small snack during the day. Packet soup, sandwich, nibbles, etc. For main meal we make and freeze in bags/containers. defrost and eat. And carry some fresh gear

Instant noodles in a cup with Sao and tinned oysters or mussels


Hmmmm leaving tomorrow morning... looking forward to lunch already....lol




Cheers

Perhaps we could invent and then patent a small tent about 400 x 400 and 200 high made out of an old fly net. Put a couple of small holes with elastic sleeves in the side for putting hands inside to make the sandwiches.

Wonder if ExplorOz would stock them ? :-))

Thanks for all the ideas!
I'm thinking the best solution - for the flies anyway - and IF we have bread and salads etc, is to make the sandwiches up in the morning.
I'll have a hard time convincing hubby though as he HATES soggy sandwiches but I'd rather that than the ordeal of trying to prepare and eat while the flies are going bonkers!
I'll remember to buy bigger roasts co's that's always SO nice having on a sandwich the next day....or just slices of roast beef on their own sprinkled with salt!
Otherwise, yeah...Sao's, crackers....dips and things similar to what you would eat for happy hour I suppose.... Some smaller containers to store those kinds of things already sliced up in the morning would be good to have on hand.

The mini meal making tent sounds like a good idea Kiwi. :)
But I want a full body length fly net suit to go along with it too!
Just a zip opening for ones mouth when a drink or a smoke is required?

We're off to Innamincka Wednesday am so just made our shopping / meals list.

Lunchtimes on the road or in camp we normally have crackers (she: Premium, him: VitaWheat sandwich size). We top up with choices from sliced metwurst, and/or cheese with toppings from bottles like sliced pickled onions, red peppers, jalipinos, a new one: caramelised onions in cranberry sauce. Cold and fresh from the fridge. Yum.

Drinks can be hot coffee (we try to make a Thermos in the morning) or Iced Coffee.

Sometimes due to flies we have to prepare lunch in the car or under a food screen, then wear hats and individual flyscreens and flick the screen up to 'load up'. Usually a messy pain in the *ss.

Bon appetit Desertrose! RayJen

Most of the time for the 2 of us, its a small can of tuna, a sliced tomato and a heap of pepper on saladas. Piece of fruit and a cup of tea from the thermos, and maybe a small box of juice.

how to make pita bread taste ok, LOTS OF MAYO!!!
Cruskets are also good as a cracker alternative if you have no bread.

Sesame flavoured Vitawheats are a great improvement on the original ones. I tend to exist on Vitawheats and those small tins of flavoured tuna even in the office since they can be stashed in a draw indefinitely.

i use pita bread (the big round ones)and fill them with ham,tomato,cheese and alfalfa sprouts and mustard .i could do with one now

I usually carry a number of noodles in a bowl where you just had hot water and add the flavouring that comes with it let stand for 3 mins and eat and if I have some fruit.

For pita bread I use a can of pink salmon mixed with mayo and onion. This can be made the night before or in the morning you leave, only takes a couple of minutes to make, then seal and place in the fridge ready for lunch.

Another option is to make a salsa or even mashed avocado placed on pita bread with leg ham (chicken, turkey) again can be pre-made.

Just depends on the flies really if you pre make the fillings or just add the spots (flies) while you make your lunch.

Hmmmm spotted mayo or spotted avocado on pita, you could start a new cooked book lol, think I prefer spotted dog :)

Happy lunch

Brian

Wife is diabetic, so we tend to snack during the day, and not have a big lunch. We have a good morning tea and afternoon tea. Have plenty of fruit in the car and often nibble on fruit, carrots, premixed things like nuts/seeds/cereal etc.

Good thermos for tea/coffee, which is filled the night before after washing up.

With the tent in the past and now the CT we live out of the back of the car, where the fridge is. So we have a box of sauces/condiments such as peanut paste, jam, honey, handy, and a loaf of bread. Crackers - various including rice and corn, and use the old damper up from the night before. Sausage/salami is always in the fridge.
Bad flies we eat in the car and have a good meal at night.

Muesli for breakfast. Premixed with extra nuts/dried fruit and milk powder in it. Just a mug full and add water for an instant breakfast. Can use during the day as a fill in.

And when you hit a town, look for th nearest bakery for something different. Always tell a good bakery by the quality of the apple turnovers!

Sachets of tuna in various flavours are light, easy to open, and make great sangers. Flies add useful additional protein, provided they end up in stomach and not your lung. Foil sachets are easy to transport or burn after use. Bread seems to keep for quite a long time in the Engel, but I like the idea of using pita bread.

Having a coeliac wife does make life on the road much harder and interesting, but we take all she will need and more, and make her special bread, so toasties in the waffle irons on the gas are a regular and quick filling meal if we have time, or snacks along the way of crackers, nuts, dried fruit, and bars etc are convenient.
Someone mentioned flies, a few years ago wife and i were working around woomera in the summer, and the flies were so bad you put the fly net on before you left the tent in the morning and didnt take it off until 9pm when the sun went down.
For lunch then we would put a large can of fruit and rice cream in the fridge, and at lunch we would halve each into a bowl and eat it under our fly nets, was quick, tasty, cool , and refreshing lunch, under the shade of a coolabah tree, hahaha, or any other scrubby bush we could find hahaha.

Cheers Pesty

Flies aren't too bad ... as long as you spit out the skin & the legs!

Weetbix & onions. Regards G.T.