Hi Moms, We will be driving to CA soon and staying at a hotel on the beach. I will have an ice chest full of drinks, but was wondering what kind of food we can pack and take with us to eat for lunch on the beach. I don't want to have to drive around to find a store or fast food. We will probably eat breakfast at the hotel and then take everything to the beach and stay the whole day without leaving. So what would be some good idea's that I don't have to cook or reheat there and will be easy to handle with all the sand?
And we will really only be at the beach for one full day...Thanks!!!
Sandwiches or wraps are perfect for the beach.
I hear all of the grapes suggestions, but I want to add one thing: FREEZE them a day or two ahead of time before you go. Frozen grapes are the best! Freeze them and put them in a ziploc in the cooler before you leave for the beach. YUM!
fruit snacks and string cheese are great because they are sealed and you can just throw them right in the ice.
Same idea with peanut butter and jelly, leave the stuff in the jar and take a loaf of bread. Or you can buy the frozen uncrustables, and thew will thaw by the time your ready for lunch.
I know it sounds weird, but my daughter loves spaghettios right out of the can, she just pops the top off the can, dumps them into a cup, and thats her lunch. Everything gets thrown away and she gets a full lunch between the pasta, cheese sticks, fruit snacks and water bottles.
Good luck and have fun!
Sandwiches are always great for us. Take bread and sandwich fillings, like peanut butter, jelly, cheese, lettuce tomatoes, whatever you like. if you make the sandwiches at the hotel before you go to the beach and cut them into smaller pieces you can put them in the ice chest or bag or whatever you are using to take them to the beach. they will be easy to eat that way. Also whole fruit or carrot sticks, cheese sticks.
We usually do sandwhiches, you can stop at a subway or something like that and get that and chips. Its pretty simple and will stay well in a cooler. Have a great trip :)
If you are staying at a hotel that is providing breakfast, I'd put sandwiches in baggies and take them to the beach. (bring one or two boxes of 100 count sandwich baggies with you in the car or suitcase and bring a bag containing condiments too.) Most of the hotels/motels I stayed at had bacon and sausages and bread and biscuits. They make good sandwiches for the beach. If you keep them in baggies and only peel the sides of the baggies down you won't have to worry about having real "sand"whiches. Bring fruit like bananas so they can be held by sandy hands and peeled so the sand doesn't get on the fruit or put things like apples cut up in baggies and eat them holding the baggies and not the fruit. Baggies will also hold wet/damp wash cloths or bring diaper wipes.
Hope you have lots of fun.
We always make turkey sandwiches on good rolls -wrap them in wax paper and aluminum foil and tuck in a gallon ziplock. We also like to take Pringles or Lay's Stax and my 4 yr old son and I are big fans of olives -particularly almond-stuffed ones! After you've been hot on the beach all day, taking a salty jar of olives out and eating them is SO good! You can really take just about anything -fresh fruit chunked up that you can grab cold out of the ice chest is yummy -watermelon, canteloupe, grapes and strawberries. Cheesesticks are good and so are pre-made dips. Pop open the dip and chips and use the ice chest as a table. Just make sure you have good sealing gallon ziplocks for stuff or a Tupperware/Rubbermaid container so it doesn't get cooler ice and water in it.
I have to say -my mother and I always loved a box of Cheezits and diet Coke or beer on the beach. It was a favorite treat that I still love!
All the ideas you have gotten are great ones, but I wanted to pass on a must have for us when we go to the beach: grapes. They are easy to rinse if they get sandy, they taste good even if they aren't kept cold, and they are easy to portion out. My kids always want grapes when we go to the beach :)
Fruit, cheese, sandwich halves, chips and dip.
I LOVE the beach! Hope you have fun!
Being a CA girl and growing up on the beach one of my all time favorite things is a bologna and mustard sandwich...even with the sand...adds a lil' crunch!
All the ideas you have so far will work great...no matter how hard you try your kids are going to eat sand with their food, its just the way it goes! I 2nd the grapes tho, they are an excellent beach food! Go-gurt would work pretty well too!
As long as you are taking the cooler, you can pack anything you'd like!
~We just got back from visiting my family in South Gate (near Long Beach) and stopped in at Seal beach to let the kids play...my oldest nephew got stung by a stingray...ouch! Apparently that is VERY painful!! I am 33 yrs old and spent most of that on that same exact beach and never once got stung...only my nephew, jeez, can't take that kid anywhere! So, moral of the story...it doesn't hurt to stop by the lifeguard station and ask about your current location!
Have fun and enjoy your trip!
Wheat tortilla with sandwich meat and cheese rolled up is easy and good AND filling. Classic snacks like chips and salsa in the jar is yum! You can even do sandwiches that are premade in the deli, just ask them to slice it up before you go. Have fun!
fruit
deli sandwhiches or make your own
hot dogs
chips
pickles
water
Lunchables
Crackers
Cheese
- you will probably have to go to a store, to get these things....
or, ask the hotel to make something for take out.... too.
- Bring an ice chest for the food too, to keep it chilled. In addition to the ice chest for the drinks
As an east coast girl we spent summers at the beach and my mom always packed ritz crackers with cream cheese on them and peanutbutter on celarey. Grapes were also always in the cooler!
