Help!! Car friendly protein meals and snacks.

I know that I can count on all of you to give me some great suggestions.  I am a traveling nurse and spend most every day behind a steering wheel going to the homes of Tuberculosis patients to give them there treatment.  I have to plan ahead on foods and flavored water to take with me.  I don't want to get stuck having to buy fast food.  Woul you please give me some suggestions on foods that you would recommend to help me with this problem.  I am down 125 pounds and my goal is 30 more to be at my wedding weight.  Thank you all in advance.

Do you usually carry a small cooler or are you looking for non-perishable items only?  The latter is more difficult to answer for me (BBQ & White Cheddar Soy Crisps are generally the only things I eat out of a bag) but there are tons of snack-size things you can take on the go if you do have a cooler. Let me know. :)

I can take a cooler with me.  Where do you purchas the Soy Crisp from?

I order mine online at Netrition.com, but they sell them at pretty much any health food store (and most grocery stores will now carry them in the organic/health foods section).  They have the texture of rice cakes but are made with soy protein - lots of it! :)

Other go-tos:  Greek yogurt, string cheese (or whatever other cheese you like), pickles (I have to peel them with a carrot peeler), turkey jerky, turkey roll ups (slice of deli turkey rolled up with different cheeses, pickles, mustard, sliced cucumbers or other veggies, turkey bacon, FF ranch, BBQ sauce or whatever else you feel like), veggies with FF ranch or greek yogurt w/dill weed for dipping, cottage cheese with splenda and fresh fruit such as strawberries sliced up in it.

I also make my own "chips" by taking a Lavash Wrap or Flat-Out Wrap (or even a low-carb tortilla, but these tend to be a bit thicker and harder to crisp up), brushing it lightly with olive oil, sprinkling whatever seasonings I want on top (salt, pepper, BBQ spice, Lawry's, Italian Seasoning, or even cinnamon and splenda for a sweet treat, whatever you feel like), slice it with a pizza cutter into "chip" sized triangles, and baking on a cookie sheet - 425 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until crisp.  I usually make a batch on Sundays for a week or two.  Then, I make my dip with 0% Plain Greek Yogurt, splash of lemon juice, fresh cracked pepper, garlic salt & dried dill weed.  OMG it is SO good and lots of protein.  No guilt. :)

You can turn last night's leftover proteins into a salad (chicken salad, shredded or ground beef taco salad, mix pork with BBQ sauce, etc) and eat it with soy crisps or the homemade chips listed above.

Hope that helps!

I find the little bumblebee brand Tuna Salad & Chicken Salad snack kits to be very portable and easy to travel with and they don't need refrigeration (unless you open the salad portion...).

I like weigh****cher's string cheese and if it's not too hot and you're not going to let it sit too long, they don't need a cooler.. but they are better chilled.  Sometimes I eat them with an apple and sometimes alone.

For portable protein drinks, I prefer Muscle Milk LIGHT in the 100 calorie boxes.. Vanilla Creme tastes the best to me, but they also make chocolate (tastes fake IMO, but you might like it) and Strawberry.. pretty good.  EASCarbvantage is a second best alternative to my taste buds, but give them a try.  The nutrition is almost the same.  EAS I think has 10 more calories and a tad more protein.

If sodium isn't an issue for you, Jack Links makes teriyaki jerky in 50 calorie packets.  And they don't need a cooler at all.

I can sometimes find peanut butter in little cups that are about 220 calories, or sometimes packets of only 180 calories.  I try not to eat pnut butter..it's a trigger food for me, but I do keep it in the little packs for emergencies.

Protein bars are sometimes a good alternative for me.  I like the Supreme Protein snack size bars.. Peanut butter pretzel crunch is good and I've heard the PB & Jelly is good, but haven't tried it.  I find them at my grocery store.. a tad expensive at nearly $2.00 but try them.  If you find you like them,  you can get a box of 9 for  just under $12.00 from Netrition.com.   ISS Oh Yeah bars are also good, bu****ch the size.. the large bars are "meal replacement" calorie wise and that's generally too much for me.  :) 

If I think of some other things I'll post some more.   Hope this helps a bit.

This is a great post full of idea's.  The chicken or tuna salad kits, string cheeses, jerky, protein bars or the protein snacks are great ideas.

Another one - Nuts.  Some almonds are great to snack on.  Individual packs of quaker rice cakes in various flavors are only 90 calories a pack.  Those cracker packages with peanut butter or cheese in between the crackers (Lance makes them and Keebler makes them too). Also, making yourself peanut butter and jelly crackers and putting them in a ziploc.  That's good.

Carrot sticks, celery sticks, grape tomatoes; all good at room temp. 

 I haven't seen individual packs of quaker rice cakes, but you can buy a regular size and then put however many make 90 or 100 calories in little snack-size Baggies. I do that with cookies, too, althought I've kinda quit doing that because I am tempted to eat too many little Baggies of cookies! But you get more quaker rice cakes for the same number of calories, so that's a good idea.

You can actually do that with a lot of items -- like nuts or whatever. Those little snack-size Baggies are really handy for making your own snack-size packs.

I agree on the protien bars and cheese for sure. How about some nuts for a snack? I eat 1/4 c at a time. They are kind of calorie dense and have lots of healthy fat so I watch the portion. How about lean meat you don't mind eating chilled- maybe like chicken breast or pork loin. Hope this helps a little. Keep up the good work!