What good foods do you take with you?

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I bring our own alcohol, cheese, and boiled eggs (plus own died coke if I have room). I have brought tuna but didn't open the can due to potential unpleasant smell for others. If I'm in business class instead of roomette, I am very discrete with the alcohol.
 
i'm travelling with my 4 yo on amtrak in july, we're travelling coast to coast but with plenty of stops in between. My daughter's really into her fruit and veg and from what i recall from last year there was precious little available on amtrak at all, so what type of fruits/veg would travel well, i was thinking of bringing my cooler bag with icepack but it just occured to me that i'm unlikely to come accross a refrigerator in a hotel room with a freezer section which would mean bringing it would be of little use.So anything that would travel well would be good!
 
I'm traveling in June on the Southwest Chief from KS to CA. Will be riding with my two boys, parents and a brother. This thread has answered so many of my questions. I was wanting to take a cooler and snacks and planned to eat dinner one night in the dining car. So now I know what I can and should bring and some things to avoid. Plus I've found I should bring a small blanket and pillow for all and that my luggage will be right overhead.

Thank you all so much for your wonderful advice. It has been very helpful to me and I'm sure to others.
 
My wife and I took the SWC last month from KC to LAX and back. I guess we believe more in being prepared than packing light (maybe it was the proximity of the boy scout camp :giggle: ) because we took one standard wheeled suitcase that just had two lightweight blankets, a couple of small travel pillows, and snacks. We took crackers (in ziplock bags to save space), small bottles of juice, a couple bottles of pop, pop-tarts, granola bars, trail mix, and those lunch-size packages of cookies. We had no problem getting cups of ice at the snack bar, though I did make sure to tip well.

If you think that suitcase was a bit much, you should have seen all the electronics we took. But that's a whole other thread.
 
One time we took a cooler of chicken breast sandwiches on onion rolls. We purchased pop cans on board. We have also taken cold fried chicken in a hand held cooler. Took it to the observation car and made a picnic out of the trip. Always cookies, as well. A casual family picnic on the train.
 
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In addition to the other snacks already listed, I always take a large-size insulated lunch bag with some frozen Capri Suns and frozen Uncrustables in it when I travel with my grandchildren. If they don't eat them on the train, I just pop them in the fridge in the hotel room. However, since I have a 12 year old grandson who has a bottomless pit for a digestive system, they are rarely left over. :giggle: :giggle:

When I travel alone in a sleeper, I like to take a couple of small bottles of wine....the 2-4 glass size so I don't have leftovers.
 
I have made two trips on the SWC and for food I utilized Pop Tarts and Granola bars, and then I had these crystal light packs to add to my water (which I would store in a water bottle). Occasionally I'd wander down to the cafe car to ask for a cup of ice to add to this mix.
 
Good suggestions. I've traveled the Empire builder from Seattle to Chicago with just myself and two kids three times so far and am about to do it again, and I always bring our own food, with maybe one meal in the dining car on one of the trips. I take amtrak instead of flying to save money in the first place, so spending a bunch on the train doesn't make sense for us. In the past I've brought too much and too much messy stuff, I had a cooler two summers ago that would have kept the food we brough except we had a 12 hour delay with flooding in Montana and North Dakota. I'm trying to find the perfect balance of not too little and not to much for myself and two kids, my kids are picky too so it's a tricky planning experience. Generally though they need to just suck it up with what I bring. I like to get apple sauce pouches from trader joes, the baby bell cheeses are good, sometimes I bring a about half a stick of butter in a tupper ware container (never again just in the wax paper it comes in, can we say horrible mess, luckily not on the amtrak seats but amongst my stuff) since my kids and I hate breads with out it, if I have a cooler. I usually bring a medium sized cloth cooler bag since those fit better than the hard plastic kind. LIttle juice boxes of milk (their non perishable until opened) for breakfast. Going to limit cereal and granola this time because it can get everywhere with kids.

I second the tuna and smelly cheese thing. Try to bring stuff that doesn't smell much.

Also I like to bring sunflower butter from Trader Joe's (or another non peanut nut butter) instead of peanut butter because you never know if any of your fellow passengers have a peanut allergy.
 
Late July is an organic snack company found at whole foods and the like... They make a lot of really great and healthy individual packaged snacks. I usually bring along a few bags of their cheese and crackers, vanilla cookies, and some "Snackimals" chocolate chip cookies. I'll also throw in some "be kind" bars as well. Cranberry Almond is my favorite.

I usually buy most of my snacks on Amtrak... But that's my go to for long bus rides!
 
I never bring anything with me anymore - like I don't bring books anymore. I am not an in- between-meal eater under any circumstances really and I probably don't drink enough water either. I very rarely buy anything from the snack bar in lounge car - even coffee. Going through WAS, I will get off and go into the food court and get something though. When in sleeper the meals in the diner are more than enough, esp since I eat everything offered to me, i.e. my plate is empty at the end and I always take dessert. :p
 
I love the dining car even though I'm pretty quiet and get sensory-overloaded easily, especially when tired due to my mobilty issues. For the most part, my husband and I had to learn to pace ourselves since you are always eating on the train but since I've read stories about food running out, I bring snacks for an emergency stash or when there is an expected large gap between say lunch and when we will eat dinner after we detrain (I hate the word detrain - boarding is a much nicer word).

My husband loves the peanut butter filled pretzels but they were a mess by the end of our shorter trip so for our 8 day enduro I'm going to have to figure a crush-proof way to bring them.

Me: Raisinettes - for the chocolate and of course... Good and Plenty's to make the train get to the station on time :)

For our one night in couch, we'll be hitting Susan's in Boston (at everyone's suggestion) but I love the idea of fresh cut veggies... so I will be looking for them somewhere in Boston near the station....
 
Last year in August I rode coach on the SWC Chicago >> Los Angeles and back. My first time on a LD train trip. I was all over this forum gleaning suggestions for meals and snacks. I planned not to have meals in the dinning car to save $$$. Although I did have breakfast there once. My carry-on food bag consisted of 6 sandwiches - a mix of peanut butter, jam, cheese, salami and thin sliced vegetables like bell peppers and carrots. I took little packets of condiments (mustard, ketchup and mayo) but discovered these are available at the snack bar on the lower level. A mix of nuts and dried fruit in a zip lock bag and about 4 hard boiled eggs in their shells. A zip bag of hard rye crackers. A tupperware container of chicken tortellini and basil pesto sauce which I split for two meals. Another container of dried dates and apricots. Also a variety of energy bars and a couple of oranges and apples. I guess I was determined not to starve. Arriving in LA I still had half left over. Pretty much the same type of food coming back but less.
 
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You can bring alcolohic beverages with you, but it is against the rules to drink them in "public spaces" of the train, which is generally interpreted as anyplace other than in your room (if you are a sleeper passenger). In practice, however, many riders do drink discreetly with no problem.
 
I have a small rolling cooler that I am taking on my next trip, I will freeze water bottles and that will keep other stuff cold. I will also freeze other things that I know will freeze well. I usually bring Slim Jims, ice tea mix, trail mix, small boxes of cereal (they come in a 10 pack), tuna salad mix which is already made and comes with crackers, chocolate and some type of fruit. Oh I also bring a small container of cherry tomatoes to munch on.
 
The standard lunch when we traveled was fried chicken samich on an onion roll. Then we moved onto KFC when it was 2.99 for a thrift box. Only the Donald Trumps and Martha Stewart can afford it now.
 
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