Traveling Food - tips, ideas?

[pdxcox]

we'll be taking a road trip to a family reunion thats about a 10hr drive over 4th of July. I'd like to take as much food with us as I can for the driving, and maybe some good "add ins" to supplement the family meals over the weekend.
We'll be staying with my grandparents/ aunt and uncle and although i'm not sure, i dont think they are very aware of their food. we try to eat little processed, no refined sugars and all organic/ free range animal products.

so what would you take? how would you quietly feed your family (myself, DS 2 1/2 and hubby) without making a scene or anyone feel uncomfortable?
i am not particularly close to this side of my family, but i do not want to hurt anyone's feelings either. Esp my mom who i am very close to and these are her parents etc.
i thought i'd offer to cook a meal or two as well, then i can offer everyone some good food that we can feel good about eating.

thanks for any great tips/ recipes!

[Arduinna]

It would be so much easier if you weren't staying with family. Unless you have specific allergies or health problems associated with diet I don't know how you can bring a bunch of food for yourselves without hurting your hosts feelings. Offering to cook is a great idea, but you can't do that every meal.

I'd make hotel or condo reservations for a place with a kitchen if I really felt the need to control my food all the time.

[Ola_]

I think cooking a meal is a great idea. You could also make plans to go out (to a park, or anywhere really) around meal times and let them know you will be out so they don't need to cook for you. Or have a picnic dinner/lunch out and bring your own food. It won't work for all meals, but for some it should.

[ammiga]

We bring our own food all the time. I just tell people dd only eats specific foods and leave it at that. I won't sacrifice dd's health over something like that. I just don't make a big deal out of it. Most of the time, if people ask, they are interested in hearing about what dd eats and aren't insulted by it. I would answer honestly in a non-judgmental way... "dd always eats protein and fruit for breakfast, so we made sure to bring eggs and bananas" or "we've noticed dd is a lot less fussy when she gets to snack on some nuts throughout the day" or "dd's favorite after-nap snack is yogurt", things like that.

I'd bring easy to prepare foods for meals... eggs, stuff for sandwiches, cheeses, yogurt, nuts, fruit, veggies, raisins, etc. Not things that require too much prep time or too many dishes.

If they have any foods to eat that you are comfortable with your family eating, let them see you eat them and thank them for it. But I don't think it's weird to show up to someone's house with food... I actually think it's a bit presumptuous to show up and expect them to have enough food to feed your family. I think it's polite to show up with food, just be sure it's enough to share!