Planning a packed lunch for crossing the border

Living in Southwestern Ontario, we are less than 2 hours from a number of major US cities. This makes air travel really handy but also opens up tons of fun day trips options as long as you've got a valid passport (or for kids: a birth certificate). 

My beautiful friend Ashley, who has contributed to this blog even in the early days, has a Detroit Zoo membership which includes bringing guests! Woo hoo! This means tomorrow we are packing my crew up and doing a ladies & littles trip to see the ankmals. Ashley is an animal lover and humane treatment advocate. She has volunteered with animals and recently invited a rescue dog to join her family so I trust that this zoo is one we can trust to make good choices!

I didn't want to risk paying "attraction prices" for food (oh my gosh, new blog theme: Amy is a cheapo!) so I am in the process of packing a lunch. Problem is: the border is picky about what you can bring with you, particularly no meat or fresh produce. 

Here's what's in the works:

I can't skip fruit for the kiddos so a batch of nutmeg banana chips and cinnamon apples is dehydrating. Can't deny me for non fresh fruit! 

Here is: our insulated lunch bag, some packaged treats (raspberry oatmeal bear paws, and rice baby crackers), Oliver's daily vitamin (Nordic Berries), Green Beaver organic sunscreen just in case and a bag of cherry tomatoes we have to finish before the border. Also some pasta salad as seen below. 

Excuse the hilarious photo but it hasn't really mixed well yet and the top just looks like dry pasta, ha ha. I mixed chilled pasta with vingearette, avocado, red onion, cucumber, red bell pepper, chickpeas and boiled eggs. 

Lastly I have a huge bottle of water freezing so it'll be cold all day. 

Just have to add our ID, some diapers and wipes, hats, etc and we are off!