Road Trip Dilemma: Packing Healthy Snacks for the Kids

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Mott's Snack & Go

There are two types of snack people in the world: salt and sweet. Generally, these seem to fall down the gender lines, with women loving sweets and guys craving salt. But just like in any relationship, mixing the two can make things even better!

Pretty deep thinking for a daddy blog, I know.

Anyways, my wife most definitely craves sweets. Whether it’s cookies or her all-time favorite vanilla frosting, she’ll take any of those over some salty snack. Me, on the other hand, would push that plate of donuts, cakes, pies or whatever to the side all for a bag of potato chips or pretzels.

But what about my kids? I’ve got two boys who are very much alike in some ways (certainly in cuteness factor!), but very different in others. I asked them both what their favorite junk food snacks are and here’s what they said:

Ryan (8 years old): “My favorite junk food snack is chocolate chip muffins. I also like Grandma Ellen’s brownies and chocolate bars. Pretzels too. I like junk food but I know it’s unhealthy.”

Jason (10 years old): “I like potato chips and corn chips. And pretzels. Oh, and popcorn! Chocolate bar too. If I’m just having a snack for no reason, I’d rather eat chips.”

Like I said, when it comes to eating, they couldn’t be more different.

We’re definitely trying to teach our kids to eat and live a healthy lifestyle. Allie and I are regularly trying to cook healthier and exercise. I’m real proud of my boys for not drinking soda or even juice. In fact, the only thing they drink is water. Occasionally, Jason will have a fruit punch, but that’s pretty rare.

When we head out on a road trip for the day or especially for an overnighter somewhere, I think we pack more food than clothes it seems. To a  large degree, we have to, because of Jason’s nut allergies. We always want to make sure he has something safe to eat during the car ride or in a strange new town.

So what do we bring with us in terms of healthy (or healthier) snack alternatives?

  • Pretzels
  • Popcorn (usually a light microwaveable kind that we pop and then put in bags)
  • Cereal (small bags of the least sugary kind in the house)
  • Raisins
  • Crackers
  • Mini carrots (I get nervous in the car with these, but they’re great for a rest stop snack)
  • Apples, bananas, grapes
  • Water bottles
  • Cheese sticks
  • Yogurt
  • Bagels

With the exception of the cheese and yogurt, everything we bring doesn’t need to be refrigerated and you don’t need any utensils. So they’re portable and easy to continually snack on. One thing we can certainly add to our list, is one that also doesn’t need a spoon: applesauce.

Snack & Go Applesauce

Stop looking at me like I’m crazy. I’m not suggesting you start eating applesauce with your fingers or lapping at it like a dog. There’s a much easier and high-tech (a.k.a. fun) way to down applesauce these days. I recently wrote about Mott’s Snack & Go Portable Applesauce Pouches and they do a perfect job of combining health and convenience in one portable snack.

These pouches don’t need to be refrigerated, but the neat thing is, they come with a resealable cap, so if you don’t finish it in one sitting, you can cover it and stick it in the fridge for later. You also don’t need a spoon at all; you just sip them right out of the pouch. Yep, transporting this applesauce from pouch to mouth is super easy!

I was sent three new flavors to try out including Granny Smith, Mixed Berry and Mango Peach. I love how Mott’s offers so many different flavors too. I’m a big fan of variety, so changing up flavors is a bonus.

They currently offer seven different flavors in the Snack & Go line: Original, Natural, Strawberry, Cinnamon, Mixed Berry, Granny Smith, and Mango Peach. To help you decide on a flavor, you can even take advantage of a Buy One, Get One Free Mott’s Coupon!

Now if Mott’s could just come up with a “cookie dough” flavor…

Mott's pouch

What are some of your favorite healthy snacks?

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Mott’s® Snack & Go is the nutritious applesauce kids love in a squeezable pouch they can take with them wherever they go. Mott’s is also the only applesauce brand with Box Tops for Education®, helping to support kids’ schools. Click here to download a buy one get one free Mott’s® Snack & Go coupon.

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Mott’s® via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Mott’s®.

12 thoughts on “Road Trip Dilemma: Packing Healthy Snacks for the Kids”

  1. We are headed to Disney in 10 days and I wanted some healthy snacks for the room that would be easy to pack. These seem like a great idea! My kids both love applesauce and I like that it wouldn’t be messy or need a spoon. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  2. Those are great healthy snack ideas! I just said to my daughter that those applesauce pouches would be great on our vacation in the summer for my grandsons.

    Reply
  3. Those pouches look pretty cool. We have tried the Gerber ones before and the cap is so hard to remove. I really like the selections you said before. All of those are very great!

    Reply
  4. These look great – no mess, unless your kids decide to have a “squeezie war”. Ever play paintball with applesauce?

    Reply
  5. My kids DEFINITELY love the “sqeezie fruit” as I call them (it’s the only way I can get them to eat veggies too…masked by fruit flavors in the baby food squeeze pouches!) I am in love with these applesauces though! Took a pack to a drive thru zoo up here in Washington and all three kids in the car had some. It was heavenly!

    Also, I guess I’m just weird…I crave salty and sweet depending on what mood I’m in. Crazy for a girl…especially pregnant…I can’t do chocolate this pregnancy….and the sweetest I can go is peanut butter…

    Reply
    • Love that kids are eating these and loving ’em! My wife even enjoys them for a quick little snack! And congrats to you, Stevie on your pregnancy! If my math’s correct, that’ll be your 4th kid?!? Oof. Good luck!

      Reply
  6. yeah,,my grandkids love applesause in the pouch,but they suck it down so fast that then they want another snack,,luckily they love fruits an nuts,,I get some of the trail mix to take for them ususally an yogurt covered raisins

    Reply

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