Beyond Crackers: Green and Healthy Snacking on the Go

Squares, circles, bunnies, fish....we have no shortage of crackers sitting in our cupboards, ready and waiting for a snack opportunity.  That's all fine but when I hit the road with my kids, I like to have something other than crackers, crackers, crackers all the time. 

Fortunately, there are plenty of great, healthy snack options out there...but many come in individually wrapped packages which are certainly convenient, but all that wasted packaging is not so good for the planet.  I try hard to limit my purchases of overly packaged snacks and use them for 'on-the-go' purposes only  - like road trips and school lunches.   And I'm always looking for healthy snacks that I can bring in my own baggie or tupperware...but that are still quick and easy.

Without fail, once the kids know about fun stuff like cereal bars, fruit snacks and individual yogurt cups, they want to eat them when they're at home too.  I let Drew have small yogurts at home sometimes as a treat but I let him know that they are not only wasteful in terms of packaging but they cost more too.  He's old enough to understand. (although he's not happy about it and has been known to pitch a fit :) )

One extreme example of wasteful packaging I recently discovered is Nature Valley Fruit Crisps - crunchy bits of freeze dried apples sold in individual serving pouches.  What really got me was the huge box they came in.  It held 5 bags.  The total net weight of the entire box was 2.5 ounces!!  Pretty ridiculous.  I can get dried apples in bulk at my coop for a lot less money and very little packaging.

Here are some of my favorite green & healthy snacks for on-the-go:

• Fruit.  Well, duh!  Nature provided its own packaging.  Why mess with it?
• Nuts and dried fruit from the bulk bins carried in small plastic containers.  I often mix up my own trail mix to make it interesting.
• Fig bars.  They are a good alternative to packaged cereal bars and my little one still thinks they are cookies.  Newman's and Barbara's Bakery make good ones and we have a great brand called Matt's here in the Midwest.
• Wholesome cereal like Puffins or Oat Squares.
• Bite-sized veggies.  We don't do so well here.  One doesn't like raw carrots and I'm afraid the other one will choke.  But we're working on red peppers...
• Fruit leather.  Can't avoid the packaging issue here, but I still think it's a great snack for kids on the go.  Have you tried Fruitabu?  It's organic and each piece is 1/2 serving of fruit.
• Cubes of cheese and strips of lunchmeat - if you can keep it cold.
• Peanut butter pretzels.  In moderation.  High in fat and added sugar but less messy than peanut butter on apples!

I came across another great post about snacking at The Not Quite Crunchy Parent today.  She covers the issue of healthy snacking at home vs. the world of lollipops and soda when you go out.  Read about her 'in and out rule' for snacking - it makes good sense! 

Comments

[MCMilker]

Great list. That was neat the way you and I were on the same wavelength. You had the advantage reading mine first...then you added some great extra points... I'm going to edit my post and add a link to this one.

Love reading your blog...you may have noticed I, several times, have spun off of something you posted!

[Micaela]

MC - guess we both had snacking on the brain yesterday. I'm a perpetual snacker myself so I can't very well keep my kids from doing it - I just want it to be healthy and not too wasteful.

It's also interesting that we both have Marketing backgrounds - it makes you kind of hyper-aware of all the bad products out there tempting us and our kids, doesn't it?