Every year, I attempt to work on areas of growth in healthier living/eating. Stay tuned for my yearly goal list at the beginning of the year to find out how I hope to grow in 2010 in these areas. We end up doing a lot of road trips with kids because my husband's family lives in Minnesota and we happen to live 18 hours away from there! Though I often have packed healthy snacks for our trips, I am well aware that I could do better. I've often splurged on things like Capri Suns, fruit-roll-ups or Cheez-Itz for trips. Recently reading the book Eat This, Not That really opened my eyes in a new way to things I could do to swap unhealthy foods for healthier versions. So, as I begin to pack for our upcoming trip, healthy food is going to be top priority!
What I Plan to Pack:
Fruit leather instead of Fruit-roll-ups
Frozen blueberries and frozen peas in little containers
Cheese cubes and String cheese sticks
Pretzel sticks
Unsweetened applesauce cups
Low-fat, low-sugar granola bars
Cutie Pie (aka clementines) oranges
Nuts
TLC cheese crackers
Healthier cookies
Homemade wheat bread slices
WW tortillas with Peanut Butter
Popcorn, lightly salted, no butter
100% juice boxes
Everyone in our family will be receiving either a stainless steel water bottle or BPA-free water bottle for Christmas so we will have tastier water on our trip too!
I realize the healthier food is often more expensive. It would be cheaper to buy Twinkies than frozen blueberries, etc. However, the healthier we have been eating, the better we have been feeling. It's worth the investment! I have found that you don't need to buy all organic or spend a ton to eat nutritious foods. By using coupons or buying on sale in some areas, you have a little more flex in other areas so that you can afford the healthier version. And a lot of these things can be found on sales, discounts, or made at home. If we fill up on nutritious food, we will be less likely to spend our cash at greasy fast-food places and the kids will be less cranky from being all sugared up!
I welcome your ideas! What are your favorite healthy snacks for long car trips?
4 comments:
Have you looked to buy the 100% fruit juice at sam's club? I can't remember if you have one handy or not. We buy 100% fruit juice boxes at Sam's club. I think it's $15 or so for 40 of them. We do a lot of 3+ hour driving to the in-laws too. With 2 kids, these last us about 2 trips there and back. Plus, I don't have to worry about rinsing cups, big spills (yes, I did have a 3 year old one time decide to drip the whole box into his lap, but we caught it before the whole thing was out because of the time it took!) or negotiating amounts.
Might be worth looking into!
Lea
Popcorn was a huge hit with my kids on our 12 hour trip to Michigan a couple months back!
An unrelated note on the Cuties: my kids absolutely love them! Nate bought a whole box of them and they were gone in a matter of days. I think Madison and Noah ate 3-4 a day, and both of them even got the point where they could peel them by themselves.
Your kids do all right eating something like applesauce in the car? In our car, it would end up everywhere so I wouldn't even dare try it! :-) (Unless it was for pit stops, I guess)
I like cheerios, muffins, homemade granola bars or oatmeal cookies, celery (with peanut butter) or carrot sticks, apples (with peanut butter).
You have some great ideas! Thanks!!
great info on the diet industry's dirty little secrets!
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