6 Healthy Snack Ideas For Road Trips
Today I am happy to host Sally Kuzemchak of Real Mom Nutrition as she shares 6 Healthy Snack Ideas For Road Trips. I had the honor of meeting Sally at the Stonyfield event where she shared her tips for raising a picky eater. The event was so awesome and she was so great, I am so excited to have her expertise here today!
Healthy Snack Ideas For Road Trips
Planning Ahead: A Key to Healthy Eating on the Road. Unplanned food stops often lead to less nutritious choices. Therefore, planning and packing healthy food for road trips is crucial. Fill a compact cooler with a variety of fresh fruits, cheeses, and yogurt cups (I personally prefer organic options for my family like Stonyfield Organic YoKids and YoBaby, which are conveniently packaged in snack-size serving cups or squeezable pouches for easy transport). Include some single-serving nut butter and whole grain crackers, and voila! You have not only healthy snacks, but also wholesome meals for those times when you can’t find a decent dining option and have to resort to a rest stop. For those traveling with a baby, remember to pack pre-cut finger foods such as tofu cubes, overripe fruits, and whole wheat pasta bites.
Kickstarting the Journey: The Importance of a Hearty Breakfast. Before embarking on the journey, ensure everyone has a filling breakfast that incorporates protein to keep hunger at bay until lunchtime. This strategy will help curb cravings for less healthy drive-thru options. A fun and nutritious choice that my kids enjoy is yogurt parfaits. By using fanciful glasses, it adds an element of excitement to breakfast. We start with a base of Stonyfield Organic Yogurt, followed by layers of homemade granola for a satisfying crunch, and top it off with fresh fruits like strawberries or blueberries.
Incorporating Fun into Health: Making a Game of Snacking. Encourage your family to consume healthy snacks on the go by turning it into a fun game. Pack colorful snacks such as carrot sticks, blueberries, strawberries, and green grapes. Assign each color to a vehicle or site you may pass, and whenever you see the matching color, the “winner” gets a corresponding snack. This game not only promotes healthy eating, but it also helps young children practice color recognition.
Dipping and Skewering: Fun Ways to Eat. Older kids may enjoy skewering fruit pieces onto popsicle sticks or threading them onto skewers to create car-friendly fruit kebabs. These can be dipped into yogurt cups, adding an element of fun to their eating and also helping keep their hands clean – a double win when you’re in a vehicle!
Reusability: The Green Way of Snacking. Teach your children about the value of recycling and portion control by reusing the empty yogurt cups. Once they’re done with their yogurt, rinse the cups out and refill them with trail mix or granola for the return trip.
Safety Measures: Ensuring Your Road Trip Snacks Are Safe. It’s important to ensure any perishable food items are safely packed in a cooler with ice or ice packs to prevent spoilage. Moreover, be vigilant about children eating in the car to prevent choking. As a rule of thumb, avoid letting babies eat while the car is in motion unless there’s an adult seated next to them to watch for any choking hazards.
With a bit of planning and creativity, you can ensure that your family stays nourished with wholesome and fun food options even on long road trips.
What are some ideas for some healthy snacks you can take on the road?
- Easy Healthy Carrot Muffins Recipe With No Sugar
- Copycat Cracker Jack Popcorn Recipe
- Easy and Healthy Chocolate Coconut Balls
What are your favorite healthy snacks for kids? Any road trips planned?
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YES YES YES on the reuse too.
the crafts we made from what other people would have tossed away saved me hours of whining from the child :-0
I constantly carry snacks with me as the boys are hungry ALL the time!! I use a lot of half-size bags for everything from pretzels to fruit to cereal. I reuse the bags too 🙂 Other favs include Go Go Squeeze, cheese sticks and protein balls!
These are great tips! Cooper is still on bottles and purees so I just make sure I have a lot of that on hand! Car trips are ok, for us, plane trips are getting difficult because it messes up his schedule and it is harder for him to sleep. We just flew from the US to Brazil and it was no picnic!
This couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m actually preparing for a road trip tomorrow and was just trying to figure out what to eat along the way. I grew up eating grapes and apples on road trips, but never thought to bring organic yogurt. Thanks!
I do a lot of chips or granola bars that usually works. I don’t normally do fruit too sticky unless I have wipes and even then I try not too even my 9 year old will get it all over the place.
These are GREAT tips! We’ve been road-tripping all summer and have made mistakes of skipping meals and having Des scream for doughnuts!
My mom used to pack a cooler for the five of us with five sandwiches, five cheese sticks, five apples, five bags of veggie sticks. Then we’d drive for hours without having to stop once.
I need to do that because we have another trip coming and food is EXPENSIVE on the road.
Love The recommendation to bring frozen yogurt cups/tubes. We haven’t been on a really long road trip in a while, but I see more of them in our future!