The Mom’s Guide to Healthy Road Trip Snacks

“I participated in a Blogger Activation on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Stonyfield. I received coupons to facilitate my shopping trip and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

This time next month I will be traveling in a mini-van with my husband and four kids ages raging from 5 to 16 for a long road trip from Ohio to Maine – approximately 1,200 plus miles. (I appreciate everyone who just thought to themselves  “poor woman” – sympathy -and prayers -are appreciated). Like most kids, mine love to beg me for snacks and soda’s every time we stop for gas or to use the restroom. If you’ve ever went on a road trip and not packed snacks, I’m sure you felt the pain – mostly in your wallet.

This year I am being pro active and planning ahead. I’ve already made a list of healthy road trip snacks to take with us to keep the kids, my husband, and my wallet happy. Remember, along with healthy snacks you will want to make sure to bring: plastic bags for garbage, wet wipes for sticky fingers, reading or music material to keep the kiddos busy, and noise reduction head phones for you, just in case you can’t take it anymore! =)

Fruit – Fruit is one of our favorite road trip snacks. To make things a little more easy, I pack grapes, apples, watermelon, strawberries and pineapples already cut up into individual lunch baggies. To prevent someone from ‘getting all the grapes’ or ‘hogging the container of strawberries’ having individually baggies with cut-up fruit ready to hand out keeps the kids happy – and is easy to clean up.

Celery & Peanut Butter – I love buying the individual containers of peanut butter to use and then also cut up the celery and put those into little baggies as well. Another option is to use old peanut butter jars with a few tablespoons of peanut butter left at the bottom and just put the celery into the jar and pass it around. Depending on how many people you have traveling with you, either option works and makes for easy clean-up, though this is where those wet wipes may come in handy (especially for the little ones).

String Cheese – This is one of my favorite snacks to take on the road. These are easy to hand out, and even easier to clean-up. This is definitely a filling snack for me, and I love all the different varieties that you can purchase. I usually have to buy more by the time we reach our destination.

Jerky – Though this is not a snack I would recommend to eat on a daily basis (it’s very high in sodium) jerky can pack a punch with flavor and protein. This is definitely a favorite of my 16 yr old step son.

Turkey Roll- Ups – This is a great protein packed snack. Turkey rolled up on a whole wheat tortilla is a great snack. Some like hummus, greek yogurt, or light mayo to dip it in. You can definitely pack the condiments in throw away containers for after use.

Trail Mix – I like to make my own homemade trail mix – we like to throw all our favorites in: pretzels, dried fruit, fish crackers, cereal, nut (peanuts, almonds), sunflower seeds, whatever the kids like (and yes, sometimes we do throw in some chocolate – after all, it is VACATION!)

Yogurt – yogurt used to be a messy, very difficult snack to take on road trips. The kids would make a mess, flip their spoons full of yogurt every where, and it was impossible for whoever was driving to really enjoy this snack. We’ve always enjoyed Stonyfield Yogurt, so I was thrilled to discovered Stonyfield Organic yogurt Pouches. They offer Baby, Toddler & Kids (and yes, my husband and I enjoy the kids yogurt pouches -shhh!) They come in many great flavors and one of the best parts is they are virtually mess-free! (You can find stores near you that sell them here). Below are some of your choices:
YoBaby Flavors: Blueberry, Mango,Vanilla and Sweet Potato
YoToddler Flavors: Strawberry Beet Berry and Pear Spinach Mango
YoKids: Strawberry & Banana, Strawberry, Blueberry

My son’s favorite is the blueberry – he eats blueberries like they are going out of style, so I figured this would be his favorite. My girls and I love the strawberry, where my husband prefers the strawberry/banana flavor. I have to tell you – my 10 yr old wanted to try the YoToddler flavors and actually enjoyed the Pear Spinach Mango. I was thrilled because this is another way I can get veggies in, without forcing her to eat them at dinner. That’s a win/win for us.

We love Stonyfield Yogurt SO much, I am going to give away coupons for you to try your own Stonyfield Yogurt Pouches! Enter in the rafflecopter below!

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