Travel Snacks for the Rascals

After posting last week about my Vegas-style-all-you-can-eat-buffet in the front seat of my car during our latest road trip, I received several requests to show what snacks I provided for my kiddos.

 I will openly admit what I bought for the passengers in my car was not 100% Trainer Momma approved.  I had a lot of factors to weigh:

2 day drive

22 hours in the car

1 night in a hotel

5 kids in the car (I had my two teenage nieces with me)

1 day travel through a foreign country

1 week stay in a foreign country

My "Snacks for the Road Trip Theory" is derived from the same vein as the "Movies in the Car Theory".  We do not have a television at our house, movie time is limited to Saturdays or when a babysitter comes over, and our car does not have a built-in DVD player.  Movies are a treat at our house.  BUT, when we travel long distances I do have a portable DVD player for the car that I strap onto the back of the seats.  I demand that they watch videos.  The more the better.  When one goes off, I am barking to throw another one in ASAP.  Why?  Survival.  

Same with the car snacks.  There are many snacks that come in a box that my kids love. The longer I've been a trainer, nutritionist, and mother, the less of that stuff I buy.   They just don't have enough real ingredients for me to classify them as food.  However, when a long road trip rolls around, I go back to Wal-Mart and load up on the crackers and snack-ish foods they miss.  The kids are thrilled, I turn my head, and again -- we survive.

When I road trip I don't like to stop for McDonald's or Subway.  I have tried it enough to know that it takes at least 30 minutes, the kids only want the toy from their Happy Meal, don't eat a bite of what is called a "chicken nugget", they only eat the fries and drink too much soda.  Then we are stopping for a potty break an hour later.  This brings on the the Crazy Momma mode, so I've learned to pack it and they snack on it.  They are like cows grazing all day back there. And I don't care.  My car is trashed, I practically need to pick up the car and shake it out by the end of the trip.  But you know what I care about -- survival.

Here's a look at our latest stash of travel food for the kids:

 Graham Crackers

Cheese-Its

Wheat Thins

Granola Bars (reduced sugar)

Fiber One Pop Tarts

Fruit Leather

Peanut Butter Puffins

Chocolate Flavored Rice Cakes

Ginger Snaps

Newman-O's (healthier version of the Oreo)

Natural Mellow-Oats (healthier version of Lucky Charms)

Annie's Bunnies (healthier version of Teddy Grahams)

Jolly Ranchers

Smarties

Dum-Dums

(I am the keeper of the candy and pass a piece out every hour or so)

All these snacks are typically banned from the Reading kitchen (Minus the Smarties and Dum Dums.  Those are staples for us.  Sometimes a little Smartie is the only way to get through church :). They really think they are getting away with something when they eat this stuff.

Fruit!  There's always a high demand for this after eating so many crackers.  We went through tons of apples and oranges.  

Homemade whole wheat bread

Healthy cookies

On the road or at home, these are our favs.

String cheese

Turkey slices

The kids just roll turkey around string cheese and eat these for lunch.  And dinner.  We call them Turkey Roll-Ups.

Luckily, my kids are young (9 and under) and are easy to please!

Boiled eggs

Since my kids typically only eat the egg white, I let them eat these with abandon.  At 17 calories and 3.5 grams of protein per egg white, they can knock themselves out.

What's on the beverage menu during our road trip?

Water.  

That's it.  

No juice, soda, sugar water, etc.  And, to make me seem even more of a meany mom, I limit their water throughout the day.  My goal is to get there, not stop on the side of the road for endless potty breaks.  So, I throw a diaper on the three-year-old, restrict the older kids' water drinking, share my ice with them and we drive.  And drive.  And drive.

Other things I brought but did not snap a pic of:

Peanut Butter

Low-fat Yogurt (don't forget the spoons!)

Stoneyfield Low-Fat Yogurt  tubes (healthier version of Go-gurts)

They surprisingly don't eat a lot of this food.  We had plenty to last us throughout the week in Mexico.  I think they are so thrilled to have unlimited movie time, they forget to eat.
Whatever works, man.  

We survived.

Hey Fit Mommas, what do you pack for your kids on long road trips?  What do they love?  What has bombed?  I'm always looking for more and better ideas.  Comment below!

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