Ideas for healthy snacks for 16-hour car ride!

[flyball]

Looking for new ideas for healthy snacks that aren't too messy. Anybody make anything special before you go?

 

[llij]

How about making a trail mix, bringing cheese sticks, or munching on peanuts or frozen grapes? Those are pretty healthy and my daughters seem to enjoy them. They also aren't messy!

I'm sure others will post more ideas.

Good luck on your trip!

 

[Geomich]

The last time we drove my son ate a ton of grapes and I bought those packs of carrots/ranch dip which he went through pretty quick.

 

[VMS]

We always bring pretzles, dried fruit, and graham crackers (low fat kind are good).

 

[Pooh67_68]

Since you will be driving, you can bring a cooler.
Carrot and Celerly sticks
Pull string Cheese
Already cut up Apples and Oranges

 

[Mandalou]

I've got boys. . . they love beef jerky. (But, I'm a girl and I love it, too.)

 

[Del]

how about a mix of nuts, raisins, chex cereal, pretzels and goldfish....

del

 

[ErinInCT]

Not sure how old your kids are, but I kept mine occupied when they were younger by making Cheerios necklaces. I threaded them on dental floss & it kept them busy for ages!

 

[flyball]

Thanks for all the great suggestions, everyone! My girls are older (11 and 13), but I'm so overwhelmed with getting everything together these last couple of days and I knew you'd be a great wealth of information for new ideas! Loved the jerky idea (my husband and girls love it, but I haven't acquired a taste for it)! All of these ideas are great and I may just crack my dds up by making them Cheerio necklaces!!!

 

[gigi1313]

fruit, veggies, animal crackers, cold cuts, cheese cut up, and lotsa water bottles (freeze some full, freeze some half full and add water, and just chill some... that way you'll have nice cold water from beginning to end, and the frozen ones will keep everything in the cooler cold!)

cereal necklaces... on our first airplane trip w/kids, i brought dd shoestring licorice and fruit loops to make necklaces... she gave them out to the flight attendants... they had the stickiest necks in the business, i am sure... but they thanked her over the p.a. system and it was priceless!

 

[MOQ3424]

We have a 22 hour drive so we know how it is. What we usually do is pack pretzels or like fruit but we keep it cool in a cooler

 

[The Sweetness]

Produce and dry cereal

 

[jann1033]

fruit pretzel rods and cut up veggies with a low cal dip for me, nuts and trail mix and those prepacked peanut butter crackers. for husband,(notice atrend????) we always ( any trip) pack a cooler with diet pop, water, the f& vs, usually lunch for the first day of the drive down

 

[CindyAnn]

I make gorp for my kids (cheerios, peanuts and a very few chocolate chips) and also make popcorn in advance. We also pack up goldfish, crackers & PB, cereal bars, etc. I think the key is to have everything in individual sizes in the car, so things that aren't already in individual servings go into ziplock bags. Then there's no arguing about portion size or attempting to pour peanuts into outstretched hands. For our family, grapes, tangerines, and apples seem to be the fruits that travel the best over 2 long days. For beverages we mostly carry water and a few juice boxes.

For those special car moments I'm also willing to introduce a few wildly unhealthy snacks - probably better than slamming my head into the dashboard.

 

[kandmwedding]

Along with the fruit, veggies, and pretzels that everyone already mentioned, we always bring Twizzlers and Peppermint Patties. They're low in fat and yummy!!!

 

[flyball]

CindiAnn, your post made me lol!!!!

Thank you all for making this so comprehensive!!!

We're off to AKL in four days! (Never did get a counter going!)

 

[flyball]

MOQ3424,

Sorry for posting again, but we're neighbors! We live in Medford, and I guess my DH drives a lot faster than yours does!!! (Hope yours isn't a police officer!)

 

[YourMajesty]

Grapes (and other fruits or veggies) and dry cereal we found out to be great because they did not make my kids thirsty! We took a trip and didn't bother to pack healthy snacks on the way home. My four year old was so thristy from the junk (ritz bits and salty stuff) that he drank waaayyyy too much and we had to hit every rest area in the state of Missouri! I would throw in a sweet treat before I did all that salty food again. Good luck with your drive.