We Need To Snack
We all have a dream of the parents we’d be if we had infinite time and resources. Relaxed and happy with everything we need close at hand. The challenge of family life is that this situation just doesn’t exist- we parent on a limited budget and a packed schedule, and we make the best of the situations that we find ourselves in. Every parent has dined on a supper of the food their kid just refused or tried to dispense a lunch to children in the back of a moving vehicle. Raising kids means developing the skill to make the best of adverse circumstances.
This is why parents become so familiar with The Snack. Our day isn’t scheduled around three sumptuous square meals- it’s a mad dash from a quick breakfast to a bag lunch and a delivered-just-in-time dinner that requires improvisation, cut corners, and a bagful of snacks at the ready. It’s not that nutritional value isn’t always our first priority- it’s that it basically never is. And the result is that we’re frequently presenting our kids with semi-nutritious food just so we can meet the various demands of our day. But with a little forethought, it’s possible to find healthier, more natural snack options that kids love *and* that fit into our mad scramble.
The factor that most often drives parents into the arms of unhealthy snacks is definitely the time crunch. On long, lazy afternoons, it’s easy to search the kitchen for the optimal snack, even if it takes some effort to prepare. But for every long, lazy afternoon that your family enjoys, there are dozens of mad dashes around the house to make the morning school bus or quick drives between two afterschool activities with famished kids. In situations like these, there’s no time to break out the baking sheets and popsicle molds- families need something that’s edible now and healthy to the greatest extent possible.
There are options for families feeling the time crunch, though- natural snacks, better for the whole family, that can be deployed in one instant and cleaned up in the next. Simple Truth™ Plant-Based Buffalo Cauliflower Dip, for instance, is a simple snack with all the flavor that kids crave which can go from fridge to table in an instant. And, served with baby carrots or Simple Truth Organic™ White Corn Tortilla Chips, you’re steering well clear of sugary or overprocessed snacks.
Time is the only consideration for a busy family, though: so much of family life happens on the go. More and more, we’re eating at school, at extracurricular activities, or at some quick stop in between, with no opportunity to bring the whole show back to the dinner table for a three-course meal. There are plenty of ways to make food portable, but few delicious ones that meet the dietary goals you have for your kids.
One great solution here are small, bite-sized snacks made with natural, non-GMO ingredients. Simple Truth™ Blueberry Cashew Trail Mix Bites, for instance, pack all of the flavors of trail mix into snackable morsels that pop easily into the mouth rather than burrowing into every crevice of your car. Easy to throw into a portable container or to dispense directly from front seat to back, small-bite snacks like this are purpose-built for consuming on the move.
Another challenge to healthy snacking that parents know so well is the fact that we’re seldom in a position to arrange separate snacks for kids, friends, and parents. When the neighborhood kids or the grandparents come over for a visit, we need a simple option that everyone can dip into as needed. Again, this problem is easy to solve with a bag of potato chips, but it’s a bit trickier if we have our eye on better ingredients.
The solution here is to go back to basics: kids, adults, and everyone in between respond to great flavors, and there are better-for-you snack options out there that pack the same punch as our guilty pleasures. Some, like Simple Truth™ Popped BBQ Protein Crisps, take a classic “junk food” flavor and improve the delivery method. These swap the fried potato chip for a popped soy protein crisp. Others, like Simple Truth™ Sunflower Butter Filled Pretzels, are in a genre all their own, but with a sweet & savory flavor that adults will enjoy right along with the kids. And because they’re free of both peanuts and tree nuts, we can set them out with peace of mind, no matter who’s joining for a snack.
In this universe of snacks, some healthy and others not-so-healthy, it’s not that parents don’t have great ways to give their kids natural, nutritious snacks. It’s that those snacks are not always the most obvious choice in our hectic modern family life. Thanks to Simple Truth®, though, it’s possible to find snacks that give parents the options and flexibility they need to oversee another stuffed day of family adventures while also keeping an eye on the ingredients we’re offering to our kids.
Kroger’s Simple Truth® provides all-natural ingredients for fresh creations suitable for any diet. We have a lot of love for these brands in this article, and while it is sponsored content, we are honest fans.
