Saturday, August 09, 2008

Snack Food Reviews

Recent quest: finding healthy and pre-made bites/dips/spreads to fill a spot in my kids' lunch bags this fall. I have plenty of ideas for fresh and home-made foods, but was interested to see what prepared food was out there that my kids might like.

For my test offerings, I checked all labels carefully and chose foods that 1) I thought the kids might like, and 2) I felt were healthy in moderation. The kids eat a low-fat, low-salt, low-additive, low-meat and low-dairy diet, so I am okay with them enjoying an occasional snack or two that may be high in fat or salt.

WINNERS
The three-year-old and/or the five-year-old have given their approval to the following:
Snyder's Peanut Butter Pretzel Sandwiches
Sesmark Sesame Garlic Savory Minis (rice crackers)
Nature's Promise (Giant's "whole foods" brand) veggie sticks (these have no nutritional value to speak of, but the ingredients are fairly innocuous)
Newman's Own Organics Fig Newmans
peanut butter rice bars
Kashi cereal bars in Ripe Strawberry and Blackberry Graham
Fruitabu fruit leather
Trader Joe's original hummus
Trader Joe's Multigrain crackers
Trader Joe's Chocolate Merengue cookies
New York Style whole wheat Bagel Crisps (a little too greasy for my comfort)
Trader Joe's peanut-butter stuffed pretzels

LOSERS
Odwalla Bar "Berries GoMega" (bleah)
Trader Joe's plantain chips (yum for me)
Trader Joe's green bean snacks (yum for me, too)
Kashi granola bars (and again, yum for the adults)
Seneca Red Delicious dried apple chips (meh)
Trader Joe's Tzatziki dip (N loved it until he found a cucumber slice)
Stella D'oro Garlic Breadsticks (I like)

I will update with a few more picks and pans over the next couple weeks, and also add a list of home-made or whole lunch foods that are favorites with my kids.

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