On the road again…
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Foodie friends please don’t disown me. I gotta keep it real. And real around here lately has been one long ride on the crazy train.
Where we live is conveniently located in between 3 towns – about 15-20 minutes from each, creating one big triangle. It’s convenient in that we can usually find what we’re looking for in at least one of the three towns. But what has been a booger lately is that all of our spring time activities, practices, rehearsals, and just general end of the school year stuff are spread out among the three towns.
So, even though each destination may only be 20 minutes, when you have to go to 2 or more of the vertices of the triangle, it makes for a long day. Not smart planning on my part. But in the last weeks “planning ahead” has meant what’s happening in the next hour or so.
My chauffeur hat definitely needs some rest.
“I will survive! I will survive! Hey, hey! …”
Ahem.
Anyway, needless to say, the meal planning around here has been nil to none. That would also explain my lack of regular recipe posts lately. But they’re coming! I promise. Don’t worry, we’ve been eating, and I’ve been cooking, but it’s usually rushed and thrown together.
What I want to mention today are a few prepared foods I’ve been grabbing for snacks on the road. Yes, they’re pre-packaged. And yes, I know, there are simple, quick fixes I can make at home for times like these.
I feel I’ve failed my foodie friends that daily offer up simple, healthy options. Like homemade White Chocolate Cherry Granola, from Jessica at How Sweet It Is, that I’ve been meaning to make since first laying my eyes on it.
Maybe this time next year I’ll be better prepared, but for now I’d like to show you some of the snacks that I’ve been happy to have on hand. Please note that no one has paid me, sweet talked me, or given me free stuff to mention these products. They’re just things I’ve found, and like, so I thought I’d share them with you.
First off are these nut mixes from Planter’s, called Nut-rition.
I like the Omega 3 mix and Energy combo the best. They’re nutty, and crunchy and a little chocolatey too.
Next, these little triangle of cheese surprised me.
They’re The Laughing Cow® spreadable cheese wedges in Light Original Swiss. I’d never had them before a couple of weeks ago but yuuuum! Spread on a cracker or just eat it alone and it hits the spot. Seriously satisfying for such a little bite, or two.
More triangles. I literally ran through the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner between dropping one kid and heading to pick up another and grabbed a bag of these, riceworks® Sweet Chili gourmet brown rice crisps.
What a big surprise. They’re gluten free, with no preservatives, and full of flavor and crunch. My new favorite chip.
Now this final combo was a really desperate attempt at meeting a late afternoon craving when home for a few minutes. The ginger snaps were recently purchased for a pie shell that I’ve yet to get around to making, and the Nutella has been a regular item in our pantry for a while.
No doubt that Nutella on a stick probably tastes great, but you’ve gotta try this combo.
Well, that’s all. Hope I’ve not been too much of a bad influence. I’m hoping to have some more real food recipes up soon!
Do you ever have those weeks (or months) when you’re running around like a chicken with your head cut off or am I the only one? Any favorite snack foods for those times? Do tell.
(Again, I’ve not been bought, coerced, threatened, or brain washed into mentioning any of these products. I just like em.)
Nutella on anything would be delicious! Never tried it on gingersnaps – look what I’ve been missing?!
Hehehe thanks for the shout. I can’t believe you JUST tried Laughing Cow! We love it. Did you know that next month they are debuting 3 new flavors? I forget the other 2, but I know that 1 of them is blue cheese, so I can die happy.
Yuuuuum! I love Laughing Cow, but they’re so expensive here in China. They’ve got weird Chinese flavours like pizza. (?!) But @Jessica: Blue cheese?! I’ve never tried blue cheese, am a bit scared to, but… Maybe I’ll give it a chance with Laughing Cow? We’ll see how it goes, far out here in the middle of nowhere (China.)
Don’t blame you for having all this stuff. Nutella is classic, as are Planter’s and Laughing Cow. No shame! 😀
Wei-Wei
Mmmmmmmm, yum! The riceworks Sweet Chili Gourmet brown rice crisps look intriguing…wonder if they have those up north!? And Nutella, well just thinking about that yummy goodness makes my heart go a-pitter-patter!
Nutella. Bad, bad stuff. I cannot have it in my pantry. I will eat it all. Do you know how many calories are in a jar of Nutella? Yeah. It’s not good.
I’m glad to see you are human and have to resort to prepackaged snacks. You’re too funny.
We are addicted to Laughing Cow cheeses in our house — and I love that they are self-stable. Makes ’em great for car trips!
And thanks for the recommendation of the rice crisps. I occasionally succumb to the siren call of Doritos, but can only have the Cool Ranch Doritos (the others aren’t gluten-free) and my son can’t *stand* that flavor. I’ll have to do taste tests of these chips!
Mmmmmm, Nutella! 😉
We all have to resort to that stuff at times! Nutella is way too dangerous to keep in the house, same with any sort of nuts, I end up eating too many!
I am a huge fan of Happy Cow 🙂 Hope things slow down for you all soon. xoxo
I love the Light Laughing Cow Cheese! I put it on one of my favorite sandwiches:
I love yogurt with fruit, Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits with cottage cheese, veggies/hummus, apples w/almond butter, fruit salsa-recipe on my blog-with Stacy’s cinnamon sugar pita chips, and cereal. I love eating cereal for a snack or dessert. It is my weakness. I love Oatmeal Squares and Cinnamon Life:)
Hope that crazy train will be pulling into the station soon so everybody can get off and settle down!
Speaking of snacks, if I look a little browner and smell a little more chocolatey than I used to, it’s because I’m morphing into an Emerald Dark Chocolate Cocoa Roast Almond. My daughter introduced these to the family and we’re completely, hopelessly hooked. We can’t be bothered by the little jars at the grocery store; we buy the 38 oz. ones at the warehouse club.
I advise you not to try them.
This is my life right now. Between wedding planning and selling a house, no time to cook or blog about cooking! I try to stick with fruits for snacks, but sometimes I fail…100 Calorie Packs are my friends when it comes to snacks at work though. 🙂 And to tell you a secret…I haven’t tried Laughing Cow yet…my mom eats it all the time and has offered it, but just haven’t yet…will soon though!
Amy,
I don’t know a mom who doesn’t have crazy times. Sometimes we just spend too much time in the car! You don’t need to make apologies for not posting certain things. We understand. Really!
A couple of my kids have food allergies, so on the run snacks are challenging. Fresh fruit, dried fruit and nuts, and yogurt are always a go to.
Oh these all look great, Amy! I’d not heard of the Planter Nut-rition products before. They sound delicious. And Laughing Cow cheeses are just divine. How in the world they pack so much goodness in that little wedge is just a mystery… and sheer genius I tell you. But then again, now you know.
i definitely have those weeks! luckily this one isn’t one of them!
have you tried pop chips yet?? i LOVE the sour cream & onion ones. soooo good. they’re my new fave chips. hubby doesn’t like them as much as i do though… he says its like eating a rice cake.
I’ve been on the road for two weeks, and I’ve become a pretzel and peanut butter junkie.
It is a crazy time of year!
I myself have had several run ins this week with a spoon and the peanut butter jar, if it continues I might as well just apply the peanut butter to my hips.. that’s where it will end up! I think I need to do a little self coaching….
May is an especially challenging time of year! School is almost out, summer is almost here, and in Missouri the weather has not cooperated at all! We like the Gogurt tubes and string cheese in various flavors in my house. Just the right size to fend off extreem hunger for 10 more minutes while we get where we need to be. Some times you just have to make do!