Another tip is to make it yourself, get the kids involved,
they love putting things together.
Scooping things out and putting them in simple plastic bags,
such as the snack-sized bags, is great.
Sometimes they're not quite big enough so they can stick their
hands in without making everything fall out on the
floor, so you might want to use something a little bit
larger size, like a sandwich bag.
The main thing is to keep it simple.
Don't worry about getting all kinds of dips and stuff like
that, kids don't actually need to have the dips in the vehicle.
Today I'm going to show you how to make a simple trail mix
that kids will love, and it's easy for them to make, too.
Basically what you'll need is a large bowl like this,
a measuring cup about 3/4 to 1 cup size, something to
stir the stuff up with.
If you don't want to use a bowl and you want the kids
to do it without making a mess, a great thing to use
is a gallon-sized zip-lock bag.
You just put all the ingredients in a bag and the kids can zip it
up and then they can shake it around and that way everything
gets mixed up pretty well.
The mix I'm going to make today is going to have cheerios,
a variety of cheerios--the fruit cheerios, the yogurt cheerios,
honey nut cheerios, regular cheerios--some pretzel sticks,
a little bit of life cereal adds a little bit of a
different shape in the cereal...some pecans.
My kids like pecans but you can use any kind of nut.
If your child is allergic to them you can
just leave them out.
You can also add dried fruit and cranberries, which is
great, kids love to eat those as well, and it adds
a little bit of sweetness.
M & M's are great if you only add a little.
It adds more color and it also adds sweetness that
the kids love, and especially the chocolate.
But today, I've already pre-measured my cereal and
I'm just going to put everything in the bowl.
And I've got the pretzel sticks here...and honey nut
cheerios...and the yogurt cheerios...and these are
just the plain original cheerios...fruity cheerios,
which are also great because they add some more color.
Now these are Quaker oatmeal squares.
They have a few more calories, but they also add a little bit
more texture to the mix and it's something better for the kids to
chew on, but they're very high in fiber, which makes it great.
Now I'm going to add the pecans...and just a small bag,
because I don't want to put too much fat in it, but just enough
to help curb the appetite.
And I'm going to go ahead and add some cranberries...
dried cranberries that is.
Then all you do is stir it up...get it mixed up pretty
good, that way everything is not all clumped together
where they get a mouthful or a handful of pretzels
and nothing that's sweet.
The next step is easy.
Put about a cup in a sandwich-sized plastic bag.
This is a good size for a serving per child.
It's a little over 100 calories, but it's still
under 150 calories, with the sweetness from the dried fruit,
and even the nuts that are in the mix.
So overall, making healthy snack choices is probably going to be
one of the toughest decisions that you make throughout your
day regarding your food choices.
You and you're children can benefit from these choices.
Planning ahead and doing careful shopping is also important to
remember when you're planning a trip that's going to take time
and the kids are going to get hungry in between meals.
For more information go to eatright.org and kidshealth.org.
Thank you.
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