Going on a road trip. What are kid snacks that take a long time to eat?
September 3, 2019 9:51 AM   Subscribe

In road trips past, I've found that the surest way to keep the kids happy for a while is to give them a snack that takes a while to get through - e.g., honey sticks and lollipops (used sparingly). Any other ideas along these lines?
posted by malhouse to Food & Drink (15 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Do they have enough manual dexterity for nuts? My daughter loves peanuts, pistachios and sunflower seeds, but she's 8 and old enough to get through the shells. Bring a hand vac.

Also, Babybel cheese are a favorite because the wax can be used as a toy.
posted by Alison at 9:55 AM on September 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


what age range are you looking at? For our toddler we parcel out goldfish but if you're talking self-sufficient eaters it wouldn't work as well.
posted by brilliantine at 9:55 AM on September 3, 2019


Response by poster: (They're 3 and 6 years old)
posted by malhouse at 9:58 AM on September 3, 2019


Best answer: Every roadtrip of my childhood involved cracker sandwiches.

My mom would sit in the front seat and cut slices of summer sausage and cheddar, which we would have to wait for, and she'd pass them back as she cut them for us to build our own cracker sandwiches with. Takes effort on a parent's part (unless you trust your six year old to use a knife while the car is moving), but it's a great snack and can easily fill up a half hour, longer if you task the children with building sandwiches for the driver, too.
posted by phunniemee at 10:10 AM on September 3, 2019 [5 favorites]


Best answer: Very tough jerky.
posted by mbrubeck at 10:10 AM on September 3, 2019


Popcorn. If it's going to be eaten cold then I think it's better with not that much oil but plenty of Old Bay.

Fruit Leather or Fruit by the Foot.

Blueberries or dried berries (like Craisins or raisins).

Baby carrots.

Ants on a log.

Milkshakes/Frosties. They're my roadtrip food of choice and even as an adult they take forever.

The kids are probably too little for peanut butter on banana, but that takes forever to eat, too. Really anything with peanut butter, but especially if you have to spread a little bit of it on each new bite.
posted by rue72 at 10:24 AM on September 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


Various dried fruits - apricots, apples, pineapples, mangoes - are a standby for us on long trips.
posted by mhoye at 10:24 AM on September 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Mandarins/clementines. You have to peel them.

Blueberries or grapes (get small ones).If you're taking a cooler you can freeze blueberries & grapes which increases the eating time & treat factor.

Really chewy jerky & not that weird plasticy stuff you can get, but the stuff that's like leather you've got to really work at. Same with fruit leathers, get a nice chewy one.

Raisins, goldfish, trail mix, chex mix.
posted by wwax at 10:30 AM on September 3, 2019 [2 favorites]


I was told to make peanut butter by rubbing to pieces of one little peanut together until they softened. I honestly loved doing this. Then I'd get to put it on a cracker. Of course I grew up to encourage my kids to cut the grass with scissors when they were that age.

More seriously, we made faces on oranges with our nails before we peeled them.
posted by cocoagirl at 10:59 AM on September 3, 2019 [2 favorites]


When my kids were young, I could give them a plain bagel and hours later they would still be grasping it and nibbling on it.
posted by AugustWest at 11:00 AM on September 3, 2019 [4 favorites]


One m&m at a time was my method on planes and long car trips.
posted by RoadScholar at 1:01 PM on September 3, 2019 [2 favorites]


String cheese (if they eat them as strings). Something that needs to be dipped (fun dip? Cheese dip and crackers or celery?)
posted by raccoon409 at 1:10 PM on September 3, 2019 [2 favorites]


Canned corn niblets, drained and eaten with fingers.
Raisins
Chopped dates (my local sells them cut into tiny cubes and rolled in coconut flour to minimize the stickiness. They’re great, especially sprinkled on cereal)
Nuts
Hickory Sticks
Corn nuts
Blueberries

Also my parents told me you could shake a little coffee creamer cup until it turned into butter. It’s technically true (you’d get small grains of butter floating in liquid buttermilk), although practically impossible, and I definitely tried many times as a kid.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 2:12 PM on September 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


As I recall from my own childhood, the best way to distract and slow me down snack-wise was to offer me bag of trailmix that contained one ingredient I loathed and three or four that I loved. I would spend a good amount of fiddly time picking out the ingredient I hated (die, unsalted almonds!).
posted by DSime at 2:14 PM on September 3, 2019 [8 favorites]


String cheese, pistachios, peanuts in the shell, ice cream cones.
posted by salvia at 2:34 PM on September 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


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