Food Tip: Snacks for the Road

Now that our family has a couple long road trips under our belt, I thought I would share some of our snack ideas. Most of these are for the kids, because honestly, all our kids want to do in the car is eat!

First off, make sure you have some "new"snacks. These are the best to pull out when the kids start getting a little stir crazy. I like to find these snack at the dollar store. I never shop the dollar store for food, and there always seems to be some random snack food that I have never seen before, or haven't had in a long time!

Second, I have found that have a lot of zip lock sandwich bags is a must! This way, if you have more then one kid, you don't have to divvy out the snack beforehand. You can just bring the full container, and the divide it up into the ziplock bags when the kids request it!

So, here is my list of car trip "must haves"

-Beef jerky: great source of protein, and sometimes takes the kids a while to chew!

-Nuts: again, great source of protein and fiber. My kids love the bbq habanero almonds from Costco, they are weird like that. They also love cashews too! Whatever your kids like, make sure they are shelled... it is much less of a mess!

-Grapes: non-sticky messy fruit! You don't have to cut it up, and it can easily go into the zip lock bag for the kids! I did try and do the frozen grapes, but they ended up defrosting before we go to them, and it made the texture a little funky.

-Ritz Crackers and Easy Cheese: Potentially messy, but luckily not in our case. I would squirt on some cheese and hand it back, until the kids (and driver) couldn't eat any more! You can turn it into a  game too, draw a picture, letter or number with the cheese, and make the kids guess what it is!

-Fruit Snacks: My kids love them! I picked out special kinds for each kid, which I normally do not do. This way, the kids were a little excited about it!

-Bread Sticks and Cheese: This is a dollar store find. Remember those cute little bread-stick shaped crackers with the fake looking orange cheese to dip them in? Yah I found them, and my kids thought they were so cool.

-String Cheese: Healthy, filling, and takes some time to eat!

-Gum: My kids love gum and we used it as a distraction to stretch out potty breaks and to help ease ear pain from altitude changes. It was great!

-Propel Fitness Water: I try not to serve soda on road trips, it just sugars them up and makes them have to pee! However, plain water just isn't as fun! We found propel fitness water was great! Only 15 calories and the kids thought it was juice.

-Dry Cereal: This was great for my 18 month old. She loves cereal and so we just had a box of it and filled up her baggie whenever she wanted it.

-Gold Fish Crackers and Pretzels: pretty much a normal snack staple.

-Hard Candy and Gummies: This is more for the driver, but the kids love it too! Candy like this helps keep my husband awake without having to resort to caffeinated beverages.

-Granola Bars: May get a little messy, but they are easy to store and to serve! Be sure to not do the Fiber One bars. Save those for when you aren't going to be stuck sitting in a car all day.

If you want some more ideas, hop over to Super Healthy Kids and check out her list!

My Current Food Obsessions

Our newest Costco find. These are delicious and so fattening. I do all I can to only eat one a day. This is pretty much the only thing I love made from milk chocolate. 

Another new Costco find (my husband REALLY needs to stop making solo Costco trips). These are a little healthier, but just as addicting. They aren't as spicy as you would think, but still really good.

Do you remember these as a kid? My mom would never buy them, and either do I. They have no nutritional value, and they are really expensive for what they are. However, I loved them as a kid, and still love them now. When my three year old asked for them one day at the store, I said, "why not"! I thought maybe they would be one of those things that don't taste as good as I remember. Oh, so not the truth. They are even better then I remember!

And since I am supposed to be keeping track of calories...this has been my saving grace! I usually eat it at night when I am starving because I used up all my calories on empty calories. These are only 50 calories, delicious, and they fill you up!

Candy Bar Granola Bars

There is a wonderful thing in my life that I like to call candy bar granola bars. These are granola bars that taste just as good as candy bars. The plus side to this (if tasting like a candy bar wasn't already good enough) is that most of them have some health benefits too.

One of my favorite candy bar granola bars are the Fiber One bars. There are several different flavors, but my favorite is the oats and peanut butter. It is like a snickers bar with out the chocolate, but just as good.

My favorite things other then the taste: Lots of fiber, great for a low calorie snack, and sweet enough that it fulfill any sweet tooth. I think these are great foe someone who is looking to cut sweets and treats out of their diet. Instead of having ice cream or cookies at night, just have a candy bar granola bar instead. For the short time we had these in our house, I would eat one at night instead of my usually late night snacks (popcorn, nachos, chips, cookies, ice cream) and it would satisfy me and fill me up until morning.

The worst part about these are that they are a little expensive and there are only 5 in a pack (which means they go pretty quickly at my house).

I have several types of granola bar candy bars that I like, so as I buy them, I will post about them too!

Valentines Treats: Cookie Dough Truffles

This is a fun recipe to try, and to share. These were a hit at my dad's 60th birthday party (along with the cake balls). This time I made them for a church activity we had tonight, but I am not sure if they were a hit or not. To make it festive for Valentines Day, I put red food coloring in the dough, and drizzled pink chocolate over the top!

Cookie Dough Truffles

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 1-1/2 pounds dark chocolate candy coating (I used Almond Bark), coarsely chopped

Directions

In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add flour, alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Shape into 1-in. balls; place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Loosely cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until firm.
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt candy coating; stir until smooth. Dip balls in coating, allowing excess to drip off; place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes. If desired, remelt remaining candy coating and drizzle over candies. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 5-1/2 dozen.

* As a request from a faithful friend and blog reader, I will give a few tips on dipping things in chocolate, although I feel very inadequete. My plan of attack is to melt the chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave. First for 1 min, and then in 15 min increments (stirring in between) until fully melted. I then tip the bowl a little, so all the chocolate pools together. I drop in whatever item is being dipped and swirl it around with a fork. I then lift the item out of the chocolate with the fork, and let excess chocoalte drip down. I then place the titem on a piece of wax paper.

I have also heard of people using tooth picks or plastic forks with two of the progs broken off. In that case you would actually poke the item to be dipped, and then dip it and place it on waxed paper.

As far as the drizzling goes, my husband and I learned how to do it tonight. First of all, your chocolate needs to be runny, so if it is not runny (and not burnt) you can add a little bit of hot water to it, stirring constantly until water is completely incorporated. Then to drizzle use a knife, it works the best!

Food Tip: The Best Cornbread

I mentioned in an earlier post that my favorite recipe for corn bread is my mother-in-laws "recipe". Well here it is in all it's glory.

I know you can buy Marie Callender's cornbread mix at Costco and Sam's Club. It is so simple, you just add water and throw it into the oven. The packaging has directions on how to make it in a 8x8, 9x13, cookie sheet, muffin tins, and bread pans. It is fairly inexpensive, and it lasts a long time.

The corn bread comes out perfectly cooked, moist, and fluffy. We love to top ours with honey and butter or use it in our chicken and cornbread meal.

Cafe Rio Dressing

People around here go crazy over Cafe Rio. I am not a huge fan of their "candy" meat and the lack of flavor and spice. However, I have to admit their salad dressing is amazing! In our church cookbook, there are three different recipes all claiming to be "Cafe Rio", so I thought I would try them out and see which one I liked the best. The best part about this is I do not have to actually go to Cafe Rio, and I can tweak it a bit a raise the level of spiciness.

This first recipes claims it is the "closest knock off". I don't know if it is the closest knock off, but I do know I love it. I don't know if the other two recipes will be as good. my favorite thing to do with the dressing is make vegies wraps. I fill a flour tortilla with lettuce, chopped broccoli, avocado, and cucumber with the dressing on top. I have also used it on taco salads! Trent and I also dipped egg rolls in it.

Cafe Rio Dressing

1 pkg buttermilk ranch dressing mix-make as per recipe (you can just use the regular ranch dressing mix and make it with buttermilk** too)
3 tomatillos*, peeled and quartered
1 c cilantro
1 clove garlic
juice of one lime (or about 2 tbsp)
1 jalapeno (I included the seeds in mine to make in spicy, oh and it is soooo good).

Blend all ingredients in a food processor. It is important you use a food processor because the blender makes the dressing very runny. In the food processor it is nice and thick. Refrigerate.

*You can find tomatillos right next to the jalapenos in the produce section. They look a little like green tomatoes with a green paper like shell around it.
** I never buy buttermilk because it is so easy to make your own! Just take 1 cup of milk (whole is preferred but not necessary) and  either 1 and 3/4 Tablespoons cream of tartar or 1 tbsp white vinegar or 1 tbsp lemon juice.

Food Tip: My Favorite Sandwich Bread

We are big bread people at our house. If we have really good bread available, my kids will even pick a slice of bread over a treat! Since we are bread people, we cannot just eat any old sandwich bread, we have to have the best! In my opinion Judy's Gourmet Whole Wheat bread is the best. not only is it good for you (whole wheat is the main ingredient) it is also delicious. The bread is thick, chewy and soft, but not too thick to over power the sandwich, and not to soft to get soggy. It tastes like really well made homemade bread. Do you want to hear the best part? It is only $1.50 to no more than $1.99 a loaf. I often see it on sale for $.99.

Judy's Gourmet is located in Orem, Utah, so the further away from Orem you get, the harder it is to find. Macey's Grocery chain in Utah county carries it, as well as Walmart. Whenever I am at either of those stores I tend to buy 3-4 loaves and freeze them (which is why the deep freezer has come in handy). Judy's Gourmet also has white bread that is really good, as well has excellent tasting hamburger buns and the famous Judy's Gourmet dinner rolls.

Oh, and if you live in Salt lake County, I have found the Dunford bread is very similar to Judy's Gourmet (and Dunford makes excelent doughnuts too)!

Samburgers

I love hamburgers and I am always looking for different ways to make them. Tonight I tried a recipe from Our Best Bites for Samburgers. I am not sure where the name comes from, but they are basically hamburgers with a bunch of stuff mixed in the meat.  They were pretty good, but I am not a fan of A-1 sauce and I felt like it over powered the taste of the actual meat. These were fun to make, but I think this will be a one time recipe for me.

* Food tip: When making hamburgers, grab a circle cookie cutter that matches size of the patties you are wanting to make. Pack the meat into the cookie cutter and you will have perfectly shaped and compacted patties. This way, the patties don't fall apart when you cook them. Also, touch the burger as little as possible, as in, flip it only once if you can. The more you flip, the more juices come out, and the more likely it will fall apart!

Samburgers from Our Best Bites

1 ¼ lb. ground beef

3 Tbsp. A1 sauce
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
½ tsp. Kosher salt
¼ tsp. pepper
2 cloves minced garlic
¾ tsp. dry oregano
1 Tbsp. dehydrated onion

Combine ingredients.  Shape meat into patties. If you want big burgers shape into 4 patties, 6 for smaller patties. Grill for about 7 minutes on each side over medium (or until they're as non-pink as you want them.)

Kitchen Tip: Parchment Paper

Parchment paper is a life saver when it comes to baking cookies. Here are the reasons why parchment paper is a must have in the kitchen

• It keeps the cookies from sticking
  
• It saves time because you can slip the parchment paper off along with the baked cookies and use the cookie sheet right away (after adding a new piece of parchment paper of course).
• If you only have access to one or two cookie sheets, you can load up your dough balls on a piece of parchment paper, and then slip the paper onto the cookie sheet when it becomes available. This is especially useful when you are making cut out sugar cookies.  The kids can always cut out the shapes faster then they bake.
  
• You don't have to wash the cookie sheets because the cookies never touch it. Just toss the parchment paper in the trash and you are done! Easy clean up!
• I don't know about you, but we have a cookie sheet circa 1980, and it is a little scary looking. I just feel a little better with that extra barrier in the middle.
• You can use it to play Harry Potter with the kids, and give them a "bit of parchment" to write spells on.
• You can use it inside cake or bread pans to keep things from sticking (just like you would use foil)
• The possibilities are endless!
  

You can find parchment paper on the same aisle as plastic wrap and foil. There are frequent coupons in the paper for it too!

Food Tip of the Day: Eating Out

If you are not one to go out to eat all the time, then live it up when you do! Do not waste a fun time and money ordering from the "healthy" or "fit" menu. If you normally eat healthy home cooked meals, there is no reason not to splurge every once and a while. Fast food companies have been coming out with healthy choices, and I believe they should be left for the people who have to eat lunch out daily, or do not make home cooked meals. I love fast food places like Burger King or Carl's Jr. who cater to people like me and serve delicious, creative, and unhealthy food! Last night I had the Jalapeno Six Dollar Burger at Carl's Jr. It was the best jalapeno burger I have ever had!

I do enjoy getting a salad here and there when I go out to eat, but it is because I like salad, not because I am trying to eat healthy. If you are not going to enjoy it, then don't buy it. Order those fries, chicken strips, or nachos!

Also, do not waste money on things you can make at home. A lot of chicken or pasta dishes in restaurants are easy enough to copy at home. Get something you wouldn't make for yourself, or that you know is better then you can get at home. Also, chicken is the least cost effective thing to get at a restaurants. Most restaurants over cook their chicken anyway, and who wants to pay for dry, tasteless chicken. Unless it is KFC of course.