Summer means long family road trips, and also the onset of ‘Are we there yet?’ and ‘I’m HUNGRY!’. Parents can hardly get the car packed and still have time to come up with healthy road trip snack ideas for kids, but we’ve come up with a few cool ideas that gan get you out of a rut. Well, hopefully not a real rut. Maybe driving safety tips will be next…

1. No-bake energy bites: These babies are great if your child has a nut allergy. We made these ones with pumpkin seed butter instead of nut butters and they were delicious. The colourful sprinkles on the outside are to give them a tad more pizazz!

Mix:
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup almond butter (and/or peanut or pumpkin seed butter)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup ground flaxseed

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together. We use our hands and knead all ingredients together to save time. Roll out teaspoon sized balls and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Freeze until set about one hour. Enjoy and keep leftovers in a container in the fridge or freezer. Makes about 20-24 energy bites.

2. Individual Mason jar 7-layer dips: With a side of tortillas (don’t forget your car vacuum), these dips are healthy and tasty. If you note the colourful tops, this system can be used to personalize jars in the cooler with different patters for each child, or note spicier or nut-free snacks. Muffin tin liners are also great easy jar covers that you place on the lid before screwing on the rim. Kids love the personalized touch. For these 7 -layer dips, simply layer their favourite Mexican flavours, beginning with the most dense on the bottom. Instead of refried beans to start, I used salad and then layered red pepper, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, salsa and jalapeno peppers. MMMM.

3. Individual Salad in plastic cups with a plastic fork through the straw hole

4. Mini Ham and Cheese Muffins

2 c. flour
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 egg
1 c milk or buttermilk
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 c diced ham
1 1/2 c grated cheddar

In a large bowl, mix the wet and dry ingredients and then finish with the ham and cheese at the end. Fill greased mini muffin tins (I don’t use liners because they create more car garbage!). Bake at 350 F. for 30 minutes.

5. Celery in a jar with peanut butter at the bottom. This one is pretty self-explanatory!

6. Carrots in a jar with blue cheese dressing: Ditto for this.

The tackle box snack box: I posted this on Instagram and Snapchat, and my feed was flooded with comments! It’s simply a craft organizer for beads, rainbow loom bands or shells. You can also use a single-level tackle box, but these tend to be smaller. A few less-identifiable items I found to fill it include:

Kale Chips
Dried Seaweed
Dried Fruit
Rice Krispy Squares
Nanaimo Bars (for mommy)
Raisins
Licorice
Sunflower Seeds.

Have more ideas? Leave them in the comments! And if you want to share some love, here’s a pinnable image. Happy road-tripping!!!