Snacking on the slopes in Tahoe, California.
The short answer is food!
It didn’t take my husband long to learn that when I got hungry, I got grumpy, or ‘hangry’ as he lovingly refers to it. When our kids were younger, I learned very quickly that the fastest way to let a wonderful outing spiral downwards, was to let the ‘hungry’ monster creep up on us. It seems the apples don’t fall far from the tree.
With this in mind, whenever we left the house, it didn’t matter where we were going, I had food in my bag. This may seem like a tedious chore, packing food every time we set foot out the door, but I can assure you, it has kept the lot of us in check on many an occasion.
It would have been remiss of us to not extended this foresight to large outings like: sight seeing, cruising national parks, hiking trips, car drives, days spent skiing on the slopes, and more. The unexpected benefit of doing this, is that it also saves plenty of money. ‘Outings’ in general mean that you have vendors or shops that have seriously hiked prices as they know they are getting the tourists. If you realise this before you go, you can avoid paying premium price for generally sub standard food, by taking your own.
We have always found that regardless of the adventure, the excitement will wain as soon as blood sugar levels drop. We have also found that when we want to do something that the kids don’t particularly want to do, if we take delicious treats we can bribe them into enjoying themselves, at least a bit, by feeding them tasty morsels along the way. If you’ve done a fair amount of adventuring with your children, you will understand my guilt is minimal; we all have to find what works for us.
I try to keep snacks primarily healthy with a few treats thrown in for good measure. Gauge how much you need by what kind of outing you have planned. For example I wouldn’t pack crisps for a hike, they will probably be crushed before you open the bag. The more exercise is involved, the more food you need, don’t underestimate how much your kids can eat when exerting themselves, and try and pack high protein snacks for these occasions.
Some ideas of what snacks to pack:
- Granola bars
- Energy bars
- Fruit (low maintenance like apples)
- Dried mango or dates
- Crisps
- Popcorn
- Nuts
- Raisins
- Boiled eggs (preferably pre-peeled)
- A bag of sweets to dish out from when sugar levels are in desperate need of raising (ie. When the grump sneaks in!)
Are there any snacks you have found work particularly well for your family? Let me know. Happy adventuring!! 🙂
