The girls eat really healthy for the most part. We try to keep what they eat unprocessed, low in sugar, and include lots of fruits and vegetables. It may not be the “fun” way to eat, but have you seen America lately? You can’t really blame me, right? And they do get to have special treats and desserts… they’re just limited and they’re so much more excited when they do get to have them. Anyways, I got the chance to try a bunch of different food products from kid-friendly brands a few weeks ago and here’s what I thought.
Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies and Pizza Poppers
I’ve said before that I really like the Annie’s brand so when I do buy these kinds of snacks they’re one of my go to brands. They’re kid-friendly and they stay away from the yoga mats and pink slime so… winning. We love the cheddar bunnies at our house and every time I buy them David eats almost the whole box. Poor kids. All the bunnies for you David… you go David. And none for Kennedy and Reese.{did you pick up the movie reference because that line is my favorite}
The pizza rolls were also really good and it brought me back to elementary school days when I ate a different brand of these and melted all the skin off my tongue every time I bit into one because they were filled with molten lava… er pizza sauce. Somehow, these didn’t do that so that was nice.
Honest Brand juice boxes
Long story short, but we don’t do juice at our house. We don’t really do flavored anything… we have water or we have water. And coffee. Lots of coffee. Or we didn’t I should say. Somehow Kennedy got her hands on some juice and life has never been the same. So, I let her have “juice”, but it’s really just water with a splash of apple juice in it. Anyways, I think I’m probably a tough critic when it comes to juice, but I was excited to try these because juice boxes are fun and really convenient sometimes.
These have 9 grams of sugar in them. A can of coke has about 30 grams so its far less. I didn’t check, but they market these as having half the sugar of a regular juice box. I tried one and it isn’t really sweet like your typical juice box. I had that experience where you’re expecting to drink say a sprite because it’s clear and you end up with water. I like that it’s not so over the top sweet that your kids won’t ever want to drink something other than juice again if they drink these.
I’ve been letting Kennedy have one of these in her lunch when she goes to Mom’s Morning Out on Thursday and she loves them. The novelty and the drink itself.
Rudis Organic Bakery Multigrain Oat Bread
Kennedy loves toast. Loooooves it. Just plain old toast with butter. Finding a decent bread that doesn’t have a really long, ingredient list that includes all. the. chemicals is hard though. A lot of the brands I’ve tried that are organic and/or free of preservatives end up being hard. And really, there is nothing better than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on really soft, fresh bread. So, when I picked up this package at the store and squished it, and it actually squished, I was excited.
It was really good. Toasted or not.
Applegate Halftime
Applegate is cool. Kind of like Annie’s. They take a fun food like chicken nuggets, and use real meat instead of the fillers, byproducts and whatever else other companies use. Their newest product is a healthier take on lunchables. Just compare the ingredient lists and I can probably stop talking. Here is a link to the nutritional information on the Halftime and a picture of the lunchables ingredient list below.
I love that they sourced other companies that are dedicated to better quality foods and it was really good. I’m going to be a little bit of a buzz kill though because there’s 21 grams of sugar in this meal and a good amount of it is just plain added sugar.
If you made it through this whole post, congratulations I know it was kind of a novel. Really, I think these are all great products… some to be used in moderation and not a replacement for truly healthy snacks and meals. I was able to find all of these products at Whole Foods, Target and Publix (for those of you in the south). Hopefully this was helpful!
*I was provided these items complimentary for reviewing purposes from Influenster, but as always it my honest to goodness opinion.
Honey DOs and I Love YOUs 