Chef Richard’s Healthy Travel Snacks

Everyone has their own ritual for a road trip ─ packing the car, gassing up, planning your route, stocking up on drinks and snacks. Grabbing family-size bags of cheap and convenient snacks that the whole car can share isn’t always the healthiest choice when it comes to staying on a healthy eating routine on the road.

So when you decide to pack the kids in the car and drive 15 hours into the mountains, these very simple snack ideas are designed to be kid-friendly and will help keep you away from fast food stops along the way, which are far too easy an alternative.

Required Travel Must-haves for Kids

Books and magazines.
Games like license plate or travel bingo.
Paper, washable markers, dry-erase boards, colored pencils. If you take crayons, you’re going to lose one and it will inevitably melt – I know.
Portable DVD player and DVDs; WITH headphones!
Baby wipes.
Water bottles.
A small cooler.
Sealable plastic bags or plastic cups with lids.

Take the first six items and put them in the car. You don’t need them for the recipes, but you can’t take a road trip with kids without them.

Next step – prepare the snacks.

These crumb-free, greaseless, noiseless, odorless, bite-sized snacks will leave kids feeling full longer.

Fruit Salad

Ingredients

• 2 cups (1-inch) cubed pineapple
• 2 cups (1-inch) cubed pears
• 2 cups red seedless grapes
• 2 cups (1-inch) cubed green apples
• 2 cups (1-inch) cubed red apples

Procedure

Combine all the fruit in a bowl and apportion into individual sealable bags or plastic cups with lids. Store in the cooler.

Trail Mix

Ingredients

• 2 cups unsalted, unbuttered, air-popped popcorn
• 2 cups mini-pretzels
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup shelled unsalted pistachios
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1 cup dried papaya or mango
• 1 cup whole-grain Cheerios

 Procedure

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and place in the sealable bags or plastic cups with lids. Store in the cooler or at room temperature.

Have a safe and healthy road trip!

ABOUT CHEF RICHARD
Chef Richard Plasencia, executive chef at West Kendall Baptist Hospital, joined Baptist Health South Florida in 2011. He is an award-winning chef who is passionate about creating and sharing fresh local and seasonal recipes seasoned with flavor and good health. In addition to an interest in nutrition, Chef Richard has an extensive history in the hospitality industry.

He served as Chef at Town Kitchen & Bar, Jake’s, the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables, the Shore Club, Por Fin, and the Conrad Hotel. He also was part of several teams that received the Mobile 4 and 5 star awards, as well as Cioppino being named to America’s Top 50 restaurants by Esquire Magazine 2005, during his time at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne. Chef Richard Plasencia graduated from Johnson & Wales University with a Bachelor of Science in culinary arts.