Single Serving Snack Packs

Disclaimer: Contents of this post are from my observation, research. It is not intended for marketing any product or company.

I have mentioned before that my kid is in kindergarten this year. So, she needs to take a snack and a drink to school every day. Even though I bake for her snack box, send cut fruits sometimes, she still asks for things that other kids are eating at the table. Call it peer-pressure or call it human nature.

She asked me to get her pretzel bags that she can open and eat by herself. If you already didn't know, I am pretty frugal. I don't spend on stuff that I don't absolutely need to. I told her I would buy her a box of pretzels and pack her snack in a small reusable container. She was fine with that. I checked the label and per serving of pretzels was 7 pretzel sticks and she is usually happy with just 5. So, I pack 5 pretzel sticks for her. 7 pretzel sticks are about 110 calories.

Then there are sandwich cookies that I buy which are 3 cookies per serving and are 140 calories per serving.

Now, coming to the point of this posting. I had a generous coupon to buy single serving packs of Oreo cookies. These are sandwich cookies too. The packets are single serving and have 6 cookies. Do you know how many calories are there in one pack? 270 calories. Calories from fat itself 100. I don't think anyone needs to eat this much of calories for a snack. I opened the pack and split it into 2 servings of 3 cookies each.

Then, I started checking out the calories on other single serving snack packs they sell. Chips is about 240 calories (not the baked one). I am not talking about 100 calories snack packs which can be expensive for everyone to buy.

Club Crackers are 4 crackers per serving and are 70 calories per serving. Pretty healthy I should say. Ritz crackers are also around the same.

A snack pudding cup is 120 calories (vanilla) and 130 calories (Chocolate). It might vary depending on the flavors but it should be less than 150 calories per serving.

Cheezit single serving packs are 220 calories per pack. 

Animal Crackers are 120 calories per pack which is pretty reasonable compared to others.

All I am saying is read the label. It is actually cheaper to buy big boxes of the snacks and split it based on the serving size given. Cut it into half if it is too much. Put them into small ziploc bags and you have a perfect portion snack for a very less amount of money spent.

I know many of you might think it is okay for kids to eat this much since they burn all they eat. Think in a different way please. Their bodies get used to all these extra calories from childhood. When they are teenagers, they are sedentary compared to what they are when they are 5 years old. But, still they will eat good amount since they are used to eating so much. Then, we blame them for eating so much and try to put them on diet. They rebel sometimes and weight issue is not an easy one to tackle when you love food.

You might say what about all your baked goods? I did think about that too. Even though it is impossible for me to go back to 200 + baking recipes that I have on this blog and come up with the nutrition details on them, I am attempting to calculate on one here.

I made Honey Applesauce Muffins for snack box. It gave me 6 muffins. The ingredients are:

Some of the calories might vary slightly (due to different brands)

Whole Wheat flour - 1 cup - 407 calories
Honey - 1/3 cup - 300 calories
Vegetable or Canola Oil - 2 TBSP - 240 calories
Egg - 1 large - 74 calories
Applesauce - 1/2 cup (I used Sweetened because that is what I had) - 90 calories

Total calories - 407 + 300 + 240 + 74 + 90 = 1111 Calories for 6 muffins.

Total Calories per serving - 1111/6 = 185 calories per muffin. 

I had not realized that the calories in these muffins was this high. I guess I have to start making mini muffins and give two. If I made these into mini muffins, I probably would get 18 which would make this into 9 servings of 123 calories each.

See how digging deep into anything will spoil your happiness. 'Ignorance is bliss'.

I will try to calculate the nutrition facts of my future baking trials here on this blog. I however, do not guarantee their accuracy since my calculations are based on the ingredients/brands I used.

Have a great weekend!!