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There’s no need to heat up your kitchen to make aquick and easy treat! With just graham crackers, banana, and peanut butter, these 3-Ingredient No Bake Toddler Cookies are a perfect make-ahead option for lunch boxes, picnics, and summer travel. Plus, I’m sharing a few more favorite Airplane Snacks for Kids to help keep your family happy and fueled for all of your adventures!
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Happy Fourth of July, friends! If all goes as planned, you will be reading this post while we’reaway on vacation with our family…soaking up the sun, playing with our cousins, and digging our toes in the sand!
And while a getaway is always a welcome break from the normal routine, anyone with kids knows that it’s A LOT of work to get ready for a trip. The last-minute list-making, suitcase-packing, and food-prepping always leaves me feeling incrediblyoverwhelmed and exhausted! My own crazy-hectic vacation planning is what prompted this post…and I hope that some of you find it helpful as well!
My three boys have seemingly endless appetites, so I NEVER leave home without a few snacks in my purse. Since we were headed out on a long day of travel to get to the beach last week, I knew that I better take extra precautions and pack plenty of foodfor the drive + plane flights. But what to bring?!
In addition to some of our standard favorites (see my list below), I thought that it would be fun to make a special treat that the boys would really enjoy. I decided to use their favorite Horizon Grahams to make some soft no-bake cookies that I could store in the freezer ahead of time and just pack (still frozen) on the day of our trip. Naturally, I put my oldest to work in the kitchen!
Running the food processor and mashing bananas are some of the boys’ favorite cooking jobs!
While these only require 3 ingredients (a box of Grahams + a banana + peanut butter/nut/seed butter of choice), you can customize them to suit your child’s taste. We added chocolate chips to a few of the cookies, and we also prepared a batch using Cinnamon Grahams, a few dashes of cinnamon, and some raisins. Cinnamon-Raisin No-Bake Cookies are another WIN!
And you know who REALLY approves of these treats? My two-year-old! He can’t get enough! That’s actually why I called these “Toddler Cookies” — because they’re the perfect size and texture for the little ones. They’re super-soft and easy to bite and chew. They include wholesome ingredients that moms can feel good about, and they only require a few minutes of hands-on time…because any Toddler Mamma knows that a recipe better be FAST or it’s not going to happen!
These cookies keep really well in the refrigerator for at least a week, or you can store them in the freezer. I like to keep them frozen, pack them in a lunchbox or picnic basket, and then they’re thawed and ready-to-eat when the toddler gets hungry!
So what else did I end up packing for our day of travel? Each child’s snack box included some of our favorite Airplane Snacks for Kids:
- Homemade Trail Mix (we keep a jar on our kitchen counter that includes almonds + pumpkin seeds + dried raisins/cranberries/blueberries)
- Horizon Tuberz® — tubes of yogurt that can be frozen and then packed in a lunch box. This helps the yogurt stay cold for travel, and it acts as an ice pack for other refrigerated items in the box. It’s also great for snacking on-the-go because you don’t need to worry about bringing along a spoon! My boys love the Surfin’ Strawberry flavor.
- Apple Slices with a Squeeze Pack of Nut Butter. Apples + peanut butter are a match made in heaven! I like to use the individual-serve packets of nut butters for travel because you don’t need to haul a full jar, you don’t have to pack an extra container, and you don’t even need a knife for spreading.
- Squeezable Packs of Applesauce or other Fruit Blends, such as the Horizon Strawberry Super Squeeze. Again, no spoon necessary and mess-free!
- Peanut Butter Roll-Ups.Spread peanut butter or almond butter on a wholegrain tortilla and roll it up tightly. This doesn’t need to be refrigerated, it doesn’t make a mess, and you can even add some sliced bananas if your child will eat them! This is a great way to keep the kids fueled and full!
- Fruit Snacks. My kids LOVE gummy snacks as a sweet treat, and I prefer Horizon’s Fruit Snacks because they are certified organic and free of any artificial colors or preservatives.
- Raisins or other Dried or Freeze-Dried Fruit. My boys have been loving the sliced freeze-dried apples that I recently picked up.
- Cheese Sticks. A BIG favorite in our house! Spence loves Horizon’s Colby Cheese Sticks, while his brothers prefer the mozzarella version. I keep our refrigerator stocked with both at all times! They’re such an easy and tasty source of calcium and protein for all of us.
- Cereal. Dry cereal is a great snack option. If you’re traveling with a cooler or insulated lunch box, you can even pack a box of milk to have as well!
- Snack Crackers. For an even more satisfying snack or mini-meal, we like to pair our cheese sticks with some crackers. We rotate through a few favorites, including Horizon’s Original Snack Crackers, Cheddar Snack Crackers, or the Chocolate, Cinnamon, or Honey Grahams. All of these options are made with organic wheat and offer a good amount of whole grains.
This box included trail mix, Horizon Original Snack Crackers, a Colby cheese stick, fruit snacks, and the 3-Ingredient No-Bake Cookies + Milk!
I hope that this helps as you begin thinking aboutyour own summer getaway or “staycation”! Whether you’re making a trip to the zoo, going for a hike, or planning a long multi-plane journey (like us!), kids need nutritious portable snacks…and moms need the food prep to be EASY!
If you’re ready to head into the kitchen to prepare a quick batch of our favorite no-bake cookies, you can find the recipe below!
Prep: 10 minutes minutes
Cook: 20 minutes minutes
Total: 30 minutes minutes
Ingredients
- 1 7.5 ounce box Horizon Honey Grahams or Cinnamon Grahams (or 2 cups graham cracker crumbs)
- 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 ripe banana mashed
- Optional add-ins: raisins miniature chocolate chips, dash of cinnamon
Instructions
In a food processor or blender, process grahams until they are a fine crumb.
In a large bowl, stir together graham cracker crumbs, peanut butter, and mashed banana with a wooden spoon until completely combined.
Using a teaspoon or a melon baller, scoop out dough and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.* Use your fingers to gently press down on each ball to flatten it into a cookie shape. These make very small bite-sized cookies, which are perfect for little kids. If you prefer bigger cookies, you can use a tablespoon or a larger scoop to measure out the dough.
Place cookies in the freezer to chill for 20 minutes. Store in refrigerator, freezer, or other cool place in an airtight container.
Notes
*The dough should be a consistency that's easy to work with. If it does not stay together well, you can stir in additional peanut butter or banana until it reaches a good texture! If the dough seems too sticky and wet, you can add more graham cracker crumbs, or even stir in some raw oats. Some of this varies depending on humidity in your kitchen, how large your banana is, the type of peanut butter you use, etc. Just adjust slightly until you get it how you want it!
Author: The Seasoned Mom
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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Horizon Organic. The opinions and text are all mine.
