In a perfect world, I would have a lovely picture for you of my children happily chomping on the new 30% less fat crisps that Walkers recently sent us to review. Unfortunately, they arrived as we arrived home from holiday, the children were starving and they ripped into them like a plague of locusts who are approaching the cannibalism protein stage. (Did you know locusts do that? When they get to a critical mass of creatures in a swarm, they actually eat their own plague. See… I can still do educational!)
I love crisps and nibbly things but I generally find that the calories involved aren’t worth the yumminess. I’m one of those “start nibbling, can’t stop” sort of people and I do prefer savoury to sweet as a rule. Mighty Lights are a snack that is under 150 calories, not too fatty and tasty appeals to me very much. I didn’t get to try many of these but I did like them; the flavours are exactly like the ‘ordinary’ crisps and the ribbed and curved crisp texture is pleasing to eat. And I loved that I neither felt I’d ruined the diet nor loaded myself with fat.
The girls (and boy) all liked them too, judging by the speed they disappeared in. I’m currently locked in ‘learning to do lunchboxes’ hell; school meals are too expensive to do for all four and if you spend too much time buying lunches piece by piece they aren’t much cheaper but that’s not my only concern with it really. With one primary age child, I have to negotiate the draconian’ you must only supply healthy food’ rules while also making sure my girls who go straight from school to gymnastics actually have enough calories to get through. In Josie’s few weeks at school she actually lost weight due not liking their meals and me having to provide a lunch that adhered to rules designed to protect kids from obesity. This is all very well, but if your child verges on the too thin, it is a little bit counter productive. I was really grumpy that I couldn’t give her a biscuit to take into lunch (she’s eaten 4 a day with no fat issues for 6 years!) but I was allowed to buy her a muffin or flapjack that the school could send her.
However, there is something to be said for perhaps adding one item like these crisps in with a sandwich, a drink and an apple. Something savoury, crunchy and that feels like a treat but is clearly marked as a healthier option and not laden with fat for the sake of ‘flavour’ should get round the school rules okay I think. We’re currently sending them to school with pasta in these pots and that makes a great (and cheap) filling lunch but does mean you can’t really dip into it for a quick break-time snack, so a pack of these crisps might well be a good way of sending them with something to fill that need.
So – our opinions? Great. Loved them across the board, nearly guilt free, tasty and an attractive set of flavours that fitted the adult and child ‘yum and desirable to snack on’ criteria whether dieting but needing a treat or not needing to diet at all but not wanting to absorb u necessary fat for no reason. Excellent. Well done Walkers.
Out of interest, how to you cope with the school lunch rules and make sure your lunches are healthy, tasty and balanced and critically, quick and easy to put together (just no time in this house for lunch box art) as well as cost effective? And since I’m clearly going to have to learn to bake as well, do you have any blog posts about favourite flapjack recipes or things you cook as healthy school snacks etc? I’d love you to spam me in the comments 🙂
Disclosure: We were sent crisps and paid for this review. Opinions and locust facts are all our own.
Since mine have turned from babies who enjoyed all flavours offered to them they are now super fussy with a frustratingly limited ‘acceptable’ diet. Stopped school lunches as they told me how little they ate, other than the puddings so seemed a waste of money. Acceptable food has been whittled by their various fussiness so they get sandwiches with previous variety of filling now limited to ham, tuna, marmite or jam (the favourite when all else fails). Even the cheese and egg options have now been rejected. Piece of fruit which invariably makes it’s way back home. Smoothie or OJ carton. Yoghurt of particular type (different for each child). Pot of cherry tomatoes +/- olives which may or may not get eaten. Snack bar for one, winders for the other.
In despair at the lack of 5 a day that I can get into them and the low dairy as they refuse to drink milk or eat cheese I have given in to the petit filous, fruit bar type things as at least this partially counts!
Never give them crisps or chocolate or sweets or cake as those would get eaten and even more of the proper stuff would make it home to the bin.
Also not allowed anything with nuts due to other children’s various allergies.
Did consider cooked meals in those pots but I’m damned if I spend more time cooking than I already do just for it to be binned. Home meals are depressing enough with the amount thrown away without adding to it.
Started off with all good intentions and variety every day but have given up the fight as it is too wasteful.
Sounds like yours are less fussy which I am most jealous of.
My daughter is starting school this week and she will be having hot lunches, I’m hoping this will work well because she is used to having a hot lunch at nursery. However, I’m always looking for ideas to make my lunch more interesting because I’m not a big fan of sandwiches. I’m very intrigued by your pots how do they work? I assume they keep the food warm so do you need to heat it in the morning?
flapjacks with low Gi, oats for slow release cards, dried fruit for sweetness and yummy to boot http://www.funasagran.co.uk/2013/04/my-first-diabetic-recipe.html
carbs even
I do a sandwich or rolls, fruit juice carton, savoury snack, sweet snack. Ernest usually gets 3 snack things. Some sort of meat in Violet and Ernest’s sandwiches, or PBJ. Cheese and something usually for Gwenny, though she’ll also take pasta salad or couscous. Snacks are a mixtureof healthy and not so healthy – yogurt, fromage frais (pouches – worse value but easier to deal with and no spoons to lose!), cheese strings, small packet of crisps, pack of crackers/rice cakes/oatcakes, mini pepperoni, cereal bar, little pack of biscuits, fruit, some sort of dried fruit things, etc – basically whatever happens to be on offer that week 😉 I have a 25p per item limit in my head – figure plucked from thin air and not based on any thought out budgeting. Lidl and Aldi are far cheaper than the other supermarkets for juice cartons.