Along with many other things, February is also the national month of snack foods. While most people celebrate by thinking of creative healthy snacks to make, I’m deciding to take the more nostalgic route. I’m traveling down memory lane and reminiscing about the snacks I enjoyed as a kid.
Although these snacks are not all that healthy, they will always hold a special place in my heart.
1. Fruit snacks
Fruit snacks are about the #1 snack of childhood––and Scooby-Doo fruit snacks were my favorite. I have vivid memories of coming home after a long day of kindergarten and cracking open a few pouches of fruit snacks to unwind in front of the TV. The berry-flavored ones were always––and still are––my favorite. Fruit snacks were also a great summer snack because of their portability. I remember the several occasions I ate fruit snacks underwater in my family’s swimming pool. And although I learned that you can’t taste things underwater and occasionally dropped a few scrumptious fruit snacks on the bottom of the pool accidentally, these fruity, gummy, chewy snacks will always be jammed full of nostalgia.
2. Yogurt
Although yogurt is one of the healthier snack foods on this list, the yogurt of my childhood was filled with the good stuff––food coloring and candy flavoring. Go-gurt and Trix Yogurt were where it was for me, and cotton candy flavored was the best. The memories of ensuring the tube would last a decent amount of time by taking as little slurps as possible while eating Go-gurt, and mixing the magenta-ish and light blue swirl together to make a tasty purple in the Trix Yogurt cups are childhood memories locked deep in my brain.
3. Kwik Trip’s cheesy breadsticks
There’s something about these warm, seasoned pair of breadsticks that spread apart to reveal a melted, string-cheese center that just screams 2004. These were my go-to snacks whenever my mom and I went to one of the many Kwik Trips in town, usually after school or after a day of running errands. Sometimes these breadsticks were accompanied and washed down with a small vibrant-colored bottle of Bug Juice, which tasted more like sweetened chemicals than bugs but made a great snack nonetheless.
4. Toaster strudels
It was through my early exposure to toaster strudels that I think my love for breakfast-themed snacks was born. These started out as a sweet breakfast treat, but I soon realized that they taste just as good––or even better––in the afternoon when you’re craving something warm, sweet, flaky, and gooey. The wild berry strudels with blue icing were my all-time favorite. Other flavors that I enjoyed included strawberry & cream cheese and apple.
Life Hack: If you want to warm up the small pouch of icing, so you can easily squeeze and spread it out on the strudels, place the pouches on the side of the toaster. They’ll be warm and ready by the time you’re done toasting!
5. Chex Mix
Lastly, there was Chex Mix. You know the saying, “Only Chex Mix is a bag of interesting.” This was so true. Chex Mix was filled with so many different snack pieces and there were so many ways to eat them. Honestly, it kept me entertained. My favorites were the circular pretzels, which you could slide on your fingers, pretend were rings and eat them off ever-so-carefully, and the rye bread chips, which to me, with my slight obsession with Scooby-Doo, looked like Scooby Snacks. Imagine all the fun I had just eating.
Well, this has been my trip down the snack aisle of a much simpler time. While snacks help nourish the brain, they can also take it way back. In the spirit of this snack-y (and now nostalgic) national month, what are some of your favorite childhood snacks?