Top 7 Foods That I Think Are Actually For Toddlers
As a child, I was prohibited from consuming most of the chemicals used to create popular children’s snacks and instead was fortified with a well-rounded diet of things like vegetables and fruit. Furthermore, my sage mother was aware that all the extra packaging on grocery foods was killing the environment and therefore we created our own single-servings at home rather than buying them that way in the supermarket.
As a result, I came to toddler-targeted foods later in life, and was often unaware that these foods were actually created with school lunchboxes in mind. Luckily all my sophisticated friends are around to point out that I eat like a 12-year-old, which I think is very ageist.
Top Seven Foods That I Think Are Actually For Toddlers
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7. Applesauce Crushers (Trader Joe’s)
After a long period of active resistence, we entered a Trader Joe’s phase, primarily attracted by the fact that Bulleit is cheaper there than anywhere else in the city. Also: Applesauce Pouches! Putting an applesauce jar and Bulleit into my backpack and biking home scares me. This solves all those problems, with cartoons.
6. Earth’s Best Organic Letter-of-the-Day Cookies
They’re basically endorsed by The President of Cookies.
5. Annie’s Mac & Cheese Single Servings
It’s all the ease of Easy-Mac, but with the words “totally natural” “homegrown” and “no artificial anything!” written on the box. A more authentic taste.
4. Peanut Butter Crackers
This one time in the summer of 2007, I was working on a script for a teevee show with my new friend DJ Carlytron when she extracted an 8-pack of peanut butter crackers from her bag and I was like, “Oh my god, I thought I was the only person over 12 who ate those” and she was like, “I eat these all the time.” Then I knew we’d be friends forever!
No but really, generally if you’re gonna snack on carbs, it’s good to pair it with a protein. Empty carbs leave me feeling empty inside, like a shell of myself. Thus, when forced by the slings and arrows of everyday life to grab a processed snack at a gas station or drug store, these are a logical selection. Or really any time.
The orange ones taste best but the traditional kind are better if you’re in public and paranoid about getting orange stuff in your teeth. The Ritz crackers are more buttery and delicious than either of the Austin snacks.
3. Milk
The association between drinking milk (as opposed to putting it in your coffee/cereal/pancake batter) and being under the age of 13 is baffling to me, because milk is delicious. You know what else is delicious? Chocolate milk. I like an ice cube in my milk.
2. Go-Gurt
It’s yogurt, but in a tube!! I’ve been eating these suckers since the day they got invented.
1. String Cheese
via bluebasket.com
Have you ever wanted a grilled cheese sandwich or an omelette but been out of cheese and tried to use string cheese instead? I haven’t, I’m just wondering out of curiosity. Anyhow, you already know how much I love cheese.
Do you enjoy any foods endorsed by SpongeBob Sparepants? Please share!
121 Comments
Riese
Riese is the co-founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker and LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York, and now lives in Los Angeles. Follow her on twitter and instagram.
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As to the last question, yes I have. When making grilled cheese with string cheese, it can get unstable while flipping, due to the separate cheese pieces. I’d probably try to shred the cheese beforehand next time.
yes and yes. you can melt string cheese down since it is basically just really dry mozzarella and make anything with it…pizza, grilled cheese…throw it over some tostitos to make nachos etc. i’ve done all fo these and they def work.
ps where are caramel apple pops on here?? ze best
i love caramel apple pops! i think i talked about them in my candy post
ok so this one time i may or may not have been under the influence of a certain substance and i spent about 10 minutes arranging 4 different kinds of cheeses on a grilled cheese sandwich. string cheese was one of the kinds of cheese, but i sliced it into a bunch of tiny circles and then alternated the mozzarella and colby-jack pieces to make a wonderfully stripey and diverse grilled cheese.
not only was it aesthetically pleasing and made me feel like it was arts and crafts time in addition to snacktime, it was goddamn delicious.
my roommates still make fun of me for it.
Why would they make fun of you that sounds excellent.
Shark bites.
Hoohaha
did someone say shark bites
do you need a shark bite
because i can hook you up
My niece is 17 months old and the ONLY word she says is “gogurt”. It’s the cutest thing of life.
Also, I order milk when I eat fast food because it’s the best thing ever, and EVERYONE, even the 15-year old at the cash looks at me like I’m on crack.
People, stop being snobs, milk is the shit.
yeah i specifically consume milk when i’m eating pizza, cookies, or indian food
once when I was younger I had milk with pizza and I had to puke.
never again.
Maybe we are soulmates of the dairy variety.
…and if you’re lactose intolerant, then milk gives you the shits! =D
Milk is legit the only cure for hangovers, pints and pints of the stuff.
Yes! Everyone always thinks I’m weird for this, but if I’m a little bit hungover (not a ton) I’ll just chug a glass of milk first thing at breakfast.
I’ve never tried the glass of milk thing, but for me, Pedialyte is the best hangover cure (and oddly in line with this toddler-intended stuff). No sugar, no taste, it can be mixed with anything. ALSO IT COMES IN ICE-POP FORM FOR SUMMER HANGOVERS.
my hangover cure: gatorade and toast. or huevos rancheros and black coffee. I preemptively bought Gatorade today in preparation for St Patrick’s Day.
HUEVOS RANCHEROS
You know life is prime when you’re preemptively stocking up on hangover food, love this!
i like an ice cube in my milk too! people always tell me that’s gross, but pssh whatever. warm milk is grosser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIug6ZknX8w
I’m sorry. I just have very strong feelings about this matter.
yeah warm milk is the total worst. people have really strong reactions to me putting ice in my milk though, like they haven’t discovered its majesty yet
Cold milk is amazing, it tastes like ice cream anyway :D
I do this too. Was judged harshly for it in college. The milk is too damn warm! (Said in the manner of the rent is too damn high.)
this goes well with the toddler theme, too: one of the kids i babysit (age 4) needs a sippy cup of milk at bedtime, and it HAS to have an ice cube in it.
I Have feelings about milk that I must share:
The idea of milk repulses me, REPULSES! It’s liquid whose natural purpose is to feed the young of whatever animal its extracted from. But we humans take that shit, remove some stuff, bottle it up (or bag it…which I can’t even discuss)and sell it. It’s gross. Milk is intended for little animal babies! Why are we drinking it? Could you imagine if human breast milk were marketed to consumers? We’d be like “that shit cray. No thank you. Ew, that’s not safe. etc, etc.” But when it’s animal milk we’re all “yes I’m going to pour you over my breakfast food and make you an ingredient in every recipe imaginable.” It’s weird, right?
In conclusion, I love milk so much. It’s so good.
There are websites for people who buy/sell human breast milk. Apparently making cheese out of it is a thing. I am 100% serious about this, I wish I wasn’t.
someone would have to pay me an absurd amount of money to drink human breast milk.
unless i got to suck on the breast myself. then only a slightly smaller amount of money.
The idea of drinking human breast milk is WAY less gross to me than cow’s milk, at least I am the right species to drink it. Plus hopefully the baby wasn’t stolen from it’s mom and slaughtered so I could drink it.
Regretsy found somebody who made soap out of breast milk, I shit you not.
they make breast milk ice cream too!!!!! what!!!!!!!
Human breast milk is a delicacy in Mongolia, I believe.
But then you would be without ice cream. ICE CREAM!
Coconut milk ice cream!
Pop tarts. Of course because I am a Seattle stereotype I eat the Nature’s Path kind, but the concept is the same. (and I stare at those Uncrustables commercials with a kind of ashamed and confused longing) Also gummy candy.
I like how those cookies are “very vanilla,” I think too often we are forced to settle for worn-out flavors like “chocolate” or “cheese,” without any further descriptions.
I dunno if you have them in the states, but Liga? They’re actually legit made for toddlers, theyre biscuits (cookies) that dissolve really easily and are chunky for babies to hold, but theyre so yummy. I was lucky to have two younger brothers and three younger cousins to steal them from when I was a kid, but once the youngest was about 3 they stopped being bought :( And I never think to buy them myself cuz Im never in the baby food section of the grocery store, haha.
God, LiLo looks gorgeous in that Got Milk ad.
I just realised that Lindsay Lohan is gay.
I am so slow.
But this shit is important, bro.
Also: Peanut Butter Cheese Crackers
Could this be the 69 of Junk Foods?
I have yet to try it.
I can answer with total confidence that slightly melting a small slice of pepperjack cheese between peanut butter crackers is definitely a thing of wonder. Or of hangover and desperation. Whichever.
And double ditto for the Austin cheese crackers, in my opinion, are the best.
Arrowroot cookies are for real the best cookie flavor. Too bad they’re made for babies, not even toddlers, BABIES. There are even babies on the box with their first little teeth. Or they’re made by Gerber. They’re still delicious though.
YESSS!!!! they are literally the BEST COOKIES EVER.
I tried to give my 4.5 yr old “Godson” a pack of those peanut butter cheese crackers and both his Moms nearly stroked out..One of them actually said “We’re lesbians..We don’t feed our kid that crap!” Sidenote: on a recent trip to the playground he was playing with a group of kids using one of those fake lemonade stand thingys, and they were taking turns pretending to “sell” lemonade and ice cream..When it came to his turn he shouts exciteely, “I know, let’s pretend we’re selling Hummus and Pita’s!” Yeah..It may be too late for me to save the little guy
This sounds like it should be in an episode of Portlandia!
whoa please don’t give up they need you!
There is an adorbable boy on my block that sells lemonade and will draw a picture to go with it for free. Needless to say I tip the hell out of that.
this sounds like the cutest thing in the world! i want to buy lemonade from him!
kid’s drawings are my favorite thing
Oh my. Sound’s like my “godson” who last year (as 3.5 year old) was having a meltdown over having to eat his broccoli at dinner. I shrugged it off as 4 year old dislike of veggies until he screamed “I don’t WANT broccoli, I WANT edamame!” vehemently in the middle of his tantrum.
Just laughed so hard my stomach hurt at this.
I remember I had difficulty breathing after I had string cheese. I love other cheeses but string cheese just doesn’t agree with me. It’s really weird.
Fruit snacks! A couple of months ago I had to explain to my mom what a fruit snack is and watch her tentatively eat one. Clearly I was a deprived child forced to eat real fruit.
Also milk with crushed ice is like the best drink in existence.
Fruit Loops. I eat them when I go home because my mom buys them for my kid sister. I feel like they are too much like candy for a daily breakfast so I go with Honey nut Cheerios which also seem to be for kids.
Nonsense, Honey Nut Cheerios are for young adults, especially when there are people around who will look at you funny for consuming Lucky Charms past age 15. Honey Nut Cheerios are how you say “I have the mind of an adult but the heart of a child.” They’re also just really tasty.
Hmm, if people will look at you funny for eating Lucky Charms past age 15 I wonder what looks I was getting when I bought Captain Crunch this week.
My Yale-educated, former World Bank economist, econ professor in college was a huge fan of Lucky Charms. Half the examples he’d use in class involved Lucky Charms (“What does Alan Greenspan ask each morning while he’s eating his Lucky Charms…”).
Ok just have to give a shoutout to Golden Grahams.
I like vodka and kahlua in my milk.
Two ice cubes and a shot of white creme de cacao. Add vodka and it’s a White Russian. Goes great with curries.
WAIT! A White Russion is kahlua and vodka. No idea what vodka and white creme de cacao is called. Let’s say it’s a White Chocolate Spike, shall we? =]
OMG, Annie’s makes microwave mac n cheese?!?!? Eeeeek! I love the organic bunny shaped pastas with cheese sauce because, duh bunnies and cheese! I always feel like a kid when I’m making it too…possibly because there are fluffy animals and cutesy phrases on the box. I was just sulking about the logistical problems of taking a box to work with me since my office only has a microwave when Voila! This wins all of the things :)
Honey Graham Crackers with peanut butter. (and it HAS to be Peter Pan peanut butter.) Best. Snack. Ever.
Forget you guys! You all think you’re so cool with your milk, cheeses & icecream. It’s so tough not being able to join the cool club. And let me tell you, the alternative stuff doesn’t compete. Sad times for a lesbian. :(
On the flip side I enjoy the organic baby food. One jar as a quick snack for about 80 calories and very cheap… Saving a dolla will make me holla, Honey boo-boo!
have you tried Daiya cheese? it may be hard to find, but it’s vegan/lactose-free and melts and tastes really well–even on pizza!
Daiya quesadillas are the SHIT. (Also if you don’t like/are allergic to soy, it’s made from tapioca so you’re still covered)
I eat all of these things….. and I am 22….. Woo!!
My favorite are the apple sauce packs, since I sleep in till the very last second I can before work these are the best breakfast on-the-go things in the WORLD!
Wait, you’re supposed to stop drinking milk at some point? That’s ridiculous. Milk is delicious! Strong bones for everyone except the lactose intolerant! (I mean I hope they have strong bones too, just maybe not from milk.)
I am constantly stealing my 2-year-old’s string cheese. I also enjoy the cheese sticks, usually they come in cheddar and colby jack. YUM.
Also my favorite cereal is Kix. Which are for kids, according to the commercial. But they are quite delicious.
The idea or visual of ice cubes in a glass of milk always makes me close to gagging. Not even kidding – and I don’t know why. But, I don’t really like the taste of dairy milk. Chocolate almond milk is the best thing in the world…
Guilty toddler pleasure: gummy worms.
I AM DRINKING THAT RIGHT NOW
brb gotta pour some more chocolate deliciousness
I am also drinking chocolate almond milk! Well it’s almond milk that I put chocolate syrup in. Plus whipped cream flavored vodka.
chocolate teddy grahams!! and do you know what happens when you put them in milk? THEY BECOME CHOCOLATE TEDDY GRAHAM CEREAL.
This might be the only time we agree on food.
HOLD THE PHONE. google suggests that chocolate teddy grahams are like tiny teddies (http://www.arnotts.com/our-products/products/arnotts-tiny-teddy.aspx). Can any other Aussie expats in the US confirm? If so, this website has just solved all of life’s problems yet again.
Yep. They are just like Tiny Teddies. (Or, if you buy the Woolworths generic version, Tiny Bears. Which always cracks us up for some reason.)
And you can bite their little heads off! I mean.. what?
It seems very important to bite off their ears before biting off their heads.
oh and in case the trolls over here were wondering — http://develop.autostraddle.com/priest-who-ruined-lesbians-mothers-funeral-placed-on-administrative-leave-134894/ — yes, I am indeed talking about Christian babies.
Those cheese crackers, string cheese and gogurt is pretty much what I wolf down at my workplace as my position does not lend itself to a proper sit down lunch.
The other day I was foodless and my co-worker gave me a variety pack sized box of cinamon toast crunch and I was in awe..but that is another thread.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the most delicious cereal ever.
That is all.
this idea that milk is for kids is causing us to get osteoporosis. drink your milk, homos. or your bones will fall apart.
I’m pretty sure the whole “milk gives you strong bones” is just a marketing ploy. It’s my understanding that the major causes for weak bones are sedentary living, smoking, caffeine, lack of vitamin D, and lack of Vitamin K.
Obviously, consuming calcium doesn’t hurt but there are better foods to get it from. But I definitely enjoy my chocolate milk after workouts.
I think I’d rather get my calcium from leafy vegetables like kale or broccoli over something that is full of hormones designed to grow an animal from 100 to 800 pounds in a year.
yes! I just discovered how wonderful Kale is. especially with quinoa. mmmmmmm
i’m still wondering what string cheese is.
#problemsthateuropeanshave
I googled it and – is it mozarella?! hmmm
it’s a type of fairly low-moisture mozzarella in a stick shape. it is fun to eat because it can be peeled into, well, strings, because of the kind of fibrous texture that mozzarella has. that sounds gross, but it’s delicious fun, i promise!
I’m always weirded out when people don’t *string* their string cheese. It’s string cheese. It’s meant to be divided into strings. It’s sacrilege to just eat it in normal bites.
I can really get behind these feelings, especially in regards to milk. God how I fucking love milk. Sometimes I have huge glasses of milk for dessert because it feels so, so good. Milk 2012.
I’ve eat like half of those things before noon
I guess it makes sense though, it seems like we basically had the same childhood as far as food goes. My parents #1 enemy was lunchables and their excessive use of packaging.
oh god i begged and pleaded for lunchables but my mom wasn’t a fan of the preservatives or the excess packaging. they’re kinda gross, i think i just wanted them because everyone else had them
why aren’t lunchables on this list? I also was not allowed to have them when I was little, so of course I love them now…
Lunchables were a “special occasion” food..Like for school field trips..Mostly because I always managed to lose my lunchbox on those things!
They were totally a special occasion lunch for me too! Remember the pizza ones?! Little did I know they were actually totally terrible.
We always had to bring a fully disposable lunch on school trips (too many other kids losing lunchboxes, I guess) so Mom would always relent and let me have Lunchables those days!
Those peanut butter crackers are the best as are string cheese, I love string cheese so much.
MILK!!! There are these ginger tea packets, that are like little pebbles of gingery-ness, it tastes so good in milk. Also a glass of hot milk with chai. When cherry season come I squeeze the juice out of a handful of cherries and add a litte sugar, it is so good. Milk is so versatile.
I know those ginger tea packets!!! I use them when I get sick to my stomach, and they are like an awesome instant cure! I’ve never tried them with milk, though. I will try them because I LOVE milk.
Uncrustables! you know because actually making a pb&j is just too much effort. I bring one to work every day with my chips and applesauce.
these are all still my favorite things. i eat a string cheese day, i swear.
“Letter of the Day” cookies? Are they implying that you’re only supposed to eat one cookie per day? Because that’s heresy in my book.
I would use them to play tasty Scrabble. make a word, then eat it!
COOKIE SCRABBLE. That is genius. Genius!
Yobaby yogurt is really good too! It is thin but really light and yummy. Usually I eat greek yogurt but sometimes the yobaby yogurt is just what I need.
And one day I was grocery shopping with my mother and at the check out and they had these gerber graduate baby snacks http://c3.diapers.com/images/products/p/ns/ns-041_1z.jpg and I mentioned that I thought they were probably actually good so she picked them up for me. And I know I should probably be embarrassed but it was like snacking on cereal and they melted in my mouth, very tasty.
Try the Yogurt Melts, those things are so good.
-Poptarts
-Animal crackers
-Lunchables
-Various cereals, like Lucky Charms
I love the stringy cheeses. They do wonderful things for a dull, drab pizza, boring old cored-and-wrapped-with-bacon jalapenos, and they’re the perfect de-stress-ifier! (*RIIIIIP* ANGRY! *RIIIIIIP* …Mmm. Cheeeeese. *RIIIIIP* …No more angry. And, also, cheese. )
But…Toaster Strudel.
Peanut butter crackers are the shit.
Also, pre-packed Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal bowls.
Ya know the kind that comes in a plastic bowl? Amazing!
*I especially feel like I’m 5 years old when I have to lick every last bit of cinnamon-sugary goodness off of my fingers.
I spent almost a year surviving off of a diet that consisted of about 65% peanut butter crackers.
College.
For awhile I subsisted primarily on a steady diet of coffee, PB&J sandwiches, those trader joe’s apple juice boxes, fruit snacks and that tub of organic Disney animal crackers you get at Costco (it’s like, 2 gallons of Winnie the Pooh cookies, and it lasts FOREVER because it was clearly made for doling out cookies during snack time at preschool).
My roommate still won’t let me live that down.
Ellio’s pizza. With or without the freezer burn. And no ma’am, I will not have one serving, I will have three and jam it all into the toaster oven.
I used to eat this stuff ALL THE TIME as a kid. Tried it as an adult and… it tastes like cardboard. I don’t know how I ever thought it was good.
I’m a complete weirdo, but over here we have ‘Farley’s Rusks’ and basically they’re a weaning food for babies/toddlers. They’re sweet biscuits that you mash up with milk and I love them so much. Pure sugar though. I also love milk. What’s wrong with milk anyway? Milkshakes and Ice cream and chocolate milk and just milk in general. Possibly my body is lacking in nutrients and that’s why I crave it so much? I have the pallet of a baby though. Can’t stand tea or coffee or anything bitter like that.
I lived off of those grape Koolaid drinks that came in the tiny plastic bottles.
Oh and Fruit by the Foot.
Yes please. I still get both at the Dollar Tree.
Mini fridge is stocked right now. Koolaid minis and Mango Smirnoff. Best combo ever.
And if you are lactose intolerant, like myself, this list is death because I want ALL the food and can’t have it. :'(
Me too. But sometimes I just give in. “Ooo ice cream. Welp, guess I’m not going out tonight.”
Potato Smilies were always my favourite. Oh, also, anyone from England…do you remember those sausages in tomato sauce…what were they called? I used to love it as a kid. And alphabet spaghetti, too.
I’ve just discovered Heinz Little Kids chocolate biscuits. Like, literally, 5 minutes ago I became aware of their existence. They look like lady fingers, but they’re crunchy. Having low-calorie, low sugar, toddler snackfoods around the house is the one good thing about my idiot sister and her coke head boyfriend procreating.
I dont know if you guys have these in the States, but push-pops? Ridiculously delicious even if both my girlfriend and another friend were trying not to laugh at the irony of me eating one…and then he just shook his head and went “you five-year old!” In my defense, push pops are like instant flavoured sweetness….
I love to make barbeques recipe in every weekend and they generally hope to taste yummy and much better out of a best and cheap barbeques contrast with take away electric griddle.