We try not to bring junk food into our home on a regular basis, but you will occasionally find us with a bag of Goldfish crackers or some spicy chips. So we were excited to get our hands on samples of Snikiddy's organic snacks, and tried out the company's Rockin' Ranch Puffs, Grilled Cheese Puffs, and two varieties of their bite-sized cookies, Chocolate Chippers and Cherry Oaties. You can buy all this stuff on Amazon.com, or, if you are not like us and have a great grocery store near you that carries such thing, you can buy them in person, although Amazon offers some great case discounts.
We scarfed down all of these products before we had a chance to photograph them. Suffice to say, we enjoyed them. Very much. But how do they live up to their motto of helping kids "have a healthy day"?
The company's Cheese Puffs contain about the same amount of calories as the equivalent amount of Cheetos Cheese Puffs but have just over half the fat. Snikiddy snack chips are baked, not fried.
Snikiddy's Chocolate Chippers, which are really delicious, compare with mini Chips Ahoy cookies as follows:
 |  | Diff. per equivalent weights | Diff. per consumed "serving" | |
| Serving | 24 g | 35 g | - | +11 g CA |
| Calories | 120 | 200 | +18 cal CA | +80 cal CA |
| Fat | 5 g | 8 g | +.5 g CA | +2 g CA |
| Sat. Fat | 2.5 g | 2.5 g | Equal | +.8 g SK |
| Sodium | 85 mg | 115 mg | +6 mg SK | +30 mg CA |
| Sugars | 2 g | 10 g | +5 g CA | +8 g CA |
In other words, the only clear win for Snikiddy's Chocolate Chippers over a traditional processed cookie like Chips Ahoy in an equivalent-weight comparison is its sugar content and, by extension, its calories. We take sugar pretty seriously in our household, but we were surprised to see that Snikiddy didn't offer any significant improvement in fat or sodium content, and that they have even more saturated fat than their health-agnostic cousins. Other varieties of Snikiddy's cookies fared slightly better (Banana Nibbles) or significantly worse (Cherry Oaties).
In terms of portion size, however, Snikiddy was a clear winner, and when it comes to "snacks," that's saying a lot. Chips Ahoy's serving size is almost half again as large as Snikiddy's, which is probably what counts when it comes to what your child is actually consuming. Serving sizes for Snikiddy treats across the board are about half the size of both the Cheetos and Keebler brands.
One single-serving package of their cookies, for example, was more than enough for our nearly four-year-old. In fact, we'd often share a single serving pack within our family of three, which means we get our treats but in very moderated portions.
The main benefit of these cookies and chips will be to give Z some options for food that appears a bit more mainstream than our normal fare, but that are made with organic ingredients and without hard-to-pronounce preservatives.
In the end, it's a little like this exchange between the two main characters of my favorite movie, Harold and Maude:Maude: "A little after-dinner liqueur, Harold?"Well said!
Harold: "Well, I really don't drink."
Maude: "Oh, it's all right. It's organic."
Harold: (Consenting.) "Thanks."
Maude: "... It has no nutritional value, but consistency is not a really human trait."
Snikiddy's organic snacks are available on Amazon.com and at some grocery stores.
5 comments:
I also was privy to a sample pack. Can I just reiterate just how good the Chocolate Chip cookies are? It's that fancy sugar that they are made with. It gives them a molasses quality that is just fantastic.
They may not be "healthful" but they are better than the alternative.
I am glad you brought this up. The word organic is being tossed around so freely, used in so much food and can be a complete marketing ploy to get mom's to buy in! It just goes to show that reading the labels is still a must and in the end, many times you can make the food better then buying the food. Thanks for the post!
We bought the grilled cheese puffs at our local grocery store a couple of months ago. I found the flavor quite revolting and I haven't been willing to try anything else. I don't buy Cheetos or other puffy snack foods in general, so I must admit that I was sucked in to buying a food-type I wouldn't normally eat simply because it was labeled organic and sold at my favorite natural foods store.
i know you don't want to become a food blog, but have you compared these with any other "snack foods" besides cookies? like the healthy handfuls or the 100-calorie packs? i'm just curious.
I tried their pizza puffs and found them way too salty! I really love the Cheetos' White Cheddar Puffs. I think that it's organic, too.
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