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Writer's pictureSean Chapman

Snacks in a Crunch: Living in an Ingredient Household

Do you suffer from never having snack food in the pantry? Are your parents those people who think they are a waste of money and that it's just junk food? Are you constantly craving something little but are never appeased? You probably live in an ingredient household. This basically means the entirety of your food items at home are things like tortillas, peanut butter, frozen veggies, pasta noodles, celery, plain meat, and random spices and sauces. Let me tell you, I have first hand experience. My parents have been on a health kick my whole life, so I never had fruit snacks--unless they were organic. I was one of those annoying kids at the lunch table that always asked for a few of your animal crackers or your Pringles. With all of my knowledge on the subject, here are some of my favorite make-do snacks to eat with no actual snack food.


Cucumbers and salt


This combination is so delicious yet so refreshing! The salt will keep you satisfied with flavor while the cucumber is the crunchy green thing that makes you feel like you're healthy. I started this one in fourth grade, and it has been a classic ever since.





Plain tortillas


This one is pretty much a given. It's really thin bread, and it's delicious. I used to eat like three of these in a row when I was just a baby. The dough is sweet but somehow has just the right amount of bread-like flavor. It's hard to explain, but they are so good because of their simplicity. That's all I have to say about that.




Peanut butter

Peanut butter is a fan favorite flavor for many cookies, ice creams, and all other sweet things. For me, I have never liked the flavor in my sweets, but I LOVE it by

itself. I don't know why, but the sweet and salty creaminess (I'm sorry, but crunchy is gross) of peanut butter straight from the jar with a spoon is an experience that cannot be beat. One thing that I also love to do is put peanut butter on my bananas, apples, and celery. It gives that extra kick of flavor and softness to the snack. Peanut butter is arguably the most versatile food to ever exist.



Dill pickles


Technically, you could say this ties to the first example on the list since pickles are just cucumbers with salt and vinegar and whatever other little add-ons you want, but I'm adding it to the list anyways because it stands as its own thing and deserves recognition. Pickles are my favorite salty snack. And they are probably one of the easiest. I am ashamed to admit that I would sometimes drink the pickle juice when I was little, but I truly believe that it made me who I am as a person today. My biggest advice is find what kind of shape you like best because it DOES make a difference (I personally like the squiggly chips).



Chocolate chips


This along with peanut butter are the only two sweet items on the list. A kid's gotta have sweets, so when there was no candy or oreos or nutter butters, I improvised. Chocolate chips! We as a family liked to make cookies every once in a while, so we would have chocolate chips on hand most of the time. Although I didn't love that they were dark chocolate, they were still the closest thing to candy I could scrounge up. They certainly did the trick for the last 18 years!


I am stopping at five, but there are sooooo many more little things I picked up on over the years. I am sure if you went into the pantry or the fridge you would be able to come up with something:) So, I hope you found one or two snacks for when you are penniless and living at your parents house. This will definitely come in handy!

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