A couple of months ago I was lathering on the sunscreen for our updated testing and testing it in the Hawai’i sunshine…. I was also stocking up on road trip snacks and planning trips for spring break… We all know how spring break turned out this year.
Funny how everything has changed, especially when it comes to scheduling. Both in my business life and my personal one.
But some needs stay the same, and shelf-stable snacks are definitely one of those needs. These are great to have at home or for travel!
Perfect Paleo Snack for on the Road
You might remember that last year our family went on quite a trip for spring break! We drove to Missouri to exhibit and speak at a homeschool conference, visited the “Don’t Waste the Crumbs” family in Georgia for a day and then hit the coast of Florida to visit some other blog friends.
We’re not the type to embrace eating out meal after meal, day after day, and so we pack food. A small cooler with some milk, yogurt, and vegetables, and a tub full of a variety of things – from some legume-based microwave meals from Costco for Lenten Friday, to fresh fruit, to a gaggle of decent-ingredient bars, and for the non-Fridays, a whole bunch of Paleovalley meat sticks.
RELATED: Healthy snack recipes that travel well.
I used to think it was too expensive to buy grass-fed meat sticks with the quality of Paleovalley, but now that I’m on a subscription every 2 months, I’m never going back. They are the BEST emergency snack when we’re running low on fresh fruit, and I can’t tell you how many road trips have avoided paying big $$ for lunch because we have meat sticks with us.
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Testing Other Meat Stick Brands
Later that year my husband and I went to a conference in California, and we had just about run out of our supply of Paleovalley. So instead of placing an order, I grabbed a bunch of other brands at our local health food store, thinking it would be interesting to try them out. HA!
My teeth did not agree.
Every other meat stick was so tough and required so much chewing, I think I heard my teeth ask for a raise and worker’s comp. No way my kids would have gotten through them.
As it happened, I got to meet the founders of Paleovalley in person at that conference in California, and I was almost embarrassed to admit that I’d brought other meat sticks! I actually did tell Matt and Kayla about my little experiment, and he was so very kind! He sent me a care package of all the flavors of Paleovalley meat sticks and other products so I could try them all!
The BEST on-the-go Snack: Paleovalley Review
Paleovalley is 100% grass-fed and grass-finished, raised in the USA, and is even naturally fermented so the meat sticks have some probiotics going on. Matt at Paleovalley is a good friend – such an encouraging guy and a generous soul! He has incredibly high standards for animal welfare, and for the joy and health of his customers.
If you remember our huge trip last summer, we took a pretty big supply with us. I made a HUGE order of Paleovalley meat sticks before we left (after putting my normal 2-month subscription on hold) because they are the best meal replacement/car snack that’s non-perishable that I can find.
RELATED: Be sure to incorporate mindful eating habits when you’re on the go.
Granola bars are almost always a compromise on at least a few ingredients (unless you make them yourself), and dried fruit and nuts is a close second but healthy, high-protein travel snacks are hard to find.
These ARE kid-friendly meat sticks because they’re nice and soft. No teeth or jaws complaining here!
Heat hint: For beef, summer sausage (my kids’ fave) or teriyaki are the least spicy. The turkey selections are very flavorful and not at all spicy. All of them = AWESOME!
How We Use Paleovalley Meat Sticks
On the road, we use them as a quick snack or the base for a picnic lunch. During our big summer trip, I think we dug into my stash 5 times in less than a week and I started to worry about whether I had brought enough!
More recently, when my husband and I just went to Hawai’i on a cruise in February (boy just sneaked in under the wire on that one actually happening!) we also brought a number of packages just for the two of us because we had some long days of travel with no food or just white bread sandwiches offered.
And now I’ve made two orders in the last month since I got home because anything shelf-stable, sustainably-raised and packed with nutrients sounds like an amazing, fantastic, delectable idea. Right now shelf-stable really is where it’s at, right? And delivered to your door is pretty much a perfect scenario! It just doesn’t get better than that, does it? Except that it does!
As a general rule we have to ration them and only allow them for when we’re out of the house, or I’d have to double my subscription, but this certainly warrants an exception since we haven’t exactly been going out of the house that much!
We’ve been going several weeks between grocery trips which means we may not have as much yogurt as usual, for example, so I’m all about getting probiotics in at snack time.
Stock Your Pantry with Paleovalley Meat Sticks Today
I checked in with Matt recently, don’t worry, and he says they have plenty of stock of Paleovalley meat sticks – for lovers and rookies alike – to make big orders. I’m tickled to send you his way so that he can send you some of our favorite meat sticks.
Be sure to use the code KITCHEN10 for 10% off, and that will automatically load when you use this special link.
Katie Kimball, CSME is a trusted educator and author of 8 real food cookbooks. She is passionate about researching natural remedies and making healthy cooking easier for busy families. She’s been featured on media outlets like ABC, NBC and First for Women magazine as well as contributing regularly on the FOX Network.
A mom of 4 kids from Michigan, she is a Certified Stress Mastery Educator and member of the American Institute of Stress.
