Food + Drinks

How many packs of Bunny Grahams and Pirate Booty are you planning to buy in your lifetime? 800? 8000? 800,000? If you’re like us, we’re guessing you’re well on your way to hitting that number, the big one, and deep inside you’re silently screaming, “Please, no more.”

Is there no other crunchy snack out there we can feed our kids (and, yes, ourselves) and feel ok about? A snack that doesn’t have a terrifying amount of saturated fat, sodium, and sugar? One that isn’t jammed with a heinously long ingredient list that would make Michael Pollan shake his finger and whisper, “Uh-uh. No.”

The answer is yes, those healthy-crunchy-AND-delicious snacks do exist in the world. But too often they’re hiding behind bizarre branding choices that make you walk right on by and reach for the Bunny Grahams yet again.

Today, we bring you a spanking new Crunch Time Parents roundup of favorite crunchy-yet-virtuous supermarket snacks. As it happens, these snacks are on the weird side, because you know about all the "normal" ones. We like these snacks a lot. An informal focus group of toddlers and adultish people love them too, although some like certain ones more than others. Try them. Tell us what you think. Here goes:

Starting this week, watch this space for regular tips on stuff worth trying or buying. Today's installment on ginger tea is more in the "try" category: Sure, you can buy ginger tea, but you can also brew an incredibly delicious version at home in minutes. It's pretty much the easiest thing you'll ever make. Here goes:

Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood once had a cafe called Pillow. True to its name, it was full of pillows—small purple ones strewn on every banquette to cushion the hard texture of the seat, or a tough morning of deadlines or winter blues. I spent more hours than I can count there, mostly working on editorial projects but occasionally reading a novel, staring into space, and trying to flag down someone to take my order. Usually, that was yet another cup of Pillow's addictive homemade ginger tea. Here's how to make it.

Need a trick-your-brain cocktail substitute for those long nights (and days) when you're pregnant, nursing, or otherwise teetotaling? Check out some of our favorite mocktail ideas to help you make it through that superhero stretch of being really, really good.