Hayley: Let’s talk about one of the most important things in the world: snacks.
We at Gold-Plated Girls are big fans of snacks. We are almost as big on snacks as we are on crushes. The intersection of “snacks” and “crushes” is exactly where we try to be, spiritually.
My parents told me that when I was little and I got fussy all they needed to do was give me Cheerios and I was immediately pacified. Although I haven’t had Cheerios in approximately 20 years, this ritual still applies to my snacking. I can feel myself getting fussy as an adult when I’ve been staring at the computer for too long and need to take a snack break. One of the biggest benefits of working remotely is that I am mere steps away from my kitchen at all times. Gone are the days of endlessly obsessing over whether or not my “snack drawer” at work was sufficiently stocked. Although, as the One Who Always Had Oreos, my coworkers probably miss having to supply their own Oreos now.
When we decided to go deep on snacks, I immediately started thinking about the main activities that I associate with snacking: reading, working, watching TV, and drinking beer. They all require a different snack etiquette, in my opinion. When I’m reading or working, I need to have my hands relatively unencumbered. Dry snacks, like Chex Mix and chakri are perfect for this. When I’m watching TV, I can eat literally anything, but prefer quiet snacks like ice cream. And when I’m drinking beer, I want something that won’t compete with the taste of beer, so pretzels or plain potato chips are ideal.
Victoria, tell me all about your snacks.
Victoria: As I’m typing this, I’m snacking on green grapes (my preferred grape variety). Then I thought “Hmm this would be great with some cheese and crackers,” so I got a piece of cheese out of the fridge (gouda from Trader Joe’s) and these very good Wellington Cracked Pepper Water Crackers, and now I feel so fancy and evolved eating grapes and cheese and crackers. A lovely little moment!
I guess that’s what the ideal snack is — a lovely little moment! This is why you are correct that working from home is way better for snacking than being in the office. To snack in the office takes so much planning, and so much anticipating of what you might want to eat! There’s very little room for improvisation, for the unexpected, for delight! That said, when I am a person who often goes out in the world (which I have not been since February 2020), my ideal lazy person snack plan is just throwing a bunch of clementines in my bag. It’s a fruit that doesn’t need refrigerating, won’t get crushed by your stuff (like a banana), and you can leave it on your desk for a couple days before it goes bad. I also love cara cara oranges, but they’re harder to peel and sometimes I just feel ridiculous peeling a whole orange in public. Clementines are travel size!
I tend to be very streaky when it comes to snacks; I’ll be obsessed with a particular snack for a couple months (or even a year or two), and then I’ll be like “No, that’s enough.” My number one, all time, never tired of it snack, though, is Cheez-Its. Cheez-Its are perfect, and they perfected perfection when they introduced the extra toasty ones. There were a couple years when I was in middle school where my mom kept buying “Cheese Nips” instead of “Cheez-Its,” and that was a dark time. Adulthood is realizing you can buy your own Cheez-Its.
There is no one ideal snack because different moments require different ones. Personally I love a mini snack — taking one oreo out of the cabinet (I just got the Olympics ones which have pop rocks in them, which I do not recommend though I will be eating them all), one pickle out of the jar, one fun-size almond joy, or one teaspoon of ricotta (a snack of the gods, imo). I guess you could say I have commitment issues.
I come from a family of snackers, but my dad was definitely most dedicated to the quest for new snacks. If he saw a new snack in the grocery store, he was going to buy it. Yes, it might taste terrible, but it might taste amazing, so it was worth the risk. My dad’s favorite chip to get at 7/11 or a gas station was Bugles, which are so strange but so delicious and I feel such a sweet, painful nostalgia whenever I see them now.
Hayley, do you love any snacks you think other people would find “weird”?
Hayley: Wow I am medium on grapes as a snack at best but I agree that snacks are lovely little moments! I’m totally with you on the Cheez-Its train. They’re absolutely perfect! There used to be this variety that was Parmesan & Garlic flavored that I absolutely ADORED. You cannot get these anymore, and BELIEVE ME I have looked! If you try to tell me that I am misremembering, and that I must have been thinking of the White Cheddar version, I will fight you.
Some of my earliest memories of reading chapter books for the first time are inseparable from snacks. I distinctly remember sitting at the dining room table in our old house reading Nancy Drew books and eating string cheese. Another favorite reading snack of mine was croutons dipped in salad dressing — also known as all the best parts of a salad, especially if you’re eight. I also remember eating a lot of Goldfish crackers and Cheez-Its while reading new Harry Potter books every summer. I’ve found orange crumbs in between the pages of those books, which is gross but also cute. And there are unfortunately some raspberry stains, which made me realize that berries are not good reading snacks!
Okay I’ve stalled for long enough, I can talk about a childhood favorite snack of mine that is definitely weird and irredeemably so: I used to eat hot cocoa mix out of the packet with a spoon. Just dry chocolate powder and those hard little marshmallows, right into my mouth. I actually spilled a packet on the cover of my Marie-Antoinette installment of the Royal Diaries series and cried but had to keep it a secret because I was not supposed to be eating that and didn’t want my mom to find out! And this happened last week! LOL jk. It’s been years since I’ve enjoyed a packet of hot cocoa. Drinking it just doesn’t feel the same, honestly.
I have recently been enjoying what I call “toddler lunch” as often as I can, which is just Babybels and apple slices with peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon all mixed together for dippin’. And the snack that I’ve been on a kick with lately is definitely Chex Mix. They have the regular and cheddar Chex Mix at Aldi! A few weeks ago when my mom and I were at Menards, we walked down their snack aisle (sidenote: Menards has a ridiculously good snack section. Trust me!) and I saw that they had like 7 different varieties of Chex Mix. I bought one of each, and made my parents taste test all of them with me while we played cards one night. It was amazing and I highly recommend this to everyone!
Something that always bothers me is when I visit someone and they do not have snacks. I don’t expect people to feed me constantly, but I would like some sort of chip and dip or pretzel situation going on while we’re hanging out and talking. Not to go all Emily Post but if I ask you “what can I bring?” and you say “nothing” I will assume that you already have a snack situation down, and “nothing” really means “a bottle of wine.” I can no longer make these assumptions. Let’s snack it up, people!
Victoria: Oh good, I wanted to ask what the weirdest snacks you enjoyed as a kid were!! I have a deep memory of being in first grade and the teacher giving us popcorn and Coke to watch a movie (do teachers still do this? I feel like today’s kids don’t have free, unfettered access to Coke), and one of the other kids said it was good if you dipped the popcorn in the Coke first, and they were right!! I don’t do a full dip anymore, but I do recreate this experience in my mouth when I go to the movies. I used to put Triscuits in the microwave to melt a little shredded cheddar cheese on them (which I still sometimes do with tortilla chips). The absolute weirdest thing I used to do was bite the end off a pretzel rod, and then dunk it in iced tea until it got some of the flavor and was somewhere between mushy and crunchy, and then eat it. This feels extremely intimate to share! I didn’t realize snacks were so personal until this moment.
Let’s talk about the best places to get snacks. In New York we do not have Menards, but I think Trader Joe’s is a top tier snack location. TJ’s makes these crunchy mochi rice nuggets that are my number one, but they also have good chips and dips, and also lots of nice frozen stuff that heats up well. They also have mochi ice cream, which comes in a pack of six, and taking one out of the freezer is a perfect little snack! I also have a BJ’s membership (it’s like Costco, but only in the northeast), and they have lots of great snacks and dips, and the dips all come in massive containers. They have particularly great fresh salsa.
When I was younger, I hated peanut butter passionately, but by the summer of 2011, I realized I didn’t anymore. The first snack I made? Hallie and Annie’s Parent Trap staple: oreos with peanut butter. It rules.
Hayley: I agree, it’s incredibly intimate to share snack ritual details! When I was writing about my hot cocoa spoonfuls I was like…should I be sharing this? I feel like I’m violating some sacred bond with my younger self.
Trader Joe’s has amazing snacks, Aldi also has fun snacks but they frequently stop selling them without notice. Menards is the secret snack GOAT. Whole Foods USED to have my favorite dip ever, this big tub of chili con queso that I would sometimes eat with tortilla chips for dinner when I was too tired to cook. During the pandemic I drove to two different Whole Foods to try and find it, and when I was in the city last weekend I also looked for it, and I don’t believe they sell it anymore. I can’t think about this for too long without getting genuinely sad.
It’s so funny that you mention Oreos with peanut butter, because when I saw that in The Parent Trap I was like “there is no way that’s a real thing people eat, that must be a movie invention.” Then my first roommate out of college was eating them one day and my mind was blown. It’s an absofuckinglutely amazing combination. Adulthood is mostly about finding ways to incorporate more peanut butter into your life.
What Victoria Recommends
- The new snack I can’t stop thinking about is this recipe that combines popcorn and chocolate and m&ms. Yes it’s barely a recipe, yes you should make it.
- I’m very obsessed with the Japanese Breakfast album, Jubilee.
- Here’s a little summer playlist that’s still under construction.
What Hayley Loves Right Now
- Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Shiguro is a dystopian science fiction novel and it is a fast, fascinating read that made me want to read more Shiguro.
- The 30 min Peloton Spice Girls bike ride with Leanne was almost a religious experience. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
- This S’mores Mochi Ice Cream is incredible. We got it at ALDI.
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