Sometimes on a Sunday, Stephen and I run out of activity ideas. We can’t bear the thought of hitting the playground yet again, but spending the entire day within the confines of our apartment with a four-year-old Tasmanian Devil isn’t terribly appealing, either. A hot dog road trip, tempting as it is, isn’t exactly Weight Watchers-friendly. Plus we’re pretty broke, so any outing must either be free or have an element of practicality.
Cue Stew Leonard’s. It’s a highly edited grocery store, entertaining enough for Harry (animatronic singing cows!) and yet reasonably priced. Bonus: as you wend your way through the store—it’s laid out so that everyone moves in one direction along a food-lined trail—there are nibbly tastings galore. Mini pastrami sandwiches? Check. Fresh kettle-cooked potato chips as big as your hand? Check. Salsa, Krinkle Veggie Sticks, pasta sauce? Check, check check. The last time we visited our good friend Stew, the big nibbly discovery was Yumnuts.
Yumnuts are cashews, flavor-coated using some sort of magical, proprietary process. No oil is added, and the ingredients are plain and simple as can be—things like honey, coconut, lime juice, and cocoa powder. Since Harry eats so, um, particularly at meal time, I try to make sure his snacks are nutrient dense, and cashews fit the bill: they’re lower in fat than most other nuts, and what fat there is, is high in oleic acid, a heart-healthy fatty acid also found in olive oil. So when the kid asked to sample the chocolate Yumnuts, I was more than happy to let him. And when he loved them? I did somersaults around the store (in my head, that is). I’ve been sending them in his lunchbox a couple times a week, and unlike with many of my other efforts (what’s wrong with pretzel sticks, I ask you?), the container always comes home empty.
Chocolate isn’t the only flavor, of course. But of the six available, it’s definitely Harry’s favorite. For more adult palates, they’ve got a Chili-Lime that’ll thrill pepper-heads, and a Toasted Coconut that I’d love to try chopped up and added to Cowkid Cookies. For the holiday season, though, pretty much any variety would be perfect to set out for the simplest-possible party munch.
If this isn’t enough to make you say, “Yes, please!,” I wrote to the good people at Yumnuts and asked if they’d be willing to make a special offer for you guys. Smarties that they are, they agreed immediately. Shop away, and at checkout time enter the code sayyum25 to save 25%. And if you’re really into nuts, they also offer free shipping on orders over $70.00.
Come back later today for yet another nutty find, this time with a giveaway attached!
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