339: Our Secret Sources for Must-Have Plant Based Travel Snacks

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If you're all about eating whole plant foods in the way that's simple, enjoyable, and delicious, you've found your family! I'm Anita Roussel, and in this episode, Jarrod and I are opening our hearts (and snack bags!) to share our current top 5 whole food plant-based road trip favorites that have been game-changers for us.

You know I'm always telling you to "turn that puppy over" and check those food ingredient labels! We'll show you exactly how to find truly clean snacks without oil, refined sugar, or those unpronounceable ingredients that keep you from feeling your absolute best. From the crunchiest treats to my personal favorite, an unusual dried fruit that tastes like candy, you'll gain inspiration and exciting new ideas! We're also revealing our secret shopping spots beyond the grocery store.

This episode is straight from our heart to yours, because we know the struggle of wanting to maintain your healing plant-based journey while traveling. These healthy simple swaps are all about reducing inflammation, boosting energy, reversing disease, and helping you to finally feel like fully living your God-given dreams! 

Whether you're just starting your plant-based journey or looking for fresh healthy snack ideas, join us for this intimate chat about keeping it real (and really delicious) on the road!

💃🏻 Ready to learn how to actually enjoy eating whole plant foods so you can finally feel great and fully experience life? Inside Accelerator, we'll take you by the hand & walk you step-by-step through our proven 5-Step WFPB Framework so you can heal naturally & actively live your God-given dreams. Join the Waitlist Here... the Doors are Opening Soon!

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Episode Transcript

Anita (00:00):
Hey there, sunshine.
If you are all about eatingwhole plant foods in the way
that's simple, enjoyable anddelicious, so that you can
finally feel your best and liveyour God-given dreams, you have
found your family, and today weare talking about something
that's very personal to us,because we're about to hit the
road again and go on vacation,and what comes to mind when you
think about a road trip?

(00:20):
Well, snacks.

Jarrod (00:22):
You got to have road trip snacks.

Anita (00:24):
It's always about the snacks.
Now you may think, if you'vejust transitioned to whole food,
plant-based, or you're new tothis, what in the world do you
eat and where do you find it?
So we're going to be sharingfive of our favorite snacks
today and some of the placesthat we find them that you might
not expect.
Hey sister, welcome to thePower on Plants podcast.
Are you tired of staring intothe fridge wondering what to eat

(00:47):
so you can just feel better?
Do you want to avoid spendinghours in the kitchen making
complicated meals in the name ofhealth?
Would you love to leave fatiguebehind and finally have the
energy to do all the things youwant to do?
Hi, we're Jared and AnitaRoussel, christ followers,
healthcare professionals,parents of four and big fans of

(01:07):
great tasting food.
We, too, tried exercising more,eating natural and clean foods,
but we still found ourselvesstruggling with what we thought
were changes that come with ageor bad genes, and we weren't
finding answers the traditionalroute.
So we dug into the research andcreated our secret nutritional
weapon sustainable plant-basedliving.

(01:28):
The truth is, you can eat morewhole plant foods and it's not
hard.
You just need the way that'srealistic and delicious so you
never feel deprived.
If you're ready to enjoy yourmeals, no longer be held back by
your health struggles andactively live your life, then
you're in the right place.
So grab your favoriteplant-based cup of happy pop in

(01:48):
those earbuds and let's getstarted.
Welcome back to Power on Plants.
We are thrilled to have youwith us and have you as a part
of the Power on Plants family.
Today, as we're packing ourthings, getting ready to head
out on the road, we want toshare with you how simple it can
be to find healthy snacks.
You always think I've got to goto this grocery store and that

(02:10):
grocery store, but sometimesit's just a little switch, just
a little change in the way thatyou think that can make all the
difference.
And this happened for me onetime when I was in a home goods
and I was walking the aisleslooking at the linens, looking
at the kitchen stuff, and, loand behold, there are three or
four aisles of snacks what inthe world?

(02:30):
And so you look at them and, ofcourse, typically, just like
all the regular snacks, you seethings that say healthy and
natural.
But if you've been around usany amount of time, what does
Anita always say?
Turn that puppy over.
If you sang that with me rightthen, then you know you're part
of our family.

Jarrod (02:49):
Absolutely and if you didn't.

Anita (02:50):
This is one of our key phrases that we use here at
Power Implants Turn that puppyover.
What does that mean?
That means you flip the bagover and you look at the back
and you're going to see what'sactually in there.
I'm not talking about carbs,grams, protein, all this stuff,
the macros.
I'm talking about the actualingredients label.
Generally, it's the simplestthings that make the biggest

(03:12):
difference, and that isespecially true when it comes to
the ingredients in your foods.

Jarrod (03:18):
Because the front of the package they can say whatever
they want.
An example that goes back to along, long time ago was olive
oil mayo.
But when you flip that puppyover, olive oil's last on the
list and it's got tons of otherthings in it so they can say
whatever they want to on thefront, because that's the
billboard they're trying to getyou to buy it.
But you got to look at thatingredient list because that
will tell you what you need toknow.

Anita (03:39):
Yes, and the first point I want to make here is always
always look around in the storesyou're in and keep an eye out
for new snacks to try and checkthem out.
But I want to break the mindsetthat the snacks have to be
found in the grocery store,because you might find them
wherever you go.
We find them at places likehere's your Insider Scoop if you

(04:01):
live in areas where you havethese stores HomeGoods Insider
Scoop if you live in areas whereyou have these stores HomeGoods
, tj, maxx, marshalls, even Ross.
At times we found snacks WorldMarket is another great place to
look for snacks.
So if you have any of thosestores, always check the snacks
area and read the back of thepackage.
And today, on top of that,we're going to share with you

(04:22):
five of our favorite recentfinds from these stores.
The first one is apple chips.
Now, I know that may not soundso exciting, but I'll tell you
when you can find an apple chipthat doesn't have oil, sugar,
any of the nasty ingredientsthat you can't even pronounce on
the back, you're golden.
I mean, I remember this timewhen some of our friends were

(04:44):
coming to visit us and they saidoh, I help the, you know
so-and-so, got this and that andall I had was apple chips.
And you look at the back of theapple chips and it's oil, sugar
, apple chips.
It's just the first ingredients.
I think we're oil and sugar andthen some other things we
couldn't pronounce.
So a good brand that we havefound is called Simple Slices.

(05:07):
It's a red package and wepicked them up the first time
and they're almost crinkle cutlike crinkle cut fries.
They are the crunchiest, mostdelicious dried apple chips you
can imagine.
But the winner is if you canfind the ones that say cinnamon,
red apples, cinnamon, redapples or apple chips that have

(05:27):
cinnamon on them.
So I'm going to turn that puppyover.
I'm going to read theingredients label.
Here goes Apples, red applesand cinnamon.
If I had a clap emoji I couldshow you right now, or a clap
sound bite.
We would be playing that rightnow.
But this is a winner.

Jarrod (05:44):
Imagine that Just apples and cinnamon.

Anita (05:48):
Shocking, right?
This is what you want youringredients list to look like,
when you want to feel better andyour joints to stop aching and
the inflammation to stop takingcontrol of your life, and you
want your energy back.
You want to avoid theing andthe inflammation to stop taking
control of your life and youwant your energy back.
You want to avoid the oils andthe sugar and get the whole
plant food.
So, simple slices, it says.
At the top, it says gourmet nut.

(06:08):
Now I don't know if the gourmetnut or simple slices is the
actual brand name, but keep aneye out for those because they
are amazing.
And maybe you think well, Anita, I don't have any of those
stores near me.
Well, how about you get onlineand Google this and see where
you can find it shipped directto your door?
There's another life changingtip for you Get it shipped to
your door.
Take these same five things I'mtelling you and I bet you can

(06:31):
look those up and find them andtry them out.

Jarrod (06:33):
I do find some of the best grocery trips are the ones
we never have to make.

Anita (06:37):
Yes, right, come straight to your door, absolutely.
And then the next one is anyother kind of dried fruit, but
we specifically love mangoes orapricots, and the ones by this
brand, sunny Fruit.
We really like these.
They're organic and then let'sturn it over.
It's soft and succulent driedTurkish apricots and you turn it

(06:57):
over over, it's just organicdried apricots, and these do
have a little bit of water at.
It's kind of funny that they'redried and then there's a little
bit of water.
But I think they may do thatjust so they're not overly dry.
Because you buy dried fruit andI don't like the dried apricots
that are so hard and dry.
They just don't taste good.
So these are a little I hate to, to say it moist.

Jarrod (07:19):
I hate to say that.
Hopefully that word doesn'tbother you.
They're delicatelyreconstituted, delicately.
How about that?

Anita (07:26):
They're wonderful.
We really like these.
The third thing that you wantto look for are and actually the
fourth thing these are somedifferent types of nuts.
So if you can find raw nuts,that's great, but when we travel
we like to buy the ones with alittle bit of sea salt.
And there is one called ValuedNaturals, and these are cashews.

(07:46):
They're not organic, though.
That's the only thing.
I wish they were organic.
But you might find an organicroasted and salted cashew with
just a little salt.
If you're eating salt-free,that's great.
Look for the roasted that aren'tsalted.
They also have those sometimes,but it's just cashews and sea

(08:07):
salt, nothing else, and I don'teat a lot of them.
We don't portion these out inbig portions, not because we're
afraid of gaining weight, butbecause of the salt.
We don't want to eat a lot ofextra salt.
We don't add salt to our things, so but just for a little road
trip snack we are.
We're always hydrating,drinking a lot of water, and we
eat very little salt.
So on the trips we sometimeslike to get the roasted, salted
nuts, and that's just so yummy.

(08:28):
Then the fourth one is Octo Nuts.
It's O-C-T-O-N-U-T-S brand andit says Octo Nuts California.
They may have a lot of otherdifferent varieties as well, but
this is the dry roasted almondswith sea salt.
I do personally wish they had alittle bit less salt in them,
but I still eat one or two,maybe with some of the other
nuts, like in a trail mix orsomething.

(08:49):
These are very, very tasty, andlet's turn it over.
Ingredients almonds and seasalt.
That's it, nothing else, and Isaved my personal favorite for
last.
What do you think about these?
I'm going to get Jared'sopinion about these first.

Jarrod (09:04):
I haven't had those yet.

Anita (09:06):
Are you kidding me?

Jarrod (09:07):
No, I have not.

Anita (09:07):
I'm going to rip the bag open right now You're going to
get to hear Jared try these onthe air.

Jarrod (09:12):
You told me about them, but I hadn't tried those yet.

Anita (09:14):
Oh, y'all will not believe these things.
I could not.
The first time I tried them Ithought I'm not sure, and the
more I chewed them I don't wantto say addictive, because I
don't feel like any whole foodsare addictive but these are like
candy, they are so good.
They're called organicsun-dried white mulberries.
Now if you've tried mulberriesbefore, I've had them before

(09:35):
where they're dried but they'resimilar to raisins, so they're
soft, kind of like if you wouldthink about an apricot.
I didn't really care for thoseas much.
But these are sun-dried whitemulberries.
Again, they're organic.
They're by EmirelliE-M-I-R-E-L-L-I of San Francisco
.
These things are amazing.
It's like they brickle in yourmouth.

(09:55):
They look like a little berry,like a little wild blackberry if
you've ever had wildblackberries and when you chew
them they kind of fall apart andthey're dry.
But then the more you chew them, the chewier they get and
they're sweet.
I mean just sweet like candyand sugar.
Get a couple, Don't just eatone.
Eat a couple together, likethree or four.
Jared's going to try them onthe air for you.

(10:15):
He's going to give you the realdeal and let you know, but try
several together because some ofthem aren't as sweet as the
others.
And you chew them at first andyou think, yeah, there's not a
whole lot of flavor.
You keep chewing them and theyget so sweet.
They're just absolutelyincredible.

Jarrod (10:30):
It almost initially chews kind of like granola.
It's a little bit crunchy and Ilove that A little bit crunchy.

Anita (10:34):
It's a little bit crunchy and I love that.

Jarrod (10:36):
A little bit crunchy.
It's not initially sweet, butas you chew it more and more
that sweetness develops.

Anita (10:42):
It's not overly sweet.
I mean it's nice, because it'snot sickeningly sweet, but it's
got a great flavor to it.
Madeline and I flipped out whenwe found these.
When we first found them, westarted stacking up because
sometimes what I'll do andhere's another tip for you is we
will open the bag.
If they have more than one bagof a snack and we know the
ingredients are good, open thebag and try a little bit in the
store and if you like it, thenyou're not in your car on your

(11:04):
way home going.
I wish I had bought more bagsof those.
You can get them while you'rethere, because the thing about
these stores is they don'talways stock the same thing like
a grocery store, so you mightnot find that again, at least
for a while, or ever for thatmatter.
So stock up if you findsomething.

Jarrod (11:19):
You love Check these stores on a regular basis, maybe
once a month, because what theyhave now they may not have a
month from now.
They may have somethingdifferent.
And if this month they don'thave something that suits your
fancy, try it in a few weeks.
Go back and take a look,because they may have something
different.
And, like you say, if you likeit and they've got five bags of
it, go ahead and take them,because they may not get any

(11:41):
more.

Anita (11:41):
Okay.
So these chew like granola, butthen when you keep chewing them
they get like a gummy candy.
It's not like gummy bears,where it's gelatinous, it's more
like Starburst or somethinglike that.
Chew it in your teeth.
I mean, it's bizarre howdifferent they are.

(12:03):
There's nothing like them thatI have ever tried.
I love these organic sun driedwhite mulberries, and let's turn
that puppy over while Jared'strying them for a second time.

Jarrod (12:07):
It takes a moment for that sweetness to develop.
So good, but they're not overlysweet, that's.
What really hits me.
Is that they're not sickeninglysweet, they're just good.

Anita (12:18):
Oh, they're amazing.
Ingredients 100 organic driedwhite mulberries.
This is worth the try.
If you can't find them in astore around you, look for these
online, because they are worththe try.
Very different and you know.
When you get somethingdifferent and it's a whole plant

(12:38):
food, you're just getting morenutrients, more vitamins, more
things.

Jarrod (12:42):
More variety.

Anita (12:43):
More variety.
That's it.
You hit the nail on the headright there.
Friend, you know that we lovesharing these things with you
and if you are not already apart of our group Podcast
Insiders Experience, come in andjoin us at poweronplantscom
forward slash p?
I e.
That's poweronplantscom forwardslash pie and there you can

(13:05):
look up every single episodeanytime.
We've said anything that you'researching for and want to know
about when it comes to wholeplant foods and with well over
300 episodes, you are going tofind everything you need inside
this group.
Wait, and with well over 300episodes, you're going to find
so many of the things you needto get started and even go

(13:26):
farther on your plant-basedjourney.
We've loved hanging out withyou again.
We are looking forward to thistrip so much, and we hope that
what we've shared with you todayis going to help you not only
enjoy your future car trips, butalso enjoy snacking at home in
the way that's healthy, excitingand fun.
Until next time, remember, youare loved, you're prayed for and

(13:46):
we will see you again very soon.
Thank you.