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Summer Snacks and Easy Lunch Sides Your Kids Will Love!

Try the New RITZ Crisp & Thins BBQ and Cheddar Flavors

By Shelley Lapham-Pastore, Macaroni Kid Knoxville June 30, 2019

Summer has been and always will be one of my favorite seasons! Pool parties, playdates, picnics, and enjoying the longer days filled with lots of sunshine and happiness. On evenings when the weather is nice, my family likes to grill out and enjoy dinner and game night together on the back patio. 

The menu is carefully planned, my husband making sure everything is properly marinated and seasoned, as I make the fresh fruit, vegetable salads, and figure out what else we can add as a side. With a teenage son in the house, we are always looking for summertime snacks and sides that he will enjoy and eat. I don’t know what it is with kids and teens but they love the crunchy and flavorful stuff! I figured a cookout would be the perfect time to try out two new RITZ Crisp & Thins flavors, BBQ and Cheddar, and see what he thought. Oven baked and with 50% less fat than leading regular fried potato chips I was surprised at how good these tasty crisps were and my son and husband loved them, too. 


It was a bit hard to choose our favorite as both flavors were delicious, in the end, it was RITZ Crisp & Thins Cheddar for the win! I also tried crushing the thin crisps up and sprinkling them on my salad, a great replacement for croutons and they added a nice crunchy texture and smoked cheddar flavor to it. I imagine the BBQ flavor would taste great on homemade chicken nuggets as a substitute for breadcrumbs and your child can have fun crushing the thin crisps to roll the nuggets in!

As a working family, RITZ Crisp & Thins are the perfect on-the-go snack that we can easily pack in our lunches, take on a hike, to the lake, or when my son tells me at the last minute that he needs a shareable snack to take to game night with his friends! As a parent, I appreciate knowing he is taking a snack that is baked and not fried and that he and his friends will enjoy eating. 

With the 4th of July coming up RITZ Crisp & Thins are a great alternative to potato chips and are sure to be a kid and adult favorite at your next cookout, birthday party, or playdate. Be sure to look for them the next time you are at Kroger and pick up your favorite flavor or try them all! 



Shelley Lapham-Pastore

Publisher & Editor, Macaroni Kid Knoxville

I was compensated to try this product, all opinions are my own.