16 Still-Amazing Kid Foods Worth Revisiting As An Adult

In high school, Hot Pockets were my go-to. It’s a pouch of filling — pepperoni pizza, ham and cheese, etc. — surrounded by a flaky crust. It starts frozen and two minutes later, you have a grab-and-go feast. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend eating these regularly now, they’re one of the most convenient hot grab-and-go meals I can think of. And that deserves props.

I may be pushing it here, but I’d argue this “sugar on top of sugar” treat should be consumed by every adult at least once. As a kid, I loved the ingenuity of this candy: packets of flavored and colored sugar that are consumed using a candy stick, even if that stick still tastes like chalk. Plus, you can wow all your friends with the raspberry/apple packet, which turns from blue to green when wet.

Root beer and vanilla ice cream: two things that aren’t necessarily good on their own (IMO) but together they still make a bubbly, frothy, and gooey cup of goodness. Throw a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream in a glass, pour the root beer over the top, and enjoy — or get fancy and top with whipped cream.

You can buy these in their bright blue cellophane packaging at the store, but the real OG way to enjoy this treat is by making it yourself. All you need are three ingredients — butter, marshmallows, and Rice Krispies — to make an entire batch. You can even get crazy and sub in your favorite cereal instead. Pro tip: Froot Loops make excellent mallow treats. 😋

Totino’s: the pizza that got me through high school. I think I ate one of these at least two times a week. Even today, this pizza holds up; although it’s now square, rather than round. The crust is super-airy and crunchy and there’s not an overload of cheese.

Little Debbie is the boss, and her swiss rolls — chocolate cake rolled around cream filling and covered in fudge — are one of her best. Even if Swiss Rolls don’t make you nostalgic for your childhood, I guarantee one of her bakery concoctions made your heart happy when you were a kid (and will still hold up today): Zebra Cakes, Oatmeal Creme Pies, Cosmic Brownies, Nutty Buddy Wafer Bars. So many options; so little time.

Carefully monitoring the amount of cheese you spread on each cracker to ensure you had enough for each cracker was one of the great challenges of childhood (and one I always failed at). Apparently, these days, it’s hard (impossible?) to find Handi-Snacks with the little red spreader. Nabisco has the product on their website, but said on Twitter in February 2019 that “the red sticks were removed in order to be more eco-friendly.” I’m not sure how you’re expected to spread on the cheese without the little red stick, but we are intelligent adults, right??

The cheese may not be the fancy stuff you’ve developed a taste for in adulthood, but there’s something still very much pleasant and intriguing about the wonders of spreadable yellow cheese dip.

If you remember monitoring your Ritz Handi-Snacks cheese-to-cracker ratio, you probably faced a similar challenge with Dunkaroos — tiny cookies paired with a small container of vanilla frosting with rainbow sprinkles. These things were goooood then, and I can confirm they’re still good now. Sugary, but not overly so, and easy to tote around in your purse or pocket.

The second I started babysitting and had my own income, I went to the grocery store and bought all the things my parents would never buy for me. On these snack runs, Fruit Roll-Ups were a staple. Depending on my level of self-control, I would carefully punch out the cool cutouts (and mow the scraps) or give myself a blurry tongue tattoo.

I’ve tried my mom’s homemade Fruit Roll-Ups and “healthy” organic versions. They’re both great but nothing comes close to the plasticky (because yes, they are a bit plasticky) goodness of my original love.

This list just wouldn’t be complete without Fruit Gushers. Some genius thought it would be cool to fill a standard fruit snack with a syrupy fruit juice. The result is literally a gush of sugary goodness with every chomp. And I’m sorry, but I don’t care if you’re 7 or 47; these things still provide a delicious blast of flavor and a wonderfully chewy texture. They’re unmatched!