Junk Food Nation, we’ve enjoyed a lot of snacks together on this blog. Laughed. Cried. Shared some moments.  Ah, memories.  Anyways, companies like Nabisco, Frito-Lay, Pepperidge Farm – I love you all. Titans of industry, you are.  But recently, smaller companies are starting to make snacks with an angle toward less ingredients, fresh ingredients, and, as a result, healthier products.  Companies like DRY Soda, PopChips, Popcorn, Indiana, Simply 7 and Terra Chips – they are poised to take over.  I’ve reviewed their products many times on this blog.  They are creating delicious snacks and drinks that are tasty …and much of the time, they taste BETTER than conventional snacks!  Half the calories, more natural innards, and good for you.  (Though I will always love you, Doritos.  ALWAYS).

I like the trend. Smaller companies are usually more willing to explore less traditional flavors in addition to the traditional fare.  Smaller companies also seem to care about their customer base more.  Plus, with many of these snacks having half the calories…I can eat twice as much!  NICE! (Whaddya mean that’s not how it works?)

Anwyays, I like it. Keep doing your thing, healthy snack companies.  I salute you.

To that end, I present today’s junk food: Snikiddy Eat Your Vegetables Sour Cream & Onion Chips!

Snikiddy Eat Your Vegetables Sour Cream & Onion Chips were discovered at my favorite grocery store: Wegmans.  The lime green colored bags leapt off the shelf into my cart.  I mean, the words also jumped off the bag – eat your vegetables, one chip at a time?  Talk about intriguing…

Snikiddy is a 2006-born company started by a mother daughter team.  Apparently the name Snikiddy comes from the word persnickety, which is a word which describes me pretty well too.  Boasting 10 employees, this company was founded by Mary Schulman who…holy eff, resides in Bethesda, MD? That’s right in my backyard!!

Snikiddy Eat Your Vegetables is an interesting concept.  Essentially, make chips out of vegetables that have the composition and texture of a chip, yet provides all the healthy benefits in each serving.  Can it work? We’ll see.  I like the design of this bag though – immediately you are wondering what this package that is screaming EAT YOUR VEGETABLES is.  The carrot top leaves are a nice touch.

According to Snikiddy’s website:

Is your family tired of the “same old, same old” snack offerings, and ready to embrace healthier snacking alternatives? Eat Your Vegetables™ is the only real veggie snack offering that tastes like a mainstream chip. Satisfy your greatest snack desires while eating chips that contain a full serving of vegetables in just one ounce. With Eat Your Vegetables™, healthier just got a lot tastier!

The look of these chips on the bag seems similar to TGIFriday’s Potato Skins Chips. Which I LOVE. If one serving of vegetables can taste like those…I’m all in.

Sweet potatoes? Love it. Carrots? I feel ya.  Navy beans? …..wait, what?

Again, love the design elements here.  Simple to understand cartoon drawings, and the NO pictures are clear: no MSG, no trans fat, no gluten, no peanuts.  No allergies, no closing of the throat = happy eaters!

Did you just drop, “it’s all good,” Snikiddy?   Awww, snap.

The ingredient list is very interesting, but what stands out to me is the fact that there are no preservatives. And who doesn’t like a little konjac flour?  A natural thickening agent that also helps keep your digestive tract clean?  Delicious.

Where is this Snikiddy corporate home? I may need to do some sleuthing…

Snikiddy is up on the use of social media and QR codes.  Anytime a snack food company is taking that set into joining the future, I’m all for it.

These chips DO look like TGIFriday’s Potato Skins chip!  Dark in color, and with that nice bubbly surface, the bag smelled lightly of onion when opened – to be honest, it smelled a lot like a Pringles Sour Cream and Onion can smells upon popping.

Sorry to keep comparing you to other chips, Snikiddy – just trying to paint a picture here.

Snikiddy Eat Your Vegetables Sour Cream & Onion Chips are lightly lightly dusted with that fine white powder, can you see?  Eat chip was light to the touch, and didn’t leave a whole bunch of grease on my fingers – thankfully. Let’s eat (vegetables!)

Crunch Crunch Crunch – and we have a winner!  These Snikiddy Eat Your Vegetables Sour Cream & Onion Chips were off the CHAIN.  IMMEDIATE Sour Cream and Onion flavor that was strong, full bodied, and didn’t just slide off the chip when your saliva hit it.  The onion was a very natural onion taste – my mouth (and breath) smelled like it does after I eat real onions.  The flavor was not one reinforced by salt (only 125 mg per serving, which is 50 mg less than Doritos per serving).

The texture of the chip was crispy and crunchy, light yet fulfilling – this wasn’t an airy chip which felt like nothing, this was a substantial chip.  And the flavor of the underlying veggie-dough was very nice – not quite a potato taste, but not quite a cracker taste either.  Just a good savory starchy flavor that didn’t leave me feeling heavy, even after I’d crunched several chips.

All in all, these were a great find, and an even better eat.  Snikiddy, really excellent work.  You company is going places!

Thoughts? Tell me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy