Small Efforts That Mean a Lot to Kids
February is a strange month. By the end of January the new year, new me energy has started to wane, and the grey, cold slog of winter feels especially heavy. Then suddenly, Valentine's Day appears. Grocery aisles fill with cheap chocolate, sugary jelly beans, and flower-shaped everything. Love, love, love.
I was feeling a little sour about the upcoming holiday until I read a recent Substack post by Caroline Chambers. She’s one of our favorite writers here at PlanetBox. Her What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking newsletter is bookmarked on more than a few team laptops. The post that shifted my mood was titled “how to be a low-effort, high-reward holiday mom.” I was immediately intrigued.
In it, she shared the same end-of-winter fatigue I was feeling and how, after years of skipping smaller holidays like Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, she decided to lean in last year. She planned a simple, sweet Valentine’s Day surprise for her kids. Nothing too elaborate. Just a little extra effort. And that morning, her kids were elated.
Reading that made me think about my own mom. She packed my lunch every single day and tucked in a handwritten note. Every. Single. Day. But the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, she went a little bigger. A longer note written with a pink pen. A slightly more special treat than the standard Tootsie Roll I usually got. She didn’t do this for every holiday, just Valentine’s Day and I looked forward to it every year.
While I loved her daily notes, it’s those Valentine’s Day lunches that really stuck with me. She made me feel deeply loved. It probably didn’t take her much extra effort. She may have even written the notes ahead of time over the weekend. But that little extra effort mattered to me. (Love you, Mom.)
Trader Joe’s Valentine’s Day Snacks Reviewed: What’s Worth Buying for Kids
With all of that inspiration in mind, we decided to do another Trader Joe’s haul review. Many of you loved our fall version back in October, so this time we focused on their seasonal Valentine’s Day treats.
Since the Rover Lunch Box has a dedicated treat secion right at the heart of the box, we wanted to test two things: would these treats actually fit, and were they worth buying? Naturally, a taste test was in order.
Trader Joe’s Valentine’s Day Treat Ratings
Freeze-Dried Strawberry Pieces
Rover treat spot fits: ~5 pieces
Crunchy with a chewy yogurt coating. The flavor was a bit underwhelming compared to others in the haul, but still enjoyable and fairly sweet. Some kids may love that. 6/10
Sugared Rice Cracker Hearts
Rover treat spot fits: ~4 pieces
Immediate points for cuteness. If you like sweet Japanese rice crackers, you’ll enjoy these. They lean more sweet than savory, which kids will probably love more than parents. We kept reaching back into the bag. 7/10
Dark Chocolate Mini Heart Cookies
Rover treat spot fits: 1 piece
Disappointing, especially because they looked so cute. The texture was dry and sandy, and the dark chocolate tasted bitter without much depth. Hard to imagine a kid enjoying these. 3.5/10
Dark Chocolate Bark with Puffed Quinoa & Dried Raspberries
Rover treat spot fits: 1 piece (broken to fit)
High expectations here. Chocolate and raspberry felt like a sure thing, but the dried raspberries were underwhelming and didn’t balance the bitterness of the dark chocolate. The puffed quinoa added a nice crunch, but overall it didn’t quite deliver. 5.5/10
Jelly Bean Hearts
Rover treat spot fits: ~5 jelly beans
Each of the four colored beans has a different flavor, which we appreciated. Most of the pink and red ones were solid, but the white heart had a strong coconut flavor that felt polarizing, unless your kid likes a more tropical inspired treat. 5.5/10
Strawberry Yogurt–Flavored Almonds
Rover treat spot fits: ~4 almonds
Surprisingly complex. Sweet, tart, and crunchy in all the right ways. This was our favorite of the haul. 8/10
Dark Chocolate Caramel Hearts
Rover treat spot fits: 2 hearts
Whoa. Intense, and not in a good way. We both paused to wonder if they’d gone bad. The flavor plus the strange texture had us both moving to spit these out. Proceed with caution. 2/10
Final thoughts:
The fruit- and nut-based treats really shined, and the heart-shaped rice crackers were both cute and snackable. Most of the chocolate options, however, missed the mark. The flavors felt too intense and not especially kid-friendly.
If you have the time, baking something special can be another easy way to lean into the moment. These Double Strawberry Mini Cakes work well for a Friday lunch box treat and fit neatly into the smaller compartments in the Rover, Launch, and Shuttle lunch boxes. Just pack the frosting on the side.