Ants on a Log Is the Greatest Snack of All Time

It has only three ingredients, doesn't require cooking, and anyone can make it. No other snack can compare.
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Ants on a Log has always been there for me. The iconic snack marked my first foray into eating solid vegetables, helped me learn to count (see: raisins), cemented my love for creamy peanut butter, served as a frequent dinner during college, and remains my snack of choice after a long day, eaten standing up. With its creamy-meets-crunchy and sweet-meets-salty notes, it’s like an edible “Opposite Day.”

Ants on a Log taught me that playing with food was perfectly acceptable. With three ingredients, you could create warring ant colonies or give your “ants a vacation” (that is, serve the peanut butter–packed celery without raisins). This is a snack that always feels like a game. As a child, this lesson stuck—now it’s my job to play with food.

But for even the most unimaginative of snackers, this snack is still a winner, for three reasons:

It’s economical

Ants on a Log is made from staples—peanut butter, celery, raisins—and they’re all pretty inexpensive. Of course, if you want to go all out, you can get all of the ingredients from the toniest of grocery stores and spread the peanut butter with a bespoke knife, but chances are, even your dingiest corner store will have everything you need to make it.

It’s reasonably healthy

Celery is packed with fiber. Peanut butter is loaded with protein. Raisins are fruit that sat in the sun. What's not to like?

Anyone can make it (and at any time)

Any kid over the age of 3 can spread some peanut butter onto a celery stalk.

The best part? Eating Ants on a Log as an adult brings you back to the feeling of being a kid, when you woke up with wonder and excitement and ate sticks of celery with fake bugs on it as a snack, instead of waking up to a tax bill and broken water pipes.

Growing up can suck. Ants on a Log gives you a little break from all of that.

And that’s pretty delicious.