LURKERS EMERGE!!
I need help!
Over the last couple of months/years we have resorted heavily to prepackaged crackers and snacks. Look at my pile of post consumer cardboard and you will now what I mean. Yesterday when I went to watch my friends kids for a few hours I was amazed at how organized her schedule was. The dad had prepared all the snacks for the day in advance. Cheerios and raisins in baggies. So it got me thinking...things need to be revised in the snack and meals department. This morning I have made some changes. I locked up the pantry. Yes I really did. I put the key on my hip and call myself guardian of the key. One stern reprimand let the little people know I meant business. For snack we had little cups of trail mix with honey nut O's.
So lurkers and friends, please let me know what you do for snacks. What are your kids favorite's? How do you prepare and/or package them? Educate me PLEASE!
6 comments:
You could have fruits and veggies for snack and allow them to "pick their dip". Examples:
Celery/carrot sticks: peanut butter or ranch dip
Fruit: Flavored yogurt or...something that goes with fruit... :)
Also, having cheese and crackers (not pre-packaged stuff) once in a while is a great way to get more dairy in the diet!
That with the trail mix type stuff, dry cereal, plain popcorn should keep it from being too mundane and boring... Good luck! This is a lesson I need for myself, too!!!
I always bag up stuff in advance. Chips and crackers. This keeps the portion size down and they are easy to grab on the way out.
I also found that cutting up celery and carrots ahead of time and keeping them in baggies in the fridge gets them eaten much more.
A little work ahead of time makes healthy snacks still "convienent".
That's all I've got though, I really don't snack much. Although ready to eat fruit is good to have close at hand too. Apples, bananas, and grapes.
When the kids are little it seems they need a lot of little snacks. Some of my kids did well snacking on fruit/carrots/celery, but a couple of my boys seemed to need protein to function well between meals. For a while I made "peanut butter balls" and I also learned to carry some cheese that I'd cut into small pieces for my oldest son to handle the between times.
Now that the boys are older it seems they need whole meals for snacks sometimes! I make most of our food from scratch, but I finally gave into some canned soup and frozen burritoes to keep on hand for those in between times when my burgeoning man is starved and needs something quick.
It seems I do well for a while with the "healthy" snacks and then I falter for a while. I'm writing a novel about a mom who struggles with some of these issues. It's been a lot of fun showing the paradox most of us go through trying to be healthy but still living in a fast-food society.
BTW, Thanks for your sweet comment on Gracereign.
Hey-
Remember I make my babyfood? Well the book I used (see on my site under mommy blogs) has health snacks. I have a couple of recipes I could send you (give me your email) if you wanted. THey can be frozen. ALSO we keep fruit in the freezer to eat. Grapes, bananas, strawberries, kiwi, peaches and more can be sliced up thin, put on cookie sheet with wax paper in between layers, put in freezer (this freezes them without sticking together) then when frozen put in baggies labeled. THEN when you are hungry you ALWAYS have fruit on hand. It is good frozen or put a few pieces in a bowl to thaw a few minutes and eat away. I also make HUGE batches of healthy snacks (granola balls, and more) that are freezable. THen do the same thing. It works well.
newmommy- please send recipes to iammomteacherfriend@yahoo.com
Any one is welcome to share.
Thanks for the tips keep them coming.
Fresh fruits and veggies as others have mentioned is your best bet. My best time to prepare these is first thing in the morning. I sometimes do it while the kids poke about their breakfast. I'm in the kitchen with them anyway at that point. . .
fresh fruit popsicles are a great healthy treat snack. you can freeze a slice of mango on a stick. . . so yummy.
Just about any other fruit can go in a dixie cup, fill the rest of the way with juice, put in a stick and freeze. (or add yogurt, too.)
My kids love croutons. You can make these easy enough with homemade (whole wheat?) bread (cubed) spritzed with olive oil and sprinkled with that Mrs. dash stuff you got me to try (i like some salt, too.) Broil, flip, broil, bake (350) for 10 more minutes. Great on salad. Don't care if they eat them alone.
Low sugar whole grain cereals are good prefabs. We eat lots of popcorn (we tallked popcorn friday--did you let the sitter make it last night?)
(Amusing aside--on Saturday I ran out for 1 hour at 9 AM. I had already fed the kids breakfast. Drew asked Camille for the store bought box of croutons. She gave them to him. They together polished off the box while daddy exercised.)
good luck.
Post a Comment