Snack Time Riddles Solved!

We as parents have an enormous responsibility to raise the next generation to be as mature, smart, healthy, and non crazy as possible. Doing so is quite a lot of stress when you have to worry about their grades, clothes, shoes, underwear, toys, are they watching too much tv or playing too many games?, what if they are learning games is it the same?, are they reading and writing at the right level for their age? are they the right size for their age, are they athletic enough, etc, etc, etc. You take all of that and ADD feeding them right and most parents just do not have the energy left and they will feed them anything that the kids will eat that they can just take out of a package and hand them with as little effort as possible.  
Well, as per request from a reader, I am going to make at least one meal a little easier. Snack time. 

When you get home from picking up the kids from school or the little ones just got up from their nap everything seems to go crazy and chaotic. At least at my house with my 3 girls. They all want something right away and want to tell each other everything that happened today while telling me about their homework and status from school all in the same breaths.

Here are some of my kids favorite snacks for snack time:
Tak: Apples and peanut butter
Roxy: Apples and pepperoni
Arcee: Strawberries and Hazelnut spread/peanut butter

Some of the other ideas we do are:

Cottage cheese and fruit. (pears are great along with any berries)

Peanut butter and celery (with or without raisins)

Yogurt, nuts, and apples

Cheese and cold meat  (this can be anything from string cheese and sliced deli meat to cubed cheddar cheese with left over cold chicken or turkey to sliced swiss and summer sausage or pepperoni slices. ANY combination you like! My favorite it pepper jack cheese cubes and some cold chicken!)

Oranges and nuts (they love sea salt almonds and plain pecans, but they go gaga over pistachios and cashews too)  Cashews are the highest fatty nut, so eat those in more moderation then they other nuts.

cottage cheese and wheat thins with green olives (this one just me and one of my kids will eat, but we love it)

carrots and ranch dressing. (get the lowfat yogurt based veggie dip for the healthiest choice and only give them a little bit)

baby tomatoes and cheese (since tomatoes are sweet and tart, a nice cheddar, swiss, or sharp cheese goes good)

Broccoli and cauliflower with ranch dip or cheese. (you can just sprinkle some shredded cheese and microwave just a little to melt it a tad, then let them eat with fork)

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches is always a classic. (if you are trying to cut our breads then you can do peanut butter in a celery stick with a little dollup of jelly on top and it is quite nice, or go with another classic and just cut up a banana and get a scoop of peanut butter and enjoy!) :)

Then of course, you could ask my husband and he would tell you chips and queso. ;)


When I get a container of cottage cheese then we will have cottage cheese and different fruits all week, the same with the cold chicken and cheeses, etc.  You cannot expect to have a different snack every day of the week, that is just crazy!  But find a few things on this list that your kids like enough to eat regularly and then just swap them around. My youngest would eat almost anything with peanut butter or strawberries, and my oldest likes salty things better, and my middle kid is my least picky kid and just goes with the flow. :)

Just rememeber, if you let the kid choose, they will not always choose right. That is why we are the parents and in charge of them. Most kids will develop a taste and a preference for vegetables if we give them to them and basically make them eat it.  Did your moms ever let you just not eat your veggies?? HECK NO! I was once made to sit at the table until it was gone, and I fell asleep at the table, but the next day I just didn't feel like fighting that much and just ate the darn peas. ;)
All kids will push their limits to see what they can get away with and it is no different at the kitchen table. They are kids, when they are hungry, they will eat.  I am not saying to starve your kids and make them only eat what is on my list, but just don't allow your children to run your house. Find something that they like that is healthy and build on that. I had to start with carrots then add some broccoli, then the cauliflower, etc one step at a time. Now the kids that would only ever eat carrots now they hardly touch them because they would rather have the broccoli, radishes, celery, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, etc.  

                               GOOD LUCK! 
                       AND HAPPY SNACKING! :)