Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The One With Snack Time

What is it with kids and snacks? Naomi loves bananas and one day, unbeknownst to me, ate 5. She was at Tab's in the morning and ate 3, and ate 2 in the afternoon with me. I would never have allowed 5 but let's just say the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing LOL!

Both my kids love fruit snacks but I have a hard time reconciling that in my head as a healthy snack. They enjoy yogurt and we go through plenty of Gogurt in this house. But other snacks just...well they fail. I won't give them chips and cookies and stuff (though they'd love it). They are both predisposed to being overweight (between my family genes and their father's) and they get plenty of junk like that from special treats out, so I don't buy it for the house.

My last attempt at fruit was spit out on the plate. It was canteloupe. I suppose I'll just have to keep trying. Sometimes they like grapes. What is up with that? How do you *sometimes* like a food?


So yesterday, I fooled them. I nonchalantly handed a blueberry Nutri-grain bar to Parker (because he'll eat anything) and then acted like I wasn't going to give Naomi one. Well of course she got jealous and wanted one. So I gave her one, letting her think it was her idea. Then because Parker insists on two-fisting every snack, he wanted a second. He ate half of each (go figure). Naomi ate her whole first one and wanted a second. Which she ate one bite of.

Hey, I'll take it.

And their newest snack LOVE?

Pretzels are an idea I can get behind...so I'm glad they both like them. I give them a 3 oz dixie cup filled with the sticks and they run around the house with them. I'd love to hear your favorite toddler and preschooler snack ideas! Because mama always needs new ideas! :)

13 comments:

Darcy Baldwin said...

Lena - have you tried dips for the kids for the fruit? Apples dipped in peanut butter is a HUGE hit, really good for 'em, and easy to do (I actually just spread a little on a slice now that we're bigger and dipping isn't such a big thing). cantaloupe in a little yogurt with honey is a huge hit, too (pretty much anything dipped in yogurt with honey is a hit).

I also found that when the kids prepare their snacks, they tend to eat them more, and I can make them healthier!

You can make your own fruit leather
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_fruit_leather/ - it's really easy to do, healthier than the stuff from the store, and having the kids help makes it fun for them.

What about muffins? filling, you can sneak a whole bunch of good stuff in that they never know, and if you make them the mini muffin size, you don't have to worry about filling up. They store in the freezer really well.

Since summer is coming, try frozen grapes for afternoon snack time.

Cheese sticks are also another favorite around here. We just buy the mozarella sticks, which come out to about .21 cents per stick, and use those as a protein boost in mid-afternoon. My little guy loves these best.

We love these cookies -
http://www.nourishmd.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=469:carson-cookies-v&catid=85:sweets&Itemid=146
Instead of pre-packaged granola bars

HTH!

DawnMarch said...

Yeah, snacks are tough, especially since it's so easy to just give in to something like Goldfish or chips. Not that Goldfish are too terrible, but if you can get them to eat fruit, that's so much better. What about nuts -- my son love pistachios and they are really good for you.

Unknown said...

We LOVE Nutri Grain bars around here... our favorite snacks are fruit with some kind of dip... they love dipping... we do apples with almond butter... in fact that's what I'm eating right now.

Jennifer (Jennilyn) said...

I'm a bad mom...my kids eat stuff like cookies, granola bars, fruit chews, etc. for snacks. One thing I loved was fruit bars. One of the grocery stores here had their own brand that wasn't sticky, was thick and was chunky, but they discontinued it so now the only bars we can get that aren't really expensive are ones that are thin, sticky and not chunky at all. In fact, they are sort of see-through. They both say they are 100% fruit though so I suppose both were fine.

Isn't it weird how a kid can LOVE something one day and then HATE it the next? Drives me crazy because now my kids hate mostly everything I make for suppers!

Anonymous said...

I'm a huge fan of pretzels myself. I dip them in marinara sauce. Yum!

As for snacks for that age, no idea. I don't have any that age. When my mom did daycare for that age group, it was typically cheerios, fruit (apples, bananas, blueberries, grapes), cheese sticks/cubes, and pretzels.

Col said...

Dang, look at Darcy full of such good tips! I wonder if they will work on my husband.....

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

My younger son goes through fruit phases too. For awhile I could count on him eating grapes then he just announced "I don't like grapes anymore!"

Brittney said...

My kids hate hate hate veggies, only fruits. So applesauce is huge in our house!
They also adore crackers with peanut butter on them. I get packages of the little packaged up ones. Its easier on the go. At home I take saltines and make my own.
My kids also love muffins, I can sneak in all kinds of things into them!
My kids love cheese anything but can't have too much or it makes them sick.

Sherri Tierney said...

My kids have always been open to trying new things. When they were littler we gave them raisins (once they hit preschool age), celery with peanutbutter, baby carrots with dressing, apples with dip, etc. Pretzels were also one of our biggies (and still is). We also love string cheese. The hardest part is getting ME to eat healthy snacks. ;)

JenniferBarrette_Designs said...

Have you tried the muffin tin thing? My kids eat a bunch of strange stuff if I put it in a muffin tin. We do a variety of fruit (faves are apple, pear, grapes, pineapple, and strawberries) with yogurt to dip it in...or you could try the fat free cool whip for dipping.

My kids love dairy, so yogurt or cheese is always munched up

how about pita and hummus?

Mini pizzas on whole wheat english muffins is other fav here.

Good luck!

Laurie said...

I have struggled with the snacks issue too Lena, especially with Libby. Claire's young enough that she eats and pretty much likes everything!!

One of Libby's fave snacks right now is frozen applesauce. I use popsicle molds and mix a cup of applesauce with a 1/2 cup of some sort of fruit juice...her fave right now is cherry...I just boil the cherries in water and add a tbsp of sugar then mash the cherries in a strainer and collect the juice in a container. I stir the applesauce and juice and then pour them in the molds. Seriously she loves them and you get the added benefits of fresh fruit...we do blueberries too and you could even do this with strawberries.
My girls both love cheese sticks (string cheese) too. What about apples? I usually dice apples for Claire since she's little...Libby likes the slices (though she doesn't eat the skin!!) I also switched up the peanut butter we were using so that I felt better about making that a dip to use...I use Jif natural PB. It still has sugar, but it's nice that it doesn't have any ingredients in it that you can't pronounce, ya know? It still tastes like yummy pb...not drastically different like Smuckers natural pb which I can't handle just yet...anywho...I have lots of other ideas...and I have a great cookbook too. Just email me if you want :)

Jessica knorr said...

watermelon!! I dont know really any kids who dont love it. You can make sorbet with pureed fruit. Or smoothies. Smoothies are sooo good!!

Balinda (RebelChick) said...

my kiddos loved cherios, grapes, bananas...and now my DD is on a gogurt kick and peanut butter on ritz crackers.