That's right, today we talk about snacks! Just because you are eating healthy, doesn't mean you can't have snacks! No we don't buy potato chips, and candy bars, and cheese crackers, and artificially flavored foods. We do, however buy lots of easy snack foods.
I do still buy crackers, but I look for natural or organic varieties and look for fairly plain crackers that we "dress" up. I also buy lots of fresh fruits and I look for fruit that is small and easy to grab quickly such as small apples, the mini oranges, plums, grapes, berries, bananas, and small peaches. Of course many veggies make great snack foods too like carrots, celery (with peanut butter), grape or pear tomatoes, sugar snap peas, green beans, and packages of pre cut broccoli florets. I do buy these things organic if at all possible and I aim for local produce as well.
We also snack on raisins, dried peaches, dried cantaloupe, dates, air popped popcorn with coconut oil, and sometimes we even snack on natural cereals as a quick on our way out the door kind of snack. I make muffins from time to time, or serve the kiddos yogurt and granola or fruit, we also do peanut butter and fruit preserves for snacks.
I have growing boys and so they do need lots of nutrients, they get most of their needs met at meal times but they do get a portion of their needs met by snacks. To me that means they need to have filling and nutritious snacks, not junk. So yes, we do get sugar in our daily diets but our sugars come from fruits and vegetables. When you are not eating candy bars, ice cream, and other sugary snacks it is amazing how sweet a carrot it, often I find apples to be too sweet to eat alone and I have to pair them with peanut butter! Sugar snap peas are named that for a reason, because they do contain a lot of natural sugars!
The best part is that I really don't have to worry about portion sizes anymore! I just bring the foods home, wash them in the sink, and then put them right into the fridge. When my boys are hungry they just go and grab some fruit, or veggies. The foods are healthy, and our meals are healthy and filling, so the boys don't tend to over eat and I don't need to monitor quite so closely what they are snacking on.
Birbitt Thinks that fruits and veggies are so much healthier and more convenient. Give it a try!
My oldest son will not eat ANYTHING that looks remotely good for him! He won't eat any kind of fruit or veg and only sticks to bland, plain food! I have to make sure he takes multi vitamins or else he'd be a mess! He'll eat things like chicken, eggs, rice etc - anything plain! Crazy!
ReplyDeleteMy youngest kids though, they'll choose a banana over chocolate any day and love their fruits and veggies! I love to have bananas and apples on hand and my daughter is always snacking on veggies - peeled, cut, washed and ready to go! She will sit in the kitchen while I'm trying to get he dinner together and just help herself!
I was thinking about drying out my own fruits and what not in the future - you really have to watch the ones you buy in store, they're terrible for adding unnecessary sugars so for me its too much of a chore to go looking for them, but it sounds like you have it down!! :)
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