What's for Snack?

 What's for snack??? How many times a day do you hear this in your house? My kids have two small snacks a day (one between breakfast and lunch and one in the afternoon) so I feel like I hear this all the time!

I mentioned a few posts ago that I had revamped breakfast around here. That is continuing to go smoothly and we are finding all kinds of great food to start our day. Now I am starting to work on doing the same with snacks. Moving away from some of the processed snack foods they have come to rely on (can you say fruit snacks and store bought granola bars?) and trying to incorporate more homemade, healthy options. Not everything is totally healthy, but I at least try to know what ingredients are going into what they are eating. Artificial dye does not make that list.

Let's get onto the good stuff: pictures of food!

These are peanut butter balls that I made by loosely following a recipe at Sweet Pea's Kitchen {browse while you are there because there are zillions of other amazing food ideas}. I used steel cut oats after soaking them first and left out any dried fruit because one of my children doesn't like them (although next time I will make a batch both ways to please the masses!). This is so versatile because you can really add whatever you have on hand. Here's what ours looked like:

I had some almonds on hand that the kids had been snacking on raw along with string cheese or fruit but decided to sweeten up the remainder for a special snack one day. The resulting toasted cinnamon almonds from Aldi Food Blog were A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. So good and definitely a crowd pleaser. Yes, there is quite a bit of sugar on these bad boys but as a once in awhile treat I think they are great.

You can never go wrong with popcorn, but sometimes it can be kind of bleh if you do it too often so we like to add in different toppings to keep it interesting. Kind of like a popcorn trail mix! This particular bowl has raw cashews and dried apricots:

These quinoa granola bars are about as easy as can be. I threw a handful of ingredients into the food processor, used cookie cutters to mold the bars, and baked for about 15 minutes. Thanks Anja's Food 4 Thought for the inspiration!

Homemade cheese crackers - if you have never made these, you NEED to. They are a simple 4 ingredients (compared to the 15+ in their boxed store bought counterpart) and come together in no time. These are gone in no time and eaten by both kids and adults in this house:) There are tons of recipes out there but this time I used this version from Cooking Ala Mel:

This is just a sampling of what has been showing up on the snack list. As I mentioned, we do lots of snacks around here so if you like what you see here and would like more ideas make sure you let me know!

Past snack related posts:
Homemade granola bars (this version is more similar to store bought with different nuts, etc)
Homemade graham crackers

Lunch Round Up #1

School is in full force and I thought it would be nice to share what I have been serving my kids for lunch. I know I can use all the help I can get with fresh ideas so I am hoping to not only inspire you, but also keep myself accountable so that I don't get into a school lunch rut.

This edition of lunch round up is going to be sandwich free. Not because sandwiches are bad, but because they are already in the arsenal. Easy, go to, overdone in our house for sure. So I wanted to share some kid friendly lunch box fillers that don't go between two pieces of bread. We are on day 8 of school and have yet to pack a sandwich! Yes, yes, we get excited about strange things around here.

Here are the lunches Nathan has been taking to school so far:

meat and cheese stackers, carrots, car shaped granola bar, apple slices topped with peanut butter, honey and granola

carrots, greek yogurt with apples and granola and honey, cheese slices, amish bread, black rice and hummus patty (Nathan swore that it was meat!)

Leftover cheese spaghetti, orange slices, carrots, trail mix with granola, sunflower seeds, cashews, hazelnuts and honey

Peanut Butter balls, banana, carrots, celery, mix of black and white rice

Orange slices, Angry Bird crackers, homemade granola bar, hot dog slices

Celery with peanut butter, carrot sticks, trail mix with granola, pepitas, sunflower seeds, coconut, cashews and honey drizzle, rice balls, banana

This is what the boys took when they had lunch at daddy's work recently:

variations depending on each kid but you see peanut butter bread, carrots, turkey, cheez balls (daddy's splurge!), kiwi, banana, cherry tomatoes, cashews and hazelnuts, and Ritz

Anything mini-sized is a hit with my kids. They can pick them up with their fingers and they feel like they get more Win-Win! So it was no surprise that these mini corn dog bites were devoured. I sliced up hot dogs and placed them in the bottom of an already sprayed mini-muffin pan. I then mixed up some cornbread batter (following the recipe on the back of the cornmeal bag) and put an overflowing Tbsp of the batter over each hot dog slice. Popped in the oven for 10-13 minutes and they were done. Extras froze up nicely and were available for future lunches.

There you have it! Hoping to do this every week or two throughout the year. Make sure to return the favor and share what is showing up in your kids school lunches, I need all the ideas I can get!