I don’t know about you all, but coming up with snacks on the fly is something I am not great at. Unfortunately if left un-attended my kids will grab something non-healthy, or make a gigantic mess with the contents of my pantry. So out of necessity, I’ve come up with an easy way to store all of our snacks, while at the same time providing quick and hopefully healthier snacks for them.
First off I should mention that we do two snack times per day. Typically 10:30am and 3:00pm are our standard snack times. Setting these times has been so helpful, the kids all know when snack time is and so they don’t ask for snacks all day long anymore. Hallelujah and amen!
So here are some of our snack ideas as well as how we store them!
Fruit: Of course fruit is one of my number one snack go-to’s. I do my best to keep a variety of fruit on hand, it’s usually sitting right on the counter so they can grab it and go. Here are some things you’ll find in our fruit bowl (depending on the season):
- Honey Crisp Apples
- Granny Smith Apples
- Pears
- Kiwi
- Grapes
- Bananas
- Oranges
- Plums
Dry Snacks: Okay, so here’s where we got crazy one day. I grabbed some generic brand snack-sized, and sandwich sized baggies and we went to town separating out all of our dry-snacks into snack sized portions. I just grabbed this plastic tub from our basement and it just so happened to fit into the bottom shelf of my pantry perfectly!
So Strawberry Shortcake and Turbo sat one day separating all of our snacks out and putting them into the baggies. Now I know it looks like a lot of baggies, but if we can re-use them we do. After all it’s just dry food and will most likely be re-filled with something similar, so it’s no big deal to re-use them.
I’ve found this method comes in extremely handy when we’re doing school and snack time rolls around. I normally grab one of these baggies and put it in each of their workboxes, but if I forget, and it has happened, I can send one of the kiddos in to grab 4 snacks out for us and head back in. They should be able to do this by the time I count to 10 so there’s no unnecessary dawdling in the kitchen!
This also comes in handy when we’re heading out the door and need something to grab in a rush. That way we’ll always have snacks with us and be less tempted to head for a drive-through.
Some things you’ll find in our dry snack tub:
- Pretzels
- Goldfish
- Granola Bars (Not bagged obviously)
- Trail Mix
- Chex Mix
- Dry Cereals (My kids like Kix and Cheerios in various flavors)
- Yogurt Raisins, or golden raisins (They don’t like regular raisins for whatever reason?)
- Fruit Leathers (Not too many of these due to sugar content)
- Nuts & Seeds (Almonds, peanuts, Cashews, Pistachios, Sunflower Seeds)
- Homemade Granola Bars
Refrigerated Snacks: I also keep some healthier snacks in our refrigerator. The kids have a drawer on the bottom that is sort of dedicated to them. We do the same thing with our dry snacks putting them into baggies if needed, to make them easy to grab on the go. Here are some things you’ll find in our refrigerator snack drawer:
- String Cheese Sticks
- Yogurt
- Carrots
- Sugar Snap Peas
- Yogurt
- Mini-Babybel Light cheese rounds
- Sliced apples for younger kiddos (Just sprinkle slices with lemon juice and shake them around in the snack baggie so they don’t turn brown.)
- Strawberries (Clean and bag these so they’re ready to go)
- Blueberries
- Peaches (I’ve found they last longer in the fridge?)
- Edamame
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Pickles (Yes, pickles.)
- Hard Boiled Eggs (They love these!)
Other: Here are some of our other snack ideas that aren’t so easy to prepare ahead of time, but still great for when you have a little extra time!
- Apple slices with peanut butter (We currently use Skippy Natural)
- Carrots with hummus or ranch
- Avocado with soy sauce
- Soft Pretzels with mustard or sugar/cinnamon
- Graham Crackers with cream cheese and your favorite jelly
- Cheese and crackers
- Frozen Gogurt
- Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Tortilla Chips
So that’s about it for our snack ideas! I hope you found them helpful, and honestly they’re not just for kids, I like most of those snacks too! So maybe I should have called this post Healthy Snacks for Kids and Adults!!
Have a great snack idea to share? Make sure to leave a comment below so we can all share in the goodness!
Great post…I do this as well. I have my children portion out the snacks when I come from the grocery store. The idea works great as a snack tray as well just fill the tray the night before or in the morning grab it at snack time for everyone to eat from.
I love your suggestions as well. I also buy organic popping corn in bulk then melt butter in my whirly pop and throw in a scoop when kids are hungry for a snack. Cheapest and yummiest snack ever – especially if we have a crowd!
Did you know you can sprinkle a little lemon lime soda on apples to keep them from turning brown? My kids don’t like the lemon juice taste on their apples so a friend at church told me about the sprite trick and it worked! It leaves no flavor on the apples! I never post comments but this trick amazed me so I had to share:)
I’m so glad I stumbled onto your site! I’ve done some of the same things as you list here so I felt a little “I’m not alone” moment. Thank you! I also have a snack list posted on the fridge. (My youngest at home are 10 and 12 so this works). Sometimes they still ask what they can have and it’s a relief when I remember we have a list. “Go look at the list,” I say.
sounds just like our house! snack at 10 and 3, lunch at 12:30. i use snaplock containers i got as a money maker at publix last year. salt water also keeps apples from browning, just a moderate sprinkle in a bowl full of water and submerge.
My kids always enjoy rice cakes. I love the snack bag idea. We have crates in the basement too just waiting to be used and now, finally, they will! Thank you for sharing your list.
We always have fruit here, not so much of the packaged stuff. I’d love to make some of my own granola but haven’t tried yet.
Great post with so many snack ideas!! I tried the same thing with the snack baggies several months ago but found that by the time we got half way through the basket, the snacks started picking up the flavors from each other-ew!
Great ideas! With apples we like to sprinkle them with cinnamon. The sweetness of the apple counteracts the bitter cinnamon and there is no added sugar. Great side benefit is the apples don’t turn brown! 🙂
What kind of trail mix do you buy? I’ve looked at tons of them and they either have tooo much sugar or are high in fat? Let me know if you get a chance.
Thanks!
Stacy,
I make my own trail mix because I didn’t like that all the store made ones had some kind of candy or chocolate in them. I just buy a variety of dried fruits, nuts and raisins. I dump them all in a big bowl and then mix. Then I put them in the snack bags. Hope this helps!