Welcome to Homesteading with Hyacynth! Homesteading with Hyacynth is a monthly look at ways to lead a healthy, greener, more sustainable life. My intent with Homesteading with Hyacynth is to offer genuine, practical experiences and humorous and helpful tips. Of course, I am not a medical professional so these are my tips and what worked for my family.
Homesteading with Hyacynth
Lots of good things come with age:
Cheese. Wine. Steaks.
And the wisdom of having been there and done that with school snacks.
Perhaps I was naive going into the school thing as a first-time mom of a school-aged kid. I guess I thought school snacks would be comprised of bananas and grapes because, hello, easy and healthy and well-received.
Ah, yes, maybe I’m a dreamer so maybe you can imagine my horror when my oldest shared after pick up one day that he ate marshmallows for a snack … the day after they had those delightfully sugary white cream-filled chocolate cookies.
Ok, ok, now before you think I’m totally a health-nut who never lets such things cross her door threshold or her children’s lips, let me honestly share one thing:
My pantry, friends.
Please take note that we do, indeed, have marshmallows {because s’mores!}, and we do, indeed, have cookies {just a kind that is a little healthier take than say the white and chocolate sandwiches!
So I’m not unreasonable, ahem, anymore. In fact, we really do adhere to the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of what we eat is whole food; 20 percent is … not. I don’t take issue with the 20 percent. But the 20 percent gets pretty filled with birthdays, holidays, vacations and trips and the like, so adding it to every day at school starts to tip the scales.
Are preschool snacks tipping your scales, too? Let’s dig into some great snack options that are a hit with preschoolers and largely avoid the top allergens!
Healthy School Snack Ideas
Fruits
What’s not to love about fruits? Kids love ’em. They have essential vitamins and nutrients, and they are raw foods that provide great nutrition.
So let’s look at a few ways to make fruits even more fun!
This fruit sun from Mama Jen is cute and healthy.
These pirate bananas from Grubby Little Faces also are cute and inviting as well.
Fruit doesn’t have to be fresh either: think about providing applesauce, dried fruit roll-ups like the Whole Foods 365 brand and raisins. These foods are still sweet and appealing without having added ingredients or undergoing heavy processing, which strips foods of vitamins, minerals, natural probiotics, and digestive enzymes. Trader Joe’s, which is now open in Libertyville, carries many of these kinds of snacks including applesauce, dried fruits, fresh fruits, and fruit rolls.
Veggies
Admittedly, veggies are trickier in my home, too. But with the right kind of dips, they are highly appealing to kids!
Carrot sticks, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes are liked in our home, and they are easily dipped in deliciousness: whole fat vanilla yogurt, ranch-style dressing and for the more adventurous eaters, hummus and guacamole. The year we brought hummus as a classroom snack, I was so impressed that every kid in the class devoured it! They had no idea what it was, but they loved it!
Totally Tots rocks the carrots in hummus idea!
Other Healthy{ish} ideas:
- Non-GMO popcorn with butter and salt
- Salted and roasted seaweed {as found at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s} My son’s kindergarten class was pretty split on the seaweed, but the majority liked it a lot! One little girl even begged her mom to find some for her to bring in her lunches.
- Kale Chips
- Root veggie chips
- Pretzels
Want more ideas on healthy classroom snacks? Check out my Pinterest board!
And please! Share your ideas below! Next month, I’ll be sharing with you some harvesting tips for making the most of the final weeks of the farmers markets and/or your garden.
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