I have a ‘Free Snack’ system in our house becuase I have little ones and they are honestly hungry aaaaaall of the time. They think about food morning, noon, night, and every movement in between. They are non stop growing and moving kids who eat a great deal of veggies and fruits so I get it.
Because of all this I got sick and tired of being asked all the time or stopping what I was doing to feed them. I will say that I cut them off though by 4:00 pm (hour and a half before dinner time) just to have them hungry for dinner.
Fridge Section
Suggestions:
- Veggies washed and cut ready to grab in an open bin
- carrots
- uncut cucumbers
- mini peppers
- Veggies washed and cut ready to go but needs bagged
- peppers that are cut
- cut cucumbers
- portioned out snap or sugar peas, or broccoli, or baby carrots
- Fruits that are whole and washed
- Apples
- clementines/mandarins
- pears
- Cheese
- either prepackaged cheese like the sticks or slices or whatnot
- cut up a block yourself and wrap in a little bit of cling wrap
- *Yogurt is another good one if you can trust them with it we haven’t hit that point in our house yet lol
- Hard Boiled eggs would also be another great addition but my kids aren’t a fan they are more for mommy and daddy at this point
Pantry Section
I feel like this really needs to be tailored to your children’s ages. In this example I’m showing a variety of age appropriate snacks since we have a bunch of little ones up to 5yo.
There are two ways your can put these together. 1: buying bulk and packaging them up yourself in portion you see fit; OR 2: buying prepackaged snacks to just dump in the bin. I like to do a mix of these types of snacks.
- Pouches I try to make sure they also have veggies in them and not just a fruit mix
- fruit leathers (you can EASILY make yourself also) that come in ALL forms
- Fruit snacks
- Teething biscuits (for your little littles)
- Raisins/craisins/any dried fruit
- Bars (cliffbars, ‘nutrigrain’, kind, etc)
- Pretzels
- Chips (mostly veggie but sometimes I’ll add other kinds)
- Crackers (we do a mix of cheddar crackers I package then packaged sandwich crackers like cheese and peanut butter)
- Trail mix (Costco has prepackaged small packs in a huge box if you don’t feel like doing your own)
- Cheese puffs are a big favorite around here also
Extras
- Make sure foods are completely dried off to keep from spoiling
- I typically try to keep the sugars low to 1 treat a week (this has a few becuase it was a photo from after Easter last year)
- They aren’t allowed a new stock until they’ve eaten all the free snacks I’ve prepared (unless it’s something new and they all just don’t like it)
- I feel this is a good lesson for children and learning about a bit of freedom and choices. It also helps them make better choices in life with foods when they are freely given better options from the start.
Till then Enjoy and God Bless
~Just Your Average Mama