Hi moms,
My son is in all-daykindergarten. He has an early lunch and a 2:00 snack. We are supposed to send 5 days' worth of snacks every Monday. Then the teacher gives out one snack per day. There is no refrigerator to store the snacks. She asked that, if we send something like fresh fruit, that it only be one days' worth of snack (i.e. please don't send five apples on Monday) so that the fruit won't go bad, there won't be any critters attracted to it, etc. I really like my kids to eat non-processed, real food. What are some good snack ideas for things that will keep all week and are relatively healthy? And it would be nice if it didn't break the bank, too.
Thanks!
Raisins, nuts, pretzels, gold fish, dry cereal (mini wheats, cheerios.. )
Fruit bars, cereal bars. Teddy grahams, small apples.
That is a tough one! Most healthier foods would require refrigeration. There are pretzels, but that's all I can come up with!
What about creating all 5 days of healthy snacks on Sunday and keeping them in your own fridge at home? That way you'll be prepared to throw one in his backpack each morning but your kid won't have to eat pretzels every day!
If you did it that way, you could send fresh fruit, cheese cubes, yogurt (freeze it and by the time 2 p.m. rolls around it should be thawed), etc.
Good luck!
We try to stick with non-processed, organic stuff for my daughter as much as we can as well. Obviously we can't buy our entire grocery list at Whole Foods, but buy organic for the things she eats the most. My daughter LOVES raisins....we buy the small organic packs. Grapes are a great snack, and you could just fill up one of those snack baggies so it won't take up a lot of room in her teacher's fridge. We also give her dried cranberries for snack, which don't need to be refridgerated. Fruit bars are a great idea, or goldifsh, or pretzels. Hope this helps =o )
Almonds is about all I can think of. Everything else that has any health value requires refrigeration. At least everything else that I can think of..
We love Zbars! and Trader Joe's cereal bars (blueberry & fig are our faves).
Applesauce, natural corn puffs ( my son loves them, you can get these at whole foods, they have a white cheddar flavor) , you can freeze cheese sticks as well as yogurt, and it will stay cold for their snacks at school. That's what I do for my son.
I don't know that these are actually healthy, but they are better than some of the other junk out there. It's weird that the teacher wants all 5 days at once, when I was a teacher, the less I had to store the better. :)
Veggie Straws, I get them at Sam's Club. They have low sodium and are made with spinah, potatoe, and tomatoe. They are on my dads approved after heart attack diet. My two year old LOVES them!
Pirates Booty - tastes kind of like popcorn, we get it in the "greenwise" section of our grocery store (publix)
Pop Chips - awesome! We LOVE them in this house. I used to own a Stroller Strides and pop chips was one of our partners. Our local grocery store also carries them, but only in the originial flavor, which has the least amount of calories anyway.
So again these are only modertly healthy, but better than fruit snacks, gummy worms, and regular chips. They are also things that will be a treat for your little guy.
A little caution though the Pirates Booty does leave like a cheese dust on fingers, so might not be the best for a school snack, think cheetos. :)
If they allow nuts, my kids always liked trail mix and granola. You can put in zip baggies and they will keep. You can also get all natural fruit cups and put in spoons too. Good luck.
Great suggestions from other mamas! You could also get those prepackaged fruit cups, they're usually next to the canned fruit. Those don't need refrigeration, and they make them packed in 100% fruit juice.
The fruit squeeze packs, my kids love these. They sell the applesauce ones at walmart, here's a link to others on amazon.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UT...
Dried fruits. Banana chips are our favorite! You can even make your own trail mix and save lots of money. Throw in some dried fruits, nuts, pretzels... mix it up... It will make the more expensive stuff go a lot farther.
