Ten Snacks I Might Send to School

One of the things that will be changing in three weeks when F goes to school is our eating habits. Although I sometimes give the children a snack after lunch we normally just eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. F’s school requires a mid-morning snack for it’s students and and since I’ll be packing one for him I think I’ll start giving the same thing to W and Su too.

So what am I going to send? I don’t want a bunch of sugar, and I don’t want something messy. Cheese would be a good choice but cheese is too expensive to eat every day. I got out the cookbooks on Sunday and here are a few idea I found…

1. Apples- in a month or so (it needs to be a bit cooler) I’ll go out to an orchard and buy seconds of Golden Delicious and Pink Lady Apples. The Pink Lady’s in particular are good keepers and with some care will keep for a while in our utility room. The children love apples with peanut butter, or just plain. I may also try apples and cream cheese.
2. Grapes are usually the cheapest grocery store fruit, and are easy to pack and eat.
3. Graham crackers: I really want to try making these. I’m planning to use part of Su’s school time working on her cooking skills, and I think this will be one of our first “lesson”.
4. Granola bars- again the store-bought ones are popular around here, and not to expensive when bought in bulk. I did find one recipe for homemade ones though which I may well try as I can have more varieties that way.
5. Trail Mix – homemade, the children really like cheerios, raisins, almonds and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. That’s definitely something one of them could mix up ahead of time too.
6. Crackers with spreads- I have a recipe for “wheat thins” I’d like to try and can easily see sending “cracker sandwiches” with hummus, peanut butter, cream cheese etc.
7. Cookies and bars- I probably will do these occasionally. I have a few healthy recipes (I can’t believe I just wrote that! I am so turning into my mother!) but I don’t want to rely on sweets since if we have them around I eat them which is not good…
8. Carrots and celery – both of these can be dipped in a protein based spread, They may be too messy though…
9. Cheese and crackers- probably as an occasional treat but too expensive for every day
10. Jello cups with fruit- This does have more sugar, but can be pretty low sugar with plain gelatin and the syrup from my canned fruit used to make the “jello” . Plus I have a bunch of portion? cup containers with lids left over from selling sausage at Farmers’ Markets so this would be easy to make and pack…
11. This one is a bonus but S says he could make sandwiches with the children and cut them into fancy shapes as well if he has time in the evening. I suspect I’m going to start making at least part of lunch ahead of time since F needs to be picked up at noon and lunch being ready when we got home would make things easier…