We are in the home stretch before getting the week off of school for Thanksgiving! I feel like we are still recovering from Halloween, to be honest. But I’m so ready for a breather! The only downside is that I have to somehow feed my picky children snacks all week. This is more difficult when they don’t have school. You see, at school, they have one snack and that is it. No other choices. Nothing to argue or complain about. At least, that’s what I assume since I’m not there to witness any of these behaviors…but I’m hopeful that the face their snack is gone when they come home means they actually ate it. DON’T RUIN MY DREAM.
Here’s the thing: snack time doesn’t have to be a battle! We have found some really wonderful go-to snack items that we keep in heavy rotation and pair with their favorite fresh fruits and veggies. And yes, they actually eat the fresh stuff!
But there’s a secret to making that happen: offer it all as a kind of family-style snack platter. That way, they get to pick and choose what they want, making them feel more in control. This is a BIG deal for kiddos of any age. They want to make decisions for themselves and empowering them to do that with food is healthy for them and for you. (Read: less stressful!) Think about it: how much do we grown ups LOVE cheese boards? So much, right? Because we get to pick and choose what we want. Turns out, that’s a characteristic most of us have probably had since childhood!
One of our big time favorites right now happens to be pretzels. So I was THRILLED to see that Quinn Snacks had a selection of pretzels for my crunchy-salty-snack-loving boys! They are available nation wide at Whole Foods (huzzah!) and I love this part: they have something called Farm-to-Bag Transparency. That means you can type in the exact batch number on your bag of pretzels on their website and find out where all the ingredients came from, right down to the farm!
I. love. it. So does this kiddo:
Here are some of our favorite snack platter combos:
Touch of Honey Pretzels + clementines + almond or peanut butter
Deli Rye Style Pretzels + carrot sticks + peanut butter
Classic Sea Salt Pretzels + sliced mini cucumbers + shredded cheese
These are just a few of the endless combinations you can come up with and tailor to fit your kids’ tastes. Be creative, have fun, and don’t micromanage. They’ll eat what they want to eat and it will be FINE. (<— saying this to myself as much as I’m saying it to you, FTR.)
To keep up with all the exciting things happen with Quinn Snacks, you can give them a follow here!