Healthy Snacks

Does this happen to you? No sooner do you sit down or start working on something and your kids say, "Mom, can I have a snack?" Geez, I'm really sick of that question. So last week, I determined that our kids are way old enough (8 and 6) to figure this out on their own. So, why haven't they? Well, I'm partly to blame. I'm a bit of a control-freak when it comes to what they eat. But also, our darn fridge has shelves that are too high for our spritely-sized people. So I came up with a couple of ways for our kids to help themselves to some pre-approved healthy snacks.

First, I lowered a shelf in the fridge--which happens to be one that also slides out for easier access--and filled it with plastic containers of 1) baby carrots 2) celery sticks 3) granola bites and 4) string cheese.



Next, I used an undermount wire shelf in our pantry to lower the healthy stuff to eye-level. It has 1) dried fruit 2) almonds 3) applesauce cups and 4) pretzel rods on it.



Finally, our freezer drawer (which is reachable because it's on the bottom of the fridge) has 1) yogurt tubes and 2) yogurt-covered frozen blueberries in it.

I showed the girls all of these options and explained that anything in these three spots is fair game. They can help themselves anytime they want without asking because all of the choices were healthy ones. You would've thought I'd just given them each a pony. So there you have it: healthy snacks for our kids that may also turn into healthier snacks for me! And now I'm not bugged by, "Mom, can I have a snack?" anymore. Freedom for all!  How liberating!