The Twinadoes go to kinder (preschool) two mornings and one afternoon a week. They need to take ‘a healthy snack’ for each session. I try to prepare snacks the night before for the morning kinder sessions, which means we need food that will keep well over night and still be good the next day. Some days I struggle to come up with something that they will eat and that fits into our budget.
Some of our favourite snack ideas are:
Small boxes of sultanas or dried fruit
I bought one packet of boxed sultanas at the girl’s requests and ask them to bring the empty boxes home so I
can refill them. So much cheaper than always buying boxed fruit and I can put in a variety of different fruits. If the budget allows it they love dried pineapple, mango and paw paw.
Half a Sandwich
If we haven’t eaten all the bread for breakfast a half sandwich is very popular. Vegemite for Zoe and Jam for Izzy – without fail. Though I wouldn’t mind them having a bit more variety at least I know jam and Vegemite will keep well if I make it the night before and always get eaten.
Fruit
I don’t put in fresh fruit as often as I thought I would. In the summer there was a bigger variety of fresh fruit that was appropriate but these days the only fruit they can reliably manage and eat is a mandarin. I peel it and put half in each box wrapped in cling wrap. They would both eat apples but Zoe needs hers cut up (because of the lack of teeth) and Izzy likes hers peeled which means they just don’t keep well. A little container of strawberries are always a hit but not within the budget these days.
Veggies and cold meat
A big favourite with both girls is a selection of salami or cabana slices, sliced raw mushroom, cheese squares and olives. My girls LOVE olives – they are classed as a green vegetable in our house.
Crackers
I often put in a selection of crackers, rice biscuits or other savoury biscuits because we often have them when we don’t have anything else! I can’t say they are a favourite but I figure if they are hungry they’ll eat them!
Sweet Treat
I always try to put in ‘something special’ and for our girls that is usually a sweet biscuit or something we’ve baked together. That biscuit recipe from yesterday is going to be my saviour… I am going to make up the dough and freeze it in small batches so we always have fresh baked biscuits to wack into the snack box and to save our food money for other things!
Tip for little fingers
A quick tip I learnt after teaching preschool for a long time- If you are wrapping your kid’s snacks in cling wrap, to make it easier for little fingers to open it, place the sandwich (or whatever) at one end of the wrap, wrap the short sides in first then roll the long bit over and over until the sandwich is wrapped but leave the end of the cling wrap sticking out from the end of the sandwich a bit. This way, little fingers easily know to grab and pull the sticky out bit and the whole item will unwrap easily, rather than them struggling to find the ‘ends’ to start opening things.
So what do you send in snack/lunch boxes?
Yumm! What is vegemite? We do cheese and crackers alot!
At school she needs a “healthy snack” for 10am that they eat at their desk, and it has to be a manageable bit of fruit or veg ONLY, that can be eaten in under 5 minutes. Not much of an issue for A who can knock it back quick LOL I’ve got tubs she can open now, so this means a great variety of things can be sent! I also send peeled mandies in a tupperware snackcup, fits perfectly. Sultanas are my absolute last back up for healthy snack, but usually have at least some carrots or cucumber to go with her if there’s no suitable fruit left.
I try and send two other things as well as a sandwich, for “little lunch” and one to eat with her lunch time roll and usually one thing always comes back, or gets eaten on the way home.
They are usually small packaged things like a nutella dip, fruit puree, crackers and cheese, a museli bar, something easy to eat outside on the go. Gave up on baked stuff cause she would leave it every last time. And we also buy something different each week, she gets over them by the end of one box. And she likes trying new things, she has some fancy and way too expensive tuna dip thing this week.
So two “somethings” and a fruit/veg, or two fruit/veg and a “something” along with her roll. And I’m on a roll with school lunches now, wack wack wack it in, ready to go in less than 5 minutes LOL
Honey and vegemite sandwiches (not together) are a staple in our house. I sometimes send water crackers with babybelle cheese, as it keeps OK being waxed. A piece of fruit always makes a show as well. My girls always eat it, less so my son. I like the cling wrap tip – must remember that one.
School (kinder) snacks is always hard, hard to keep up the variety and the health as well. My girls just love cherry tomotoes, carrot sticks (home grown), snow peas and beans (raw, home grown), for treats lamingtons or fresh baked biscuits, some times for Bronte the little individual cream cheese triangles with crackers.
Like Leah our school has a healthy snack at 10.00am policy. So everyday we have to send either a piece of fresh fruit, vegetables or cheese. We tend to go with apple when there are not wobbly teeth, orange quarters, small tub of grapes (seedless ones), watermelon cubes, banana or when mum forgets to shop a tub of tinned pineapple. For other snacks I try to be mainly healthy… crackers, cheese cubes and sultanas, plain popcorn, yoghurt, tiny teddies, a fruit bun, pikelets, homemade fruit loaf. My kids all time favourite is what we called “mixed tub”… nutri grain or cheerios, dried apple pieces, sultanas, dried banana and a few smarties all mixed together.
One of my girl’s favorite snacks is cream cheese spread thinly (or peanut butter) on raisin bread – but then it has to be cut in to little finger sized squares to make it more fun! Peanut butter on Graham Crackers is yummy. Little Miss Lauren is perfectly happy with a baggie full of cheerios on occasion!
Leanne Ely over at Saving Dinner.com has a list of, like 100 kids snacks.. you can find it at:
http://www.savingdinner.com/archives/articles/snack_series_part_1.html
Happy Snacking!
R has a bag of cherry tomatoes and a carrot each day. also some salt and vinegar ‘anything’ – sakata, rice crackers, chippies – she’s obsessed with salt and vinegar! not so healthy i know. also sometimes a chunk of cucumber and always a big juicy granny smith apple. sanga of choice right now is cheese and vegemite with NO crusts! sweet treats not so needed as R is very much a savoury girl, although some jelly beans /babies are occasionally thrown in for good measure.
kate, i reckon olives are a green vegie too although R doesnt give them a go. how hard is it sometimes to think of something new and interesting!! and you have two to pack for :)
Love the plastic wrap tip, will try that one tomorrow.
My ones actually like to eat cereal as a snack like Just right or Weet Bix, in a container (without the milk.
Capsicum, celery and carrot sticks are always popular, especially if include some tzatki dip with it as well.
I have also made up my own trail mix – nuts, seeds, dried fruit – I find that this is popular for a bit and then they go off it.
Josh eats heaps at kinder… he has two sandwiches (usually one vegemite & cheese and one jam), a banana / mandarin (sometimes both), a muesli bar / le snack (dip & biscuit thing).
He eats it all and comes home from kinder hungry! Its all that running around they do. Though he is there from 9:15 to 2:15.
Another reason we had to give him more was that when I was on kinder duty I noticed that he finished eating first and got bored waiting for everyone else and started to play up.
Also, even better than cling wrap, buy a couple of sandwich size plastic containers. I know at our kinder they are trying to reduce the amount of lunch rubbish. Snap lock bags are good too, especially if they come back clean to be refilled.