Snacks. Hang out with a group of moms for a few minutes, and sooner or later the subject of snacks always comes up. We moms are always trying to figure out what to feed the hungry little shorties that is fast, easy and healthy. Also of course they have to actually like it, so some of the best intentions fail (kale chips), but sometimes they surprise you (smoked salmon or seaweed). When you are trying to get off the goldfish crazy train, snacks are even more challenging. One thing you can say for food that comes in tiny bags and tubes, it is convenient. When you are driving straight from school to other activities, throwing a bag of artificially flavored extruded wheat in the backseat is really easy.
My friend Jessica wrote me the other day to say that the last processed food in her house is pretzels. How awesome is that? She has got two little kids, another on the way, has a real full plate and she has eliminated processed food (including cereal/crackers/etc.)! I think that is fantastic. Her next question was “what do I do for snacks? We are getting low on ideas.” I put together a list of ideas for her gathered from this site, the internet and some books I’ve read lately. I find that it helps to include some fat in the snacks. The kids are satiated with a snack of fat and vegetables, whereas a snack lacking fat will leave them hungry again in 30 minutes. I hope it is helpful. Do you have any to add?
Thank you, Rebecca, for your prospective on our diets. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear someone say it out loud!!! I was raised cooking and baking with my grandmothers and have always felt in my heart that the way they cooked was OK. Granted we could leave out the fried chicken, but everything was homemade and everything was from the garden. I have spent so many years concerned about the fat content and the fiber content, yada, yada, yada, in our meals- trying my best to do what was supposedly a more healthy way to eat. Now I realize I have been loaded everyone with carbs and it’s not working! My family will be so relieved to hear that full fat milk is coming back into their lives! Such a relief that I don’t have to feel quilty because I believe!
I’d like to share one thing – I bought a Vitamix. One word…. Awesome!!!! I have been making peanut butter and almond butter with it. The Vitamix makes a wonderful creamy nut butter with no added sugar, salt or oil – just the nuts. It remains spreadable even after refrigeration and the kids love it.
Anybody, have any comments about cooking with sugar substitutes? It just doesn’t feel right.
Hi Kelli,
I am very glad to hear that you are enjoying the general direction here. I too think the grandmas had it right (although mine was already influenced by the low fat movement–I’d have to go great-grandmother, I think) and all of the mucking around we have done since then has done us more harm than good.
As a side note (and I’ll make a longer post out of this sometime), increasing the saturated fats in my diet (grass-fed butter, eggs, pastured lard) has really, really improved my mood and outlook.
I have not been baking as much lately, but when I do I use honey or maple syrup. Stevia has a strange aftertaste to me and the rest are gross chemicals.
I use the Weston A Price Foundation as a terrific resource on these issues as well.
Oh and the peanut and almond butter sounds terrific! Thanks for the inspiration!