Snack Time: Whole Food

Here is a list of simple whole food snack ideas...

Fruit (This seems easy...)

Vegetables (this seems harder)
carrots (cooked or raw)
cucumber
cooked sweet potato slices
celery (with cheese; or pb and raisins)
peas (cooked or frozen)
olives
pickles
cooked beet slices
Lettuce leaves (for rolling a sandwich)

Protein
Hard boiled eggs
Nuts (almonds, cashews, pistachios, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, peanuts, walnuts or pecans, etc.)
Hot Dog-type Meat (we like natural chicken maple chicken sausages)
Ham, chopped in squares
Patties (we like garden burgers or veggie patties)
Chicken pieces
Tuna (shredded cooked fish or fish patties)

Grains
crackers (we've tried homemade wheat thins, flax seed crackers and others...but I'd rather buy them)
bread (we like open faced sandwiches)
tortillas, wraps, pancakes
Muffins/sweet breads

Other
cheese, slices/sticks/cubes/etc (we love the mini circle cheeses with wax)

Healthier Dips/Sauces
hummus
homemade ranch
Tzatziki sauce
Guacamole

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Putting It All Together
Sometimes things are all about presentation. You can eat the same things over and over and feel there is variety just by different combos. Here are some thoughts...

Sandwiches: (generally mom-made)

• wraps: (can use lettuce or cheese to contain if don't want a grain) We do pickle, ham and cheese wraps and might use a toothpick to hold it together
• open-face: we like stacking cucumbers with cheese and an olive or something or a ham/cheese melt with sliced cucumbers on top, or pb banana toast
• typical: egg salad, tuna cheese melt or tuna/dill/pickle, pb & honey or jam, etc.

Stackers (lets kids choose)

Use toothpicks to let the children choose what they want and how much of each...you can set rules for how many of what they can have at a time so they don't just have cheese stackers or whatever)

• meat, cheese, veggie
• fruit
• ethnic change-up (see my post on this: italian style, american style, etc. )

Mixes & Bars

• Granola 
• Granola Bars (basic chewy choc. chip)
• Power Bars/Lara Bars
• Trail-Mix Bars
• Fruit Leather (just puree fruit and dehydrate very thin...add sweetener as desired, or lemon juice to retain color. Bake on lowest setting on parchment paper/silpat for a few hours if no dehydrator)
• Fruit Snacks (homemade is simply gelatin and juice)
• Simple dried fruit/nut combo: craisins/pistachios, cashews/apricots, dried apple slices (from cannery)/raisins/granola, coconut flakes/pumpkin seeds/dried pineapple or papaya/pecans