Snack Station in the Fridge

My boys used to always go to the snack drawer and help themselves (after asking for permission) to their snacks. But as I slowly weed out sugar and white flours out of our diet I find less to put in the drawer. I realized that most of our snacks come from the fridge now. We usually choose fresh and simple snacks instead of baked and sweetened items. So I decided to create a snack station in our fridge for our boys to be able to grab a snack of their choice from (with permission).

I found that I love having the snack station for the boys but also when I’m making a quick meal I can grab out of here for a side for them. Or if I want a snack and am in a hurry I can grab from here too!

In our Snack Station:

Yogurt

My boys do still need help opening up yogurt so this isn’t something that they can do all by themselves. But I love yogurt as a snack, especially the new light yogurt by Tillamook, it’s healthy, it’s yummy and makes mommy feel like she is doing a good job feeding the boys. I put the yogurt in there and if they want it they can bring it to me to help them.

Cheese!

I actually learned this trick from my dear friend Kari she has shared more about how to simplify snacking on her blog Sacred Mundane.

Take a half block of cheddar cheese and chunk it up, bag it up and you have a quick healthy snack for your little ones. I am known for doing cheese sticks too for an easy out, but I like mixing up cheddar cheese and cheese sticks because my boys become tired of eating the same thing over and over.

Hard Boiled Eggs

Hard boiled eggs are more for my Zarek than Zane. Zane enjoys egg white, but not the yolk. Sometimes I can convince Zarek to eat the extra yoke but not always. I am tempted to try making Scrambled Eggs in the Shell, but until then I just boil up a few for Zarek and me.

Fruit

I throw in a few pieces of fruit. Whatever was on sale. If it’s apples, peaches, or plums I will just throw them in the Snack Station. If it’s something grapes I bag them up in servings to make them easier to grab. Plus if I let them my boys would eat a whole bag of grapes.

Cut up Veggies

I put veggies in the Snack Station as an experiment, it’s hard to get my boys to eat veggies, but I wanted to still have them as an option. The boys did grab a bag here and there. But I loved that for meals I had cut up vegetables for a quick grab when I needed and it was a lot less work at meal times.

One trick I did learn with Zane is that he really enjoyed me giving him a spoonful of peanut butter to dip his celery in.  Yay, I found a new way to get him to eat a veggie.

Store it at Their Level

After everything was bagged up and tossed into the bowl I was using I put the bowl on a lower shelf in the fridge. I think next time I will find a square container to take up less space. I loved having this ready and available, and all this food lasted about 2 weeks, so I need to plan doing it about every 2 weeks.

Do you have a place for your children to grab snacks? What kind of snacks do you keep in your Snack Station

[box]Post was sponsored by Tillamook Cheese all opinions are my own.[/box]