The next two weeks are going to go by at a blinding speed, and by September I will be by myself regularly during the day for the first time in eight years. I’m excited to see how I manage my time. I know I will be volunteering for a month or two at the school library. They don’t have the funds for a librarian and the stacks reflect a year of student-lead library hours. Organizing the stacks and creating a system should take me a few weeks.
After that, I hope to spend more time in the kitchen. I have been a passionate and capable cook and baker since I was a child, but have pulled away from that over the last few years because of my issues with food. I took the advice of several people I trusted and stopped cooking and baking what wasn’t necessary. The idea was to be around food as infrequently as possible, and only when absolutely necessary. The advice was given from a place of love, but it was poor advice nonetheless. If anything, I think that attitude only made food something to be feared instead of dealt with rationally.
Onward and upward. I’m no longer dieting, and I’m consulting a team of professionals to help me remove a pebble from an otherwise super-cute pair of shoes. God must agree with my plan. Shortly after putting things in motion, I received an email for Wayfair asking me to write a post about snacks for kids. I jumped in with both feet and put together a post sharing five after school snacks for kids and caretakers alike. These are snacks Mikey and Nico love and eat regularly, and have done so since they were in preschool. The Mister and I love them, too.
That’s right: snacks kids and adults can enjoy. That means the absence of cheese shaped to look like daisies with celery stalk stems. No puree of sweet potato hidden in grilled cheese sandwiches. No gimmicks, no special equipment, no fuss. Except for the peanut butter. I stand by the peanut butter.
Please do stop by and read the post. (Nervous!) As always, I appreciate your support.
I’m heading over. Boobear is the most annoyingly picky eater ever so any help I can get would be awesome!
Is she really? You’ve never mentioned that before. Mikey isn’t a pick eater at all. He’ll eat anything! The problem for him is quantity and interest. He eats like a bird, and his low weight and small stature shows it. :(
Ok, the link doesn’t work.
Just fixed it, sorry.
Jules – what a great post! I laughed when you mentioned Pinterest as I was madly pinning your pictures – they are just gorgeous. Nothing wrong with living in a Dutch still life if you ask me. I tempted to run out to the second hand stores and to begin my own collection of wood trays & bowls. Gorgeous. Good for you for getting back into the kitchen, doing what you enjoy, while continuing to make peace with your issues on food. All the best !
Thank you, Shannon! I was pleased with the way the pictures turned out…except for the Texas Caviar one. The glare from the oil dressing made it hard to focus!
I’m excited to get back into the kitchen. Thank you. :)
Can’t wait to try the banana peanut butter spread! Good work! Pretty and informative with an attitude. :)
Oh, man. I LOVE that peanut butter with apples! I picked that over birthday cake a couple of weeks ago.
” Organizing the stacks and creating a system should take me a few weeks.” Is it really sad that I turned green with envy at this? Did you play library when you were little? I had a date stamp and everything!
When mine were younger I bought ranch dip (low-fat) by the gallon, it seemed, as they (me too) would eat pretty much anything if they had a little bowl of “dip”.
The Wayfair post looks great! Congrats for being asked!
I played anything that required stamping and pushing buttons! So, yes, definitely library. :)
Hi Jules,
Great article but there is a typo in your link, your article is here: http://www.wayfair.com/blog/2012/08/13/after-school-snacks/ The salsa was my favourite.
Thanks, Emmy! :)
great post! i am already sweating the lunches, after school snacks. i try to have all these on hand but i like the idea of having them out for all to snack on. i always forget to eat (or drink water!) when i’m running around. then it’s handfuls of crackers in the car. yikes!
I’m sweating the lunches for Mikey. He eats anything, but not a lot. I need to find some high calorie foods he will eat that are still healthy and won’t spoil in the heat.
I read the post at Wayfair but their commenting system wasn’t playing nicely with my iPad. Had to leave you a comment about how gorgeous your photos are though! And thanks for the snack inspiration….feeding my kids whole, real food is very important to me and your ideas are fabulous :)
Thanks!
Thank you, Janet! I went ahead and let them know about the commenting snafu. Thank you for the comments on the pictures! That’s really nice to hear. :)
p.s. I’m with you on the whole foods and kids.
i personally love the dutch still life. love it!
and like you, i’ve refused to resort to gimmicks to get my kids to eat healthful snacks. i think it helps that they see me eat what i’m offering them, you know?
Yes, that’s my philosophy exactly.
I really enjoyed the post. My children are a bit older than yours but it’s still easy to get in a rut. Your photos help with inspiration!
That’s great to hear, Hazel…although I’m bummed to hear it doesn’t get any easier as they get older! ;)
gorgeous photos, Jules! Also, it’s a timely post since my oldest will be starting Kindergarten in a few short weeks! I get in such a rut, it’s nice to have some new ideas!
I think we all get into ruts, Karen. Maybe when I’m in one in a few weeks you can encourage me! :)
Great snack food options! Will they ask you for brown bag lunch ideas, too, do you think? I could use some of those. My kids are 14 and 12, though. We used to homeschool…so this is scary territory for me. I used to take a spam sandwich and an apple every day. (Bologna was a special treat.) My husband had to go home for his slice of baloney and watered down canned soup. No lie. (Our family was impoverished, his was just poor.)
They asked me to do school lunches! But, I chickened out. Mikey likes brown rice and tomatoes (he really dislikes sandwiches) and my homemade luncheables, and I thought people might think I was trying to be Mrs. Super Healthy Mom.
That looks so good!
Read it. :) loved it!! Very very wonderful, helpful advice. I’m thankful that my girl, (8), is a great eater. It is because I received advice like this when she was little (although we do call broccoli “trees” ha!)
Thanks, Wendy! :)
Jules, that was a lovely post! I am hungry right now and wish I was at home so I could feed myself some delicious things, but will just have to wait patiently until lunchtime instead. Any snack that involves avocado makes me green with envy, I could eat those with a spoon and usually have to restrain myself and limit them to Actual Meals. This inspired me to make myself Real Snacks for work, rather than the bag of Tositos I have lurking in my desk.
I always go for the less than healthy snacks, too, which is so weird because the real food tastes better!
Texas Caviar! Thanks for the recipe, I made it recently and also gave the recipe to a friend…it was a hit at my house, except for the non-avocado eater who also doesn’t eat tomatoes (more for the rest of us). The serving bowl was empty – no leftovers! I need to space the recurrence of really good salads so we don’t get bored, but I’ll be making it again soon.
Awesome! I’m glad you liked it. :)
Oh man, Jules, these could not have come at a better time. Even though my daughter (3.5) is not ready for school but has hit a level of pickyness that is beyond being picky. She downright refuses to attempt to try anything new, point blank. We’ve tried cajoling, bribery, anger, threats…anything we can think of to have her try something different and are now in a rut. She’ll eat her weight in grapes, raisins, bread, eggo waffles, string cheese, pizza, rice and carrots as well as a variety of other things that change day by day. Thankfully they are somewhat healthy things she’ll eat, but it’s still frustrating.
We just got some toothpicks to see if she’ll eat new things if they are in a new way (she loves eating with chopsticks too) but having some other things that I can point to pretty pictures (yours are gorgeous) will help.
I LOVE your blog and love these snacks. I am all about real food and these are great Jules. I’m gluten-free and dairy-free so these are wonderful! Your blog is amazing and I love reading your posts.
Keep up the amazing content! Have a fabulous week.