Strategy: Snacks For Sanity

Raise your hand if you’re already tired of thinking about school lunches. I thought so. Well, have no fear. Tomorrow we will bring you a great menu plan of lunches for next week. We’ll even throw in a shopping list. However, today, we want to talk about snacks. My daughter’s school snacks (she requires two a day) are an equal form of stress for me. As easy as it would be for me to get pre-packaged items (don’t get me wrong, I do that some times too), I like to try to come up with my own, homemade snacks. Although, homemade sometimes means sliced cucumber. You can call that homemade, right?

Photos by Maya Visnyei

If you’re like me, then you’re on the hunt for ideas that are school safe, satisfying and easy to grab. Well, here are some of my favourite SPC snack recipes. I plan on tackling a few of these this weekend so next week is a breeze. (Ok, maybe I’m overselling this just a tad.) If you can throw an hour or two aside to bake some of these gems, and you supplement with those deliciously homemade cucumber slices, hard boiled eggs and apples, then you’re laughing all the way to the, er, grocery store. I’m not going to lie. I love a lot of these snacks myself so I’ll likely make twice as much. Kid’s can’t get all the good stuff.

Cranberry Granola Balls – These little babies use school safe sunflower butter to keep everyone’s baby safe.

Nut and Seed Granola Bars – Omit the pistachio pieces to make these seed bars that satisfy any snack craving.

Sweet Potato Cookies – It’s called a cookie so they’ll be the envy of the playground but only we know it’s jammed with a sweet potatoes potent vitamin C power.

Ham and Cheese Muffins – These are your favourite lunch sandwich in a paper wrapper. You can just send us a thank you.

Lemon Blueberry Mini Muffins – They’re little. They fit into those damn snack containers. They’re packed with anti-oxidants. Need we say more?

Sweet Potato Chips – These healthy chips are delicious on their own so go ahead and leave out the yogurt dipping sauce. You know it’s just going to end up spilling all over some binder any way.