Meal prep for kids and reducing packaged snacks

Sharing some of my go-to meal prep ideas for kids, especially as we’re in the back to school season. We’ve also made a mission to reduce packaged snacks, but I still stock up on pantry essentials and faves from Thrive Market.

Hi friends! How are you? I hope that you’re enjoying the week so far. We’re finding our new routine with the homeschool situation + Liv is taking a break from dance (I’m admittedly a little sad, but definitely don’t miss driving 30 minutes there and back twice a day). Now that we’re on the go and packing lunches again, there are a couple of things I’ve tried to do differently.

Meal prep for kids and reducing packaged snacks

– Meal prep a ton.

It’s so helpful to have a fridge full of healthy staples for snacks and meals.

Here are some of the things I’ve been making each week:

– Fruit prep. If there’s fruit, ready to go in the fridge, they will absolutely eat it instead of grabbing a bar or packaged treat. Melons are in season and so good right now, so lately I’ve been picking up a couple of different melons (the kids especially love Piel de Sapo and golden watermelon) and chopping them to store in glass containers. I also soak berries in water and vinegar for 2-5 minutes (1 part vinegar to 3 parts water), rinse, and let them dry completely. Then I put paper towels in the bottom of a glass container with a lid. They last so much longer this way! We usually do a mix of berries: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. I also soak grapes and plums in water + vinegar for about 15 minutes, dry, and store in an open glass bowl in the fridge. The kids will just grab handfuls of grapes throughout the day and I love that we’re all eating more fruit!

– Energy bites. I have quite a few different recipes here on the blog (like these!) but a favorite is equal parts cashews and pitted dates, cinnamon, a little salt, vanilla extract and a drizzle of maple syrup.

(this is why I don’t take food photos for the blog anymore lol)

– Protein prep: shredded chicken, seasoned ground beef, and egg bites

–Veggie prep: I’ll peel and chop some cucumbers, bell peppers, carrots. They’re easy for them to serve themselves and dip into homemade hummus or guac. They also like the ready-to-go edamame.

–Dip: hummus and guacamole are the fan favorites around here.

– Breakfast options, like the egg bites, overnight oats, breakfast cookies (they still love these!), chia pudding. I also make avocado in a snap for a school day bfast and serve with Applegate breakfast sausages.

– One different/new/fun thing each week. This might be like a chicken or pasta salad, Spanish tortilla, quiche, or cold noodle dish with veggies and protein that they can easily grab out of the fridge on their own.

– Reduce packaged snacks.

We still have our go-tos, which I’ll list below, but the reality is that a lot of packaged snacks are expensive and don’t have great ingredients. I could make 20 awesome homemade energy bites for the cost of 2 little four packs at Whole Foods. Our snacks were a huge portion of our insane grocery budget and it’s so easy is to make them at home, and customize them for the kids.

Some of the packaged snacks we still buy:

– Nuts, dried fruit, trail mix

– Canned beans (for hummus!) and they also love the Lupini snacking beans from Thrive Market

– Seaweed snacks

– GoMacro bars

-Poshi veggie packs

– Snack-sized cheeses

– Cottage cheese

– Chia pouches

– Jerky

– Popcorn or Siete chips

– Deli meat – they’ll roll it up with cream cheese or mayo

– Sardines. I usually make a sardine melt, but the kids will eat them out of the can straight-up

– Simple Mills products (like the crackers, cookies, and baking mixes)

Some of my favorite Thrive Market finds and healthy brands are in this post. 

– Go back to planning dinners and prepping as much as I can during the day.

We’ve been doing a lot of on-the-fly dinners since we got home from Spain, especially since the Pilot has been working/traveling so much. Back to school was the kick in the pants I needed to start planning and making more dinners, instead of last-minute takeout or random hodge podge meals. (Also, I’ve found that I really have to plan and prep dinners when I’m solo parenting because by the time we get home from sports, it’s dinner time.)

Some of my favorite solo parenting dinners are in this post!

So tell me, friends: what are some of your go-to homemade snacks for the kids?

xo

Gina