Hi!


I'm Shay! I’m a cookbook author, lifestyle blogger, travel agency owner, wife and mama who loves making every day special for my family.

Read more

Mix & Match Mama

Food ·

Tuesday Talk: Summer Snacks!


Hey, hey, hey, today is Tuesday Talk!

Once a month, I link up with Ashley and Erika and share a little randomness with you.

In January, I shared my love of the Dyson V8 Animal Cordless Vacuum.
In February, Tuesday Talk was snowed out!
In March, we chatted about all of my ear piercings.
In April, we chatted about my veggie garden.

And today…

…we’re talking about SUMMER SNACKS!

I mean, t-minus four days until summer break for us, and I one hundred percent agree with this right here…

…riiiiiiiiiiiight?!

I do not understand how during the school year (for 9 MONTHS!!), my kids can take one little baggie to school with a snack for the day, but when they’re at home during those three summer months, all.they.do.is.eat.

So, I’m going to share a few little ideas, and then, I’m hoping you can share some too!

First up…I read this on one of my friend’s Facebook posts years ago, and it’s always stuck with me.  She’s a mom of five kids and one time she said that during the summer, she placed five little bins on the counter and every morning, she would put one reusable water bottle in each bin along with one packaged snack and one whole foods snack (an apple, banana, baggie of carrots, etc) and that was all they got for the day.  She said she didn’t care if they ate both by 9:00 AM or if they spread it out, those were their snacks, so they didn’t need to ask her for more/graze in the kitchen/make anything else.  I really thought this idea was brilliant.  Now, to be fair, I’ve never done this…but I like the concept.  Have any of you tried this??  I would love to hear your feedback if you have and/or if you have other similar suggestions.  

At our house, I really try and keep the basics in the fridge for my kids to grab.  You know, things that don’t require me to cut it, peel it, open it, bake it, make it…just easy things.

Here are the most popular snacks I keep on hand from the fridge:
Bananas, small apples, grapes, plums (small fruit that I don’t have to cut up)
String cheese and/or Babybel
Individual hummus
Yogurt (I love the squeeze ones the most)
Deli turkey
Store bought hardboiled eggs (Trader Joe’s has great ones!)

In the pantry, I like to keep this stuff on hand:
Almonds, mixed nuts and pistachios
Dried Fruit
Apple sauce pouches
Cereal (my kids like dry cereal for a snack)
And of course, I keep granola bars, protein bars, crackers, chips, etc too.

Last year, when we were quarantined, I had to work on breaking a really bad habit my kids had gotten into…my kids always ask if they can have a drink or something to eat.  Always.  Sounds like a great thing until you’re home all day together and it finally hits you that your 11 year old is asking for a glass of water.  One day, it just dawned on me…what is happening?  Yes, you can have water! Of course!  You can have an apple too for that matter.  I don’t even know how it happened, but I realized that my kids always asked (probably because when they were 3 I needed them to ask, but forgot to tell them when they got older that they didn’t have to anymore) if they could have something to eat or drink.  Last summer, we broke that cycle, so this year, I really want them to have lots of easy to grab ideas that will allow them some independence but yet, it’s still snack-appropriate.

So, your turn!

Snack ideas?

Methods?

Something we should buy?

Please share!!!!!

Thank you in advance 😉 .

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

You’ll Also Love

Sweet Heart WafflesSweet Heart Waffles
Vegetarian Week: Mushroom Risotto
Original Neiman Marcus Bars

Comments

  2. Angela Ware says

    Freeze those yogurt “push-ups” for a nice cold treat on a hot summer texas day!

  4. Julie C. says

    Unfortunately, I don’t have any snack ideas. I just wanted to say that my kids do the same thing…ask for a snack/drink!!!!! My “baby” is 12 and just last night was asking if he could eat something. HAHAHA!!!!! Apparently, I need to break this habit as well. Can’t wait to see all the snack ideas!!!!!

    • Tara says

      Same! My son has physical special needs, so we tend to over-compensate and I was thinking this was why, (as he is headed to 7th grade!!) he is asking permission for snacks and drinks! ? I’m feeling much better that even those with typical kids have this same situation going on! Lol! My husband was like, “he will be in his college dorm room calling us to see if it’s ok to eat a bag of chips!” Hahahahaha!

  6. Sarah says

    Following! I thought it was just me. I’m right there with you Shay. All of it. “I’m hungry”
    what feels like every two minutes rings in my ears ALL SUMMER! Also the weekends.

    I have also tried the little bins with snacks one summer and the whole concept/idea only lasted a week.

    Thank you for sharing and posting!

  7. Tracy says

    This is such a sore subject at our house! I’ve been trying to buy less snack food in general for health reasons, but my girls think they’re being punished! Some things they like though are frozen grapes (must try if you haven’t), homemade popsicles (we usually use leftover smoothie), Chobani yogurt drinks, fruit snacks, PBJ snack duos (I think) from TJs. Also, I’ve started buying Premier Protein shakes and my older girls will grab one mid afternoon or after practice. I love them because they only have 1g of sugar!

  8. Sheaffer Sims says

    YES on the asking about a snack thing! We realized that Carter was doing this too, and I was like DUDE! Just get the water! Get the crackers! I cannot imagine with 4 kids asking.

  9. Julie says

    We love popcorn around here! Always a good snack and you can’t be unhappy when popcorn is around? The other day, my youngest made “breakfast popsicles” where he poured his morning juice into popsicle molds. He eats with breakfast sometimes but would also be a good snack. I’m also noticing new mini “charcuterie” packages at the grocery store, TJ’s etc. It could be ritz crackers with cheese cubes, or one had chocolate covered pretzels with meat and cheese slices.

    Can’t believe it’s almost summer for you! Are the kids in camp?

    • Mix and Match Mama says

      Like overnight camp? Kensington is going to overnight church camp for this first time this year, but the little three won’t start until after they’ve completed sixth grade. She’s so pumped!

        • Mix and Match Mama says

          My little girls have a week of day camp and then all four kids have some sort of district sports camp (for 3 or 4 days). Those are the only camps we’re doing this summer.

  10. Jeanie says

    If your children are at a healthy weight and active then I don’t understand limiting food as in putting a small amount of food in a bin. As an adult I eat when I’m hungry. My children are grown up now but I always wanted them to eat when hungry too so they followed their own body’s hunger cues and not just ate out of habit.
    Summer always meant a lot of snacks and I just made sure I kept my fridge stocked with lots of cut up veggies and hummus, fruit, cheese, lean protein, pasta salad, nuts, yogurt, small sandwiches, popcorn. It was a lot of work but preparing a veggie tray or fruit tray in the morning meant there was always something healthy to pull out for them to snack on. ?

    • Mix and Match Mama says

      I don’t mind them eating snacks, but I don’t want them grazing all day long just because it’s there and they’re bored. I also want them not super full when their three meals a day are served too and not full from snacky foods.

      • Erika says

        I agree. My kids will eat when bored (don’t we all?). Limiting food isn’t starving a child just like giving them access to food all day isn’t healthy either.

        • Tiff says

          It’s a great way to teach self control and how to make wise food choices too!

        • Natalie says

          Yes for sure mine totally do it out of boredom bc noticed my 4 year old wasn’t eating meals and realized duh it’s the go gurts she’s in out of fridge for all day and she’s a healthy weight. All the dairy gave her tummy issues too but I like the bin idea!

      • Jennifer says

        Let’s talk about the picky eaters that only believes in packaged snacks!???‍♀️???‍♀️

  11. Caroline says

    We use the snack bins! I have a 5 and 7 year old and we used them all year for virtual learning. Now that school is back in session, I still use them for after school and weekends. We are going to a lake house this summer with 2 other families and we are planning on using the snack bin system for all the kids to avoid the annoying constant snacking requests!

    When my kids were home all day, I put one “treat” (mini pack of M+Ms or a chocolate chip cookie or something like that), one packaged snack (bar or bag of goldfish), 2 fruits (clementine and apple slices), 2 veggies (cherry tomatoes and carrot sticks) and one protein (hard boiled egg or hummus). Sounds like a lot of food right? They eat the entire bin every day!! I have one child who eats the whole bin in two installments- morning snack and afternoon snack. And my other nibbles throughout the whole day.

    Now that they go to school, they come home to a bin with a snack already made. They know they cannot ask for anything else until dinner. I do allow them to help me pick what goes in the bin and they can request in the morning if they want something specific after school. Works well!

  12. Joanne says

    Homeschooling we have a schedule that looks like your summer schedule year round and there are a million memes that poke fun at what an adjustment that would be for homeschooling kids to go to school and only get to eat at designated times what little food they could carry.

    We keep three rather large Tupperware containers in our fridge with cut up pineapple, watermelon, grapes, sliced strawberries, etc. (whatever was on sale or in season that we felt like eating at the time) so there is always plenty of grab and go healthy options available. They know they can eat unlimited fruit and veggies and only 2 junky snacks a day so they pace themselves pretty well at this point.

  13. katherine Darlington says

    I think kids go through growth spurts and need to eat when they feel it. Also did they eat a big meal the day before? I don’t like the idea of limiting the snacks. Maybe just limit the less-healthy items but if they want 4 pieces of fruit or carrots? Why limit that? Adults go through periods where we’re hungry too.

    • Amy says

      I agree. I don’t like the limiting of only 2 or 3 snacks a day and that’s all they get. I do like the unlimited fruits and veggies, etc with a couple of not-so-healthy options.

  14. Lindsay says

    I’m at stay at home mom to a 4 year old and 20 month old. I constantly refer to them as my snack monsters. I would love to see a blog post at some point on your summer routine with the kids! What fun activities do y’all do? I’m a firm believer in routines, structure, and fun so any ideas to keep it interesting, I’ll take! 🙂

    • Mix and Match Mama says

      Oh me too!!!!! We basically still have a very similar routine from when they were super little. I work out/work in the morning and then typically around 11:00ish we go do something (lots and lots of swimming with friends!) until around 3:30 when we come back home and I work more while the kids chill a bit.

  16. Dana P says

    During confinement last year, we started watching YouTube mid-morning for educational videos like those by Hopscotch. We have such sweet memories of it! We would make a little mixed bowl of popcorn, then add mango or another dried fruit, some little covered nuts of some sort (chocolate, lemon, or coconut almonds, etc.), and those little coconut roll-up cookie things from Costco. The kids could pick the videos (with lots of cute songs to memorize things like the 5 oceans!) and make the bowls…we need to start doing it again. ?

  17. Sylvia says

    I like your idea of having healthy snacks that are easy to grab better than controlling what they eat each day like the FB mom suggested. Controlling food only leads to problems later on in my opinion. Take control out of it and encourage the kids to stay busy and it should all work out! Having a fruit bowl or veggie tray on the counter also worked for me. Seeing it out in the open encouraged them to reach for those things!

  18. Kristen Harlan says

    I use the snack basket method and it works perfectly. They choose 3 snacks for the day and have the manage on their own when they eat them. However, raw veggies (no dip) are always allowed – no matter how many snacks you’ve had, and NOTHING after 4:00. And love your snack ideas!!

  19. Jeannie M Bruce says

    I do a big grocery shop for my fruits and veggies for the week. I sit on Monday nights and prepare them all, including washing peeling and cutting. I break most of them down into single serving size containers and then put them in the pull out drawer of my fridge. I also try and roast off a big pack of chicken breasts with simple seasonings as well and then chop them up into smaller pieces so salads are easy to make. My son is 5 and knows that pretty much any time he can go and grab a healthy snack from the fridge and eat it without asking. I even try and put the dips with the veggies, like a small container of ranch in with the carrots so everything is convenient and easy for all of us. I am more likely to grab the carrots or watermelon if its grab and go ready instead of digging for that unhealthy snack.

  20. Heather says

    I have heard about hanging a shoe organizer on the back of the pantry door and filling it with individual snacks that the kids can grab. Gonna try that and grab a clear bin for the fridge for refrigerated snacks!

  22. Nikki S says

    We do free snacks and special snacks! They can have unlimited free snacks (yogurt, cheese, fruit, veggies etc…) and then special snacks they have to ask for or they can have a certain allotment which I leave on the counter with a post it (cookies, crackers, popsicles, ice cream etc…). My biggest pet peeve is cups! You get one cup per day and you are responsible for washing it throughout the day if you have something other than water in it.N

  23. Erika says

    The snack bin idea works so well.

    Before eating schedule, My boys are 9&7 and will eat ALL day if they’re just home bored. Then dinner comes and they don’t want to eat and right at bedtime they’re starving. ?

    My friend also did it a different ways where snacks were categorized by colors. You can have one from the red, two from the blue, etc and kids could build their own snack bundles from the colors offered. Colors because then nothing is “good or bad” but options to allow for what they wanted that day!

  24. Kate says

    Buy the hard boiled egg maker from target!! You will not regret it. Perfect every time!

  25. Katie A says

    Each morning as a “chore” my kids fill up a water bottle or cup with water. That’s theirs for the day. They just drink on that one and fill it up if needed. It’s easy to grab and I don’t have a million cups at the end if the day! They also drink more water because it’s out!! I make sure to have snacks where they can just grab, my rule is I’ll help breakfast, lunch and dinner in between that they’re on their own!

  26. Bree says

    I liked the system that a family I nannied for used (similar to what you described above).

    Each kid had a bin for 2 packaged snacks that they could have per day- and they got to choose their 2 the night before.

    There was also a bin of “freebies” which were snacks they were allowed to have any time (they used fruit and veggies for this) and as much as they wanted.

    Their reasoning was that they wanted the kids to have an option if they were genuinely hungry but not just let them eat as many packaged snacks as they wanted.

  27. Casey says

    I feel like in the middle of every week I still have plenty for meals, but need to go on just a snack run. They eat so much!! And yep, I should probably teach my kids to just get food when they are hungry. ?

  28. Priscilla says

    Have you ever had a Dash rapid egg cooker? You can cook six eggs at a time, and they are perfect hard boiled eggs. You can purchase them from lots of different places.

  29. Aimee says

    My kids (7 and 9) are always asking me for food related things too! Water/snack etc. Sometimes I don’t mind, but more of than not I’m like “Get some water already!” In the summer, I do set out a basket for each of them with snacks. I do about 3-4 snacks a day. It seems to work well. They know they don’t have to ask so they just grab and go. School time they can eat a snack until 4:00, after that time no snacks just because that’s closer to dinner time and I swear they will eat an entire “snack” meal and not save room for dinner. Ha. I highly recommend a snack basket for each of them. It works!!

  30. Tessa Stow says

    So true about eating ALL DAY LONG!! When we had to stay home for COVID I told my son- listen we are still in school- I need you to have a school appetite and not a summer appetite during this time. HAHA

  31. Elisabeth says

    I never jumped on the snack wagon when my kids were little.

    I didn’t grow up with snacks – you ate three meals a day at specified times. We would have had treats occasionally, but they were never planned or scheduled. I just didn’t think about food much in between meals (I did, however, grow up with VERY large portion sizes at each meal + a dessert for lunch and supper).

    I LOVED no snacking when my kids were little. It set my daughter up for such great eating habits at meal times. Then she went to preschool…where they fed her a snack RIGHT before pickup at 4:30. I think it was to allow working parents enough time to prepare a meal from scratch once they got home, but it meant she was never hungry for supper. Sooo frustrating. She was tired and ready for bed after a busy day in preschool, but yet hadn’t eaten enough food at supper time to tide her over until morning.

    Now I have two elementary-age kiddos and school expects us to send TONS of snacks; we’re actually back to doing online learning and they have specified snack breaks, so I feel guilted in to having snacks.

    My kids only get a granola bar or some fruit or some nuts/raisins and I try to limit it to just a morning snack (they do eat a small dessert with lunch 3-4 times/week) but I still just really wish the snacking thing wasn’t such a common theme now. If we’re out on a hike and they’re legit hungry I’m all for it, but after an hour of sitting doing schoolwork after a filling breakfast, it feels like they’re simply being programmed to want food between meals now, as opposed to feeding in to hunger cues. For example: my kids NEVER tell me they’re “hungry” between meals, they’ll just say “can I have a snack.”

    Sigh. Rant over!

  32. LINDA says

    A bin of ready made snacks is always a great idea. Anything ready to grab, anywhere. Since my girl was little, she loves popsicles (and icee’s). So i started giving them to her for breakfast with ger morning juices, not junky food dye syrups. Obviously the popsicles are a grab & go. To this day, she can have a popsicle anytime of day or night she wants. She most always has one for breakfast, at home or on the go. They arent just a snack or a treat. Its an easy and fun way to have your juice. Also, rice krispies (homemade) qualify as breakfast too, not just a snack or treat. My girl is 15.5 years now, and all the little kid food ideas still go today. Why not? I am more firm on some food situations, but most of it really is no big deal…especially in the grand scheme of things.

    Also, fyi for a different treat…(or breakfast…haha)….ice cream tacos are a fave. Waffles lightly toasted, add vanilla ice cream ( or other flavor), chocolate syrup (or other flavor) and whip cream. So yummy and fun.

  34. Natalie says

    Oh my word this is so relatable but I homeschool so this. Is. 24/7!! I need a lock on my fridge ?

  35. Kerrie says

    My bet is your kids are hungrier because they are more active in the summer. Nothing makes my kids hungrier than swimming and it seems like you spend a lot of time doing that! We do use the daily bins and they have been working well for us. We pack them the night before – basically replaces lunch prep that we do during the school year – and I don’t have to think about snacks until the next day when we are refilling. We pack 3-4 options (usually a cracker of some kind, a piece of fruit, a yogurt /cheese/hardboiled egg, and a protein bar), and it is so nice to not hear, “Mom, I’m hungry. Mom, I want a snack” 47x a day. The bins are in our garage fridge so they have to be/go outside to access them. I like to keep extra fruit and veggies prepped and on hand too – often pull them out while I am fixing dinner to keep the wolves from nipping my heels. I don’t lose sleep if my kids fill up on carrots or strawberries and don’t clean their dinner plate.

  36. Kathy Thompson says

    I found that my 4 kids, especially when they were teens, grew more in the summer so needed extra food. I learned that children grow more while they are sleeping, and our teens slept more in the summer, thus they grew more.
    It is astonishing how much food a teenage boy can eat!! Our sons, all healthy weights, during puberty gained about 15 pounds a year! That growth required a lot of extra, healthy food. 🙂 Our daughter did not have this growth spurt weight gain, nor do I remember her eating as much as her brothers!!

Subscribe via Email

Copyright © 2023 Mix & Match Mama | Privacy Policy