Before I became a mom, I had no concept of how much of my day would be taken up with preparing, serving, and cleaning up from meals and snacks. It seems that every time I turn around, one of my two boys (ages 4 years and 8 months) needs to eat! So, I’m always on the look-out for healthy, inexpensive, easy-to-prepare foods.
In the summer, it seems like there is even less time to spend prepping and cooking. Just a simple, quick trip to the park in the morning can result in a lunchtime emergency when we all come in the door hot and hungry. Does anyone else run into this problem??? I have started to prepare lunchtime sandwiches and fruit at the same time I’m working on the mid-morning snack, so that I can pull out the sandwiches right when we come home from our morning outing.
A few of my favorite kid meals/snacks are
- plain oatmeal (old fashioned or instant), jazzed up with peanut butter, honey, etc.
- eggs in all their forms, but mostly scrambled because it’s so easy.
- cut up fruit (apples, bananas, grapes)
- baby carrots with dip
- whole wheat pasta with olive oil & parmesan cheese
- (Don’t throw me under the bus here) Lean Pockets, because they’re filling and have reasonable calorie and fat counts, though are pretty high in sodium
- Peanut butter sandwich, of course!, on whole wheat bread
- Grilled cheese on whole wheat
- Whole wheat mac & cheese with a bag of frozen veggies mixed in
Please post your favorites to the comments!
