My turn to take snack for the soccer team. I hate taking snack. Do you actually like taking a snack? Don’t get me wrong, I am known as “The Snack Queen.” But I don’t like it. (Please make sure and read the whole post. I am full of love and affection, not just sarcasm. But I am dripping today.)
♥ I don’t like that I have to work so dastardly hard to make a whole foods snack fun. (How can I make this apple just as appealing as Oreo cookies? Hmmm. Let me think. Let me think. Apple fritters. No, that won’t work. Apple pie. No. And think…)
♥ I don’t like the extra trip to the grocery store. (Oh, shoot. It’s our turn for snack. Just when is that going to fit into our day?)
♥ I don’t like seeing kids waste the grapes I brought. (Hey, those things are organic! I feed your kids nothing less than the best!)
♥ I don’t like snacks interfering with lunch and dinner. (“I just can’t understand why Sammie won’t eat his meatloaf and peas. He just doesn’t eat anything.” Yeah, right.)
♥ I don’t like that kids always have food in hand. (It’s 8 o’clock. Breakfast. 10 o’clock. Snack. 12 o’clock. Lunch. 2 o’clock. Snack. 4 o’clock. Snack. 6 o’clock. Supper. 8 o’clock. Snack. Hey, if you need medical reassurance that it’s okay to just feed your child three hearty meals a day with just one snack, I’m here to provide it.)
♥ I don’t like the covertly competitive nature of snacks. (You know what I mean, moms.)
♥ And yes, I don’t like the snacks you bring. (And I heard YOU whining about some mom looking at the label, worried about her kid’s food intolerances.)
But here it is. A nice way to package any whole food and make it just as much fun as an Oreo cookie. If I catch you Pinnin’ this and puttin’ Oreo cookies in there, I will…I will hunt you down. I will stare you in the face. And I will–
CRY.
How to Package Any Whole Food For Soccer or Any Other Snack-Requiring Event
- Make baseballs, volleyballs, softballs, tennis balls. Make spider webs, pumpkins, sunshines, bugs.
- Fill with grapes, mandarin oranges, frozen blueberries, cut strawberries, raisins, trail mix, almonds, tiny baby carrots. Not Goldfish. Not fruit snacks.
- Don’t be makin’ fun of my soccer balls down here. I had three helping hands, and they did GREAT!
Items Used:
Those are Solo 3 and 1/4 ounces plastic “soufflé cups with lids.” Any smaller, and you won’t be fitting any snack in there. I bought them at a “Cash and Carry” store that services caterers. I looked, and you can get them on-line. This is not what I used, but it looks the same: Reditainer Plastic Cups.
And that’s the end of the soccer story for this year.
PS: I am the daughter of a woman who always made sure my teams and classes had snacks, albeit NOT nourishing ones. I always thought my mom was so cool because she was there for me and added those loving touches. So I am inwardly searching to keep my “snack revolution” in-line with the specialness that snacks can and do add to a child’s life.
Peace, love, and joy to you and your life.
Terri
The HSD 
this is great. thank you for this post and sharing these great ideas
I am happy to share the product of my suffering. (Wink.)
😀
I love this idea! I think I’m going to do this! Packaging is always the key (most of the time). If it looks cool, my kids will eat it. I hope! Pinning!
Packaging! That is the truth! Ever get the most fabulously decorated sugar cookie as a kid, only to be disappointed it tasted like sawdust? I have. Pin it–and use it. No cooking required! Happy thoughts your way, Vanilla Housewife (you know I have to say it—I love your “name.”)
Now see? That food is fun! It didn’t hurt, did it? And I think your assistants did a great job with the soccer balls.
Thanks! It took self-control to not shoo them away to make the balls look “perfect!”
Haha you sure are dripping!!! Love this idea, though we don’t snack 🙂 No fruit, or anything else ‘health’ between meals.
Ummm. You are too radical. I thought I told you kindly to not come back to my site. (Folks, I am joking.) I’d ask you if you’re serious about no snacks, but then you’d have to come back. Are you serious about no snacks? Ok. Americans get heart palpitations reading my blog, they’d really whig out about your stance!
LOL! I am serious!! It did takes us a while to get there, but you find you don’t need them if you eat a lot of fat and protein with your meals. And you can’t keep me away!!!
🙂
These are so cute!! The time you took to make them look fun is totally worth it! I’ve been thinking to myself I’m going to print off pictures of my stepdaughter’s favorite characters and attach them to the boxes of organic foods I want her to or baggies of fruits I prepare. I only get her 48 hours every other weekend and 4 hours one day each week… so lots of habits are formed where I have no control. With my illness, taking time to make things that look like her faves but are secretly healthful isn’t really an option, so often I feed her foods I will not feed her once I am healthy again.
We go to the store together, her happily on my lap in the scooter, and I notice how even plain old Jiff peanut butter has bright colors and looks more exciting than my glass jarred organic peanut butter. She notices too and points out how she eats “the kind with the blue lid at home”. I smile and say, “Oh do you? Well good thing we have some of that at home.” and don’t say, “and we still have some, BECAUSE I NEVER FEED YOU IT”. LOL. Grrr.. Seriously, if an organic company just put a damn pony or dinosaur or caterpillar ANYTHING other than brown or green on their label, I think I’d die of happiness. This company makes vegetable-fruit juice that is organic and very low in sugar. It has a T-Rex on it. She is thrilled with her “dinosaur juice” and prefers it over the Capri Sun simply because of the picture. It’s not that hard! They even manage to make the organic oreos (I know, I know, bad, but if she’s gonna have them at least they’re organic and natural), look boring!
—- rant over —- 🙂
You are right! I never stopped to think about how boring their labels are! Why? That’s counterproductive! Doesn’t make any sense! It’s the kids I have to convince to keep on board this “honest food” boat! I was shopping alone tonight, and I had time to look at all the labels. I checked out all the cookies and stuff, just in case there was something I thought might pass muster. And those cookies were in a tan, plain package! That’s really silly! Anyhow, packaging does seem to be everything. So I keep lots of stickers, markers, little cute containers, toothpicks, etc very handy right there in the kitchen drawer. They like it. That makes me feel good. Have a great weekend!
What a coincidence to read this post today: it’s my snack
day tomorrow at school. I am sending organic apples from my own
back yard :). ziplock bags. no fanciness. after all, it’s that or
nothing till lunch. and if some kid decides to skip, oh well, they
will eat more at lunch, right? win win
That’s right! A fall apple fresh picked locally is perfection itself!