My youngest daughter recently started kindergarten. She has been a rock star with the transition. I have a fourth grader who has been in charge of packing her own lunch for a few years now, so I was excited to pack a lunch and snacks again.
Snacks Are Fun!
I love packing lunches and snacks for my girl. I feel like I can let my creativity flow. The goal is for the snack and lunch box to both come back empty—not always the case when you have a picky eater.
I found out a few days before school started that my daughter’s classroom was nut free. Also, all snacks should be able to be eaten without any utensils. In addition, the snacks need to be “brain food.”
Hmmmmm…
Ok. So, I enjoy packing my girl’s lunches and snacks, but not quite as much when I have to put great effort into the food itself.
Cutting a cantaloupe is out of the question for me on a school morning. And I will not be cutting shapes out of the cheese with a cookie cutter.
A few days ago, I saw a picture on Pinterest of a snack that had three parts to it. Things were rolled and skewered and twisted. That’s amazing, but it will not be happening in my household.
Really, what it comes down to is that I’m a little lazy and I want easy. I also hate waste, so I prefer not to buy prepackaged snacks. I had a bit of a challenge in front of me with this snack packing. Luckily, I don’t shy away from a challenge. Let’s do this!
The Requirements
- Nut free
- Do not require utensils
- “Brain Food” (little sugar)
- Easy to pack, minimal preparation
- Preferably no wrapper to throw away
The Short List of Foods
- Apple slices
- Banana
- Beef Jerky
- Berries (any of them)
- Cheese slices
- Cherry tomatoes
- Crackers with meat (like salami or pepperoni) or cheese slices
- Cuties
- Grapes
- Banana
- Mini Larabars
- Mini sweet peppers
- Olives
- Pear slices
- Pepperoni
- Pickles
- Pita chips
- Popcorn
- Pretzels
- Raisins
- Rice cakes
- Salami
- Snap peas