Snack recs to feed children
My daughter started at a new school part time this week. The biggest struggle with her starting at this school in particular is that they provide breakfast, lunch and snacks. I hate that. I don't want her eating anything they offer, honestly. Why? Because I know it will have non-organic ingredients and additives that we usually avoid and I know they're not offering nutritionally balanced snacks. The good news is, they're cool with me sending her own snacks and lunch, but I wasn't very adamant about "hey, no, I actually want her to ONLY eat her snacks and lunch- not yours". So, the first few days, she had whatever they provided and her lunchbox came home completely full.
What did I notice? A) Libby came home wanting a ton of food. She was hungry. So, this tells me that she either wasn't eating much (which is doubtful) or that whatever she was eating was spiking her blood sugar and causing a blood sugar crash that left her feeling "hangry". I try to balance all of her meals and snacks to have a blood sugar balancing effect. B) She already has a "diaper rash". You're probably thinking, "oh they just aren't changing her diaper or are using fragranced wipes on her" but that's not the case. They log everything they do during the day and they're changing her diaper plenty, using her diapers that we use at home and they use fragrance free wipes (come on, you know that I asked about that one). Therefore, it's gotta be what she is eating.
One of the most common questions I get is what snacks do I feed myself and my family- especially my toddler. Like I said above, I try to give Libby balanced meals and snacks that do not have junky ingredients that will impair her gut health. The same is true for what Erik and I eat. So, this blog post is going to give you an idea of ingredients we avoid and snacks we eat!
****Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or a healthcare provider, so this is not medical advice. I am a trained health coach with a certification in nutrition. This post contains affiliate links meaning I may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using these links. I only recommend products I love and trust. To see our full disclosure, click here.
Ingredients We Avoid
I just made a free PDF list of ingredients we avoid that you can screen shot and save on your phone so it's easy to refer to! I made this list because it is a great place to start for avoiding ingredients that are hard to digest and have toxic chemicals. This list also includes common names that these ingredients go by on ingredient lists, so essentially it is dumby proof!
How to Have a Nutritionally Balanced Snack and Meal
Whenever I drop Libby off at school, they're always serving breakfast. Here's what I have seen the past 3 days that is being served for breakfast: 1. A biscuit (carbs) and a clementine (carbs) 2. Mini pancakes with no syrup (carbs) and kiwis (carbs) 3. Grits (carbs) and strawberries (carbs). Essentially, they're eating all carbs for breakfast. I commend them for including real fruit, though. This is what some nutritionists would call a "naked carb". We never eat naked carbs at our house. Instead, we balance our meals and snacks with a carb, protein and a healthy fat.
Typically for breakfast, we try to make it as high protein and low carb as possible- you can read about our focus for breakfast here. Libby's favorite right now is a yogurt (we are having Siggi's brand right now because it has the least amount of added sugar, however, it is not organic which bums me out) and a chicken sausage (nitrate free, of course). This is high protein, adequate fat and low carb. Therefore, it will fuel Libby throughout the morning without giving her a blood sugar crash that will leave her feeling irritable and tired.
I care about blood sugar balance because this is essential for optimal function throughout all of the systems in our bodies. It regulates every system that we have- nervous system, hormonal system, cognitive thinking and so on. Also, since I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant, Libby and I both are extremely likely to develop type 2 diabetes later on in life if we do not monitor what we eat properly. Ever since I have eaten this way, I have had the most stable weight of my life while not having to count calories, which is a load of BS anyways in my opinion. If you’re interested in learning how to balance blood sugar, check out my course I created!
When you're thinking about a snack or meal, ask yourself this: does it have enough protein? Every meal is recommended to have at least 30 grams of protein.
As a general rule of thumb, if I am going to eat a packaged snack, I make sure that the carb content doesn't outweigh the protein content. If the packaged snack has 13 grams of carbs and has 1 gram of protein, I am either not going to eat that snack or I will eat a meat stick with it to balance out the carb content with a protein. My go-to meat stick option is Chomps or Paleovalley. This will help ensure that your blood sugar doesn't spike astronomically and then crash. P.S. blood sugar spikes contribute to weight gain, so balancing this will help you not to gain weight.
Food Items & Balanced snacks We Eat
Breakfast Items
Yogurt- we get organic, whole milk Greek yogurt (typically from Aldi) or the Siggi's brand I mentioned above. Beware- other yogurts can have a ton of added sugars or gums. Ya don't want that!
Sausage- we get organic, nitrate free chicken sausage (typically from Aldi or Publix). Always, always, always opt for nitrate free!
Protein Shake- I love having a protein shake every few mornings. BUT, I only use a certain brand and that is Truvani. I like to add collagen from Perfect Supplements to it, too. I typically use about 6 ounces of almond milk (typically Malk brand because it is made of 3 ingredients, no gums and has no added sugar) and then 6 ounces of filtered water and just blend up the protein and collagen in there.
Lunch Items
We typically meal prep lunch for all of us but here's a few ideas that we make for Libby from time to time that are easy and convenient.
Taco Quesadilla- we use Siete brand tortillas (found in the freezer section at the store), grass fed organic block cheese that we shred ourselves (no anti-clumping agents if you shred it yourself), and then premade taco meat (grass fed ground beef and an organic taco seasoning pack). A note about the tortillas: they do have xanthan gum in them that we normally avoid, but this is the cleanest tortilla option I have found so far.
Meatballs- I just recorded a quick video about how I make these that has the recipe in the caption, but these are our GO TO! Libby LOVES these! They reheat really great (we use a stainless steel pan instead of the microwave- you can read why we don't use a microwave in my blog post about EMF here)
Peanut Butter Sandwich- this is probably the least "healthy" thing we will give her for lunch but sometimes convenience is key. If we do this, we use sourdough bread that I made (3 ingredients and organic, so no glyphosate on the grains) and then an organic peanut butter. Note: a lot of peanut butters, even organic ones, can be made with harsh seed oils like palm oil. Don't get those. Get ones that are literally JUST made with peanuts! We will serve this with a meat stick to help balance out the carb content.
Balanced Snacks we eat
*These are clickable!
Apple + Nut Butter + Hemp Seeds- great balance here and is easy and delicious!
Simple Mills Cheddar Crackers or Pop Mmm's- great substitute for Cheez-Its or Goldfish!
Meat Sticks- like I said above, we get Chomps brand the most.
Organic Fruit/Veggie Pouches- there's been some hate on these things lately but according to the EWG website, they're very low risk so we buy these.
Skout Organics Bars- Libby is obsessed with these things. You can enroll in an autoship thing from their website and it's a reduced price, so we get them sent to us once a month. If we don't need it, we skip the next shipment. Get 20% off your first order!
Simple Mills Bars- great option for a quick, on the go "breakfast bar" kind of deal.
Simple Mills Sweet Thins- great substitute for Teddy Grahams! They have regular or chocolate and they're GOOOOOD.
Solely Fruit Gummies- great substitute for ANY gummies. These have 3 ingredients and are made from mangoes. Libby is OBSESSED with these things and they're delicious!
Organic Fruit- duh. Balance it appropriately!
Chips- we do not typically buy chips... But if we do, it's normally Siete tortilla chips or a chip from Thrive Market that is made with avocado oil instead of harsh seed oils.
Simple Mills Sandwich Cookies- we don't typically buy cookies either, but these are a great alternative to Oreos!
Nuts- Libby loves pumpkin seeds and cashews!
We get most of our snacks from Thrive Market! You can click here to order your first order for 40% off! I love their diapers, too!
That's pretty much all of the quick snacks we keep on hand for our toddler, Libby. If you have a question about whether a snack has toxic ingredients, a good reference is the EWG website or using their app- HealthyLiving.
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