Running Out Of Food, Too Many Snack Times

[mac60]

If I was to serve many of the foods that are listed on this thread, I would first be broke, and I would second be disposing most of it in the trash. I too don't feed processed foods like tater tops, french fries, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, etc. Many of the foods mentioned I can't even afford for my own family let alone feeding it to a dc kid only to put it in the trash. Fresh fruits are very expensive, cheese is expensive, whole grain breads are expensive when you compare them to a loaf of white for .79 at Aldi or $1 at Walmart. I have had this conversation with my neighbors about foods, cost, etc. Eating the foods mentioned in this thread and serving daily to a group of kids, is expensive. Maybe you all get much higher rates and can afford it, not here at $85 for a ft kid.

Typical lunches here:
Homemade chicken n noodles, corn, peaches
Mac and cheese, peanut butter sandwich, green beans
Tuna and noodles, corn, applesauce
Picnic lunch of peanut butter sandwich, chips, fruit
Hot dogs, corn, fruit
Pancakes, sausages, fruit

Lunch is just that, lunch, not the biggest meal of the day. I was raised that dinner/supper is the main meal of each day, and that is how I do my meals. No one has ever left my home hungry unless they chose not to eat what I fixed.

[melskids]

Here the current favorite snacks are:

1. Bite sized raw veggies (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower) with ranch dipping sauce. I often serve these in the restaurant style paper envelopes you see french fries served in with the dip in little paper cups. (bettymills.com) Kids like packaging, I am not too proud to bribe.

2. Homemade trail mix with 5-grain Cheerios, raisins, sunflower seeds, assorted dried fruits, and a few M&M'S for color. Again, serve in silly packaging like clearance party treat bags if you can.

3. Ham, cheese, baby spinach and flour tortilla rollups. (I use a bit of olive oil mayo). Wrap them in tissue paper so the kids "open" them themselves...

4. Homemade fruit smoothies (berries, bananas, ice, milk in the blender) Occasionally I will even add ovaltine or carnation instant breakfast if I need them to stay fuller longer (DCM called and is running late, but will be here before my family has dinner). If you serve these in paper cups with straws you get less resistance..."think milkshake"

5. Frozen fruit kabobs (Sliced apples, bananas, grapes, melon, pineapple on Popsicle sticks, frozen). Works even better if you want to give them a bit of caramel dip.

6. Fruit pops (whole fruits and juice blended together and frozen in Popsicle forms) HUGE hit if served on the playground.

7. Standard "Ants on logs". Celery with peanut butter and raisins. Best served cold. Lot's of kids get these at home because their Mom's had them as kids, too, so it is less of a battle.

8. Homemade Frozen Yogurt. (Vanilla yogurt blended with diced berries and spooned into ice cream cones with sprinkles on top, frozen before serving)

9. Bran muffins (baked in cupcake cups with cream cheese as "frosting" with a few sprinkles) served with sliced peaches.

Get creative....even sneaky if you have to until they develop a taste for these healthier choices.

Tofu ranch - hidden valley packets blended with tofu and sour cream - make a batch and freeze in thirds - thaw the night before and stir before serving (soft tofu, cheap in the boxes, also freezes well, buy on sale)

Serve with crackers, veggies....


Roast beef slice sour cream rolls....salty and spirally - more of a grown up flavor profile-
spread the sour cream ( or cream cheese at room temp on thin roast beef, roll and slice)

Green cheese ( Benedictine) Cucumbers and onion blended with sour cream or cream cheese and salted (seasoned with celery salt, maybe)
serve with celery or carrots or black bean chips.

Never underestimate the power of the black bean chips!

Make your own foods - mini pizzas, rolls or wraps, peanut butter faces ( soy nut butter, others...)

Nutella. Or make your own with Carnation Chocolate drink mix and a nut butter of your choice.

Stock up on beans, nuts, cheese, and sneak protein in all the foods you can - tofu can hop in a muffin recipe, a smoothie, veggie spaghetti sauce....and it is good for you!
Mexican bean dip, baked beans, beans and ham soup, split pea soup, maybe a hummus (chick peas- garlic - olive oil and lemon) ...

You might try serving a white rice as often as possible - filling and cheap.

You really need a blender or food processor to win with most of these ideas.

If you are looking for easy stuff to stock - find a bulk deal on soy nuts, raisins, make some cereal mix snacks - watch sales, go to the farmer's market,

And - on a non-protein note....look for deals on the fruits - watermelons are getting cheap, other melons, and try doing a salad bar type thing at lunch...(less waste more choice)

I am thinking boredom is a factor, and also that labor is an issue too.....
Consider an international theme cycle?

My own kiddo is a non-eater. I have struggled.

thanks for the snack ideas....we are running out of ideas here for snacks...and are getting VERY bored with the same old thing....i'm going to try a few of these next week!!!

And catherder is right...sometimes if you "package" the food, the kiddos will eat it.

"dip" goes in cute little containers i found at the $ store. kids will eat anything if you give them dip.

i package yogurt in individual containers to get my kids to eat it, i will NOT buy gogurts, or some of those other "sugar creams" they try to pass off as yogurt

i also wrap sandwiches and wraps in tissue paper to make them look fancy

[rhymia1]

If I was to serve many of the foods that are listed on this thread, I would first be broke, and I would second be disposing most of it in the trash. I too don't feed processed foods like tater tops, french fries, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, etc. Many of the foods mentioned I can't even afford for my own family let alone feeding it to a dc kid only to put it in the trash. Fresh fruits are very expensive, cheese is expensive, whole grain breads are expensive when you compare them to a loaf of white for .79 at Aldi or $1 at Walmart. I have had this conversation with my neighbors about foods, cost, etc. Eating the foods mentioned in this thread and serving daily to a group of kids, is expensive. Maybe you all get much higher rates and can afford it, not here at $85 for a ft kid.

Typical lunches here:
Homemade chicken n noodles, corn, peaches
Mac and cheese, peanut butter sandwich, green beans
Tuna and noodles, corn, applesauce
Picnic lunch of peanut butter sandwich, chips, fruit
Hot dogs, corn, fruit
Pancakes, sausages, fruit

Lunch is just that, lunch, not the biggest meal of the day. I was raised that dinner/supper is the main meal of each day, and that is how I do my meals. No one has ever left my home hungry unless they chose not to eat what I fixed.

One of the things I do to cut down on waste is to serve my meals "family style." I use measuring cups as serving spoons. The children know they can take a little, they can fill the spoon or they don't have to take anything. Leftovers are boxed up and either used later for my families dinner, or later in the week for another DC meal. I, too, hate to see food go in the garbage. If a child "over serves" themselves they are not allowed to take anything else until they have eaten what's on their plate - they put it there after all. They rarely do that more than once.

To be honest, I would look into parents providing the food if it seems like such a struggle.

[mac60]

I never said it was a struggle, and I would never allow my young group of kids serve themselves family style. I can't see that working for many reasons.

[PitterPatter]

I serve every meal of the day plus 2 snacks.

Breakfast 8:00am

AM snack 10:00am

Lunch 12:00pm

PM snack 3:00pm

Dinner 5:00pm

I do get the food program but they only cover 2 meals and 1 snack or 2 snacks and 1 meal. So 2 I always pay for out of pocket and I only get $15 - $20 per day per kid. It is hard I know it.

As for snacks I try to keep the sugar out as well but I do make the muffins, banana bread, zuchini bread and such once or twice a week. We do fruit kebabs, apples and PB, ants on a log, veggies and ranch dip, fruit slices and yogurt, Hard boiled eggs, and some wraps. Maybe try to make snack time more fun for those who dont have an interest. Like use a cookie cutter to cut pineapple slices and let the kids cut shapes out of a PB& J sammy. Even the wraps u can leave flat and help the kids cut shapes out of the tortilla with cheese and turkey or whatever filling u may use. Try setting fruit and veggies out as a buffet style with dif yogurt choices, PB, Jelly, honey, anything that they can dip they have fun with.

[rhymia1]

I never said it was a struggle, and I would never allow my young group of kids serve themselves family style. I can't see that working for many reasons.

For younger children, I assist.
My kids have grown up with it and it works well. I am of the "garbage in, garbage out" school of thought so it's worth it to spend a bit more on good food.

[jessrlee]

I never said it was a struggle, and I would never allow my young group of kids serve themselves family style. I can't see that working for many reasons.

Mac- I'm sure you answered this, but do you do the food program?



Have you tried saltines? I know they aren't the healthiest but saltine crackers will take the edge off till the next meal.

[heyhun77]

I never said it was a struggle, and I would never allow my young group of kids serve themselves family style. I can't see that working for many reasons.

I have done mostly family style for as long as I've been open (7 years) and all children who sit at the table participate in family style serving. They don't do it on their own when they're 12-18 months but I do it hand-over-hand so they learn. I help them pour their milk and water, too. Of course, I have them sitting up at the table as soon as they can sit up well. I don't have traditional highchairs, they are restraunt style ones that are cut short to sit right up to our child-sized table.

As for the OP, I no longer serve morning snack, I moved my breakfast to 8:30 am to make sure that all children had arrived and get my breakfast and added a protein to every breakfast (even though not required by food program here yet). I, too, cook nearly everything from scratch but limit the amount of carbs served each day. During summer months the fruits and veggies are on the table first so they start eating those (and they're usually very hungry after a full 2-3 hours of hard playing outside) while I bring out the rest of our meal.

One thing that I do as well is let the children plan the menus for the week. I have them tell me what they would like on Thursdays for the following week because I only shop once a week. Of course I get the list of items that I don't find acceptable (because they get it at home all the time) but I have saught out healthy versions of those things as a compromise.

Keep plugging away making changes to get things healthy. The kids will eat what is put in front of them once they realize that there isn't an alternative. I would take out the morning snack to help because they won't still be filled up from snack when they are eating lunch.

[JenNJ]

Eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive. Just remember that the healthiest foods are non or minimally processed. Also remember that hydration is key. Properly hydrated kids will not be asking for food constantly. Kids (and adults) often mistake thirst for hunger. My kids are able to access their water at any time. I believe all animals need access to water at all times.

I do morning snack at 9:30. It is a light snack. It is usually a homemade bread like this one which has no added sugars. I serve all snacks with water. It is filling and healthy. Also very inexpensive to make.

Lunch is at noon. I typically serve a lean protein (tuna, chicken, or turkey) with steamed or raw veggies, and a grain (brown rice, quinoa, beans, whole grain pasta, etc). I buy all meats, veg, and grains in bulk to save on costs. Whole wheat pasta is the same price as regular pasta at the grocery store. Sometimes I will do sandwiches if it is too hot to cook. Again, whole wheat bread can be found in grocery stores for the same cost as white bread.

Afternoon snack at 3:30. This is the dessert snack. It is yogurt (plain) mixed with fruit chunks (in the summer I freeze this into Popsicle molds for freeze pops), graham crackers with cream cheese, trail mix, homemade rice/tapioca with fruit, honey grilled fruit, homemade oatmeal raisin cookies, homemade granola bars, or simply a large piece of watermelon.

I choose to make most of these foods bc then I can control the ingredients. If I control ingredients, I control costs. Also, having a small veggie and fruit garden really helps cut down on produce costs. I grow 4 different varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, pumpkin, onions, peppers, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and an few different melons. It easily cuts my produce costs by a third in the summer and I freeze or can any overage so we have fresh frozen all year long.

[AnythingsPossible]

Our food program requires a 3 hour span between meals and snacks, those of you that are feeding your kids every 2 hours, has your food program coordinator never commented on your serving times?

[jessrlee]

I guess I do modified family style. I sit everyone down and pass out the plates, silver, and cups and then go around with the food. You are allowed to "pass" if you don't want something, but you don't get seconds unless you have some of everything. 99% of the time everything I sit on the table is finished.

the things that save me the most money:
Bulk shopping - I buy bushels of apples, pears, tomatoes, potatoes, etc. You are allowed to serve them under the food program if they are preserved frozen, so I make chunky sauce and go to town, or make a bunch of soups and casseroles for winter. It really helps warm the house on brisk fall days before you want to run the heater!

Stock up. Everything I buy I have at least 5-10 in the pantry so I never have to pay full price. this way I can go shopping just for the loss leaders.

Make double batches. today I will roast 3 whole chickens. 1 will be lunch with mashed potatoes, spinach, and biscuits. the other two will be shredded and frozen for chicken and dumplings, chicken and rice, chicken and noodles, and chicken chilli. the three carcasses will be boiled into gallons of chicken broth that I keep in old milk jugs in the freezer. So for less than 7$ a meal I will feed my daycare of 12, my assistant, and my family.

[nannyde]

I feed them every 2 hours and follow the federal food guidelines so I know they are getting what they need. I do breakfast at 8, snack at 10, lunch at noon, and snack at 3:30 after nap.

I couldn't do every two hour feedings. My kids wouldn't eat lunch if I did that. I do breakfast at eight thirtyish... lunch at eleven... snack at three fifteen

[Blackcat31]

I couldn't do every two hour feedings. My kids wouldn't eat lunch if I did that. I do breakfast at eight thirtyish... lunch at eleven... snack at three fifteen

Same here. I used to do a.m. snack but eliminated it due to the kids not wanting to eat lunch. Our mornings are not as physical as our afternoons so after eating breakfast, the kids didn't start saying they were hungry again until near lunch time so I simply eliminated the morning snack and now all my kiddos eat wonderfully. I have roughly the same eating schedule as Nan.

[mrsp'slilpeeps]

I have 4 boys 5 if i include my own and 1 girl and my 10:30 they are hungry cause they are constantly on the move. They would rather do activities that include running, jumping ect, than sit down and do crafts.

[DBug]

I'm in Canada too, so no free money for food here . I struggled with food wastage here too for the first little while, til I finally started serving miniscule amounts. Everybody gets the exact same thing on their plate (for example: 1/2 grilled cheese sandwich, 2 apple slices, 1/2 a baby carrot), and it's a TINY amount. The rule is "Eat your firsts before you get seconds". If they only like one thing on their plate, they have to eat everything before I'll give them more of something else. If they eat everything, I'm more than happy to give them more. And we don't have food at all in between scheduled snacks and meals. There's not enough time for it anyway.

I also have a menu posted, so parents can see exactly what I'm offering their child. If a child complains that they're hungry to a parent, I can say "Still hungry, eh? We had yummy yogurt, muffins, and mangoes for snack, but you said you didn't want any. Oh well, I guess you'll have a good appetite for dinner (or whatever meal comes next).

They do learn eventually to eat when they have a chance, but for SAs it seems to take FOREVER for them to get it.

Food wars are something that bother me too, so I had to learn to make things as simple as possible so that I'm not spending a ton of time preparing it, and also I had to learn that it's a battle not worth having. They won't starve, and parents will fill them with (junk?) food in the evenings anyway .