Healthy Boundaries

I decided to stop buying my kids so many packaged snacks like crackers and such. Even though we choose organic options they still had a bunch of sugar and although at times it seems as though the only thing my children will eat are empty carbs, if we don’t have them in the house they do  choose to eat something that is available. Right now those somethings happen to be  mandarins and nuts, seeds, berries and jerky. Okay, my kids actually have an expensive jerky habit, so much that I really want to get a nice Excalibur food dehydrator (if anyone’s got a used one out there let me know!)

Now, I did already know that my kids liked these foods before I ditched all the boxes (and our boxed food prejudice is not to every box. We do still have some cereal and tortilla chips). My five year old loves to peel her mandarins. It’s another thing she gets to do all by herself. And picking through the mixed berry, nut, seed assortment is quite the time for a toddler to exercise her decision-making and fine motor skills. My three-year old at 3 mandarins today and was still asking for more.

Making up a little snack mix with some nuts, berries and seeds (jerky optional) is super easy especially if you have a Trader Joe’s around. Ours has turkey jerky, dried cherries, dried cranberries, pecans, almonds, sunflowers seeds, pepitas and some dried apricots. It’s not rocket science unless you want it to be. Just throw some in there. If you want grab-n-go packs that you don’t have to make there are caveman snacks and paleo kits available for purchase online although that really wouldn’t be the wisest choice all things considered. Honestly I wonder if these fairly new items called caveman snacks and paleo kits will really be successful.