I recently diagnosed myself with a new disorder, SDF, or Snack Distribution Fatigue. I mean, I just cannot keep up with my boys, ages 5 and 4, and their constant hunger. They eat and 20 minutes later they’re hungry again and I hear the words that make my skin crawl, “Mama, I’m hungry.” The struggle is real.
Let me provide you with some context. My boys have always been in a low percentile when it comes to height and weight, as in, my oldest was in the 0 percentile for the first 2-years of his life. We had a celebration when he finally hit the 10th percentile for both. All that to say, they both have very high metabolisms and have a difficult time gaining weight. I cannot relate. At all. They eat ALL the snacks AND they still eat their meals. So, I have learned that when they say they’re hungry, they really are hungry, at least most of the time.
Sidenote: I do think it’s good for them to feel hunger from time to time. Often on the car ride home from school, which lasts all of 10 minutes, they start whining that they’re hungry. When I tell them that we’ll be home in 5 minutes, they cry out, “but I can’t wait, I’m soooo hungry, right now.” That’s when I launch into my diatribe, “You know, there are people out there who feel what you’re feeling, this hunger feeling, all of the time. They don’t know when or where their next meal will be. How fortunate are we that we are going home to a house full of food?” They love this talk. But truly, I want them to feel hunger from time to time. I want them to know that they can live with it. I want them to learn how to listen to their bodies and nourish their bodies when they need nourishing. I want them to appreciate food.
So anyway, here I am, trying to balance instilling in them a healthy sense of hunger and food with keeping their little bodies full and growing. I’ve always kept a drawer in the pantry filled with snacks, but I wanted to limit those snacks to one or two a day because most of them are high in empty carbs and low in protein {we can’t do nuts in our house}. So, I started keeping a drawer in the fridge just for them, containing healthy foods which they may grab on their own, you know, to lessen the effects of my SDF. I had some ideas, but wanted to mix it up a little and I was at a bit of a loss for what else to keep in there. So naturally, I reached out to my friends on Facebook for some ideas, and ideas I did receive, great ones! And I’d like to share my little compilation of ideas with you here:
Fridge Drawer:
- Cut-up Carrots
- Cut-up Peppers
- Broccoli
- Sugar Snap Peas
- Green Beans
- Cut-up Jicama Sticks
- Edamame
- Grape Tomatoes
- Cucumber Slices
- Kiwi
- Pineapple Chunks
- Mango Slices
- Watermelon Chunks
- Papaya Spears
- Orange Slices (peel on)
- Grapes
- Berries
- Fruit Cups (in fruit concentrate, not syrup)
- Apple Sauce cups or distributed into small containers
- Dried Apricots (I buy the Turkish ones in bulk from Natural Grocers)
- Mini Guacamole containers
- Hummus
- Greek yogurt dip for veggies
- Yogurt Tubes
- String Cheese or cut-up pieces of cheese
- Olives
- Pickles
- Garbanzo beans tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted in oven for about 20 min.
- Pepperoni
- Deli ham or turkey
- Homemade protein bars or balls
- Breakfast burritos
- Chicken cube, cherry tomato, and pineapple kabobs
Thanks to these ideas, we’re starting off our week with our snack drawer full so we can keep the little bellies that way too! I think every mom {dad} has her own ideas about food and eating, and knows her kids best. So, it’s probably important to come up with your own guidelines for your kids about snacking and eating. In our house, we have a “no snacks within an hour before dinner” rule and an “only one snack from the pantry per day” rule. As for the high protein foods, veggies, and fruit in the fridge drawer and the fruit bowl, well, they can grab as much of them as they want throughout the day. Goodbye, Snack Distribution Fatigue!
What are your favorite healthy refrigerated snack ideas?
