Snack Stations

I got the idea for this from a fun new site called Pinterest. If you haven’t checked it out, you should! It’s an amazing tool for keeping all those fun things you find online in one spot!

This particular idea came from here. I immediately loved it because my kids are constantly asking me for food, and usually they’re whining about wanting chips or other junk foods that we don’t ever buy. The idea is to have baskets of healthy, ready-to-go (already washed/chopped/etc.) foods that the kids (and parents!) can grab whenever they are hungry. I always have healthy options around the house, but I’ve never thought to have them set up this way so *I* don’t have to always get up to prep.

I got the baskets and containers at the dollar store – I decided to buy dollar store tupperware containers to use instead of always having my good tupperware being used in the snack stations. These will be used for fruits and dips mostly. I also got a box of snack sized Ziploc bags to portion snacks out – 3 bags of each thing to avoid fights. These are so easily customizable for whatever your typical snacks are. Our fridge one currently contains: baby carrots, celery sticks, grapes, cantaloupe, nectarines/apples/peaches, cheese cubes (I cut my own instead of buying expensive string cheese!), homemade blue cheese, and this cream cheese/peanut butter dip the kids love for celery and apples. The container for the celery sticks has a bit of water in the bottom to keep them nice and crisp. When I was shopping for the pantry stuff, there was a really good BOGO sale going on at Walmart for various new products, so I got a few things we won’t usually have. The pantry one has: kettle corn, Ritz cracker/pretzel combo thingies, peanuts, granola bars, Cheez-Its, Ritz Crackerfulls, and animal crackers.

This concept has already worked SO well for us! The kids know they have to still ask before getting food, but now there are plenty of healthy options ready for them. They don’t stand there asking me what we have to eat - they just ask if they can get a snack, and I tell them to pick from whatever basket I choose. They also have a rule that they can only pick one thing per day, otherwise they’d be snacking all day long. They are allowed a snack in between lunch and dinner.

The fridge snack station:

The pantry snack station:

A side-by-side view:

Let me know if you give it a try and how it works for you!